First built between 502 A.D. and 519 A.D. in the Liang Dynasty of the Period of the Six Dynasties in Chinese history, it was initially named Miao'Li'Pu' Ming'Ta'Yuan, (which presumably is a transliteration of a Sanskrit phrase.) it is said that during the Period of Zhenguan in Tang Dynasty, two famous monks from Tiantai Mountain named Hanshan and Shide were given charge of the temple and the name was then changed to Han'Shan'Si.
A famous poem by Zhang Ji in Tang Dynast
y, "Mooring by Fengqiao at Night", made the temple a worldwide known tourist attraction, which goes as follows:
The crows caw to the falling moon;
The frosty air fills the sky.
The fisher's lights gleam, the maples croon;
With much sorrow I lie.
On the outskirts of
Suzhou Town;
From Han Shan Temple, Hark!
The midnight vesper bells come down,
Wafting to the rover's bark.
