White Horse Temple is a place name, but it is named after the temple.
According to "Taizhou Chronicles" written by Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China: Baima Temple is located in Baima Township, southeast of Taizhou, the hometown of Jiang Ziwen. According to the continued compilation of Taizhou Chronicles, Jiang Ziwen of the Eastern Han Dynasty was born in a village next to the Jiangjia River in the southeast of Taizhou. He was an ambitious young man with both civil and military skills. He later joined the army and made many military exploits. He was appointed as a county lieutenant in Moling (the ancient name of Nanjing). He was injured and died chasing thieves and was buried in Nanjing Bell. Mountain. After Jiang Ziwen's death, his former subordinates saw him on the road "riding on a white horse, holding white feathers, and accompanying him like a living being." They suspected that he had become a god, so they built the "King Jiang Temple". The people in his hometown built the "White Horse General Temple" to worship Jiang Ziwen, which has a history of more than 1,800 years. According to Nanjing's "Old Capital Seal", during the Warring States Period, Zhongshan was called "Jinling Mountain" and was commonly known as "Zhongshan" during the Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, the Emperor of Wu, named Jiang Ziwen the Marquis of Jiang. Because he wanted to avoid the name taboo of his grandfather, Sun Zhong, he changed Zhongshan to "Jiangshan", and the Temple of King Jiang was renamed Jiangshan Temple. More than 1,000 years later, Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne in Nanjing and proclaimed himself emperor. He took a fancy to the geomantic treasure of Jiangshan Temple. In the ninth year of Hongwu in the early Ming Dynasty, he used "one hundred thousand military industry" to prepare for the construction of Xiaoling Mausoleum, forcing the monks of Jiangshan Temple to move and build another mausoleum at the east foot of Zhongshan Mountain. The Valley Temple still enshrines the statue of Jiang Ziwen.
Sun Quan, the Emperor of Wu, granted Jiang Ziwen the title of Marquis of Jiang, and then added the title of "General Baituo" (commonly known as the White Horse General among the people). Therefore, in the north and south of the Soochow River, "General White Horse Temple" was widely built among the people to worship General White Horse - the statue of King Chiang and Shenhou. In addition to temples, every private household has a "General White Horse" or "General White Horse" tablet, specially used to ward off evil spirits. Used to avoid evil. This custom has been circulating for more than 1,000 years and formed the Baima religious folk culture. It was not until the 1960s that it gradually faded and disappeared.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, although the White Horse Temple was called the White Horse General Temple, it only housed statues of King Jiang and Shenhou, and there was no white horse statue. Later, the white horse statue was added to worship Zhang Shicheng, King of Suzhou. Baima Temple was historically called Xujiazhuang. According to legend, Zhang Shicheng rebelled at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and stationed troops in the Xujiazhuang area. Zhang Shicheng had a favorite mount, a white horse, which came out of the stable at night and trampled the crops. After Zhang Shicheng found out, he taught people to drive iron nails into the horse's hoofs. Local farmers felt his strict discipline and later raised funds to sculpt a white horse statue and enshrine it in the General White Horse Temple. In the Jianghuai and Wuyue areas influenced by King Zhang Shicheng of Suzhou, white horse temples in various places followed the example of Taizhou General White Horse Temple and added white horse statues.
The ancient White Horse Temple is related to Taiwei Temple in Xinzhuang, Longchang Temple in Wangzhuang, Guanyin Temple in Mazhuang, and Qinglong Temple in Lizhuang. One temple and four nunneries, filled with incense and famous teachers. In 1936, on the third day of the sixth lunar month, the Christmas day of Veituo Bodhisattva, the former member of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Chinese Buddhist Association, president of the Anhui Buddhist Association, president of Jiuhuashan Buddhist College, and Jiuhuashan Gion The 48th head of the Zen Temple, Master Rende (common name Li Dehai, born in Qianggang Village, Baima Town, Gaogang District, Taizhou City in June 1926), became a Buddhist monk from Taiwei Temple.
According to another record, Taizhou scholar Xia Quan's "Tui'an Notes" during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty records that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates invaded northern Jiangsu. Liu Jingshao, deputy military envoy of Huaiyang Road, defeated the Japanese pirates in Taizhou. "However, "The Duke (Liu Jingshao)'s bravery in killing thieves ensures that one side will have divine help." This is because General White Horse "Jiang Hou (Ziwen) gave him a spear eight feet long from the sky, and it danced like flying to help Liu fight." The White Horse General Temple has added a bit more respect in the hearts of the people. During the Anti-Japanese War in the last century, in order to fight against the Japanese aggressors, General White Horse Temple in the north and south of the Yangtze River was very popular. This was because the people prayed to King Chiang and Shenhou (General White Horse) to show his divine power and help our anti-Japanese soldiers.
Before the place name was formed, the White Horse Temple was built in the southeast of Xujiazhuang. It had six main halls, six foyer rooms, six east wing rooms, and two west wing rooms plus corridors. At first, the surname Xu was dominant here. During the Hongzhi period in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the surname Wang emerged, and the two surnames began to compete for the name of the village. According to legend, when the lawsuit was brought to the county government, the county magistrate asked: No matter how famous your two families are, can they be greater than General Baima? So I suggested that everyone recognize Baima Temple as the name of the village. From then on, the place names of Baima Village, Baima Village and Baima Township appeared in Taizhou Chronicles and Tai County Chronicles.