Ep. 090: Shanghai's Temple of the Dragon Flower

A visit to Longhua Temple and its resplendant pagoda

From the tiny jewel of Chenxiang Ge--the "Incense Pavilion" near Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden and City God district--I took a single bus south to Longhua Temple, the largest ancient Buddhist temple in Shanghai. Come visit it with me in this episode of--

TEMPLE TALES!

Shanghai's Longhua Pagoda, the only ancient pagoda in the city

Longhua Temple dates, according to legend, to the year 242 in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 CE). That legend says that Sun Quan (182-252), king of Wu (one of those three kingdoms, which occupied the area in which Shanghai is now situated) had gotten his hands on some of the relics of the Buddha, like those we discussed in Episode 084. He decreed the construction of thirteen pagodas to house these precious objects, and the pagoda standing in front of Longhua Temple was one of them.

Another story also attributes the pagoda to Sun Quan, but for a different reason: He built it, they say, to demonstrate filial piety toward his mother. Thus, it is called the Bao'en ("Repaying Kindness") Pagoda.

Never mind that the oldest known parts of the pagoda date from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) at the earliest. One likely story is that the temple and some pagoda really were there from early days but, as almost always happens, were completely destroyed. The temple as we know it was first built on or near the old site in the Song Dynasty. (I have been to places where temples rose whole and complete out of bare earth and claimed to be "restorations" of former institutions. This may be like that, but nevertheless smelling of antiquity.)