Yuanming Jiangtang, Buddhist temple in Jing'an District, China.
Yuanming Jiangtang is a Buddhist temple in Jing'an District featuring traditional Chinese architecture with curved roofs, wooden carvings, and symmetrical hall structures arranged around enclosed courtyards. The complex includes specialized spaces such as a lecture room, a hall dedicated to Guanyin, a memorial hall, and a Buddhist texts library.
Gu Liancheng and Xing Jingxian donated their private garden plot on Yan'an West Road for the temple, built in 1934 as Yuan Ying's Pure Land teaching centre. The Yuanming Lengyan School opened in 1945 and the Shanghai Yuanming Buddhist College in 1948. In 1958 the site became a factory, and Red Guards attacked it in 1966. In 1983 it was named a National Key Buddhist Temple and regular lectures resumed.
The name Yuanming combines "yuanbian shifang, mingzhao fajie" (complete throughout the ten directions, illuminating the dharma realm) with the generation names of Yuan Ying and his disciple Ming Yang. The gatehouse has glazed double eaves, two columns with coiled golden dragons, and a pair of bluestone lions; the walkways and courtyard are paved with cement tiles carved with lotus flowers, symbolising step-by-step lotus blossoms. Regular sutra lectures and a free Yuanming Buddhist study class are held.
The temple is at 434 Yan'an West Road in Jing'an District. The gate has a glazed double-eaved roof, two columns with coiled golden dragons, and a pair of bluestone lions. Inside, cement tiles in the corridors and courtyard are carved with lotus flowers.
The temple's name carries two meanings: it echoes the phrase "圆遍十方,明照法界" and also follows the Buddhist generational naming of Yuan Ying and his disciple Ming Yang, who share the characters 圆 and 明. The Yuanming Lengyan School, founded in 1945, was revived in 1997 and merged with Longhua Temple in 2000 as the Hualin Buddhist Seminary.
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