Huishan Temple, Wuxi, Buddhist temple in Wuxi, China
Huishan Temple stands at the foot of Huishan in Wuxi's Beitang District, at the junction of Huishan Straight Street and Heng Street, within the Xihui Scenic Area. Its rebuilt halls include the Mahavira Hall, Diamond Hall, Heavenly King Hall, Great Compassion Pavilion, Scripture Library and Bell Pavilion, alongside the Tang and Song stone sutra pillars, the Song Jinlian Bridge and Pond, the Qing Imperial Stele Pavilion and the Ting Song stone bed.
Huishan Temple was first built during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and became the foremost of Wuxi's ten great monasteries. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times; after the Taiping Rebellion only ruins remained. In 2004 the Mahavira Hall, Vajra Hall, Heavenly King Hall, Great Compassion Pavilion, sutra library and bell pavilion were restored and religious activity resumed.
Huishan Temple heads the traditional list of Wuxi's ten great monasteries, and its name is inseparable from Huishan, the hill it faces. The temple grounds also take in the Tianxia Second Spring, Jichang Garden, Erquan Academy and the shrines of Hua Xiaozi, Zou Zhonggong, Qian Wang, Gu Duanwen and Li Zhongding, plus Zhang Zhongcheng Temple, so a visit mixes Buddhist worship with ancestral and scholarly commemoration.
The temple stands at the junction of Huishan Straight Street and Cross Street, at the foot of Huishan Mountain, inside the Xihui Scenic Area alongside the Second Spring Under Heaven and Jichang Garden. The grounds are entered on foot, with stone-paved courtyards and paths linking the halls, the Jinlian Pond and bridge, and the stele pavilion. The temple garden is a Jiangsu provincial protected site.
The Ting Song Stone Bed is a flat stone slab under an ancient ginkgo said to have been used by the Tang poet Li Shen; the Song-dynasty Jinlian Bridge and Jinlian Pond, and the Tang and Song stone sutra pillars, still stand in the grounds. The temple's sutra pillars are listed in the seventh batch of national key cultural relics.
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