Meizhou Lingguang Temple

4A Lingguang Temple One of the four famous temples in Guangdong Province, with incense burning all year round. It was first built in the second year of Tang Xiantong (861 AD), and has been expanded and even rebuilt many times. Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been official records of the reasons for the construction, which have confirmed many magical stories and legends, such as "Life and Death Twin Cypress", "Ancestor Hall without Smoke", "Roof without Leaves", "Five-color Sparrow", "No Stone Snail", "Half-cooked Fish", "Tea Spring", "Lost Prince at the end of Ming Dynasty", etc. It may be the temple with the most stories among non-national protected cultural relics. The car stops outside the mountain gate at the foot of the mountain 1, there is a stone path up the mountain, which is relatively flat, but there are many houses or shops on both sides, which is a bit messy 2~3. When you get to the front of the temple, the mountains in the distance are full of lush trees, and there are streams and bridges nearby. In front of the temple, two large cypress trees, one dead and one alive, are particularly eye-catching. This is the famous Life and Death Cypress. It is said to have been planted by the founding master Pan Liaoquan, and has been over a thousand years old. The one on the right is 30 meters high and lush; the one on the left is 27 meters high, although it has been dead for nearly four hundred years, it is not decayed. 4~6 The three characters "Lingguang Temple" engraved on the door lintel of the mountain gate were personally written by Mei Ding, the inspector of Guangdong Province, in the 18th year of Ming Hongwu (1385), when he donated money for expansion 7. There are still a few relics from the Ming Dynasty in the temple. The Maitreya Buddha is enshrined in the Hall of Heavenly Kings, with a smiling face to welcome people, which makes people feel good at once. Since the Song Dynasty, Weituo Tian has often stood behind the statue of Maitreya Buddha, facing the Daxiong Treasure Hall, meaning to protect the Dharma and the monks, and his face is not fierce. The first thing enshrined in the Daxiong Treasure Hall is the nanmu statue of the ashamed ancestor Pan Liaoquan; before he sat down, he left a verse: "Forty-nine years, no ties. Now I let go and return to emptiness, thousands of miles of clouds open and the moon is in the sky." The roof structure of the Daxiong Treasure Hall is the only one in the country, contributing two legends. One is that the hall is often full of incense, but there is no smoke all year round. The second is that the tiles on the top of the hall are clean all year round. There are many plaques in the temple, and the calligraphy is subjective. "There is no mountain outside the top" and "There is a moon in the sky" were written by the same person when he came to the temple twice, and left a good story. Later generations continued the masterpiece: "There is no mountain outside the top, every time I hear the bell of the Buddha Hall, I suspect it is a heavenly sound; there is a moon in the sky, try to see the cypress shadow at the temple gate, you can understand the Zen machine." In short, it is a small and exquisite temple with stories and highlights. However, due to limited funds, some pavilions and small pieces in the scenic area are slightly rough, which is a pity.