Building History

The temple was first build in 242 AD, during the Three Kingdoms Period. According to a legend, Sun Quan, King of the Kingdom of Wu, had obtained Sharira relics, which are cremated remains of the Buddha. To house these precious relics, the king ordered the construction of 13 pagodas. Longhua Pagoda (Longhua Ta), part of the Longhua temple complex, is said to have been one of them. Like the function of the pagoda, the name of the temple also has its origin in a local legend according to which a dragon once appeared on the site.

The temple was destroyed by war towards the end of the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in 977 AD, during the Northern Song Dynasty. (According to another version of the story, as contained in Song and Yuan Dynasty local histories, the temple was first built by the King of Wuyue in the early Song dynasty.) Later in the Song Dynasty, in 1064, it was renamed Kong Xiang Temple, but the original name Longhua Temple was restored in the Ming Dynasty during the reign of the Wanli Emperor.

The present architectural design follows the Song Dynasty original. However, whereas the core of the present Longhua Pagoda survives from that period, most buildings in the temple proper were rebuilt during the reigns of the Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. A modern restoration of the entire temple complex was carried out in 1954.

The temple and monastery were originally surrounded by extensive gardens and orchards. Viewing of the peach blossom in the Longhua gardens was an annual attraction for people in surrounding cities. These gardens have since been entirely absorbed into the neighbouring Longhua Martyrs Cemetery and have been extensively reconstructed in a contemporary monumental style.

Site History

The temple grounds have been used as a site for internment as well as for executions. Public executions were held on the site in the 19th century. In 1927, the Kuomintang carried out a purge of suspected communists in Shanghai. Thousands of victims of this purge were brought to the temple grounds to be executed. They are commemorated today by the Longhua Martyrs Cemetery behind the temple. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese operated their largest civilian internment camp in the area, where American, British, as well as nationals of other allied countries were held under poor conditions.