Mountain Jiuhua, besides its beautiful scenery, there are still something unusual worth seeing there——the Incarnation. Until now 14 bodies have been found, 13 of which are monks, 1 is a nun, and this remarkable phenomenon has drawn the wide attention from all walks of life.

Incarnation basically means flesh and blood born by one's parents. Whereas in Buddhism it refers to the whole Buddhist relic of someone who is benevolent and wise. Buddhist doctrine says: “there is a difference of complete and in complete between the relics.” Complete Buddhist relics are those of the eminent monks or perfect ones. After they died their bodies stayed intact even though a long time has elapsed, the bodies are always fresh. Incomplete ones are the remains after being burnt. Jin Gang Sutra says: Buddhist relics are rare and can only be obtained under the circumstance of strict self's cultivation in the condition of abstinence, calm and intelligence. Only highly cultivated monks and nuns can become Buddhist relics after death.

Incarnation is different from mummy. In the old times in Egypt, the funeral ceremony was very simple, digging a shallow hole and then covering with sand. Due to the hot dry weather in desert, the dead body was immediately dehydrated when covered with sand. That is the nature-made mummy. Later, dead bodies were operated by human to mummies. The internal organs and brains taken out, and the bodies were kept under the protection of medicines. In Xinjiang, China, mummies were once unearthed, but actually they were desiccated corpse, they exit for a long time because of the hot dry weather there. However, these corpses are now rare.

Mountain Jiuhua locates on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The climate there is humid and cool. It lacks the natural condition for mummification. Existing bodies have not been modified by medicines. That is queer and till now there isn't any scientific explaination yet.

The custom, of keeping bodies originated from Master Dizang in the Tang Dynasty. In the summer of the Zhengyuan 10 year, he died without illness. His disciples put his body in a stone coffin and opened it 3 years later at the request of him. The body stayed fresh during those years. People believed Dizang Bodhisattva reincarnacted in him. From then on, when a monk there died, his body will be kept for a period (from 7 days to 3 years) to whether the body can turn into a whole buddhist relic. The encoffing method is quite special. First clean the body, make it sit cross-legged in a ceramic pot, then surround it with wood charcoal till the neck, thirdly, cover the head with a bag of lime. All the materials help to dehydrate the body. The last step is to seal up the pot with yelllow earth. If the body decays in the pot and becomes smelly. It will be burnt by lighting the wood chacoal through a hole at the bottom. Sitting in a pot is only an exopathic factor, whether the body will stay fresh depend on how he cultivated himself when alive. Those masters were veqetarint and when they knew they would die, they didn't eat or drink anything, therefore, there were little fat and water in the body, which was the basic factor of staying intact. Despite this only a few bodies can be kept fresh, which would be paint and after 3 years be gilded. There is explaination buddhism to this phenomena, however, people hope scientists will study this and give reasonable explaination.

Jin Qiaojue (696-794), gnerally called Jin Dizang, first named Qiaojue, his formal name was Shouzhong, after he became monk, he was given a religious name Dizang. He was born in the Jinzhou, old Xinluo(today Qingzhou city in South Korea), his father was Jin Xingguang, later called King Jinde, his mother was Queen Zhen. He once served as envoy in the Tang Dynasty, and was appointed Shuwei. He was a strange-looking man with an extra bone in the neck, tall and strong. He was ugly but naturally kind. He became a monk when at 24. Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty was very influential, attracted lots of monks from Japan, Xinluo, Gaoli and Baiji to come to China to study buddhism. When Jin Qiaojue first came to South of the Yangtze River, the moment he landed himself, he was taken aback at the beautiful peak shape in lotus in Mountain Jiuhua. He decided to cultivated himself in the deep mountain where there was no inhabitant. He led a hard life, drinking spring water and eating a kind of white clay. Although biten by poisonous insect, he would sit still and calmly. He once came out of the mountain to write sutra to fill his will. Having finished, he came back and still stayed there till a local gentleman Zhuge Jie found him incidentally. Zhu was ashamed for not having treated the once Xinluo Prince well, so he wanted to start a whip-round for a temple for the monk. At that time, the whole Mountain Jiuhua belonged to Ming Ranghe, who was a devotee to buddhism. When asked, he was very willing to donate the area. He asked Jin to choose a place as he liked, Jin said a place as a cassock was enough, then he covered the whole area with his cassock. Ming was surprized but very happy to came across a real Bodhisattva. And he even made his son a monk whose religious name was Daoming. Later he himself became a monk and a disciple to his son Daoming. When the temple was built, lots of scholars, especially those from Xinluo, concentrated in the mountain to follow Jin. But the life there was very harsh and bitter, they had little to eat except the white clay, soon they were reduced to bags of bones. When the king of Xinluo got to know this, he supplied a lot of food. In the night of 30, July of Chinese traditional calendar (794), Jin summoned all his disciples, and then died, at the age of 99. Even the knell sounded sadly and birds seemed to cry for his death. His body was kept in a big jar, which after 3 years was as fresh as he were still alive. For he resembled Dizang Bodhisattva in looks, people believed acturally he was, as a result, Mountain Jiuhua became the place to worship Dizang Bodhissattva, along with Mountain Putuo, Mountain Wutai, Mountain Emei, it is called one of the great four mountains of buddhism in China, a sacred place for going on pilgrimage. Every year on 30, July, Mountain Jiuhua is thick with the smell of joss sticks, because lots of people believe in it.

