Hualin Temple

怀安越山吉祥禅院，乾元寺之东北，无诸旧城处也。晋太康三年，既迁新城，其地遂虚。隋、唐间，以越王故，禁樵采。钱氏十八年，其臣鲍修让为郡守，遂诛秽夷巇为佛庙，乾德二年也。御书绍兴六年，张丞相浚奉安。御书裴度传。环峰亭，绝学寮胜会亭，旧产钱三贯四十三文。

The Yueshan Jixiang Chan Cloister of Huai’an lies northeast of the Qianyuan Temple, at the site of the old city of Wuzhu. In the third year of the Taikang era of the Jin, once [the county] had moved to the new city, the ground lay empty. Between the Sui and the Tang, on account of the King of Yue, firewood cutting was forbidden. In the eighteenth year of the Qian house, its minister Bao Xiurang served as commandery governor and thereupon cut down the weeds and leveled the crags to make a Buddhist temple; this was the second year of the Qiande era. An imperial inscription of the sixth year of the Shaoxing era was respectfully installed by Chancellor Zhang Jun—an imperial transcription of the Biography of Pei Du. The Huanfeng Pavilion, the Juexue Lodge, and the Shenghui Pavilion; its former endowment was three strings and forty-three cash.

华林寺在左一坊，旧名越山吉祥禅院。闽都记：在乾元寺东北无诸旧城处。晋太康间，既迁新城，其地遂虚。隋、唐间以越王故，禁樵采。钱氏十八年，其臣鲍修让为郡守，诛秽夷巇，始创寺。西廊有转轮经藏，今圯。东廊有文昌祠、普陀岩。正殿之后为法堂、法堂西祖师殿，以越王山为斧扆。正德间赐额。国朝顺治初修。康熙七年重修。今寺僧散，改为普济堂。

Hualin Temple is in the Zuoyi Ward; its old name was the Yueshan Jixiang Chan Cloister. The Mindu Ji says: it lies northeast of the Qianyuan Temple, at the old city of Wuzhu. During the Taikang era of the Jin, once [the county] had moved to the new city, the ground lay empty. Between the Sui and the Tang, on account of the King of Yue, firewood cutting was forbidden. In the eighteenth year of the Qian house, its minister Bao Xiurang served as commandery governor; cutting down the weeds and leveling the crags, he first founded the temple. The west gallery held a revolving scripture repository, now collapsed. The east gallery held the Wenchang Shrine and the Putuo Crag. Behind the main hall was the Dharma Hall, and west of the Dharma Hall the Patriarchs’ Hall, which took Mount Yuewang as its screen. A name-plaque was bestowed during the Zhengde era. Under the present dynasty it was repaired early in the Shunzhi era and again in the seventh year of the Kangxi era. Today the temple’s monks have scattered, and it has been converted into a Puji Hall (Hall of Universal Relief).

省龙自北而来，越王山为之顶，而华林寺其臂也。金佛殿虽寺中之一体，而枕此臂为甚固。余乐其风气磅礴，松林郁苍，每携客来游，欲结茅而居焉。乃其住持之僧与余兄弟相处，又更四世三十余年之久，至则如家焉，而忘其主宾也。余三山多所缘事而不克竣，其住持亦不与余言本山之缘，今年因少间而有请也。夫以省龙之臂，理宜兴隆，广作佛事，以褆福于全闽者。主僧有相知之素，而又乐善好客，余以此为搜裘焉。是一举而众善备，故不辞而为之疏。

The dragon of the province comes from the north; Mount Yuewang is its crown, and Hualin Temple is its arm. Though the Golden Buddha Hall is but one member of the temple, it pillows upon this arm most firmly. I delight in the surging vigor of its airs and the deep verdure of its pine forest; each time I bring guests to wander here, I wish to thatch a hut and dwell among them. Moreover, its abbot monks have treated me as a brother, and this through four generations and more than thirty years; when I arrive, it is as if I had come home, and the roles of host and guest are forgotten. In the Three Mountains I have many karmic undertakings that I have been unable to bring to completion, and the abbot likewise never spoke to me of the mountain’s causes; this year, taking advantage of a brief leisure, he made his request. Being the arm of the provincial dragon, it is fitting that it should prosper and broadly perform the Buddha’s works, so as to bring blessing upon all of Fujian. The abbot monk has long been a true friend, and moreover he delights in good deeds and welcomes guests; I therefore took this up as my gathering of furs for the robe. In this single act every good is made complete; therefore I did not decline and composed this appeal on his behalf.

