Sacred space in motion: geography, time, and texts in the historiography of Lingyan Temple

This study examines the historiography of Lingyan Temple, a prominent Buddhist temple in Jinan, through an empirical and positivist lens. The study delineates the temple’s historical evolution from the Eastern Jin dynasty to the present, employing a synthesis of geographical analysis, archaeological findings, epigraphic documentation, and bibliographic references. The analysis emphasizes three interrelated facets of Lingyan’s historiography. The temple’s prominent role in regional Buddhist networks was primarily influenced by its strategic location at the intersection of cultural and political routes in northern China. Second, the historical reconstruction of Lingyan’s beginning, rise, fall, and restoration shows how the development of Buddhist temples goes in cycles, closely tied to changes in dynasties and the way people give money to temples. Third, the bibliographic evaluation of primary sources, including dynastic histories, temple gazetteers, and epigraphic inscriptions, highlights the methodological difficulties and the abundance of recreating temple history experimentally. These studies show that “sacred space” is not a set idea; it is always being rethought by history, geography, and written traditions. The research contends that a positivist methodology in Buddhist temple historiography enables a more systematic, verifiable, and comparable framework for analyzing religious heritage. This methodology enriches global dialog on the documentation, interpretation, and revitalization of religious heritage over time, while also offering insights into broader concerns related to the material, temporal, and textual aspects of sacred space in Chinese Buddhism, especially Lingyan Temple.