Pagoda Forest of Zhenru Monastery on Mount Yunju

High on the cloud-shrouded slopes of Mount Yunju, ninety-one historic stone pagodas stand in silent alignment at the southern foot of Wunao Peak. This is the largest collection of historic monk stupas in China, a physical archive of Chan history carved into hard mountain granite.

The story began in the Tang dynasty, during the Yuanhe reign of Emperor Xianzong, when the founding monk Daorong established the monastery. In 883 AD, Chan Master Daoying arrived, establishing the Caodong lineage and a strict rule: "one day without work, one day without food." For over a thousand years, monks balanced meditation with physical labor, clearing fields and carving stone. The forest of stupas grew, surviving the fires of the late Yuan dynasty and the destruction of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1939. In 1953, the master Xu Yun arrived at the ruined site. At over one hundred years old, he physically cleared the wild land, carried heavy bricks, and farmed the soil to rebuild the sanctuary.

Each tomb unit reflects this labor, built from local granite that resists the damp mountain air. A typical stupa consists of a stone platform, a protective courtyard wall, a central tomb pagoda, and a stone offering table. The structures display diverse historical styles, including single-story pavilion-style pagodas, Tibetan-style dome pagodas, and rare Buddha-head-style pagodas. Among them rests the Tang dynasty stupa of Daoying, the Ming dynasty monument of Master Zhuanyu, and the Qing dynasty tomb of Master Huishan Jiexian. Xu Yun’s own granite stupa, rebuilt in 1982, rises 5.5 meters with a base diameter of 3 meters.

Today, these stone monuments serve as a primary record of Buddhist funeral systems and medieval Chinese masonry. The inscriptions and chisel marks on the granite platforms preserve the names of masters whose teachings spread to Japan and Korea. Visitors walking through the quiet bamboo forests can still feel the cold, rough texture of the hand-carved stone, a physical link to the monks who worked, meditated, and died on this misty peak.