Yunju Temple is located in a small basin with rolling hills in the southwest mountainous area of Fangshan County, Beijing, about 75 kilometers away from Beijing, with Zhu Shan as its back and Shijing Mountain as its barrier, and it is located in Zhulu Mountain. Yunju Temple is famous for its Buddhist relics and stone scriptures. It is a monument with great cultural significance in the suburbs of Beijing, such as epigraphy, calligraphy, art, national history and Buddhist history. It occupies an important position in many ancient temples and temples in Beijing and even the whole country. In 1992, the temple was rated as one of the "Top Ten Cultural Tourism Spots in Beijing". The mountainous area in the northwest of Fangshan County has been a Buddhist resort since Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as Shangfang Mountain Doulv Temple, Liupin Mountain Tianguan Temple, Yunmeng Mountain Longquan Temple, Nine Cave Twelve Peaks and Seventy-two temples centered on Doulv Temple, and many other Buddhist relics, among which Shijingshan Yunju Temple is the most famous, and it has the reputation of "Dunhuang in Beijing".
Yunju Temple was founded in Sui and Tang Dynasties, and has been rebuilt and expanded repeatedly in past dynasties, becoming one of the famous temples in North China. Part of the temple was destroyed by Japanese artillery fire during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, and only the ruins are left. There are nine Tibetan-diameter caves on Shijing Mountain, 1.5km northeast of the temple, in which the stone sutra plates carved from Sui Dynasty to Ming Dynasty are preserved, together with the Liao and Jin sutra plates ***143l2 in the Tibetan sutra cave at the southern end of the temple, with a total number of words. Except for the repeated engravers, it has carved more than 112O scriptures, which is exquisite in carving and is one of the treasures of Buddhist culture in China. It is the earliest, the most complete and the best preserved stone-carved tripitaka in the world, and it is worth writing in the history of Buddhism in China. The scale of carving Yunju Stone Path far exceeds that of Yintangshan Cliff Stone Scripture in Northern Qi Dynasty and Taishan stone valley Stone Scripture.
The name of Yunju Temple was first found in the stone carvings in the second year of Tang Dynasty (669), and it had a considerable scale in Sui and Tang Dynasties. In the Tang dynasty, the upper temple and the lower temple were located on Shijing Mountain, and the site of the temple was no longer tested. The lower temple is now the site. Yunju Temple in Liao and Jin Dynasties was known for carving stone scriptures, so it was called "Shijing Temple". In the Ming Dynasty, Dongyu Temple was built at the foot of Shijing Mountain, and Yunju Temple lived in the west of the mountain, so it was also called Xiyu Temple, and it was renamed as Yunju Zen Forest in the Western Regions in the early Qing Dynasty, and it still retained the name of Yunju. Yunju Temple has been repaired many times in the past dynasties, and the last time it was repaired was in the thirty-seventh year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (l698). Before being destroyed, the temple was large in scale, with five courtyards and six halls in the middle of the temple road. The temple is built on the mountain, and the courtyard on each floor is gradually rising. There is an auxiliary hall next to the main hall on each floor. There is a monk's hut on the north side of the middle road, and the two towers are separated from each other. Spring water flows in front of the mountain, clear springs hang down willows, and the mountain fog fills the air. The natural environment is quite beautiful. It is indeed a good place for practice. After the July 7th Incident, the temple was destroyed by Japanese artillery fire, and the South Tower was also destroyed at this time. Ten small stone pagodas in the north and four corners of the Yunju Temple site are the only relics after the robbery. Fortunately, there were photos taken before the Yunju Temple was destroyed. After the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, the Japanese side returned the photos at that time. Since the spread of Buddhism to China in the second year AD, the translation of Buddhist scriptures has been a long-lasting cause for many monks and believers. However, paper, silk and wooden scrolls are not only easily damaged by wind, fire, water and insects, but also by human beings. During the two "legal difficulties" in history, a large number of handwritten Buddhist scriptures were reduced to ashes, and wars and fires also brought devastating disasters to Buddhist temples and Buddhist scriptures. Making samples has prompted monks to try their best to make Buddhism pass on for a long time. In view of the preserved cliff inscriptions in Taishan Mountain, Shandong Province and Gushan Mountain, Hebei Province, Jing Wan, a monk in Youzhou, thought that the engraved stone could last forever, so he inherited the legacy of his teacher Huisi, chose Fangshan, which is rich in white marble and mugwort bluestone, and was far away from Youzhou City, and began the arduous work of carving the stone and hiding it in the room. Jingwan first created the Shijingshan Tibetan Sutra Cave and Yunju Temple, and he vowed to build twelve Shijing. This action was supported by all sectors of society at that time. From the middle of the Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, Jingwan carved scriptures for 3 years, and each time a batch of stone scriptures was carved, it was sealed up. In the 13th year of Zhenguan (639), Jing Wan entered Ji 'an, and his first sons, Xuan Dao, Monk Yi, Hui Siam and Xuan Fa, successively presided over the engraving of scriptures, and got more than 4, copies of the scriptures given by Princess Jinxin as the base copies, and successively engraved more than 1 copies, which were stored in various Tibetan scriptures caves. From the Sui Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, * * * excavated 4559 pieces of nine Tibetan stone scriptures in the Tibetan Sutra Cave; In Liao and Jin Dynasties, he dug a cave on the south side of the temple and buried 1O611 scriptures. In 1117, the seventh year of Liao Tianqing, a tower was built next to the cave, that is, the "South Tower of Yunju Temple", also known as the "Pressure Sutra Tower".
