Ancient Hanshan Temple It was in 2002 that monks of Hanshan Temple warmly celebrated the 1500th anniversary of the founding of the very temple.The event indicated that temple was established in 502 AD in the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties with its earliest name being the Wonderful Beneficial Universal Illumination Pagoda Temple.Its present name was given during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when two famous monks named Hanshan and Shide came and stayed in it.Since then, Buddhist believers have had the faith in the fact these two monks are the personifications of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom and the Bodhisattva of Universal Benevolence respectively.Therefore the temple’s name was changed into Hanshan Temple in memory of the monk Hanshan.Also in the Tang Dynasty did a well-known poet, Zhang Ji by name, arrive at Suzhou with his boat mooring near the Maple Bridge in the Maple Bridge Town.A slight being so touching, he composed on the spur of moment a poet to describe both the scenery and the bell echoing around the temple.The poem was entitled “Night Anchoring at the Maple Bridge” which made and still makes the temple renowned both at home and abroad.The temple’s long history and culture make it be the admiration of visitors and Buddhists from all over China.And it is a must for sightseers from Japan because legend has it that once the monk Shide landed in Japan and spread both Buddhism and Chinese culture there.The ancient temple faces the world-renowned Grand Canal with both the Maple Bridge and the Jiangcun Bridge flying over the tributary of it.Numerous claical buildings inside the temple are imposing and trees growing luxuriantly.Paing the entrance hall, visitors can command a nice view of the Mahavira Hall, the 500 Arhats Hall, the Sutra-storing Building, the Bell Tower, the 42.2-meter-high Universal Illumination Pagoda, the Stela Gallery, many other chambers and mansions as well as beautiful garden courts.It is worth mentioning that in the center of the Mahavira Hall sits Buddha Sakyamuni with two attendant Bodhisattvas standing piously at the both sides, who are Sakyamuni’s first generation disciples.The younger one is named Ananha and the elder one is called Kasyapa.And the gilt Eighteen Arhats are installed alongside the side walls.Shown in the right rear corner of the hall is a bronze bell hung on a wooden stand.This is a Japanese bell which Yamada Kanzang, a friendly Japanese personage, cast and sent to Suzhou’s Hanshan Temple in 1905, symbolizing the cultural exchange between China and Japan in history.Near the bell ate two stelae, or stone tablets, set in the white walls, one displays the monk Hanshan and the other portrays both Hanshan and Shide who are vivid and full of fun, clapping and laughing like real persons.Located behind the Mahavira Hall is the Sutra-storing Building, at the side of which lies the hexagonal Bell Tower.On its second floor hangs an enormous iron bell cast in 1906, i.e.in the 32nd year of the reign of Emperor Guanxu.This is a very important bell because a flourishing gathering can be seen annually on the eve of New Year’s Day when tourists from all over the world flock inside and outside the temple and await the coming of the zero hour of the New Year by listening to the sound of this Qing Dynasty Bell struck 108 times by the abbot standing on the second floor of the Bell Tower.Since December 31st, 1979 there have been 27 such events known as the Suzhou Hanshan Temple’s New Year listening-to- the-Sound-of-Bell Activity.Now the temple looks forward to the 37th such an activity which will fall on December 31st, 2015.Another attraction of the temple is the poem stelae bearing the inscription of the above-mentioned Zhang Ji’s poem in the Tang, which goes: Moonfall.Crow cry in a sky full of frost.Maple bridge.Lamps of fishermen doze off in the groom.Outside Old Soochow City lies Hanshan Temple.At midnight, the sound of its bell reaches my boat.Up to now there are totally ten noted personages who wrote this poem by using the Chinese writing brush and had their own handwriting engraved on ten stelae respectively.
Tourists do appreciate these stelae showing different calligraphy.Erected round the pagoda are seven of the ten steles.They are written by seven people who are Wang Gui, a high-ranking official in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127); Wen Zhengming, an outstanding painter and calligraphist in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); Profeor Li Dazhao at Peking University, one of the founders of the Communist Party of the China; Zhang ji, a senior stateman of the Kuomintang party, who had the same surname and personal name as the Zhang ji in the Tang Dynasty and wrote the poem in 1947; Chen Yun, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the CPC; Profeor Qi Gong, also know as Aisin-gioro Qi Gong (1912-2005), at the Beijing Normal University, a well-known calligrapher and descendant of the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty; and Luo Zhewen, a veteran expert in the traditional Chinese architecture and in charge of the application for the World Heritage sites in China.As to other three poem steles, two are displayed in the Stela Gallery.They were respectively written by Yu Yue(1821-1907), a renowned scholar in the late Qing Dynasty who lived in the Quyuan Garden in Suzhou, and Liu Haisu, afamous painter in the late twentieth century.Well, another stele, or the tenth one, is housed in a pavilion and inscribed by the former abbot of the temple, the reverend monk Xing Kong.So much for the brief introduction to Hanshan Temple.Thank you for being with me.
