Youmin Temple

CHINA, Jiangxi, Nanchang

According to the local gazetteer, Emperor Wu (reigned 502–549) of the Liang dynasty constructed a large Buddha statue to subdue a naga. In 547, the emperor’s teacher, Gexun, donated his home to build a temple to enshrine the statue. In 769 Master Mazu Daoyi visited the temple and advocated Chan Buddhism. The temple was destroyed and repaired a number of times throughout its history. During the rule of Emperor Jiaqing (reigned 1796–1820) of the Qing dynasty, a 4.8 m copper statue of the standing Buddha was created together with a hall to house it. The temple was destroyed in wartime in 1910 and it was not until 1929 that it was repaired. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) the temple and statue were both destroyed. It was not until after 1986 that measures were taken to reconstruct the temple.
The temple buildings are the Heavenly King Hall, Copper Buddha Hall, Great Hero Hall, Medicine Buddha Hall, Patriarch Hall, and the bell and drum towers. The five-bay wide Copper Buddha Hall has a double-eave hip-and-gable roof. There is an extra, shorter eave between the two main eaves. The hall houses a standing copper Buddha statue cast in 1996. The bell tower contains a copper bell made during the Southern Tang Kingdom period (937–975). The bell was listed as a Provincial Cultural Heritage Property in 1957.