Chapter 1A

Guangxiao Temple is the earliest and most intact Buddhist temple in the Lingnan area. According to lore: "Guanaxiao Temple existed even before the city." During the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), Yu Fan, cavalry commandant of the Dongwu Kingdom, resided, lectured and planted Sterculia and Haritaki trees on this site, it was therefore called " Haritaki Woods". Later. it was transformed and renamed
as Zhizhi lemple and again Faxing lemple during the lang Dynasty and many other names before it was eventually called "Guangxiao Temple (Bright Filial Temple during the Southern Song Dynasty, which is still in use today. Guangxiao temple is an important Buddhist sanctuary where eminent Buddhist monks from home and abroad including Dharmayasas, Gunabhadra Sanzana, Dharma, the 6th pa
triarch Huineng and Yiling once resided, preached and translated sutras, a witness of cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. It hosts a collection of historical relics such as the Bowl Wash Sprina, the Bodhi Tree, the Pen Grant Pavilion. the Southern Han Iron lowers, Yifa Pagoda and others. In 1961, it was listed in the hrst batch of national key cultural relics protection sites, and is now included on the Preliminary List of China's World Cultural Heritage Sites as a heritage site of Maritime Silk Road (China Section).Read more