Hello, everyone! Welcome to Jiuhua Mountain, our lotus Buddha kingdom. I'myour tour guide. My name is Wang Ping. Just call me Xiao Wang. First of all, Iwould like to introduce the general situation of Jiuhua Mountain. JiuhuaMountain is located in Chizhou City, Anhui Province. It is the main scenic spotof the "two mountains and one lake" golden tourist area in Anhui Province. Ithas beautiful scenery and numerous ancient temples. It is also known as the fourfamous Buddhist mountains in China with Mount Emei in Sichuan, Mount Wutai inShanxi and Mount Putuo in Zhejiang.

Jiuhua Mountain was not originally called Jiuhua Mountain, but Jiuzimountain in the Tang Dynasty. Because of its beautiful peaks, there are ninepeaks above the clouds, so there are nine Jiuzi mountains. During the reign ofTang Tianbao, Li Bai, a poetic immortal, visited this place twice. He wrote downsuch ancient lines as "wonderful is divided into two parts, Lingshan opensJiuhua, Tianhe hangs green water, and shows jiufurong". Jiuhua Mountain is namedafter it and has been used to this day.

Jiuhua Mountain has a long history of religious activities. Taoism firstdeveloped in Jiuhua Mountain, and Buddhism became more prosperous. During theKaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, King qiaojue, Prince of Silla, sailedeastward to visit famous mountains, and finally chose to practice in our JiuhuaMountain. Sleep in the cave on the mountain at night, drink the mountain springwater when thirsty, and eat the wild plants when hungry.

Finally he died at the age of 99. Buddhism believes that he practiced hardbefore he died, and after his death, he was consistent with the Bodhisattva ofTibet recorded in the Buddhist scriptures. He was respected as the Bodhisattvaof Tibet Yinghua. Because his family name was Jin when he was not a monk, he wasalso called Jin dizang. Since then, Jiuhua Mountain has been established as theTaoist center of the Bodhisattva. After the Tang Dynasty, the Buddhistdeclaration of Jiuhua Mountain gradually came into being. By the end of the QingDynasty, there were more than 150 temples in the whole mountain, includingZhiyuan temple, Dongya temple, baishuigong temple and Ganlu temple.

Next, we first enter the Jiuhua Street scenic spot, and the first thing wesee is a stone gate square. It is carved out of marble, 9 meters high, and is animitation of the Hui style architecture of the Qing Dynasty. The banner isengraved with the four characters "Jiuhua Shengjing" written by Emperor Kangxi.There are stone lions carved under the two pillars of the middle gate. The gateis dignified and elegant. After passing the gate, you can see Yingxian bridge.This bridge was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It is a single holestone arch bridge. Please follow me to this ancient bridge and step into thefairyland!

You see, the front of the bridge is the main hall of Zhiyuan temple.Zhiyuan temple is a national key temple. Its scale is the largest in the fourjungles of Jiuhua Mountain. It is composed of more than ten single buildings,such as the mountain gate, Tianwang hall, Daxiong hall, guest hall, lecture halland Sutra library. It is a typical composite building. Its Mountain Gatedeviates from the central axis of the hall. Do you understand why? Because, ah,it is very particular about skewing the mountain gate. One is to ward off evilspirits, Secondly, the gate is towards kaishanzu temple and Huacheng temple.

The main hall is decorated with glass and green tiles, and the eaves aretilted. It has a very prominent position. There is a stone carving on the frontwall of the temple. The five big characters "Tai Shan Shi Gan Dang" on it arevery eye-catching. Let's guess what this is for. In fact, this is unique to theGarden Temple, which is used to ward off evil spirits.

Entering the mountain gate is Lingguan hall. When you enter the hall, youcan see Wang Lingguan standing in the shrine with red face and red beard, eyeswide open and iron whip high. Wang Lingguan is the Dharma protector of Taoism.How can he protect the Dharma here? It is said that Wei Tuo, the Dharmaprotector of Buddhism, made the mistake of "killing animals" and was "dismissed"by the Bodhisattva of Tibet, which made Wang Lingguan take the post. Thisreflects the meaning of "cooperation" between Buddhism and Taoism in the templeof heavenly kings, which is probably the only one in the country.

