Yuanming Jiangtang was built by first Venerable Master of the
Buddhist Association of China Yuan Ying in 1934, where he taught
Pure Land Buddhism for almost ten years, and attracted large numbers of practitioners. The Yuanming Lengyan School () and Shanghai Yuanming Buddhist College () were established in 1945 and 1948 respectively. In 1958, the temple was used as a factory. During the ten-year
Cultural Revolution the
Red Guards had attacked the temple in 1966. The temple has been designated as a
National Key Buddhist Temple in Han Chinese Area by the
State Council of China in 1983. That same year, regular sutra lectures, meditation and other features of temple life were resumed. A Buddhist seminary was re-established in 1997. In 2000, with the
Longhua Temple monastery as co-sponsor, a new combined seminary was established under the name of "Hualin Buddhist Seminary" (华林佛学院). ==Architecture==