Chengxin Temple is located on the west side of Shibaoshan at the southern foot of Hengshan Mountain. Its predecessor was Yinju Courtyard. It is famous because Tao Hongjing, the ‘prime minister in the mountains’ between the Qi and Liang dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, lived in seclusion here. Chengxin Temple was built on the former site of Tao Hongjing’s reading hall. There are many relics related to Tao Hongjing here. Among them, Tao Hongjing’s alchemy site ‘Dan stove and cold smoke’ is one of the eight scenic spots in Gushu. In the Song Dynasty, there were no successors to the Taoism practitioners on Hengshan Mountain. However, Buddhism quietly flourished here. The courtyard was replaced and the famous mountain changed owners. In the eighth year of Jiayou in the Song Dynasty, the ‘deserted site for reading’ had become the residence of Buddhists. Tao Hongjing’s ‘Dan stove’, ‘five wells’, and ‘White Moon Pool’ were all given the magical function of calming the mind by Buddhist monks, so it was renamed Chengxin Courtyard. It was named Chengxin Temple during the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty. Until the Qing Dynasty, it was still one of the seventeen major temples in the county. Chengxin Temple was destroyed during the ‘Cultural Revolution’ and has been rebuilt by private fundraising in recent years.
Chengxin Temple
Chengxin Temple is located on the west side of Shibaoshan at the southern foot of Hengshan Mountain.[...]
