The predecessor of Guangfu Temple was a private residence. The residence of Prince Gu Ye, the Huangmen Shilang (who served the emperor and had the important job of conveying imperial edicts), was turned into a temple. During the reign of Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty (685-704), it was renamed Guangfu Temple, and the incense was very prosperous. In June of the first year of Kangding in the Song Dynasty (1040), a villager dug up soil next to Guangfu Temple and found a bronze Guanyin statue, which he then presented to Guangfu Temple. This caused a sensation in all parts of Wu County. Buddhists worshiped in an endless stream, and people flowed like a sea. People changed the name of Guangfu Temple to Bronze Guanyin Temple. Unfortunately, the existing Main Hall and the Western Hall were built in the 12th year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1832). Due to the change of dynasties and frequent wars, after liberation, only the Tang Dynasty square pagoda, the Song and Yuan steles and the Qing Dynasty Main Hall remained in the Tongguanyin Temple. Waiting for ancient buildings, the entire Tongguanyin Temple is very dilapidated.
After the implementation of religious policies in 1994, after more than ten years of hard work, the Tongguanyin Temple has successively rebuilt and restored many cultural relics and historic sites such as the Guanyin Hall, the Sutra Library, and the Main Hall. With the efforts of Master Huitong, the abbot of Tongguanyin Temple, the restoration project of the Bell and Drum Tower was completed. This bronze Guanyin statue in the Tongguanyin Temple of the Tang Dynasty is about one meter high. It has a plump body, kind eyebrows and kind eyes. It wears a brocade on its head and pearls on its body. It has bare feet and steps lightly on a lotus throne. It has a natural expression. The left hand hangs down, with the palm facing outward, and the five fingers are naturally slightly bent, which is called the "wish-fulfilling seal", "wish-fulfilling seal" or "giving and giving seal", which means that it can satisfy the wishes of all living beings; the right hand is naturally bent and stretched slightly upward to shoulder level, with the palm facing towards In addition, it is called "Shi Wuwei Seal", which means that it can relieve the suffering of all living beings and make them feel at ease.
Lin Zexu inscribed the plaque "Benefiting the People and Heaven"
This bronze Guanyin statue has legends related to Kuang Zhong and Lin Zexu. In the fifth year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty (1430), Kuang Zhong, the prefect of Suzhou, led the people to donate money to repair the Guangfu Temple. In the twelfth year of Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1832), autumn rains continued and floods caused disasters. The bronze Guanyin statue was carried into the city to pray for clear weather. Soon the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, and the people were grateful. Lin Zexu, who was the governor at the time, specially petitioned the court to rebuild the Tongguanyin Temple. Due to the miraculous power of Bronze Guanyin, three years later, Emperor Daoguang issued a plaque with the words "Ci Yun protects and protects". Next to it was a plaque inscribed by Lin Zexu with the title "Benefiting the People and Heaven", and the chief envoy Chen Luan inscribed a plaque with the title "Ci Yun protects the people". The first couplet of the couplet written by Lin Zexu reads: "Great compassion can spread blessings in the fields. It rains and rains, and intestines and intestines are called. I wish the land will be fertile and bring happiness and benefit to all living beings." The couplet once again praised Bronze Guanyin's achievements in benefiting the people. Therefore, the value of Bronze Guanyin Temple doubled, and the nearby people regarded this Bronze Guanyin as a Bodhisattva who rescued people in distress. Nowadays, there are 8 jade, celadon, mahogany and other Guanyin statues donated by Buddhist believers on the left and right sides of the Bronze Guanyin. They have different shapes, are kind and kind, and can be regarded as artistic masterpieces of Buddha statues.
In front of Tongguanyin Temple, there is an ancient stone bridge of the Five Dynasties beam style built across the river, namely Guangfu Temple Bridge, also known as Tiansi Bridge and Xianghua Bridge. The temple bridge is very simple. The bridge is 16.1 meters long and 3.05 meters wide. It is of beam type. The edges on both sides are made of Wukang stone. It is carved with double dragons playing with beads and swastika patterns. It is well crafted and is an old thing from the Song Dynasty. The stone bridge's pattern, lock stone, and capping stone are all hewn from Wukang stone, so the bullets make a clanging sound. The local people call it Pipa Bridge. The stone carving patterns of the bridge are simple and powerful, with beautiful shapes and smooth lines.