Jingwan originally carved 146 stones, some of which were embedded in the walls of the fifth hole. The fifth cave named "Lei Yin Cave" is the largest of the nine caves, and it is also the only open sutra-storing cave. In front of the cave, there is a door that can enter and exit, and the length and width are about 1 meters. Among them, there are four octagonal stone pillars supporting the ceiling, and all sides of the stone pillars are carved with small Buddha statues ***1O54, so it is called "Thousand Buddha Columns". The rest of the caves are closed, with stone tablets stacked inside, and the doors of the caves are closed, so people can't get out.
Fangshan Shijing is a treasure house of Shijing in China and a valuable cultural heritage in the world. It is of great value and significance to the study of ancient Chinese culture, history, art, Buddhist history and classics. The stone scriptures carved in Liao and Jin Dynasties were originally based on the Khitan Tibetan, but the Khitan Tibetan has long been lost. In recent years, a remnant volume of Qiyong Zang was found in the wooden pagoda in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, which is exactly the same as Fangshan Shijing. Fangshan Stone Scripture has well preserved the Buddhist Scripture of the Khitan Collection, which is a great event in the history of Buddhist Scripture in the world. Fangshan Shijing is an original engraved slate, without the kind of errors that are easy to occur when writing and copying the scripture, and the edition collation value is extremely high. At the same time, it has preserved more than 5 kinds of classics that are not available in various editions of the Tripitaka. Exquisite carving techniques and beautiful calligraphy are not only valuable Buddhist cultural relics, but also the fine works of calligraphy carving art in China. So after it came out, it became famous. In the aspect of calligraphy art, the engraving of classics in the Sui Dynasty has been written by experts, and the engraving of classics in the Tang Dynasty has a beautiful style of calligraphy in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. From the Shijing, we can also see the changes of Chinese calligraphy style and the evolution of characters (such as: vulgar writing, variant characters, simplified characters, new words created in the Wu and Zhou Dynasties, etc.). There are many inscriptions in the Shijing, which are valuable materials for studying politics, economy, culture and folk customs of past dynasties. Since 1956, the Buddhist Association of China, together with relevant departments, has carried out a comprehensive investigation, excavation and arrangement of Fangshan Shijing. At present, some Shijing have been numbered and put on display.
In November p>1981, while studying in the cave, Luo Yan, a Buddhist scholar at the Institute of World Religions of China Academy of Social Sciences, found a stone five centimeters below the original ground, and there was a cave under it, which contained stone letters, silver letters, jade letters, etc., all of which were sealed in the form of nested letters. No.1 white marble letter, with 172 words engraved on the cover and 83 words inscribed in it. These words describe the first discovery of Buddhist relics in the Sui Dynasty in Shijingshan during the twenty years of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1592). No.2 bluestone letter, slightly smaller than the previous letter; On the cover of the letter, there is a 36-word inscription, "The 12th year-old son of the Great Sui Dynasty, Bingzi, was born on April 1th, and Jiazi placed three tablets of Buddhist relics in this letter for permanent robbery". It shows that the Buddha relic has been treasured here for l3 years. Hanbai Jade Letter No.3 has a wedge-shaped drawer cover with the words "Buddha relic" and the words * * * on it. Gold-plated silver letter No.4 is surrounded by four engraved patterns of Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu, with floral patterns on the cover, including one xiang zhu painted with wood and 11 pearls. The White Jade Letter No.5 is very delicate, with a length and width of 12 cm and a height of 17 cm. There are two Buddhist relics the size of red millet, accompanied by two pearls.
as for the origin of these Buddhist relics, it is recorded that Emperor Wendi of Sui received Buddhist relics from an Indian monk, and awarded Buddhist relics to all the states in China three times in the first year of Renshou (61), the second year of Renshou (62) and the fourth year of Renshou (64). Hongye Temple and Zhiquan Temple in Youzhou were lucky enough to get them. Both temples are not far from Yunju Temple. At the same time, Master Jingwan, the founder of Yunju Temple, was originally a monk of Zhiquan Temple and a disciple of Huisi, a Buddhist Tiantai Sect. It seems likely that the emperor also gave Buddhist relics to Yunju Temple at that time. In The Sleepwalking Collection of Master Hanshan and A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of Emperor Jing, it was recorded that three Buddhist relics were found in Lei Yin Cave, Shijingshan, Yunju Temple in the 2th year of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Wanli's mother believed in Buddhism, so she went into the palace for three days and then put it in Lei Yin Cave. However, there are only two of the three Buddhist relics recorded. According to experts' inference, one of them may have been accidentally lost or left behind privately when the mother of Emperor Wanli welcomed people into the palace in the Ming Dynasty. At present, these two Buddhist relics and related cultural relics are kept by the Chinese Buddhist Association. Once Yunju Temple is restored, they will be sent back to Yunju Temple for resettlement for people from all walks of life to pay their respects.
