Chapter 13 Section Six: Forty-eight thousand temples in the Southern Dynasties

"Forty-eight thousand temples in the Southern Dynasties, how many towers are in the mist and rain." This is a famous poem by Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.Forty-eight thousand is not an exact number, but it reflects the historical fact that Buddhism was developed and there were many temples in the Southern Dynasties.Earlier we talked about the building of Buddhist pagodas and temples by Ruo Rong in the later Han Dynasty. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, more Buddhist temples were built in southern China. According to the "Biography of Kang Senghui", Volume 1 of "Biography of Eminent Monks", the ancestors of Kang Senghui were originally from Kangju (Samarkand, Central Asia, today's Uzbekistan), but later generations lived in Tianzhu.In his father's generation, he moved to Guangdong for business.When Kang Senghui was a teenager, his parents died, and he became a monk soon after.In the tenth year of Sun Quan Chiwu (AD 247), Kang Senghui came to the capital of Soochow to meet Sun Quan in order to promote Buddhism in Soochow.In order to gain Sun Quan's trust, Kang Senghui took out a Buddhist relic, saying that this relic was indestructible.After testing by Sun Quan and his subordinates, it was indeed as Kang Senghui said.Surprised, Sun Quan agreed to build pagodas and temples for Kang Senghui.This Buddhist temple is called "Jianchu Temple", and the place where the temple is located is called "Buddha Lane".Since then, Buddhism has spread rapidly in Soochow.

In the Jin Dynasty, in addition to Jianchu Temple, there were many famous temples in southern China, distributed in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan.In the Southern Dynasties, there were more temples. The situation in the north is the same. According to the "Luoyang Jialan Ji", there were 42 monasteries in Luoyang alone in the Jin Dynasty, and the number increased to 1367 in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Chinese temple architecture not only inherits the traditional style of Chinese architecture, but also absorbs the artistic characteristics of Indian architecture, thus forming a unique school of Chinese Buddhist architecture.During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, some wealthy people who believed in Buddhism often "abandoned their houses and built temples" in order to cultivate merit.That is to say, donate part of their houses for temple use.Their residences are undoubtedly ancient Chinese buildings, and their styles and structures are also traditional Chinese.And those Buddhist temples specially built for monks must also be constructed on the basis of traditional Chinese architectural styles.At the same time, since these buildings are Buddhist temples, they must reflect the architectural model of India, the birthplace of Buddhism.Therefore, it is inevitable to carry out some supplementary construction, expansion or reconstruction to make it closer to the Indian model.We can cite the example of a pagoda to illustrate.The architectural form of the pagoda is not original to China, but learned from India.Indian pagodas are used to bury Buddha and eminent monk relics (remains and ashes).Chinese monks went to India to learn Buddhist scriptures and drew back the pattern of Indian stupas. Indian monks came to China and introduced the form of Indian stupas to China.Following the model of Indian stupas, the Chinese built their own stupas.Later, with the changes of the times and the constant changes of aesthetics, various towers appeared in China, forming a unique architectural landscape in China.Chinese pagodas originated from Indian pagodas, but they are different from Indian pagodas. This is the result of cultural exchanges and integration between China and India.

In addition, the layout of the early temples also has traces of the influence of Indian Buddhist architecture. "Luoyang Jialan Ji" records the layout of Yongning Temple, the largest temple in Luoyang. Generally speaking, there is a temple gate in front, the main building inside the gate is a pagoda, and behind the pagoda is a Buddhist hall.As scholars of architectural history said: "According to records, the plane layout of early Chinese Buddhist temples is roughly the same as that of India. The pagoda is used to store relics and is the object of worship for believers. Therefore, the pagoda is located in the center of the temple and becomes the main body of the temple. Later, Buddhist halls will be built to worship Buddha statues are for believers to worship, so the pagoda and the hall are equally important, and the pagoda is still in front of the Buddhist hall. Yongning Temple is a typical layout of Buddhist temples in this period." It was inspired by Buddhist temples in India and developed in combination with ritual architecture since the Han Dynasty.”

The temples of that period not only reflected the cultural exchanges between China and India in terms of architectural art, but also reflected the same in terms of sculpture and painting.People imitate Indian Buddha statue sculpture style to sculpt Chinese Buddha statues, and also imitate Indian painting style to depict Chinese Buddhist paintings.At the same time, temples are often places for cultural activities. Not only Buddhists learn classics from India there, but also every Buddhist festival, such as the Buddha’s birthday (Buddha Festival), always holds grand celebrations. There are acrobatics, song and dance performances, and a parade of Buddha statues. The scene is very lively.At this time, thousands of people will always be attracted to participate and watch. "Luoyang Jialan Ji" recorded the scene of some big temples holding such activities at that time.These facts tell us that Indian art, architecture, music, dance and folklore activities all had more or less influence on China at that time, and these influences have been integrated into the blood of Chinese art and have been flowing to this day.

Here, we should also mention the Cave Temple.Cave temples are Buddhist temples dug on rocks, which first appeared in India.Later, it was introduced into the Xinjiang region of China around the 3rd century AD, and then into the mainland.China's cave temples can be divided into four types according to their purposes: monk's room cave, Buddhist hall cave, pagoda temple cave and elephant cave.The monk's house cave is a place for monks to live and practice. They are generally not large, and some of them have carvings and some do not.The caves of the Buddha Hall are usually relatively large, and are usually carved with Buddha statues. They are places for monks to worship the Buddha.The pagoda temple cave is a kind of Buddhist temple cave, that is, the central tower is carved in the Buddhist temple cave, so it is also called the central tower pillar cave; the relics are stored in the tower, and the tower pillars are mostly square, with Buddha statues carved on all sides for monks to worship the Buddha around the tower. .Daxiang Cave is a grotto carved with huge Buddha statues, and it is also a place for monks to worship Buddha.

Large-scale grotto temples in China are widely distributed, except Xinjiang, Gansu, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan and other places.It can be said that from south to north, from east to west, most provinces have distribution.From the 3rd century AD until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, excavations were carried out one after another.However, the heyday of excavating cave temples was during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.For example, the Kizil Grottoes in Xinjiang, the Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu, the Maijishan Grottoes, the Yungang Grottoes in Shanxi, and the Longmen Grottoes in Henan were all excavated on a large scale during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.These cave temples are a treasure house of art, showing the creativity of Chinese craftsmen and entertainers in various fields such as architecture, sculpture, statues, and painting. They are also witnesses of history and the crystallization of cultural exchanges between China and India.