Xi Zhuan Hutong: home of ancient temples
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Ancient Fa Yuan Temple
Fa Yuan Temple sits at the South gate of the hutong. This landmark was the royal temple for thousands of years until the end of the Qing Dynasty, when it was opened to the public for visitation and worship. Nowadays, many residents gather outside its red gates to play chess and chat, but the inside of the temple is a world of serenity.
Fa Yuan includes several temples within: Tian Wang Temple, Bao Temple, Min Zhong Temple (the temple of praying to Buddha) and Cang Jing Pavilion, a place for Sutra collection.
In its long history, the temple witnessed many catastrophes and had to be reconstructed during both the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as well as due to a fire during the Tang Dynasty. But the most deadly damage came during the Cultural Revolution. The survival of its six steles and a 2,000-year-old locust tree is something of a miracle, and in spite of all the rebuilding, the main structure of Fa Yuan Temple has maintained the same layout since the Qing era.
Emperor Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty established this temple in 645 AD under the name Min Zhong to commemorate soldiers who died conquering Korea. Construction did not finish until 696. In 1733, emperor Yong Zheng of the Qing Dynasty ordered the reconstruction of the temple and gave it the new name Fa Yuan, or "the source of Buddhism".
For a time, the temple was used for coffin storage before burial. In 1898, the revolutionary mentor and sponsor of the Wu Xu reform movement (a failed hundred day rebellion initiated by emperor Guang Xu), Tan Sitong, was sentenced to death, and his coffin was kept here.
This is also the place where, according to legend, emperor Shun Zhi planned to become a monk. He was so distraught over the death of his favorite concubine that he shaved his hair, but later he relented and instead sent a eunuch to become a monk on his behalf, alongside an altar inside the temple to mourn for his beloved woman.
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