Wufeng Huguo Buddhist Temple, Buddhist temple in Nanliu Village, Taiwan.
Wufeng Huguo Buddhist Temple began in 1920 as Tianli Tang, a Zhai religion hall built by a Zou devotee with mud bricks, thin tiles, bamboo and wood. It faces east across fields toward the Nantou mountains. The rear hall holds the three Buddhas of the horizontal trichiliocosm, and the main hall plaque reads Daxiong Baodian in Guanghua's calligraphy.
In 1920, Zou, a lay believer, built the Tianli Tang, a Zhai Jiao hall dedicated to the Jade Emperor, in Liushunan (now Nanliu Village). In 1964, Zhong Yanfan told Guanghua, a monk at Nanputuo Temple, that the hall was for sale; Guanghua took over in 1967 and renamed it Huguo Temple. Ru Xu became the second abbot in 1969 and secured the land from Taiwan Sugar. Jiang Gui lived here from 1976 to 1977.
The temple began as Tianli Tang, a Zhai teaching hall dedicated to the Jade Emperor, and was renamed Huguo Temple in 1967. In 1921 Yu Shaogeng and Zou Rongguang donated a plaque reading "Ci Yun Man Yuan." The novelist Jiang Gui, a Christian, lived here from 1976 and wrote "Swallows of Huguo Temple," praising the freedom to keep his faith.
The temple stands in Nanliu Village, in the countryside outside Wufeng's town centre, facing east with a view toward the Nantou mountains. Because the site is remote, the monk Zhong Yanfan ran a Chinese medicine shop in Wufeng's town centre as the temple's contact point. Visitors should arrange their own transport and allow time for the rural approach.
Novelist Jiang Gui, author of the 1957 novel Whirlwind, moved to the temple in 1976 to recover his health and stayed on and off for years. He wrote the essay "Swallows of Huguo Temple" there in April 1977, saying the rural setting reminded him of his native home. He also wrote the novel Hualuo Liancheng, about a young woman becoming a nun, while living on the grounds.
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