대명사

Daming Temple is one of Yangzhou's most historically significant Buddhist temples, perched on the central peak of Shugang hill in the northwest corner of the city near Slender West Lake. The temple's name comes from the Daming reign era of the Liu Song dynasty in the mid-fifth century CE, when it was first founded, and although the structures visible today date largely from a Qing-dynasty rebuilding, the site's importance reaches back more than fifteen hundred years.

The temple is best known for its association with Jianzhen (Ganjin), the Tang-dynasty monk who lived and taught here before undertaking his famous series of voyages to Japan. Jianzhen's efforts to reach Japan, ultimately successful only on his sixth attempt and after he had lost his sight, were instrumental in transmitting Chinese Buddhism, architecture, medicine, and culture to the Japanese court in the Nara period, and he is still honored on both sides of that history. A memorial hall within the complex, built in the twentieth century in deliberate imitation of Toshodai-ji, the temple Jianzhen founded in Nara, houses a seated statue of the monk modeled on the famous portrait sculpture at Toshodai-ji, and a stone lantern in its courtyard stands as a pair to one in Nara, a small but meaningful symbol of that enduring exchange.

The temple complex is organized into three broad sections. The central core follows the traditional Buddhist axis, with the gate, the main hall, and associated shrine rooms laid out from south to north, while the eastern section is crowned by the Qiling Pagoda, a tall nine-story structure rebuilt to Sui-dynasty proportions that offers sweeping views over the temple grounds, Slender West Lake, and the wider city from its upper levels. The western section is a garden-style rear compound known as the West Garden, a quieter area of ponds, rockeries, and pavilions associated with the Qianlong Emperor's southern tours, and it is here that the so-called "Fifth Spring Under Heaven," an ancient well ranked among the finest tea-brewing waters in Chinese tradition, can be found.

A full walk through all three sections typically takes about two hours, and the Qiling Pagoda climb is worth the extra effort on a clear day. Because Daming Temple sits immediately adjacent to Slender West Lake, most visitors pair the two on a single morning or afternoon, rounding out a classic Yangzhou itinerary.