Tongxuan Temple, north of Wu Commandery's city, was a grand complex. Its main hall was five bays wide and five bays deep, with four interior roof frames and a veranda in front. Its eaves stood three zhang high; the surrounding eave pillars were chamfered stone, while the inner pillars were nanmu wood. More than a hundred monks lived there. Along with Waguan Temple and Dragon Palace Temple in Jiankang and Qiguang Temple in Kuaiji, Tongxuan Temple was counted among Jiangdong's four great monasteries.
The Fourth Month, Eighth Day was Buddha's Birthday, yet there were not particularly many worshippers visiting Tongxuan Temple to bathe the Buddha and make offerings to the monks. Compared with the Great Emperor of the Heavenly Officials' birthday celebrations Chen Caozhi had attended at the Qiantang Du Clan's Way of the Celestial Masters sanctuary on the fifteenth of the first month, it fell far short indeed.
Chen Caozhi had arrived early. The bathing of the Buddha, floral offerings, and elder's sermon at Tongxuan Temple had not yet begun, and he had no wish to join the bustle. Paying homage at a Buddhist temple was much like attending the Way of the Celestial Masters' offering rituals and celebrations: it merely fulfilled a wish, and would reassure his mother when she asked about it after he returned to Chen Family Cove at the end of the month.
After paying homage in the Hall of the Great Hero, Chen Caozhi told the duty monk that he wished to donate incense money. The monk led him to a side hall, where he saw a young man with a face like polished jade and a fine, lacquer-black beard directing his attendants to carry in a hundred strings of Wuzhu coins as an offering to the Buddha and the monks. A hundred strings