There are six stone pagodas of Tang and Liao Dynasties and brick pagodas of Liao Dynasty around Yunju Temple, which are mutually guarded, thus forming a special Buddhist humanistic landscape of Yunju Temple. Among them, the square stone pagoda built in the Tang Dynasty (618-97) was carved with white marble from the famous Fangshan Grottoes. There are two kinds of towers: single-story tower and dense-eaves tower. The plane is square, the front is pointed and arched, and the inner sides are engraved with armored King Kong warriors, which is vivid and realistic. Among them, the image of a provider with muddy eyes and high nose carved on the inner walls of a stone pagoda built in the 15th year of Kaiyuan in Tang Dynasty (727) reflects the prosperity of national unity in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. These stone pagodas are the earliest existing ancient pagodas in Beijing, and they have become valuable physical materials for studying the cultural history and Buddhist history of Youzhou area in Tang Dynasty. After 1949, the people's government excavated and sorted out the stone scriptures collected in Yunju Temple. Up to now, there are 14,278 stone sutras that are still well preserved, which are hidden in nine caves on the opposite stone sutra mountain and in the Yunju Temple Cultural Relics Storage. In March, 1961, the State Council listed Yunju Temple site, two Liao pagodas, eight Tang pagodas, sutra-storing caves and stone scriptures as national key protected cultural relics. In order to protect these precious cultural relics, the North Pagoda of Liao Dynasty was strengthened and repaired, lightning protection facilities were installed, and a stone scripture library was built to protect the stone scriptures, so that these ancient precious cultural relics with thousands of years can be passed down from generation to generation. On April 1st, 1935, Beijing Municipal People's Government decided to restore Yunju Temple. The first phase of the project, the Heavenly King Hall and Pilu Hall have been completed and opened. The grand figure of the round mountain gate carved in white marble, a thousand-year-old relic of Yunju Temple, has also been restored. In order to better protect the stone classics and avoid weathering and denudation, it has been decided to re-seal all the stone classics underground at 9: 9: 9 on September 9, 1999. This move will surely become a major event in the history of Buddhism.
Yunju Temple is known as "Dunhuang of Beijing" because of its collection of more than 15, stone carvings and Buddhist tripitaka. Within two square kilometers around Yunju Temple, Neiyunju Temple, Shijingshan Tibetan Sutra Cave, Tang Dynasty and Liaota Group constitute a treasure house of ancient Buddhist culture in China. Fangshan Yunju Temple stone carving Buddhist tripitaka was carved in the Sui Dynasty, which lasted for more than a thousand years in the six dynasties of Tang, Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming. There were 1,122 pieces of tripitaka, 3,572 volumes, and 14,278 pieces of stone carving, which were hidden in nine sutra caves in Shijingshan and Yunju Temple crypt. Now, more than 77, pieces of woodcarving "Dragon Tibetan Classics" have been transported to the temple by more than 2, volumes in the Ming Dynasty. Stone sutra, paper sutra and wooden board have been called the "three wonders" in the world. The exhibition includes "Stone Classics Exhibition".
Yunju Temple has five courtyards and six halls, which are connected to Shangfang Mountain in the east and Juma River in the west, covering an area of more than 7, square meters. On both sides, there are an annex hall, an imperial palace and a monk's room, and there are two towers facing each other. It has a long history and has experienced many vicissitudes. After liberation, Yunju Temple has been restored to its majesty through two large-scale repairs. Yunju Temple was also known as "Monument to the Sea and Tower Forest" in ancient times, with more than 2 monuments and 1 towers, which is its valuable cultural heritage.
Shijing Mountain is located in the East Erli of Yunju Temple, commonly known as Xiaoxitian. It is 45 meters above sea level. This place is not only the origin of Fangshan Stone Scripture, but also the place where the Buddha relic was unearthed. 4,196 Sui and Tang Stone Scriptures are the national treasures, and many historical sites, such as Lei Yin Cave and Princess Jin Xian Tower, are of great value.
according to research, the stone sutra was first engraved in the 12th year of the great cause of Sui Dynasty (AD 65), and Jing Wan, a monk, carved the sutra in stone in order to maintain the dharma. After six dynasties, namely Sui, Tang, Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming, the business of carving Buddhist scriptures lasted for 139 years, with 1,122 Buddhist scriptures, 3,572 volumes and 14,278 blocks, which were hidden in nine Buddhist scriptures caves in Shijingshan Mountain and the crypt of Yunju Temple. It was a rare feat in the history of world culture, and it was comparable to the world-famous Great Wall of Wan Li and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.