Originally built in 589 A.D. in the Sui Dynasty, Da Ci'en temple was named Wu Lou Si Temple. It was not until 648 A.D. when Emperor Li Zhi, then still a crown prince, sponsored a repair project on the temple. This was a symbol of thanksgiving to his mother for her kindness, after she had suffered an early death. The temple then assumed the present name Temple of Thanksgiving. The Emperor Gaozong was said to pay homage to the temple twice a day by looking in its direction from the Hanyuan Palace.

 

The temple, with 13 separate courtyards, contained 1,879 magnificent-looking rooms altogether and was a place of grand extent in the Tang Dynasty. However, it went into gradual decay after the downfall of the Tang Dynasty. The halls and rooms that have survived the ages are structures that were built in the Ming Dynasty. The Tang Regime gave orders to build a chamber for the translation of Buddhist scriptures in an effort to have the then widely renowned Master Xuan Zang (Monk Tripitaka) agree to be the head of the temple.

 

Big Wild Goose Pagoda was first built in 652 in the Tang Dynasty. It was sponsored by the famous master Xuan Zang (Monk Tripitaka). Xuan Zang was both a great translator and traveler of Tang Dynasty. In 627 A.D, when he was 28 years old, he went alone to India to study Buddhist Scriptures. Seventeen years later he returned to Chang’an with 657 volumes of Buddhist Scriptures. In 652 A.D. Xuan Zang made a proposal to the court for a pagoda to store the scriptures and statues he had brought back from India. Then the world famous Big Wild Goose Pagoda was finished in 652 A.D.

 

The original five-storey pagoda is 60 meters high. It collapsed not long after it was built, which led to the construction of a new ten-storey pagoda from 701 to 704. However, the winds of war in the years to come reduced the pagoda almost to ruins, which in turn resulted in the construction of a 7-stored, 64-meter-high structure today. The storied pagoda was an architectural marvel. It was built with layers of bricks but without any cement in between. The bracket style in traditional Chinese architecture was also used in the construction of the pagoda. The seams between each layer of bricks and the “prisms” on each side of the pagoda are clearly visible. The grand body of the pagoda with its solemn appearance, simple style and high structure, is indeed a good example of Chinese traditional architecture.

 

There is an interesting story about the name of the pagoda. It is said that Master Xuan Zang once stayed in a Mahayana temple in India. In fact, there are two major sects of Buddhism in India, the Mahayana and the Hinayana. The Mahayana believers are vegetarians while those of the Hinayana are non-vegetarians. Near the temple where he stayed, there was a Hinayana temple. One day, a monk was just worried about the shortage of meat in the temple. But it happened to be the General Alms Day of the Buddha, another monk looked up at the sky and sighed, “Our beloved Buddha, the Great and Merciful, will not forget what day it is today!” At these words, a flock of wild geese flew over the temple. The head goose dropped dead to the ground. The monks were all puzzled by this, and they concluded that this must be the result of the Buddha’s spirit at work: to provide them with the wild goose. Ever since then, the monks of the temple became vegetarians and began to believe in Mahayana Buddhism. They also set up a pagoda where the wild goose dropped dead, and called it the Wild Goose Pagoda. The Wild Goose Pagoda that greets us today was acturally modeled after its Indian prototype. It was given the same name in memory of Xuan Zang and in praise of Buddhism. After about half a century, the pagoda at the Jianfu Temple was built. The two pagodas face each other over a distance, but assume different styles. Since the one in the Jianfu Temple is smaller than the Wild Goose Pagoda, it is often called the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

 

Xuan Zang was both a great translator and traveler. At the age of 28 in 628 A.D., he went to study Buddhism in India. He spent 17 years doing research into Buddhism in various places. Later in spite of many hardships, he covered a distance of 50,000 kilometers and returned to Chang’an in 645 A.D. with 657 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. His “Travels in the Western Regions” was based on what he had witnessed in about 128 countries and regions. He recorded their geographic locations and customs. His works provide an important source of information for the study of the history and geography of these regions. Wu Cheng’en, famous novelist of the Ming Dynasty, wrote a novel against Xuan Zang’s experience in his search of the Buddhist truth. The book is one of the four most famous novels in the history of Chinese literature. Xuan Zang translated one of the Chinese Classic “Lao Zi” into Sanskrit and introduced it to India. He was indeed a great contributor to the Buddhist cultural exchanges between India and China in ancient times.

 

On the day when he moved into the temple, the imperial court held a ceremony of unprecedented grandeur for him. The procession consisted of 1,500 decorated chariots. On the same day, all the monks from the capital followed the procession, holding bunches of flowers and incense burners in their hands, and reciting passages from Buddhist scriptures. Civil and military officials and the Emperor’s bodyguards also followed the master into the procession. Even the Emperor and his whole royal family stood on the city gate tower, burnt incense sticks, and respectfully watched the procession. Later, the Emperor selected hundreds of renowned scholars and Buddhist monks to help Xuan Zang in his endeavor to translate the Buddhist scriptures that he had brought back from India.

 

Xuan Zang stayed in the temple for 12 years and translated 1,335 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. In praise of the Master’s dedication to Buddhism, Emperor Tai Zong wrote “An Introduction to the Sacred Teaching of Monk Tripitaka of the Great Tang Dynasty”, followed by Crown Prince Li Zhi’s “Notes on the Introduction to the Sacred Teachings of Monk Tripitaka of the Great Tang Dynasty”. Chu Suiliang, a famous calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, inscribed the two texts on the stone tablets on both sides of the south gate to the ground floor of the pagoda.

 

 

How to get there: The Large Wild Goose Pagoda is in the south of the city. To get there take bus No.41 from the train station.

Opening hours: 8:00-16:00

Admission: RMB10