佛浮屠之宫，闽中特盛，会城三山以数百十计。然唐宗古刹至今仅有存者，或存而上雨旁风，倾覆是惧；而越山华林寺独岿然。寺旧为吉祥禅院，钱氏有闽，郡守鲍修让创焉，明正德赐额今名，顺治初年、康熙七年两修之。月异岁迁，今改将半。乾隆初，有住持本馥者，重葺坏坠，椽角一新。三传为今主僧牧庵，虑梵宇之就颓也，出橐中金庀工建廊庑，且求诸施者修大殿暨天王殿，治僧寮，饰佛像，巩固巨丽，而寺遂还旧观。以余闻，前志所载，寺之遗规，西廊有转轮、经藏，东廊有文昌祠、普陀岩，正殿之后为法堂，法堂西为祖殿。其环诡殊绝、材美匠能者，久已荡为榛芜，不可复观矣。而牧庵独能绍述先师之绪，不吝己力，积岁经营，杰构崔嵬，精庐幽敞，课佛弟子，斋鱼粥鼓，为南中祝圣道场，不其盛欤！工兴于嘉庆二十三年四月，至今夏竣事。牧庵欲余为文刊石以志之。牧庵，名增辉，福州王氏子，曹洞鼓山永觉禅师九世孙也。道光六年六月。

The palaces of the Buddha flourish especially in Fujian; in the Three Mountains of the provincial capital they are numbered in the hundreds and tens. Yet of the ancient monasteries of the Tang lineage barely any survive to this day, and those that do are rained upon from above and blown against from the side, in constant fear of collapse—while the Yueshan Hualin Temple alone stands towering and secure. The temple was formerly the Jixiang Chan Cloister; when the Qian house possessed Fujian, the commandery governor Bao Xiurang founded it. In the Zhengde era of the Ming it was granted its present name-plaque, and it was twice repaired, in the early years of the Shunzhi era and in the seventh year of the Kangxi era. As the months change and the years move on, it has now altered by half. Early in the Qianlong era there was an abbot named Benfu, who re-roofed what was broken and fallen, making every rafter and eave-corner new. Three transmissions later came the present abbot monk, Mu’an. Troubled that the Brahma-halls were nearing ruin, he drew gold from his own purse, mustered workmen, and built the side galleries, and moreover sought from the donors the means to repair the main hall and the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, to set the monks’ quarters in order, and to adorn the images of the Buddha, until the buildings stood solid and grandly beautiful and the temple had returned to its former appearance. From what I have heard, the former gazetteers record that among the temple’s surviving layout, the west gallery held the revolving repository and the scripture store, and the east gallery held the Wenchang Shrine and the Putuo Crag; behind the main hall was the Dharma Hall, and west of the Dharma Hall was the Patriarchs’ Hall. Those works of surpassing strangeness and wonder, of fine material and able craftsmanship, have long since been swept away into thorns and undergrowth, and can be beheld no more. Yet Mu’an alone has been able to carry on the thread of his former masters; unsparing of his own strength, he labored at the task through the years, until heroic structures tower aloft and pure cells stand tranquil and spacious; he instructs the Buddha’s disciples amid the wooden fish and the porridge drum, making the temple a southern sanctuary for prayers on behalf of the sovereign—is this not magnificent! The work began in the fourth month of the twenty-third year of the Jiaqing era and was completed this summer. Mu’an asked me to compose a text to be cut in stone to record it. Mu’an, whose name is Zenghui, is a son of the Wang family of Fuzhou, a ninth-generation descendant of Chan Master Yongjue of Mount Gu in the Caodong lineage. Sixth month of the sixth year of the Daoguang era.