From Lingguan hall to a small courtyard, there is a pavilion style squaredouble eaves hall, resting on the top of the mountain. There are four statues ofheavenly kings inside, which are called heavenly kings hall. In the middle nichesits Maitreya Buddha, who is always smiling and tolerant. "A bowl of rice forthousands of families, traveling thousands of miles alone" is his two verses. Onboth sides are four statues of the heavenly king.

Lingguan hall and Tianwang hall are on the same platform, and on theplatform of a higher level, there is a great hall. In the main hall, on thefront, there stands the third Buddha about 12 meters high. Under the seat is thegreen lotus seat, and under the seat is the Xumi seat (also known as the diamondplatform). The carving is exquisite. On the front of the offering table, thereis a large relief of the story of "monk Tang's taking scriptures". In front ofthe statue of the Buddha, the monk who presided over the Dharma Association wentto worship the Buddha.

Well, after visiting Zhiyuan temple, we are now at the center of Jiuhuastreet. What you can see is Huacheng temple, the kaishanzu Temple of JiuhuaMountain. There is a saying in Buddhist Scripture that "refers to the city ofthe earth". Huacheng temple is located in the southwest of Huacheng peak inJiuhua Mountain and in the center of Huacheng basin, so it is named Huachengtemple. Huacheng temple has a long history. It was built in the Jin Dynasty, andit is also the main temple of Jiuhua Mountain. The architecture of the temple isarranged according to the mountain situation, reflecting the superb art ofarchitectural design. In the temple, there is an ancient clock which is morethan ten feet high and weighs about 20__ Jin. It is exquisitely cast and has aloud voice. It is struck with a mallet. The solemn and clear sound of the bellreverberates in the valley, which often makes people feel extraordinarilyrefined. "Huacheng evening clock" has become one of the "Jiuhua tensceneries".

After the rise and fall of the ancient temple, it still stands in the longriver of time. There are four existing dwellings, the first three are QingDynasty buildings: one is Lingguan hall, the second is Tianwang hall, and thethird is Daxiong hall. 2、 Among the three entrances, there is a huge four waterpatio, which means "four water Guiming hall". The main hall is full of woodenwindows and doors, and the lintel is carved with ice lattice. The relief of"Jiulong Panzhu" in Dingzhong caisson is an art treasure. Sijin Sutra house isthe only Ming Dynasty building in Jiuhua Mountain, which has been restored toits original appearance recently. Huacheng Temple gradually rises according tothe terrain, with rigorous structure, simple and elegant, basically preservingthe original style of kaishanzu temple.

Under the stone steps of Huacheng temple, there are a pair of stone lionsin Song Dynasty, one female and one male, which are ancient and clumsy. There isa release pool in the front, crescent shaped. It is said that it was excavatedby jindizang when he led the disciples to build Huacheng temple. It is not onlyfor the fire prevention of the temple, but also for the release of monks andpilgrims. In front of the pool is a flat and open Huacheng square. In thesquare, there is a "Niangniang tower" base made of stone bars, which is inmemory of jindizang's mother. It is said that after learning about zhuoxiJiuhua, jindizang's mother trekked thousands of miles to find her son back inthe mountains. She thought about her son for a long time, and her eyes weregoing to be blind. Jindizang used spring water from a well beside the square towash his mother's eyes, and cured her mother's eye disease.

Jin dizang attentively waited on his mother and told her about Buddhism.His mother was enlightened and eventually stayed in the mountain to help herprotect the Buddha. Later generations built a memorial tower in the square,which is called "Niangniang tower". However, some people in Jiuhua Mountain alsocall "Niangniang tower" to commemorate Jin dizang's wife before he became amonk. Whether mother or wife, the legend of "Niangniang tower" is beautiful.

Well, our tour of Jiuhua Mountain has come to an end. Thank you for yoursupport and cooperation in Xiao Wang's work. I hope I can continue to serve youin the future. Have a good trip! Thank you very much