The autumn breeze is slightly cool, and the granaries are full of rice: A record of the fourth visit to Guoqing Temple

Unconsciously, from 2021 to 2025, I have come to Tiantai Mountain every year, and this is already the fourth time visiting Guoqing Temple. The previous visits were all in summer, but this time in the golden October autumn, I saw a different Guoqing Temple.

Guoqing Temple has farmland, and the monks cultivate and feed themselves. Every harvest season, the fields outside the Sui Pagoda are piled with haystacks, and inside Guoqing Temple, rice is spread on the ground—this is Guoqing’s own "sun-drying autumn."

There are more and more people at Guoqing Temple, but it still insists on not charging an entrance fee. The warm autumn sun shines on the mottled yellow walls, and when the wind rises again, it feels like four years have passed in a flash.

[Introduction to Guoqing Temple]
Guoqing Temple was first built in the 18th year of Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, in 598 AD. It is not only the birthplace of the Tiantai sect of Chinese Buddhism but also the ancestral temple of the Tiantai sect in Korea and Japan. The Sui Pagoda, Sui Plum, and Wang Xizhi’s unique "Goose" stele inside the temple are praised as the three wonders.

🚶🏻Address: Tiantai County, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province

Post by William Caldwell | Oct 22, 2025