Linji Temple, Buddhist temple in Zhengding, Hebei, China

Linji Temple stands in the old town of Zhengding, Hebei. Its central structure is the Chengling Stupa, an octagonal nine-storey solid brick stupa 30.47 metres high, with wooden corner beams and green glazed tiles, ridge beasts and cap beasts. Behind the stupa is the Mahavira Hall, completed in 1987, 11 metres high and 20 metres wide, with five bays and a hard-ridge grey-tiled roof. The gate hall holds a 2.9-metre Qingtian stone stele carved with a portrait of Linji Yixuan.

The temple was founded in 540 during the Eastern Wei period and later became the birthplace of the Linji school under Master Linji Yixuan in 854. This school shaped Buddhist tradition for centuries to come.

The temple is the ancestral home of the Linji school, and both Chinese Linji and Japanese Linji and Obaku lineages honour it as such. In May 1979 the Japanese Linji and Obaku schools jointly founded the Japan-China Friendship Rinko Association, which has sent delegations every year since 1980 to venerate the Linji patriarch's stupa and fund repairs. The Dharma Milk Hall east of the Mahavira Hall holds statues of Bodhidharma, Huineng and Yixuan, while the Lamp-Transmission Hall to the west honours the Japanese masters Eisai, Shuniyo and Ingen.

The temple stands inside the old city wall of Zhengding, on the site it was moved to in 860. The Mahavira Hall sits behind the Chengling Stupa, with the Dharma-Milk Hall to its east and the Lamp-Transmission Hall to its west; the monks' quarters and the abbot's room lie further back. The grounds are entered through the mountain-gate hall, which holds a 2.9-metre stone stele carved with a portrait of Linji Yixuan.

The Chengling Stupa is an octagonal, nine-storey solid brick tower 30.47 metres tall, with green glazed tiles, wooden corner beams and a finial of lotus, vase and discs. Its body carries a stone inscription of a 1734 edict by the Yongzheng Emperor and a plaque reading "Tang Linji Huizhao Chengling Stupa".