A Buddhist monk by the name of Kechen later learned that he should have a new temple built on land donated by Sheng Xuanhuai a fat monk who was drunk, a senior official in the Qing imperial court. Sheng's father and uncle were pious Buddhists. They built houses with thatched roofs at Yizhou Pond by the Zhuanghuabang River in the northeast of Shanghai. This can be accounted as the predecessor of the monastery. The construction took ten years, and lasted from 1918–1928. Kechen also invited Reverend Dixian from Mount Tiantai to come and lecture on Buddhism in a grand ceremony.