A Free Life Pond is a type of

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

s. It is usually located in front of the

Shanmen The Gate of Shanmen or Hall of the Shanmen or simply Shanmen (), is the entrance gate of a Buddhist temple. In ancient times, nearly all Buddhist temples had a single Shanmen gate leading into a large hall for the temple. Today, it is observed t ...

or the

Hall of Four Heavenly Kings The ''Tianwang Dian'' (; lit: ”Hall of the Heavenly Kings”) is the first important hall inside a shanmen (mount gate) in Chinese Buddhist temples and is named due to the Four Heavenly Kings statues enshrined in the hall. Maitreya Buddha i ...

. The Free Life Pond embodies Buddhist thoughts of compassion and understanding of all living beings.

History

The Free Life Pond was firstly mentioned in the ''Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom'' (), which read: "". The Free Life Pond was originate erected by

Zhiyi Zhiyi (; 538–597 CE) also called Dashi Tiantai (天台大師) and Zhizhe (智者, "Wise One"), was a Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, Buddhist philosophy, philosopher, meditation teacher, and Exegesis, exegete. He is considered to be the foun ...

, founder of Tiantai school, in the

Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...

(589–618). In 759, Emperor Suzong of the Tang dynasty (618–907) ordered all Buddhist temples to set up Free Life Pond. According to ''Duo Po Ming Jing'' (), at that time, 81 Buddhist temples set up free life ponds under the emperor's command.

Function

The Free Life Pond can regulate the air, inhibit dust, but also has the role of fire prevention. If the Buddhist temple is on fire, the water in the pond can be used to fight the fire.

History

Function

References

Bibliography

Further reading