The Xishan Dajue Temple's Spring Runs
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BEIJING WATER ORAL HISTORY SERIES MY HOME AND WATER: A PEOPLE’S ACCOUNT The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry By An He and Wang Jian Translation by Madeleine Ross and Fang Li Below is the tenth in a series of oral histories about Beijing water, as told to An He and Wang Jian by Guan Zhanxiu, a forestry specialist at the Xishan Dajue Temple (Great Awakening Temple, or Temple of Enlightenment) in Beijing’s Haidian district. GUAN ZHANXIU (MALE, 48 YEARS OLD) tribute to the springs. In the Liao Period, a philanthropist by the name of Deng paid to have ou’ve probably heard of the “Three the temple reconstructed, and a stone tablet hundred temples in the Western Hills.” Of was placed on the east side of the pool in the Ythese 300, one is the “Enormous Buddhist courtyard. This is the ancient stone tablet you Temple.” It is also known as ‘one of Emperor have just seen, sitting northwest of the Dabei Jinzhang’s eight temples in the Western Hills.’ Hall. It dates from the Liao Dynasty and is This temple – the Great Awakening Dajue engraved with four characters, ‘Da Jue Chan Si’ Temple – is the subject of our discussion.1 (Great Enlightenment Buddhist Temple), so the name Dajue Temple was settled upon thereafter. One gets the feeling there is something unusual It is also said that the stone tablet was erected by about this temple, and there is – the front faces order of the Emperor Daozong and Empress Xiao east and its back is turned to the west. It was built in the Wushen year (45th year) of the sixty-year this way by the Khitans in the fourth year of the cycle (in 1068 AD). reign of Xianyong (1068 AD) during the Liao Dynasty (916-1125 AD). The temple’s orientation In earlier times the temple took its name from reflects the Khitan custom of worshipping the the water close by. The whole of the ancient rising sun in the east. temple complex rests on granite, which is very strong, hard and unable to hold water. When it was first named, there were two crystal Fortunately however, a creviced limestone clear springs inside the temple, one flowing in mountain enclosing the temple’s back allowed from the south and one from the north. These water to seep through. The water gathered into inspired the temple’s name – Qingshui Yuan or little streams that flowed crystal clear down to Clear Water Garden. During the Jin Dynasty the granite on which the temple was built. It was (1115-1234 AD) it was renamed Lingquan said that the temple had two advantages: one, Temple (Magic Spring Temple), again, in that it had a solid granite foundation and, two that it was placed adjacent to limestone and had access to water. 1 There are 300 temples in the Western Hills, eight of which are big and well known. The The formal name for the Dajue Temple is Dajue Temple is one of these eight. The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010 the ‘Dajue Buddhist Temple built by Imperial Dragon Pool or Dragon King Pool, behind the Decree,’ a name which tells us three things. First, temple. Then it was drawn out on both sides “imperial decree” means it was built by order of the central axis, splitting into northern and of the Emperor, with national funding and in southern branches that flowed through the compliance with a national plan. Second, “Dajue” entire temple. There were many courtyards in was its original name, chosen after the Ming the temple – they all had spring water flowing Dynasty reconstruction. And third, Buddhist through them. The two branches eventually Temple (chansi) means it was a place where the met in the Merit and Virtue Pool in front of the emperor made sacrificial offerings to Heaven temple. An overflow spout allowed water to flow and Earth, and not a site where ordinary Chan out of the pool when it was full. Buddhist rites were performed, in which case it would have used the usual meaning of the word Twenty years ago, the northern branch inside Chan Buddhism (chanzong). the temple still had water in it, but the southern branch stopped flowing before 1912, when the Looking at historical documents we can see that Republic of China was established. In recent the Dajue Temple used to enjoy a lot of water. years the southern branch has been restored to Photos taken by a German envoy in the 1930s, look like it did in the past when water flowed show a free-flowing small waterfall built into an through it. But now it can only be considered an artificial hill made of stones. But the amount of artificial landscape. water has gradually diminished. The weather in Beijing has been quite dry since 1949. There is a saying that water is as high as the mountain – meaning that there are springs Do you remember the chant that goes like this? on the mountain that provide surface water.3 Now, the temple relies on water replenished We’ve been liberated, from deep wells,4 but before that, all the water The communist party is here, at the Dajue Temple was surface water from There are no spirits where there used to be2 mountain springs. This fresh surface water There’s no water where there used to be. is created when rain falls onto the vegetation covering the mountain, and then soaks into the Water in the Dajue Temple flowed for a thousand years, as far back as records are kept, but in the last fifty years there has been a significant decrease. Water in the Dajue Temple flowed for a thousand years, as far back as records are kept, but in 3 The narrator means that springs could be the last fifty years there has been a significant considered a form of “surface water,” i.e. water in decrease. Spring water from the mountain first a river or lake. accumulated in a small square pool called the 4 The narrator is drawing a distinction from the spring water or surface water by saying 2 Meaning, the kinds of religious that the temple must now pump its water from activities where people go into trances and sing “groundwater” supplies through wells because incantations. the springs have dried up. 2 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010 ground, permeating the rock layers. Later on it a typical meal, feels “distinctly” hungry before dribbles out of tiny crevices in the rock and flows the next meal, it means that selenium has had a naturally downward. People at the Water Bureau beneficial effect on digestion. have told me that what we drink now from the When we promote our tea and call it ‘Dajue well is crevice water that has seeped into the rock Culture,’ water is one of the most important layers formed deep below the surface during the factors. Along with the Minghui Tea House in the Cretaceous period. It is pumped from wells a Dajue Temple, which has become fashionable in thousand meters deep. Some think that, provided modern times, a traditional Buddhist tea service there is enough rainwater, the groundwater we is also served in the temple. With Buddhist tea, have extracted will be able to replenish itself, the tealeaves have an added Buddhist element: but this simply demonstrates a lack of general the tea has been consecrated. Drinking this knowledge. It doesn’t matter how much it rains, kind of tea is seen as an enlightenment practice. the water table level in the deep layers of rock Water is the priority but the leaves must also won’t rise for quite sometime – unless the water be consecrated. Vulgar speech is not permitted pours straight in.5 while drinking and it is wisest to discuss philosophy, life, or Buddhist practices. Drinking The water in the Dajue Temple was clean Buddhist tea is different to drinking black, green and sweet because the rain fell on the dense or flower teas – it can’t be summed up in a few vegetation on the mountain behind the temple words. We have just made a batch of Pu’er tea, and this surface water was constantly filtered called Dajue Buddhist Tea. Though I have to be as it percolated through the rock. The temple’s honest, this batch wasn’t consecrated at the Dajue tea gardens, known as ‘Dajue Tea Culture,’ Temple because there weren’t any monks there. had already gained a modest reputation, but It was done at the Tanzhe Temple. the key to this tea culture was the water. The spring water was tested in the 1990s and found Water has its own culture. The different to contain three elements, one of which was cultures of the north and the south are linked Water has its own culture. The different cultures of the north and the south are linked to differences in their water. selenium. The effect of drinking this water was to differences in their water. The character of not immediate but would be felt twenty-four northerners is like the northern river. The Yellow hours later. If you stayed at the Dajue Temple river, with all its sand, is surging and turbulent, and drank the spring water, by about four or carrying the good with the bad, changing course five o’ clock in the afternoon the following day without following any rules. Don’t you think – before it was time for the evening meal – you that is just like the rough and straightforward would already be hungry.