The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry

8/9/2019 The Xishan Dajue Temples Spring Runs Dry

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Below is the tenth in a series of oral histories about Beijing water, as told to An He and Wang Jian byGuan Zhanxiu, a forestry specialist at the Xishan Dajue Temple (Great Awakening Temple, or Templeof Enlightenment) in Beijings Haidian district.

MY HOME AND WATER: A PEOPLES ACCOUNT

GUAN ZHANXIU (MALE, 48 YEARS OLD)

Youve probably heard of the Threehundred temples in the Western Hills. Ofthese 300, one is the Enormous Buddhist

Temple. It is also known as one of EmperorJinzhangs eight temples in the Western Hills.This temple the Great Awakening Dajue

Temple is the subject of our discussion.1

One gets the feeling there is something unusualabout this temple, and there is the front faceseast and its back is turned to the west. It was builtthis way by the Khitans in the fourth year of thereign of Xianyong (1068 AD) during the LiaoDynasty (916-1125 AD). The temples orientationreflects the Khitan custom of worshipping therising sun in the east.

When it was first named, there were two crystalclear springs inside the temple, one flowing infrom the south and one from the north. Theseinspired the temples name Qingshui Yuan orClear Water Garden. During the Jin Dynasty(1115-1234 AD) it was renamed LingquanTemple (Magic Spring Temple), again, in

1 There are 300 temples in the WesternHills, eight of which are big and well known. TheDajue Temple is one of these eight.

The Xishan Dajue

Temples Spring Runs Dry

tribute to the springs. In the Liao Period, aphilanthropist by the name of Deng paid to havethe temple reconstructed, and a stone tabletwas placed on the east side of the pool in thecourtyard. This is the ancient stone tablet youhave just seen, sitting northwest of the DabeiHall. It dates from the Liao Dynasty and isengraved with four characters, Da Jue Chan Si

(Great Enlightenment Buddhist Temple), so thename Dajue Temple was settled upon thereafter.It is also said that the stone tablet was erected byorder of the Emperor Daozong and Empress Xiaoin the Wushen year (45th year) of the sixty-yearcycle (in 1068 AD).In earlier times the temple took its name fromthe water close by. The whole of the ancienttemple complex rests on granite, which isvery strong, hard and unable to hold water.

Fortunately however, a creviced limestonemountain enclosing the temples back allowedwater to seep through. The water gathered intolittle streams that flowed crystal clear down tothe granite on which the temple was built. It wassaid that the temple had two advantages: one,that it had a solid granite foundation and, twothat it was placed adjacent to limestone and hadaccess to water.

The formal name for the Dajue Temple is

Translation by Madeleine Ross and Fang Li

By An He and Wang Jian

BEIJING WATER ORAL HISTORY SERIES


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The Xishan Dajue Temples Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

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the Dajue Buddhist Temple built by ImperialDecree, a name which tells us three things. First,imperial decree means it was built by orderof the Emperor, with national funding and incompliance with a national plan. Second, Dajuewas its original name, chosen after the MingDynasty reconstruction. And third, BuddhistTemple (chansi) means it was a place where theemperor made sacrificial offerings to Heavenand Earth, and not a site where ordinary ChanBuddhist rites were performed, in which case itwould have used the usual meaning of the wordChan Buddhism (chanzong).Looking at historical documents we can see thatthe Dajue Temple used to enjoy a lot of water.Photos taken by a German envoy in the 1930s,

show a free-flowing small waterfall built into anartificial hill made of stones. But the amount ofwater has gradually diminished. The weather inBeijing has been quite dry since 1949.

Do you remember the chant that goes like this?Weve been liberated,The communist party is here,There are no spirits where there used to be2Theres no water where there used to be.

