Shaolin Temple’s logo and seniority

Searching in Baidu Encyclopedia, we know that logo is the English term for logo or trademark, which can identify and promote the company that owns the logo. effect. When talking about the logo of Shaolin Temple, everyone cannot help but talk about the commercialization and corporatization of Shaolin Temple. In fact, Buddhist temples choose logos just to promote the Dharma and benefit students, and to facilitate public recognition and memory. Dharma Drum Mountain and Fo Guang Mountain in Taiwan have all chosen logos designed by design companies. It should be said that the logo of Shaolin Temple has a strong sense of history, rich cultural heritage, and weak design traces. The author believes that the logo now used by Shaolin Temple can better represent the status of Shaolin Temple as the ancestral home of Zen Buddhism than the Hunyuan Three Religions picture used before. The picture of the Three Religions of the Hunyuan Dynasty talks about integration, and may be more representative of Songshan culture, but it is not consistent with the status and image of Shaolin Temple.

The new logo of Shaolin Temple was adopted around 2006. The graphic is the handprint of Buddha Sakyamuni (Sakyamuni Buddha handwriting), which comes from the Ming Dynasty inscription "Double Traces of the Spirit" in Shaolin Temple. It is said that the Buddha Sakyamuni had 32 kinds of appearances, which were the appearances that the Buddha showed to his disciples before his death.

There are only three most complete steles of the Double Traces of Sakyamuni Tathagata in the world. One is in Wutai Mountain, one is in Shaolin Temple, and the other is in Ciyun Temple. The one in Wutai Mountain may have been copied from Shaolin Temple, while the one in Ciyun Temple only has footprints but no handprints. In other words, the logo adopted by Shaolin Temple is the Shaolin Temple’s unique memory of Buddha.

Let’s talk about the seniority in Shaolin Temple. Since Abbot Fuyu established the 70-character generation, many people have thought that this is the only source of Buddhist names and the basis for identification of monks in Shaolin Temple. This is actually a big mistake. History is a big river and cannot be a clear-cut chronicle written by historians. Under Fuyu, the two abbots Zhengdao and Haikuan also established their own generational inheritance, but it did not last long. Objectively speaking, the 70-year-old Zisuntang inheritance of Shaolin Temple is the mainstream, but it is not the only one. For example, the well-known abbot Xiaoshan of Shaolin Temple in the Ming Dynasty, and the warrior monk Yuekong, etc., their Buddhist names are not among the 70-character generation. Although the current monks Shengzhi and Yinsong of Shaolin Temple do not belong to Caodong Sect, there is no doubt that they are also monks of Shaolin Temple.

What is the significance of the names of generations in Shaolin Temple? I said in the book "Shaolin Dragon Gate" that the name is just a mark of identification. At most, it can explain your teacher-inheritance relationship. It is very difficult to compare seniority. An ignorant move. Let me give you an example. Zhenxu is 6 generations older than Henglin (in the 70-character generation, the order is: "Zhensu's virtues will last forever and forever"), but he still worships Henglin and Henglin's disciple Miaoxing as a martial artist. teacher. During the Republic of China, Qingliang Temple had the most connections among the Shaolin Temple family, and the monks of Qingliang Temple were naturally the lowest in seniority, but this did not prevent Heng Lin and Miao Xing from becoming the abbots of Shaolin Temple.

For those monks who are still children, but are seven or eight generations senior to the abbot as soon as they become monks just because they have different apprenticeships, should the abbot also be addressed as an elder? The answer is simple. In a monastery, any seniority must give way to the head monk. In other words, the abbot's position is higher than the seniority. For monks who are the same age as him or older than him and have a higher seniority, the abbot must of course address him as his elders; for those monks who are from a different family background, are younger but have a higher seniority, the abbot can call them by their first names.

In addition, there are also particularities in how you address senior nuns. For example, Shi Yongmei, the abbot of the First Ancestral Temple of Shaolin Temple, is younger than Shi Yongqian and older than Yongxin. Therefore, when Shi Yongqian's disciples see her, they will call her "Master Uncle", while Yongxin's disciples will respectfully call her "Master Uncle" when they see her. . ;