Synopsis

Evergreen Temple, shut down in the era of Mao Zedong, has rebounded after Reform and Opening. People always come to the temple in order to pray to the Bodhisattva and burn incense full of hopefulness. What’s more, they gather together, talking to each other about their sorrows and sharing other experiences that they have had.

An old man in the temple talked with the filmmaker about his past, when Chinese peasants, whose fates are connecting closely with the exploration of New China, experienced a series of movements and revolutions, including land reform, the People's Movement, the Great Leap Forward, the Great Iron and Steel Forging Campaign, and the Cultural Revolution. The peasants’ basic need for food and clothing could only be satisfied once the household responsibility system and Reform and Opening were established, while other social problems continued to emerge.

After Reform and Opening, the plague of money spread on a large scale, social morality and values underwent a dramatic transformation, and peasants also started to care about money. Society is just like a big dyeing tank, and of course, there were no expectations for the temple. People there also only cared about their own self-interest, so there were many contradiction and disputes in the temple, too. Li Zhonglai, in charge of the temple, was faced with a dilemma and had no choice but to seek help from the Bodhisattva and pray that the people who started a rumour to ruin the stability of the temple would be condemned by the Bodhisattva. Will the Bodhisattva appear and punish the rumour-mongers? Are people who come to the temple true Buddhists? There are no definitive answers to these questions.