Water in the Dajue Temple flowed for a thousandyears, as far back as records are kept, but inthe last fifty years there has been a significantdecrease. Spring water from the mountain firstaccumulated in a small square pool called the

2 Meaning, the kinds of religiousactivities where people go into trances and singincantations.

Dragon Pool or Dragon King Pool, behind thetemple. Then it was drawn out on both sidesof the central axis, splitting into northern andsouthern branches that flowed through theentire temple. There were many courtyards inthe temple they all had spring water flowingthrough them. The two branches eventuallymet in the Merit and Virtue Pool in front of thetemple. An overflow spout allowed water to flowout of the pool when it was full.Twenty years ago, the northern branch insidethe temple still had water in it, but the southernbranch stopped flowing before 1912, when theRepublic of China was established. In recent

years the southern branch has been restored tolook like it did in the past when water flowed

through it. But now it can only be considered anartificial landscape.There is a saying that water is as high as themountain meaning that there are springson the mountain that provide surface water.3Now, the temple relies on water replenishedfrom deep wells,4 but before that, all the waterat the Dajue Temple was surface water frommountain springs. This fresh surface wateris created when rain falls onto the vegetation

covering the mountain, and then soaks into the

3 The narrator means that springs could beconsidered a form of surface water, i.e. water ina river or lake.4 The narrator is drawing a distinctionfrom the spring water or surface water by sayingthat the temple must now pump its water fromgroundwater supplies through wells becausethe springs have dried up.

Water in the Dajue Temple flowed for a thousandyears, as far back as records are kept, but in

the last fifty years there has been a significantdecrease.


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ground, permeating the rock layers. Later on itdribbles out of tiny crevices in the rock and flowsnaturally downward. People at the Water Bureauhave told me that what we drink now from thewell is crevice water that has seeped into the rocklayers formed deep below the surface during theCretaceous period. It is pumped from wells athousand meters deep. Some think that, providedthere is enough rainwater, the groundwater wehave extracted will be able to replenish itself,but this simply demonstrates a lack of generalknowledge. It doesnt matter how much it rains,the water table level in the deep layers of rockwont rise for quite sometime unless the waterpours straight in.5

The water in the Dajue Temple was clean

and sweet because the rain fell on the densevegetation on the mountain behind the templeand this surface water was constantly filteredas it percolated through the rock. The templestea gardens, known as Dajue Tea Culture,had already gained a modest reputation, butthe key to this tea culture was the water. Thespring water was tested in the 1990s and foundto contain three elements, one of which was

selenium. The effect of drinking this water wasnot immediate but would be felt twenty-fourhours later. If you stayed at the Dajue Templeand drank the spring water, by about four orfive o clock in the afternoon the following day before it was time for the evening meal youwould already be hungry. If a person, after eating

5 By this the narrator means currentrainfall doesnt have an immediate impact on thewater level deep in the aquifers. If one expectsthe water level deep underground to rise quiterapidly, you have to pour water directly into theseareas which is impossible.

a typical meal, feels distinctly hungry beforethe next meal, it means that selenium has had abeneficial effect on digestion.

When we promote our tea and call it DajueCulture, water is one of the most importantfactors. Along with the Minghui Tea House in theDajue Temple, which has become fashionable inmodern times, a traditional Buddhist tea serviceis also served in the temple. With Buddhist tea,the tealeaves have an added Buddhist element:the tea has been consecrated. Drinking thiskind of tea is seen as an enlightenment practice.

Water is the priority but the leaves must alsobe consecrated. Vulgar speech is not permittedwhile drinking and it is wisest to discussphilosophy, life, or Buddhist practices. DrinkingBuddhist tea is different to drinking black, green

or flower teas it cant be summed up in a fewwords. We have just made a batch of Puer tea,called Dajue Buddhist Tea. Though I have to behonest, this batch wasnt consecrated at the DajueTemple because there werent any monks there.It was done at the Tanzhe Temple.

Water has its own culture. The differentcultures of the north and the south are linked

to differences in their water. The character ofnortherners is like the northern river. The Yellowriver, with all its sand, is surging and turbulent,carrying the good with the bad, changing coursewithout following any rules. Dont you thinkthat is just like the rough and straightforwardnortherners? They dont fuss about small thingsin their daily life and they handle mattersaccording to how they feel at the time, withoutany particular strategy. They may seem simpleand muddleheaded, like the water in the YellowRiver, but they are generous and warm-hearted.As for southerners, just look at the Yangtze

Water has its own culture. The differentcultures of the north and the south are linked todifferences in their water.


