Guangxiao Temple is the oldest temple building in Guangzhou. The temple was originally the hometown of Zhao Jiande, the third generation grandson of Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue in the Western Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Yu Fanbei, an official of the State of Wu, came to Guangzhou, where he taught, built a garden and planted many apples and myrtles. At that time, people called it Yu Garden, also known as Lin You. Later, his family, Shizhaitian, became a temple, and it was named as the Temple. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Hao Moye, an Indian monk, went to Guangzhou to preach and built the Xinyan Temple Hall in Wuyuan. In the first year of Yifeng, Tang Gaozong (676), Huineng became a monk, was ordained under the bodhi tree in front of the Buddhist altar, and started the Southern Sect of Buddhism, known as the "Sixth Patriarch of Zen". Later, the name of the temple was changed many times, and it was not until the 21st year of Shaoxing, Song Gaozong (1 15 1 year) that it was named Guangxiao Temple.
Guangxiao Temple is one of the four jungles in Guangzhou, covering an area of more than 30,000 square meters. The ancient trees in the temple are towering, covering the sky, cool and pleasant, with rows of well-laid halls and buildings. There are more than 20 pavilions built in the temple in the past dynasties. The existing main buildings include the Hall of the Great Hero, the Hall of the Six Ancestors, the Temple of the King of Heaven, the reclining Buddha Pavilion, the stupa and the East West Pagoda.
Daxiong Hall was built from the first year to the fifth year of Long 'an in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (397 ~ 40 1), and then it was built many times. The existing temples were rebuilt in the 11th year of Qing Shunzhi (1654), with seven halls, 35.36m wide and 24.8m deep. It rests on the top of the mountain, with double eaves, long eaves and thick prisms. On the pedestal in front of the Hall of the Great Hero, there are a pair of stone buildings, each 4.95 meters high and with seven octagonal floors, each with a Buddhist niche engraved on it, which is of primitive style. There is also a stone sutra building in the southwest corner in front of the main hall, called Dabei Building. It was built in the second year of Baoli, Tang Jingzong (826), and the height of the sutra collection building is 2. 19 meters. The eight sides of the building are engraved with the great compassion mantra, and the words are written straight from right to left, which is neat and beautiful. This stone sutra building is the earliest existing stone carving in Guangxiao Temple, and its absolute age can also be calculated by scripture. The building plane is octagonal, with a pedestal under the seat and a statue of mighty Lux carved around it. A treasure cover was also built on the building, and an arched arch was carved at the intersection of the eaves and corner beams under the cover as a support, which was elegant and luxurious. This structure is just an example of architecture in Guangdong.
There are two towers on the east and west sides behind the Hall of the Great Hero, which are the oldest towers seen in China so far.
The East Tower was donated by Liu Yong, the ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (967). This tower has four corners and seven floors, with a square plane and a height of 7.69 meters. The tower body is all made of iron, with more than 900 niches cast all over it. Each niche has a small Buddha statue, which is exquisitely crafted and vividly portrayed. When the tower was first built, the tower was inlaid with gold, which was known as the Thousand Buddha Pagoda inlaid with gold. There is a lotus iron base under the tower, and there are carved "Dragon and Fire Beads" and "Three Treasures of Ascending Dragon and Descending Dragon Flame" around it.
The West Tower was cast in the sixth year of Dabao in the Southern Han Dynasty (963), and it is the earliest existing tower with an exact date. Its form is roughly the same as that of the East Tower. Due to the collapse of four floors during the Anti-Japanese War, only three floors remain today. The surface of the tower is covered with thousands of small Buddha statues, and a large niche is cast in the middle of each side. There is a sitting Buddha in the niche, and Tian Fei, Lux and various patterns are cast under the eaves of the tower and on Sumeru, which is very delicate and elegant.
Six Ancestors Hall was rebuilt in the 31st year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1692). It is five rooms wide and four rooms deep, and rests on the top of the mountain with a single eaves. The pedestal of the temple is flat, made of black stone and covered with lotus flowers. Very beautiful, a relic of the Song Dynasty. After propagating Zen in Guangxiao Temple, Huineng, the sixth ancestor, founded and publicized the purpose of Southern Buddhism, making Southern Buddhism a major scenic spot in Southern Buddhism, and built a temple to commemorate it. There is a sitting statue of six ancestors in the hall, 2.5 meters high. There is a stele gallery on the east side of the main hall, and there is a stele similar to the Six Ancestors in the stele gallery, which is an important cultural relic for studying the Six Ancestors and Nanzong Buddhism.
Pagoda is located in front of the Sixth Ancestral Temple, which is made of stone-based lime-sand bricks. It is 7.80 meters high and has seven octagonal floors. There are eight niches on each floor, which are embedded with small Buddha statues. After Huineng, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, became the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism, the abbot of the temple buried Huineng's hair under the bodhi tree, built this tower on it and erected a monument to commemorate it. This bodhi tree and two other terminalia chebula trees in Guangxiao Temple have a history of more than one thousand years. Next to the tower are statues of six ancestors and dharma carved in the Yuan Dynasty.
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