Chapter 9 Section 9 Shaolin Temple Famous Worldwide

Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of Wuru Peak at the northern foot of Shaoshi Mountain in the northwest of Dengfeng County, Henan Province. It was first built in the 19th year of Emperor Xiaowen Taihe of the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 495). Before the temple was built, the foot of Shaoshi Mountain was full of jungles, so it was named Shaolin Temple.Shaolin Temple has always been one of the famous Buddhist temples at home and abroad. At the beginning, Emperor Xiaowen built Shaolin Temple to accommodate the Indian monk Bhatuo (Buddha) to live and teach the Dharma.In the third year of Xiaochang Emperor Xiaoming (AD 527), another Indian monk, Bodhidharma, came to the temple.Bodhidharma taught Zen Buddhism in Shaolin Temple, and was later regarded by Buddhism as the first ancestor of Zen Buddhism. Shaolin Temple became famous for a time and became the ancestor of Zen Buddhism.

It is said that Damo faced the wall for nine years. During the long-term meditation practice, he invented Xinyi Boxing for the exercise of muscles and bones. After being practiced and enriched by monks and disciples in Shaolin Temple, it developed into the very famous Shaolin Boxing.At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the temple monk who was good at Shaolin boxing assisted the Tang king Li Shimin for his meritorious service in the founding of the country, and the Tang king gave him a great reward. Shaolin Temple not only got a lot of land, but also got the privilege of setting up camps and raising monks and soldiers. The scale of the temple expanded rapidly, with thousands of temples and pavilions. There are many monks.Later, Shaolin Temple was rebuilt several times after wars and wars. The existing buildings include Shanmen, Abbot’s Room, Bodhidharma Pavilion, Ksitigarbha Hall, Thousand Buddha Hall and Pagoda Forest, covering an area of ​​30,000 square meters.The three characters "Shaolin Temple" on the forehead of the mountain gate were written by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.The Thousand Buddha Hall is majestic, with a large mural of "Five Hundred Arhats Chaopilu" in the Ming Dynasty, covering an area of ​​about 300 square meters.There are many pits on the brick floor in the hall, called zhanzhuan pits, which are said to be the traces left by Shaolin monks practicing kung fu and stomping their feet.In the Baiyi hall, there are Shaolin boxing manuals and murals of thirteen monks saving Tang Wang Li Shimin.

The pagoda forest in the west of the temple is the tomb towers of the monks of the Shaolin Temple. There are more than 220 brick towers and stone towers of different sizes. It is the largest group of tomb towers in my country.The earliest tower was built over a thousand years ago, and the latest one was more than 300 years ago.Among them, the Ju'an Pagoda and the Tianzhu Monk Pagoda, which were written by the Japanese monk Shao Yuan in the Yuan Dynasty and wrote the tower inscriptions, are historical witnesses of the friendly exchanges between China, Japan, and China and India.The tower shapes are various, reflecting the architectural styles of different eras, and are precious material materials for studying the architecture of my country's past dynasties.

In the northwest of Shaolin Temple there are Chuzu Temple and Bodhidharma Cave, and in the southwest there is Erzu Temple.The main hall of Chuzu'an was built in the seventh year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 1125). It is the oldest and most valuable wooden structure building in Henan. It was built to commemorate the nine years of Dharma facing the wall.The second ancestor's nunnery is to commemorate the second ancestor Huike.According to legend, Huike, the second patriarch of Zen, learned Buddhism from Bodhidharma, Lixue broke his arm, and finally got the mantle.To commemorate him, the disciples built this nunnery in the place where he recuperated.

More than 300 steles and stone inscriptions have been preserved in the temple since the Tang Dynasty. Among them, "The Monument to the Bishop of Shaolin Temple by the King of Tang Dynasty" and Mi Fu (fu Fu), Zhao Mengfu (fu Fu), Dong Qichang and other famous inscriptions of past dynasties are the most precious. full temple. Henan is a famous hometown of martial arts in China, and the Songshan Shaolin Temple is a great source of martial arts in my country.Bai Juyi once wrote a poem praising Shaolin, saying: "It is strong and suitable for traveling in resorts. It is cool and does not feel hot. I only knew that cranes ride outside the clouds, and there is no such thing as a fairy on the ground."