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River, it comes from different rivulets of waterhigh up in the densely forested mountainsthat join up one by one. The Yangtze has twolayers of water. On the surface the river looksplacid and the top layer of water moves slowly,giving the appearance of being gentle and easy-going. But underneath, 30 centimeters belowthe surface, the undercurrent is extremelystrong. Southerners appear to be gentle, quietand amiable outwardly they smile but really,underneath they are calculating, figuring outhow much they can benefit from one another,down to the last cent, so that in the end no oneowes anything to anyone else. Might this haveanything to do with water?

There has been a drought in the area around

Beijing for many years now. Low rainfall meansthere has been little surface water, which in turnhas meant little evaporation. And because therehas been very little evaporation there have beenfewer clouds. With ever fewer clouds there cantbe any rain. On top of this, the level of water inthe water table has fallen its a vicious circle.The Dajue Temple has no real springs any more.

What we are drinking is mainly well water, which

leaves lime scale when its boiled.

And what about spring water? You can see that inthe courtyard there are still water channels, butthe spring water has already dried up becausethe village down the hill has dug a well in frontof the water channels that run into the DajueTemple. Now all the water from the channelshas been diverted away. The village only has ahundred or so households and isnt very big. Wearent going to mention it by name because thelocal government doesnt want it revealed.The villagers dug the well last year to supply

groundwater to the village, and the spring waterto the Dajue Temple was officially cut off on thefirst of July in 2008. The spring water above theDragon Pool hasnt disappeared completely, its

just changed course. Instead of going throughthe temple it goes straight to the village. Allthe water villagers use for eating, drinking,bathing and irrigation comes from this spring.The flow of water has changed to the point thatthe water that originally flowed to the templehas been diverted underground by the well dugby the villagers. The problem is that, even if thewell were blocked or filled in, the spring waterwouldnt return to the temple it might flowanywhere, one or two hundred meters lowerdown because its path has been changed by thewell. There would still be no water available for

the temple.In fact, before 2008, an older, original well inthe village still had water in it. Then, wheneverything had to be spruced up for theOlympics and there was such a fuss aboutit the ground water was extracted to such anexcessive degree that the water level acrossBeijing fell very rapidly. Last year there was a

lot of rain, but an even larger volume of waterwas used which only became known as a resultof meetings among Beijings water authorities.The issue was discussed for a long time at thesehigh level meetings, but no one in the villagespoke out about the fact that the problem wasstraightforward too much water was extractedbecause of the Olympics. The water table inmany places dropped and in areas at a higherelevation, such as the Dajue Temple, it droppedthe most. The Dajue Temple is about 140 metersabove sea level, so it was more severely affectedthan the city of Beijing.

Wells belonging to the ordinary people of

The Dajue Temple has no real springs any more.What we are drinking is mainly well water, whichleaves lime scale when its boiled.


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Beijing have no water in them anymore. Whenthere is no water they look for other places todig. In the past, at least in theory, government

permission was required to dig a well. Butwhen that village got approval, it wasnt for thisparticular well near the temple. They dug a bithere and then dug a bit there. In some placesthey didnt find any water, but when they dugnear the temple, they found some. You might askwhat had been approved. The villagers could go

through the formal steps to get permission to diga well, and who could stop them? One of Chinascharacteristics is that there are no rules to speakof. The local government has been helping uslook into how we could fill in the well dug bythe villagers close to the temple. But, good grief,when we tried to do something, a score of thelocal people stood around the well and preventedus from doing anything.6

Who does the water from the mountain springs

belong to, to the temple or to the villagers? Itsthe Chinese condition. There is conflict whereverthere are people, but resolving this conflict bygiving the water to only one of the parties isclearly unacceptable. Although the temple isthe victim, one must still consider this principlecarefully: the Dajue Temple might be called theClear Water Garden but this resource, namelythe spring water, cannot belong entirely to

6 Here the narrator is talking about a

conflict between the temple and the nearbyvillagers for the water. After the villagers duga well nearby, the temples water supply wasdisrupted. Both parties (the temple and thevillage) claimed the right to the water. Thetemple tried to enlist local government officialsto fill in the well but to no avail. The villagersfought for the well and prevented the templefrom filling it in.

the temple. It would be a small matter for theMinghui Tea House in the temple to shut downif the temple no longer had spring water. But the

damage both to a heritage site like the temple,and to the environment, from the loss of waterwould be hard to quantify. The old trees in thetemple depend entirely on that spring water, andwithout replenishment, trees that have lasted onethousand years will wither and die.

