Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou: The Quiet Echo of Millennium Maritime Skill

In Quanzhou West Street, the noisy sound of the market suddenly fell silent when people stepped into the gate of Kaiyuan Temple. The wall is like the title page of a history book, quietly separating the mortal dust. The story of the Kaiyuan Temple slowly unfolds from behind this wall.

The past of the Kaiyuan Temple

The Kaiyuan Temple is an ancient temple with a thousand-year history. The origin of the Kaiyuan Temple is legendary. According to legend, during the Tang Dynasty, this place was originally a mulberry garden. Huang Shougong, the owner of the garden, dreamed that the monk asked for land to build a temple, so he promised to build a temple if the mulberry trees in the garden bloomed white lotus. Soon after, the mulberry trees in the garden actually bloomed white lotus. Therefore, this temple, which was built in the second year of Tang Cuigong (686 AD), was originally named "Lotus Temple". Later, it was named "Kaiyuan Temple" in the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738 AD), and became an important official monastery on the southeast coast.

Source: Quanzhou Government 

The East and West Tower

The most eye-catching are the Zhenguo Pagoda and Renshou Pagoda  on both sides of the temple. This pair of granite towers built in the Song Dynasty is the tallest existing twin stone towers in China.

There are reliefs on each floor of the tower. Such as Buddha statue, Luohan, flying sky, flowers. The details hide the piety and ingenuity of the craftsmen of the Song and Yuan artisan. Especially worth taking a closer look is the “ Walking Monkey Relief” on the fourth floor of West Tower (Renshou Pagoda ). The image of this monkey wearing a golden hoop and holding a big knife in his hand was written three hundred years earlier than Journey to the West. Some scholars speculate that it may be one of the prototypes of Sun Wukong's image and a vivid witness to the cultural exchange of the Maritime Silk Road.

When the sun goes down, the silhouettes of the twin towers slowly move on the roof of the old city of Quanzhou, like a huge sundal, measuring the time of the ancient city.

Source: Quanzhou Government 

Daxiong Hall

Walking into the Daxiong Hall, you will be shocked by its unique structure. Hundred pillars stand tall in the hall, so it is also known as the "Hundred Pillar Hall". The twenty-four flying music tricks between the beams and pillars are about to fly. They either hold folk musical instruments or hold the four treasures of the study, integrating the image of Buddhism and the folk art of southern Fujian in one furnace, which is a rare “Southern Fujian-style flying”.

The “Sphinx Face Relief” on the platform in front of the hall is a spectacle of cultural blending. These carvings are obviously in Hindu style, and it has been proved that they are likely to come from the destroyed Hindu temples in the Yuan Dynasty. The preservation of Hindu relics in Buddhist temples is the epitome of Quanzhou as a "World Religious Museum".

Source: Quanzhou Government 

The wonder of the Kaiyuan Temple is that it never deliberately emphasizes its own diversity. The solemnity of Buddhism, the legacy of Hinduism, the temperature of folk beliefs, and the imprint of marine civilization naturally coexist here. It is like the city of Quanzhou itself is not ostentatious, but it can always inadvertently give you a glimpse of the open world picture that once had in an era.