Jianji Temple Site简寂观遗址
- Type
- Burial site
- Location
- China · Jiangxi · Mount Lu, Jiujiang · Below Jinji Peak on the southern slope of Mount Lu (within present-day Lushan City)
- Coordinates
- 29.51, 115.97 Map ↗
- School
- Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School
- First built
- Southern Song (Liu Song), fifth year of Daming (461) · Site of Lu Xiujing's hermitage; repeatedly restored in the Tang and Song, gradually fell into ruin from the Yuan onward
- Heritage status
- Within the World Heritage boundary of Mount LuJiangxi Provincial heritage protection
Overview
Jianji Temple was the hermitage of the Southern Dynasties Daoist reformer Lu Xiujing on Mount Lu. In the fifth year of Daming of the Liu Song (461), Lu Xiujing built a temple below Jinji Peak on Mount Lu, where he lectured on the scriptures, taught disciples, and collated the classics of the Three Caverns. In the third year of Taishi (467) he answered a summons from Emperor Ming of Liu Song and went to Jiankang; after his death he was given the posthumous title "Master Jianji," from which the temple takes its name. The Tang scholar Li Bo and the Song philosopher Zhu Xi, among others, are recorded as having visited the site. The temple once contained a pine planted by Lu Xiujing's own hand, an elixir-refining well, and an herb-washing pool; it was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt after the Song, fell into disuse from the Yuan and Ming onward, and today only its platform foundations, stone carvings, and later memorial steles survive. Jianji Temple is a key site in the history of the formation of the Daoist scriptural canon, and an important reference point for the study of the Celestial Masters tradition and the systematization of the Lingbao scriptures in the Southern Dynasties.
Highlights
- Site of Lu Xiujing's Hermitage
- Site Where the Catalogue of the Scriptures of the Three Caverns Was Compiled
- Ruins and Steles