Water is the trees lifeblood and spirit. No matterhow the watercourses are changed, water mustremain here. Through the local government, weare negotiating with the peasants, but it wouldbe totally useless to say who is right and who iswrong. The peasants say that, no matter who youare, when water flows to your doorstep you woulddie before you give it up!

In fact, history shows us that the village onlybegan to develop because of the Dajue Temple.

In the last few years there has been an endlessstream of visitors, and the villagers have helpedto provide the tourist infrastructure and otherservices needed. They are the ones who ranstalls outside the temple and villagers havelooked after parking bicycles. Would the templesexistence or disappearance be of no consequenceto them? The local people do in fact care aboutthe temple; otherwise they would have let it bedemolished a long time ago. But when it comesto a matter of survival, or if it comes downto not having water, everyone is going to putthemselves first. If the temple has no water, itstill has the government and the state to fall backon, but ordinary people have no one to look afterthem. They are a disadvantaged group.

Some of the trees in the temple have alreadydied. Many of the Chinese pines became diseasedand infested with pests in 2003, the year when

Wells belonging to the ordinary people of Beijinghave no water in them anymore.


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SARS appeared. The pine tree next to the pagodaon the hill, a tree about 400 or 500 years old,originally grew in about thirty centimeters ofsoil on top of the granite. But now its roots havegone right down to granite, making its continuedgrowth difficult. Also, at the same time the treesare getting larger, there is less and less water, and

there are also large numbers of tourists stomping

around. Its not that the plants simply lack waterin the ground; they also need moisture on theirleaves. If the leaves are dry for long periods, theentire plant suffers. By comparison, tree leavesare bright emerald in the south where damp airprovides leaves with moisture.The year we arrived at the temple the weeds wereup to my waist. It was 1992, and the countrysopening up policies had formally started. ThisMagnolia is over three hundred years old, and

is considered a natural treasure. That tree overthere is a parasitic Buckthorn Cypress, and itis still beautiful. This ginkgo here is over onethousand years old. Another one died just overthere and some do-gooders put in a fake one,which makes me feel uncomfortable. A speciesendemic to China, the ginkgo is a living fossil.Its demands on the natural environment arefew it can survive harsh conditions and at thesame time be productive and useful. Everywhereelse in the world the ginkgoes died during thefourth ice age in the Cretaceous period. The onlysurvivors to be found were on the mainland ofChina.

Its been thirty years since weve had openingup and reform.7 The ordinary people have gone

7 Reform and opening-up policies in China:After the death of Mao Zedong (in 1976), a new

from being in a state of fervent revolution toone in which they have achieved a moderatelygood standard of living. The Dajue Temple, onthe other hand, has gone from having waterto not having water. The temples water is nowgone. The people who come to pay reverenceare also gradually realizing that their desire to

earn as much money as possible, hand over fist,

while grabbing every opportunity to consumeas much as possible and as quickly as one can, isfutile. The whole world is beginning to share anunderstanding that being rich doesnt necessarilymean that one has the right to deplete theresources of others. Everyone is slowly beginningto feel that consuming less is better than owninga lot. Consuming less has a two-fold benefit.In the temple we have introduced the practice ofmeditative tea drinking as a way to help people

control their greed. For example, realizing thatone steamed bun is enough and refusing theother half otherwise you have to exercise towork off that extra bit of consumption. Buyingless property, which is a way of taking care ofmountains and forests, is yet another. A feelingof contentment doesnt come from owning a lot,but from consuming less.The worst enemies of the natural world arepeople; especially the nouveau rich who want

economic system was introducedbeginningwith the abolishment of peoples communesand the planned economy. In its place emergeda state-run market economy. China also beganto open itself to the global marketplaceintroducing foreign capital, technology andnatural resources, as well as ideological valuesfrom the West.