Mingjing (1928-1992), his loacal name was Xu Fangzhu, and he was nicknamed “standing monk”. He was born in Shuangqiao Village, Langxi Town, Anhui Province. His mother died when he was only 3 years old. At a young age, he did temporary work to earn some money for the family was poor. He was influenced by his buddhism-believing grandpa, and never ate any meat when there was a draught, he drew off water from the farmland of his own family to other's farmland, and was called kind-hearted person. He always sat cross-legged and cultivated himself. It is said that before he became a monk, he sat that way without a break for several days. Others could not understand him and tied him up, but that could not stop him. In 1984, he went to Tiantai Temple in Mountain Jiuhua to be tonsured. He donated all he had to the temple. Later he lived in Sandal Woods. He could stand for a whole night so he was nicknamed “standing monk”. His stability was extraordinary. He stood once had been standed for 3 years, sat ross-legged for 3 years and lain for 3 years. And he was unsurpassed in strict discipline, stability, and wisdom. He was always bare-footed regardless of the weather, and wearing only tattered coats. He could stand, sit, and lie without moving a little. He ate only one meal when meditaiting. He was seemingly nonsense and was sometimes called a silly monk. He died calmly on 6th.Sep.1992, in Sandal Woods. His disciples put his body cross-legged in a pot at his request. On 1st.Dec.1998, the pot was opened and his body was found intact, fresh and flexible. A disciple named Xinlan painted and gilded the body which was later enshrined in Mingjing Room, northwest of The Incarnation Hall. In 2005, it was transferred to southern part of Sandal Woods in Daxiong Palace.

Renyi(1911-1995), was a nun in morden time, whose folk name was Jiang Sumin. She was born in Shengyang, Liaoning Province. Later was married to a family in Tonghua, Jilin Province. Her family was wealthy. According to the custom at that time, her parents bound her feet to make them as small as three cun long. At the age of 7 or 8, she was sent to a private school to learn music, playing chess, calligraphy and drawing. She was educated to be a lady at her parents' will. However, Sumin often sneaked off to the nearby temple to hear monks reading sutra, and gave them food in charity. After a few years, she could recite Heart Sutra and Dabei sutra. When she was 17 or 18 years old, she studied medicine, mainly acupuncture whole heartedly. In the autumn of 1940, she went to Mountain Wutai in Shanxi Province, to become a nun, named Renyi. From then on, she studied buddhism as well as agriculture. In 1942, she entered Shengyang Chinese Medicinal college to do further study. In 1950, Korean War broke out and she enlisted in people's army without hesitation. During the three years there, she saved a lot of wounded soldiers. In 1953, she returned to China, and was arranged to work in 206 hospital in Tonghua, a year later, she was transferred to an acupuncture team in a united Chinese medicine hospital, Shengyang. In 1958 she was again transferred to Huacheng Hospital. In 1963, she went to a small village. In 1976, she returned to Tonghua City to establish her own clinic. In 1982, Renyi went to Mountain Wutai again to be fully disciplined. A year later, she went on pilyrimage to Mountain Jiuhua, first lived in Ganlu Temple and then in Puti Pavilion at last in Tonghua Temple. She sold all her belongs to repair temples. After that, regardless of her old age, she went out teaching muddhism and treating illness. She had been to Handan, Shi Jiazhuang, Hunyuan, and Mountain Wutai. On her way, she repaired temples, did good deeds and made common friends. During the period when she was in Moutain Jiuhua, she cured the inhabitants there free of charge. In April, 1995, she returned to Mountain Jiuhua from Mountain Wutai. The same year she died at 7 PM. on 28th, Nov., at the age of 85. When her disciple opened the pot which contained her body, is found that she was sitting there straightly, half grey hair grew a bit, the teeth were in tact, and the pore on the skin could be easily seen, the whole body was elastic. Only her hand sign changed a bit with the right hand being raised a little, as if she was acupuncturing someone. Her body is the first whole buddhist relic of a nun and is now worshipped in Tonghua Temple.

Daxing (1894-1985), a monk in modern time whose courtesy name was Liaowei, his folk name was Zhu Maohe, also he was called Zhu Wanquan. He was born in Zhujia Village, Taihu Town, Anhui Province. He was abuducted and sold at 7 years old and regained by his family two years later. In 1918, he followed his grandfather Zhu Hanchen to study Buddhism in Lotus Tang. Soon he was enlisted in military by force due to wars among warlords. And was kept for six years. In 1925, he fled to The Longevity Hall in Mountain Jiuhua and became a monk, he was disciple of Fahe monk, doing chores such as carrying water and food. In 1931, he was initiated into monkhood following priest Guohui, and began touring famous temples. In 1936, he returned to The Longevity Hall, to lead the team carrying water for 5 years, working hard and not being upset by criticism, and enjoyed the respect of the monks. In 1947, he moved to a small temple in Mountain Huoyan in Qinyang City and later to Shuixi Temple at the back of Mounain Jiuhua in 1958. He had been herded cattle for the production team for more than 20 years. During this period, he always pretended to be stupid and told others, “if you good to other, you are good to yourself, while be bad to others, you are bad to yourself”. Persuading other to do good deeds. One day, he went to turn to sell firewood, seeing and old woman pick fencing for firewood, he soon gave her all his firewood without thinking that monks were waiting for him to return with salt and oil. When he was back he shouted “I came across a mother today.” When he saw chicken, pigs and cattle eat crops, he shouted “crops eat chicken now”. Later he stop herding cattle and began to collect medicinal herbs, for the inhabitants there free of charge. In 1984, he began praying to Buddha. At five past zero hour, sixth, April, in 1985, he died calmly after a few hearty laugh at the age of 91. His body was put into a pot which was found fresh when the pot was opened on 23rd Dec, 1988. It is now worshipped in Daxing Palace in Shuangxi Temple.