Linji Temple and Chengling Pagoda

Linji Temple lies on Yanghe East Road in the old town of Zhengding, in Hebei province, on the north side of Shijiazhuang. The monastery is historically important as the place where the Chan master Linji Yixuan taught in the ninth century. Linji Yixuan, who died in 866, gave his name to the Linji school, one of the Five Houses of Chan Buddhism and the lineage that Japanese tradition knows as Rinzai. The temple was reportedly founded during the Eastern Wei period and flourished in the Tang, when Linji settled on the banks of the Hutuo River and attracted a large following. The surviving centrepiece is the Chengling Pagoda, an octagonal nine-storey brick pagoda of the Jin dynasty, rising about 30 metres. It is often described as the memorial pagoda of Linji Yixuan, and its surfaces are decorated with brick carved bracket sets, eaves, doors and window niches that imitate timber construction. Early in the twentieth century the site was damaged, and large parts of the temple were lost. Rebuilding in recent decades restored the main hall, gate and ancillary buildings, and the monastery again attracts Japanese and Korean pilgrims from Rinzai traditions. The compound is small and can be explored in under an hour. Visitors will find a quiet courtyard layout, inscriptions, and sutra halls, and the pagoda is the principal object of interest. The temple works as a place of active practice as well as a monument, so the atmosphere is calm and devotional rather than commercial. It is easily combined with Longxing Temple and Kaiyuan Temple within a morning in Zhengding.