Daming Temple is situated in the northwest of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and was the place where Jianzhen, an accomplished monk in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), performed Buddhist rites. In 1983, it was designated as one of national key temples in the areas of the Han nationality.

Once Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty toured Yangzhou and was unhappy to see the name of the temple "Daming", for he took it to mean "great Ming"． (Ming dynasty was ruled by the Manchus, a minority, Qing succeeded Ming.) For fear that it might remind people of the Ming dynasty，he renamed the temple "Fajing Temple" and put it down in his own handwriting. (Emperor Qianlong was a good calligrapher.) In the spring Of 1980，in reparation for the exhibition of the statue of Monk Jianzhen, the Yangzhou Municipal Government hanged it back to "Daming Temple". Thus, Qianlong's inscription "Fajing Temple" became a mere historical relic．

Jianzhen, an accomplished monk in the Tang Dynasty, acted as abbot of Daming Temple to carry forward Buddhist disciplines. In the second year of the Tianbao reign of the Tang Dynasty, Jianzhen, at the request of a Japanese monk, attempted to cross the sea to Japan in order to introduce Buddhist doctrines. But he failed. He tried again and again. Finally, he succeeded in the twelfth year of the Tianbao reign after five failures. Jianzhen's arrival in Japan injected new blood to Japanese culture, and he made great contributions to Sino-Japan cultural exchanges. In order to commemorate him, Jianzhen Memorial was built in Daming Temple in 1973. The memorial is an imitation of buildings in the Tang Dynasty, and was designed by Liang Sicheng, a famous architectural designer of China. The Statue of Jianzhen is enshrined in the Main Hall of this memorial.

Many famous poets of the Tang dynasty visited and mounted the tower and wrote moving poems. Later Xiling Tower Was burnt down, leaving only its ruins. Five big Chinese characters are inscribed on the eastern wall of the Temple "the First in Huaidong" which means that the scenery of Daming Temple was the best and most worth visiting in Yangzhou．These are the words of praise taken from a famous poet of the northern Song Dynasty Qin Shaoyou, who once toured this place and was fascinated by its beautiful scenery．