【Introduction】—【Jingang Hall】—【Hall of Heavenly King】—【The Courtyard】—【Sakyamuni Hall】—【Scripture House】—【Pavilion of the God Earth】—【Kwan-yin Pavilion】 【Introduction】 Kaiyuan Temple is located on Kaiyuan Road ,Chaozhou city .It is recorded that Kaiyuan Temple are formerly called Lifeng Temple ,constructed during Sui and Tang dynasties .In the 26th year of Kaiyuan , Tang dynasty (738 A. D.) ,to celebrate his birthday ,emperor Xuanzong ordered that each of the 81states and counties in the country should choose a big temple to be named after his reign title ,Kaiyuan ,so Lifeng Temple in Chaozhou was renamed Kaiyuan Temple. Kaiyuan temple is a quadrangle in palace style, currently covering an area of 17,000 square meters .as one of the four most famous temples in Guangzhou province and the largest of its kind in east Guangdong reign, Kaiyuan temple was listed as the sky cultural relic protection units by the state council in July, 2001. The main construction of Kaiyuan temple is laid out along the axis line. There are from south to north the Jingang(Saroyan) hall ,hall of heavenly king, Daxiong Bao Dian (mahavira hall) and scripture house .To the east and west of the axis line lie the pavilion of guardian deity of children (ksitigarbha) and kwan-yin pavilion respectively . 【Jingang Hall】 Jingang Hall was built in Ming dynasty .There are tow Jingangs in the hall and they are it’s guardian spirits .They called as “Heng” and “Ha” generals by the folk. One of them is Miji (traceless) Jingang .According to legend, Sakyamuni used to have an armed escort of 500 Jingangs when he went out to preach, and Miji Jingang served as the captain of the guard .Opposite of Miji Jingang is Naroyan, he is said to be the most powerful spirit in ancient India .The jingang statues in Kaiyuan temple are all sitting up with months shut and Jing gang rings in hands. 【Hall of Heavenly King】 Built in Song Dynasty, the Hall of Heavenly King in the only existing Xieshan -styled-roof structure left over from the Song Dynasty and so is highly valued in architecture. This hall has three characteristics: Firstly, there are 32 pillars, all wood-stone combined, with wood of the upper part and stone of the lower end. The pillars in the front are somewhat different from those in the back. Secondly, there is no pillars at all in both the east and west gables, only brick walls to support the housetop. This is different from the traditional way of using pillars to bear the weight. Thirdly, there is a cascade of arches on the upper pillars to join the roof. Looked from below, the arches seem blooming lotus flowers; hence they’ve got the name of “Lotus Torus” among the folk. Inside the Hall of Heavenly King, there’s a tablet plaque in the upper middle with characters: “Kaiyuan Country Pacifying Buddhist Temple”. And the two characters” Country Pacifying” cannot be freely used if without the permission by the court. Maitreya Buddha is in the middle of the Hall. He is said by Buddhist sutra to be the aftertime Buddha, the successor of now time Buddha Sakyamuni. The statue here is his incarnation characterized by his big belly, i.e. the “Big Belly Maitreya”. On the east and west sides are the four Heavenly Kings. The sculptures here differs from those in other temples: they all sit square, without one leg lift up as they generally do in other temples, because this is a “Country Pacifying Buddhist Temple”. Behind Maitreya Buddha is Weiyou Bodhisattva facing Daxiong Bao Dian （Mahavira Hall）. It is said that each of the four Heavenly Kings has eight generals; Weituo is the most important one for his protection of Buddhism among the thirty-two and receives the decrees from the Buddha directly. 【The Countyard】 To the north of the Hall of Heavenly King is a courtyard, this is, the open area in front of Daxiong Bao Dian (Mahavia Hall). On the south of the courtyard are two bo-dhi trees. Bo-dhi tree is also called tree of wisdom, since bo-dhi means wisdom in Sanskirt. Legend has it was just under the bo-dhi tree that Sakyamuni attained his great awakening after practicing meditation for 7 days and nights, and became Buddha. On the west and east sides are 4 quadrate stone pagodas in Asoka style. On the north side of the courtyard are 2 stone sutra pillars. They have been proved to be the original in Tang Dynasty when the temple was founded and also the oldest stone sculpture in Chaozhou. 【Sakyamuni Hall】 To the north of the courtyard lies the kernel structure-Daxiong Bao Dian (Sakyamuni Hall). It was rebuilt in Guangxu reign period, Qing Dynasty. In the middle of the Daxiong Bao Dian is the statue of Sakyamuni, founder of Buddhism. We Chinese also call him Rulai Buddha. On the east side of Sakyamuni is apothecary Buddha. It is said that people can eliminate their personal misfortune and illness if they piously recite his Buddhist name over and over again. On the west side is Amitabha, the hierarch of the Pure Land in the west. Most Buddhists in China hope to have their afterlife in the Pure Land. On the west and east sides of the Daxiong Bao Dian are the 18 arhats. According to sutra, they will never have their afterlife and remain in the earthly world to preach for the Buddha. 【Scripture House】 To the north of Daxiong Bao Dian is the Scripture House, keeping a lot of cultural relics of the temple collected for more that 1000 years. Among then the most precious is Dazangjing (Tripitaka) specially given to Kaiyuan Temple by Qianlong emperor? It is an edition of the 13th year of Yongzheng reign period, Qing Dynasty (1753A. D.). There are total 7246 volumes for each of the 10 sets of Dazangjing (Tripitaka) printed in four languages: Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian and granted to 10 big temples nationwide. The importance of Kaiyuan Temple in China’s Buddhist temples is obvious for the fact that it is one of the temples to have the storage of Dazangjing (Tripitaka). 【Pavilion of the God Earth】 Here enshrined in this hall are the God of Earth and the ten Yamas who are said to be the rulers of the Hell. The one sitting in the middle is the God of Earth .Legend has it that, in order to rescue his mother from the Hell, he had made a vow that he would not become a Buddha until all people are saved from the Hell. On both sides are the 10 Yamas. 【Kwan-yin Pavilion】 Here is the stature of Kwan-yin, the Goddess of Mercy. In this miserable earthly world, Kwan-yin is widely respected and has a large number of believers. From the stature here we can see Kwan-yin is a woman, kind and se-date, just like the image in other places of China. On both sides of the pavilion are 18 different statures of Kwan-yin. That in a Kwan-yin Pavilion her 18 different statues are on shrine is, perhaps, no- where but Kaiyuan. This is another why Kaiyuan Temple is different from others.