The Dajue Temple, on the other hand, has gonefrom having water to not having water. The

temples water is now gone.


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to grab everything for themselves. Have younoticed that wherever there are people, there willprobably be too many and that the trees will havedisappeared, the water will have disappeared andthe animals will have disappeared? The DajueTemple has gone from being the beautiful butunknown Clear Water Garden to being a placethat people flock to. But in the end the water isall gone, the trees have withered and the templebuildings are collapsing. At the present rate oftechnological development, if human beingsdont learn to control themselves, it wont be longbefore they will have destroyed the treasureshanded down by their ancestors and they wonteven be able to guarantee their own lives.

It isnt an optimistic scenario for the Dajue

Temple. Im afraid that it is beyond the capacityof one group of people to preserve an ancient,one thousand-year-old temple. The key to doingso will be appealing to society, and havinga proper understanding of what genuinecivilization and culture really is. What will webe able to trust in the futureskyscrapers andhighways? This city of Beijing has forgottenabout culture. Its nothing like the Beijingwe once knew. Weve become accustomed topleasure seeking and are still unaware of what

we should be giving back to the natural world.COMMENTARYBeijing is surrounded by the Taihang and

Yanshan mountain ranges: temples were oftenlocated near the springs of these mountains. Ifwater from the springs was plentiful and flowedsteadily, it created beautiful landscapes andfamous gardens. The limestone area in Xishanhas a small number of springs that producea large volume of water, whereas the granite,gneiss and sandstone areas have a large numberof springs with only a small volume of water.The Clear Water Garden located at the base of

Yangtai Mountain in the Xishan area, and laterrenamed the Dajue Temple, the one thousand-

year-old temple that became famous for itssprings, belongs to the former a limestone area.

As old as the temple itself, the ginkgo treeswithin its compound are living culturalartifacts that rely on its clear spring water. Theyingeniously bind together the natural and themanmade landscapes, passing down informationabout the past through their tenacious lives.They provide an important basis for our studyinto the history of the ancient capitals culturaldevelopment, the establishment of city parks andthe rise and fall of governments. Ancient treesare unable to speak; yet they have experiencedunpredictable events and have seen greatchanges. They are witnesses to history and cangive living testimony to the style and culture ofancient times.

The Eight Great Temples were located inBeijings Xishan area because it was abundantin spring water. The ginkgoes have been able tosurvive for a thousand years because there waswater. The three hundred-year-old Magnoliadenudata should be considered one of the naturalwonders of Beijing. There are 160 ancient treeswithin the Dajue Temple compound, and, inaddition to the thousand year old ginkgoes, thereare one-hundred-year-old magnolias, sal trees(Shorea robusta), ancient pines, cypresses and

so on. The basis of life for this group of ancienttrees is the temples spring water, and the DajueTemple still exists because of its interdependencewith the water and trees.

One by one the ancient trees are now witheringbecause water has stopped flowing to them.

Whats going to happen to the Eight GreatTemples in the Xishan area? In Beijing, uncurbeddevelopment has already caused the water tableto drop, the river flows to be interrupted, and thesprings to be silenced. Unless human beings cancontrol rampant development in Beijing, it wontbe long before the treasures handed down by ourancestors are destroyed and our very lives are putat risk.

An He is a Beijing-based engineer. Wang Jian is aBeijing-based water expert.


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MYHOMEAND WATER: A PEOPLES ACCOUNT

Beijing, once famous for its sweet spring waterand clear-flowing rivers is now infamous forits polluted canals and dried up riverbeds. MyHome and Water: A Peoples Accountprovides arare uncensored glimpse of life and water in theancient capital of Beijing and surrounding areas as told by longtime residents.

Translation, editing and online publication ofthe series by Chinese author Dai Qing and ProbeInternational has been made possible by fundingfrom the Foundation Open Society Institute(Zug). For more information, contact ProbeInternational at [email protected]

The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry

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