In the fifth year of Huichang in the Tang Dynasty (AD 845), Emperor Wuzong ordered all the Buddhist temples in the world to be demolished, and all the monks and nuns were vulgarized. This is a typical "extinction" event, and Lingshan Temple, located on the mountainside of Guling Mountain, is naturally not spared.

At the foot of Guling Mountain, Xu Biao, a well-off villager who believes in Buddhism, saw that there was no tile left in Lingshan Temple, and the white fields were swaying, which was very unpleasant. The scene of the heyday of incense in the past has been lingering in my mind. Soon, Emperor Wuzong died, so Guo Ning Temple (now Tianning Temple) in Ningbo was restored, and temples all over the country were rebuilt one after another, but Lingshan Temple was hopeless for lack of material resources and hosts. In the spring of the first year of Guangming (A.D. 880), Xu Biao saw a female bodhisattva coming and said to him: Repair Lingshan Temple as soon as possible and save all beings! So the story spread everywhere, and the neighbors sent several representatives to go with him to see Gong Ke, the abbot of Guo Ning Temple, and asked him to preside over the restoration of Lingshan Temple. Monk Gong Ke took his apprentice and Xu Biao to Chang 'an. When I arrived in Lintong, Chang 'an, I bowed down and recited the Lotus Sutra in three steps, which attracted everyone to watch. In this three-day trip, I entered the gate of the imperial city. It happened that the sky was overcast, and suddenly there was lightning and thunder, and it rained cats and dogs. Legend has it that monks in Mingzhou sincerely feel the rain. Emperor Nuozong was very happy and hoped to protect his throne with the help of Buddha, and ordered the three of them to meet. Nuozong personally wrote three characters of "National Security Temple" and made a plaque; In addition, he was specially given a purple robe and ordered to teach the Five Classics in Hongfu Temple for three months. Along the way, the plaque decorated with red flowers and the purple robe in the yellow satin box were presented to Mingzhou, and the priest led his family to kneel outside the city to meet him. Soon the temple was rebuilt on the original site, grand and solemn, and the scale was larger than before. The famous name "Guobao Temple" has therefore replaced the old name of Lingshan Temple, which has gone through 700 years since the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The story of wooden steamed bread

Master Jixiang and Master Lingfeng agreed that Guobao Temple and Ding Lin Temple should be built at the same time during the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, due to lack of experience, Jixiang has not finished the work until the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and will soon be defeated in this agreement. Thanks to Lu Ban's help, the hall was built overnight, which was extremely auspicious and beaming.

The next day, when he arrived in Shi Mao, Tan jumped up the mountain to watch the ceremony, only to find that the girder of Baodi Temple was still there, admiring its majesty, splendor and strangeness. Suddenly, four white lights flew from behind Guling Mountain and landed on the second beam of Baodi Temple. The craftsman climbed the second beam of Wushan and took a closer look. When he saw it, it turned out to be the "Shangliang Steamed Bread" thrown by Ding Lin Temple at the northern foot, with a red seal on it! Shangliang steamed bread is a local custom, indicating that the beams of Ding Lin Temple have been installed. Auspicious only cares about happiness, but forgets this tradition. He had no steamed bread to throw, so he grabbed an axe, wrapped it in red silk, and swung it toward the mountain, indicating that the Jubao Hall of Guobao Temple was also completed and the carpentry work was over. Strange to say, this carpenter's axe wrapped in red silk flew over the Guling ridge and fell along a parabola, and the cutting edge just wedged into the main beam of Ding Lin Temple as the center! You can also see Shangliang steamed bread thrown by Ding Lin Temple in Guobao Temple.