At the Rooster's Crow in Jiming Si Temple

The Rooster Crow Temple prides in its long history as one of the first temples in Nanjing. As early as the first year of the Yongkang Reign during the Western Jin Dynasty (300AD), the temple has served as a site of Buddha worship. During the Southern Dynasty, the first Emperor Liangwu Di of the Liang period built the Tongtai Temple in this site. As such, the Rooster Crow Temple’s predecessor was the first of the 480 Temples in the Southern Dynasty. Himself dedicated to the study of Buddhism here as a monk, Liangwu Di declared the decree of vegetarianism for Buddhist monks in 511AD. That would be the beginning of the vegetarian diet in Chinese Buddhism.



The first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty (Ming Tai Zu, whose name is Zhu Yuanzhang) rebuilt the temple compound here in 1387. He named this temple Rooster Crow Temple (Jiming Si). It means that at the Rooster’s Crow, people rise to practice swordsmanship. The Ming Emperor certainly appreciated the virtue of discipline and diligence.

Today, the Rooster Crow Temple is both a place of Buddha worship and a monastery.

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Post by Helen Yu (Chestnut Journal) | Feb 27, 2025