The Qinglong Temple

The Qinglong Temple is located on the tableland north of Tielumiao Village, about three kilometers southeast from the downtown area.

The temple was set up in 582 A.D.. It used to be called “Ling Gan Si” in the Sui Dynasty. The present name didn’t appear until 711 A.D.. The Qinglong Temple was the place of origin of the Japanese Mi Sect(宗派) of Buddhism(佛教). From the early period to the middle of the ninth century, many Japanese monks were sent to China to study Buddhism. Six of the eight famous Japanese who came to China in the Tang Dynasty studied at the Qinglong Temple. Kukai, a famouse monk was one of them.

The Buddihist name of Kukai is Master Hongfa. He was born in Japan in 774 A.D.. In 804 A.D., he came to China with the Japanese envoy(使者) to study Buddhism. It was in Qinglong Temple that he acknowledged Hui Guo as a Mi Sect master. Being an extremely studious monk, Kukai finished his studies in less than two years and then went back to Japan.

After his return, Kukai built the Buddhist Warrior Attendant Temple at Koyasan and founded the Zhenyan Sect (the True Word Sect). Kukai was not only versed in the Buddhist teachings, but was also a great calligrapher. Having possessed remarkable talents in all the five forms of Chinese calligraphy (regular script, cursive script, running script, clerical script and sear script), Kukai was thus called the “five-styled monk”. Apart from this, he also wrote many other influential books on specific subjects. When he went back to Japan, he took with him many volumes of Buddhist scriptures and original works of Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy. He also introduced the Chinese techniques of irrigation and brush-making to Japan and helped to advance the economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

A monument in memory of Kukai was set up in 1982 at the Qinglong Temple. The halls have been restored too so that tourists may come for a visit.

In 1986, thousands of sakura were imported from Japan, and were rooted in the Qinglong Temple. The flowers blossom every year between May and June. So far, the Qinglong Temple attract many tourists from all over the world with its legendary historical role and the beautiful quiet scenery.