Daming Temple and Jianzhen Memorial Hall

Daming Temple, at 1 Pingshantang Road on Shugang hill in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, is a Buddhist temple with origins in the Southern Dynasties period in the 5th century and is best known for its links with the monk Jianzhen, known in Japanese as Ganjin. Jianzhen served as abbot at Daming Temple in the Tang dynasty and was a leading Vinaya master. Invited by Japanese monks, he made several failed attempts to cross the sea, losing his sight along the way, before reaching Japan in 753 CE. There he founded Toshodaiji temple in Nara and helped establish the Ritsu school of Buddhism, and he also introduced medicine, architecture and other skills. The present temple buildings are mostly modern reconstructions, as the earlier temple was destroyed during the Taiping period and rebuilt in the late Qing dynasty. The Jianzhen Memorial Hall, completed in 1973 to mark the 1,200th anniversary of his death, was designed by the architect Liang Sicheng in the style of the Golden Hall at Toshodaiji, reflecting the Tang architecture he brought to Japan. Inside is a copy of the dry-lacquer statue of Jianzhen from Toshodaiji. The complex also includes the Main Hall, the Hall of the Great Buddha with a Buddha image, the Pingshan Hall (Pingshantang) nearby and a stele gallery with Tang-era inscriptions. Gardens, ponds and stone steles fill the grounds, and the wider hill offers views of Slender West Lake. The curatorial approach is essentially commemorative, using architecture and a small exhibition to present Jianzhen's voyages and the Sino-Japanese cultural exchange that followed. Visits take about one to two hours.