Photos of Ci'en Temple

Ci'en Temple is located at No. 12, Ci'en Temple Lane, Danan Street, Shenhe District, Shenyang City. It was built in the Tang Dynasty and was later expanded and rebuilt. It is the largest existing Buddhist temple in Shenyang. Ci'en Temple is listed as a provincial cultural relic protection unit, and is now the seat of the Shenyang Buddhist Association. The monastery of Ci'en Temple sits west to east and covers an area of more than 120 million square meters. The front is the mountain gate, and there are bells and drums on the second floor inside the gate. The buildings towards the west temple are divided into three roads. In front of the middle road is three rooms with wide faces, painted purlins and vermilion poles, and statues of Maitreya and Wei Tuo are enshrined in the hall. To the west are the Mahavira Hall, the Bhikshu Altar, and the Tibetan Scripture Building. Remnant Zen Master Pagoda: There is a monk who had an important influence on Ci'en Temple. His legal name is Hanke, and he is the son of Han Rizhen, Minister of Rites of the Ming Dynasty. At the age of 29, he went to Luofu Mountain to cut his hair and become a monk. When the Qing army went south, he witnessed the suffering of the war and the surrender of some Ming Dynasty bureaucrats, so he wrote a book "Zaibian Ji" that exposed current affairs. This book was discovered by the Qing army and sent him to the capital for trial. Later, he was exiled to the Ci'en Temple in Shengjing for burning. Han Ke organized a "Bingtian Poetry Society" in Shengjing, and was very active in writing poems with literati and scholars. When the epidemic broke out in Shengjing, he led the monks to collect and deliver medicines, which saved many people and gained a high reputation in the minds of the people. In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi (1660), he took a seat in Shengjing and was 49 years old. His apprentices built a pagoda for him on the Yingluo Peak in Qianshan.