Unfortunately, it has been in disrepair for a long time, the pattern is severely eroded, the bridge stones are broken and damaged, and only three or four sections of the capstone remain. The ancient stone bridge is in danger. There is a stele corridor on the left side of the main hall of Tongguanyin Temple, which contains several precious ancient and modern stone steles. Ancient steles from the Song Dynasty include the Monument of the Minister of Rites in the early years of the Yuan Shao Dynasty, the official records of the second year of Jiaxi, etc.; in the Yuan Dynasty, there are the emperor's imperial edict and the exemption from military service, the governor of Pingjiang in the third year of Dade (1299), the stele for praying to Guanyin for rain, and the to There are remnants of the stele remembering the main events, the bell stele of Ming Dynasty, etc. Among them, the "Plum Blossom Poetry Monument" by Zhang Mojun in Xiangxiang, Hunan, in 1934, is preserved on the corridor wall of the western hall of Guanyin Temple. Zhang Mojun (1882-1965), whom Dr. Sun Yat-sen called "a promising young lesbian", was an outstanding women activist, educator, poet, and calligrapher. After the 1911 Revolution of 1911, Zhang Mojun participated in the battle to recover Suzhou with his father Zhang Chun. In Suzhou, he was responsible for publishing Jiangsu's "Dahan Daily", organizing the China Women's Association, and founding the "China Daily".
From 1918 to 1920, she went to study at Columbia University in the United States. After returning to China, she served as the principal of Jiangsu's First Women's Normal University in Suzhou, where she composed poems, inscriptions, and paintings with revolutionary figures such as Zhang Taiyan and Li Genyuan. Zhang Mojun died in Taiwan in 1965. There are "Poems of Mojun", "Poems of Baihua Caotang", "Poems of Hongyu Baiyunshan Pavilion", "Poems of Yuchilou" etc. handed down from generation to generation. Zhang Mojun used Zhang Mojun to inscribe two seven-character rhymed poems on the "Plum Blossom Poetry Stele" of Tongguanyin Temple. He enthusiastically praised Guangfu Scenic Area and praised Guangfu's landscape scenery: "In the deep mountains, the moss is silent and no one can see it. The flowers have good branches"; the poem also expresses his heroic ambitions: "I hate the green plums for a long time, and the soul of the flower is still the ancient soul."
The glorious Guangfu Ancient Pagoda
The Guangfu Temple Pagoda was built in the Datong period of the Liang Dynasty (535-546). Its original name is the Relic Pagoda. It is said that the pagoda originally housed a collection of There are Dafang Guangfo Huayan Sutra and the relics of Monk Wu Che, the founder of Guangfu Temple. The Guangfu Temple Pagoda was destroyed by fire in the late Huichang year of the Tang Dynasty (846). During the Xiantong period (860 to 874), the abbot of Tongguanyin Temple went around begging for alms to raise funds for reconstruction. The eaves of the tower were destroyed by a lightning strike and fire during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. Later, it was repeatedly destroyed and repaired, and it was eroded by wind and rain over a long period of time.
In 1999, the governments at all levels of Jiangsu Province, Suzhou City and District planned to invest 1 million yuan to renovate and renovate it. The pagoda stands on the top of Turtle Mountain behind the temple. It has seven levels on four sides, a height of 27.95 meters, a square plane, and a pavilion-style pagoda with a mixed structure of brick and wood. There is a coupon door on the northwest side of the ground floor, and pot doors on all four sides above the second floor. There are Buddhist niches on the left and right walls of the doors on each floor, displaying 49 Buddha statues. The top of the tower is equipped with square, round, octagonal and other different caissons. Each floor is equipped with flat seats with waist eaves, which is simple and simple. There is a gallery on the bottom floor of the tower, and there are floor slabs on each floor, which can be climbed up by stairs. The tower has a simple appearance. Due to the appropriate location and the surrounding scenery, it has an artistic conception of "not being in the painting but being included in the painting". If you climb to the top of the tower, you will look at Tianping and Lingyan mountains, as if they are very close at hand. Climbing the tower and looking out, you can see the mountains and mountains in the distance, and the east and west lakes complementing each other. It is worth mentioning that Shen Zhou, a Suzhou scholar in the Ming Dynasty and the founder of the "Wumen School of Painting", climbed the Guangfu Temple Tower many times and wrote the poem "Climbing the Guangfu Tower", which vividly described the scenery enjoyed by climbing the tower: "Mountain Surrounding the water and spreading the mulberry trees, the scenery of the paradise land is truly picturesque." At the end, he expressed deep emotion: "I have been homeless for three years, and I wish I could live here without carrying my books."
In 1999, Guishan opened Tashan Park with Guangfu Temple Pagoda as the main scenery. There are camphor tree garden, plum grove and Sino-Japanese Friendship Sakura Garden in the park. There is an ink spring on the east side of the Guangfu Temple Tower, also known as an ink marsh. According to legend, Gu Yewang, the author of "Jade Pian" of Suzhou literati in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, was doing inkstones in the marsh when he was writing a book here. Guangfu Temple, Guangfu Temple Pagoda and the Song Dynasty stone bridge in front of Guangfu Temple were listed as key cultural relics protection units in Jiangsu Province on April 19, 1995.