The Historical Evolution of Kumarajiva Temple

Kumarajiva Temple is located in the north of Dashizi, North Street, Liangzhou District, Wuwei City. It was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (386-403 AD). It is the place where Kumarajiva, a great translator of Buddhist scriptures in China, lived in Xik for 17 years when he entered the mainland. It has a history of 1600 years. Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty was cool, incense has flourished. Despite many natural and man-made disasters, Roshi Temple Tower still stands, and its name has never changed.

According to historical records, in the early days of the People's Republic of China, Lu Guang came to Wuwei with Kumarajiva, a monk from the Western Regions. In order to settle his mind and body, he ordered to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country to build temples. After its completion, it was named Kumarajiva Temple, where Kumarajiva lived and promoted Buddhism. After the death of Master Rush, his disciples enshrined his "tongue" relic in the temple according to his will, and built a temple tower where the "tongue" relic was enshrined, which is today's Rush Temple Tower. This tower was built in 386-403 AD.

During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Wei Chijingde, the general, went to the western regions and arrived at the border of Wuwei. Suddenly, he saw golden light radiating from the top of an ancient tower in the city, like a thousand Buddha statues. Xiangyun is born, and flowers and rain fly. He thinks this spectacle is a sign of the gods: such an auspicious place must be a sacred place of Buddhism. So I went to say goodbye. When Jingdezhen saw the Roshi Temple Tower, he admired it very much, and thought that Master Roshi had advantages. So he allocated funds, called skilled craftsmen and personally served as supervisors. More than a year later, the pagoda was completed. In order to show this virtue, he set up a stone tablet under the tower as a memorial, which read "Roche Foundation, facing the street all around, respecting morality." This monument is well preserved to this day and can be used as a historical proof.

During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the Luosi Temple, located in the downtown area of Liangzhou, became a gathering place for envoys from the western regions and monks from all over the world who traveled to and from the Silk Road, and made great contributions to the exchange of religious culture and ideas between China and the West, with far-reaching significance.

By the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty and the first year, there were frequent wars between the Han nationality and the ethnic minorities in the western regions. Liangzhou has long been a Tibetan territory in the western regions, isolated from Chinese culture for a long time, and frequently invaded by pagans. Liangzhou was occupied by Tubo for a long time after the Anshi Rebellion at the end of Kaiyuan in Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan transferred Liangzhou to Gaochang as a pasture. At this point, the ruins of Liangzhou boundary since the Han, Jin and Six Dynasties, such as Luoshi Temple and Lingjuntai, which were praised by poets Wang Wei and others, have lost their early historical features.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the society gradually became stable and developed actively, and the temples and pavilions in Liangzhou City began to recover. However, the snail temple has not entered the scope of repair because it was destroyed into rubble.

In the first year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1402), Shi Hong, a soldier from Poyang who joined the army in Zhangye, lived in Liangzhou. When I found the ruins of Rush Temple, where "the ruins of the temple base are piled with rubble, and the barren hills do not exist", I felt sad and came up with the idea of building a house on the ruins, and set an auspicious day for breaking ground. The craftsmen dug up a silver medal in the ground, on which the words "Rush Temple" were clearly engraved. Shi Hong realized that this was a rush built by Kumarajiva, a monk in Yao and Qin Dynasties. In the autumn and August of the second year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, the reconstruction project of Luosi Temple was officially started, and the construction of Daxiong Hall was completed by the end of the year. In the second year, the restoration project was completed, and sculptures and paintings were available. At the end of the 13th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty, Guanyin Hall and Luohan Hall were restored.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Roche Temple was designated as Liangzhou Temple in Shaanxi by the imperial court. On February 15th, the 10th year of Ming Yingzong orthodoxy, the court awarded the Tripitaka Sutra to Luofu Temple and issued an imperial edict. The imperial edict said: "The Tripitaka will be published, awarded to the world and widely circulated. Now, I want to place a Tibetan in Liangzhou Temple in Shaanxi, and I want to provide it forever. " This imperial edict is now kept in Wuwei Museum.

In the 28th year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, Rushi Temple was renovated on a large scale, which was another large-scale renovation project after the first year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty. According to the inscription on the rebuilt Rush Temple, the rebuilt Rush Temple this time, "the front and rear three courtyards are brand-new, and they are five cool and blessed places; Magnificent change, the resort of Hexi. "

1On April 23rd, 927, an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 occurred in Wuwei, and many places of interest in Liangzhou were completely destroyed. The Luosi Temple, Dayun Temple and Qingying Temple in the city were all spared, and all of them were destroyed by rubble. The so-called "three peaks of writing", Luoshi Temple, Dayun Temple and Qingying Temple, were all knocked down except half of Luoshi Temple. 1934, Wuwei National Government rebuilt the Roshi Temple Tower on the original site, so that the historical sites could be preserved.

1938, the homestead of Luosi Temple was occupied by Wuwei No.4 Middle School, and the remaining Buddha statues were demolished. 1956, Wuwei area was merged into Zhangye area, and Wuwei County People's Government was renamed Wuwei County People's Committee. After Wuwei cadre school, located in Luo Temple in North Street, moved to Zhangye, in order to solve the problems of scattered office, crowded housing and inconvenient detention of prisoners, the County People's Committee decided to move the public security organs, procuratorial organs and legal organs to the cadre school, that is, the former site of Luo Temple. After the Wuwei Public Security Bureau moved in, the detention center was located under the Roshta. The former site of the temple became the office of Wuwei Public Security Bureau, Procuratorate and Court, and the other halls were converted into offices.

Since the reform and opening up, Kumarajiva Temple has attracted wide attention from people at home and abroad. Since 1995, many domestic and foreign groups have visited Kumarajiva Temple in Wuwei. Among them, the abbot of Hong Kong Baolin Temple, monks and customs delegations from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shaanxi, and Buddhist groups and individuals from Taiwan Province Yuanguang Buddhist College, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Macau, the United States, Thailand and Myanmar came to make the pilgrimage. In particular, in April 1998, the "Silk Road Investigation and Worship Delegation" of China Buddhist College was visited by 34 wizards from 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, which had a great response at home and abroad. The restoration and reconstruction of Kumarajiva Temple in Wuwei is imperative.

1998 according to the requirements of Wuwei Buddhist Association, the former Wuwei Municipal People's Government approved the restoration of Kumarajiva Temple. In the same year, with the approval of the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Religious Affairs, the Kumarajiva Temple Preparatory Office was established, and the Luosi Temple was officially opened as a place for Buddhist activities. In 2000, the restoration project was designed by the Provincial Architectural Engineering Design Institute, approved by Wudijitou (2000) 105 of the former Wuwei Regional Planning Office and Wu (2000)45 of the former Wuwei Planning Commission, and started construction. Kumarajiva Temple under construction is the largest Buddhist temple in Liangzhou District, which has received more than 20,000 pilgrims and tourists from home and abroad this year.