Kaifu Temple

Kaifu Si (Kaifu Temple) outside of the Northern City Gate of Changsha was first built in 927, or the second year of the Tiancheng reign of Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty. It was rebuilt during the Jiayou reign (1059-1063) of the Song Dynasty, and rebuilt twice during the Ming Dynasty, only to be destroyed in war towards the end of that dynasty. Reconstruction was done twice more in the Qing Dynasty, in 1660 (17th year of the Shunzhi reign) and 1669 (8th year of the Kangxi reign), but the temple was burned down in a major fire and rebuilt again in 1772 (37th year of the Qianlong reign, Qing Dynasty). Major repairs and restoration were done in 1887 (13th year of the Guangxu reign, Qing Dynasty), but it was burned down once again in 1920, or the ninth year of the Republic, and was restored later with donations from two monks Huixiu and Baosheng. The buildings of the temple, constructed in the 1920s, look rather imposing today.

A stone archway rises in front of the gate hall, and along the axial line are the three major halls – the Maitreya Hall, the Mahavira Hall, and the Vairocana Hall – which are flanked to the east by guest rooms, the dining hall, the monks’ dormitories, and the abbot’s residence, and to the west by the preaching hall, the meditation hall, and the incantation chamber. The entire layout is neat and well conceived, with the courtyards linked by corridors and fronted by porticos. In front of the temple is a pond, known in old times as “Blue Wave Lake,” into which captive aquatic animals are released to freedom. The surroundings used to be a beautiful garden, now under reconstruction.