Fahai Temple

Fahai Temple

Dharma Samudra VIH ā RA is located at the south foot of Cuiwei mountain in Shijingshan District, Beijing. It was first built in 1439 (1440) of the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty. It took nearly five years to build it. It was completed in the eighth year of the Ming Dynasty. The original temple has a large scale and was rebuilt many times in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Fahai Temple covers an area of 20000 square meters. There are many buildings in the temple, such as the main hall, the second Hall of Jialan patriarch, the four heavenly kings hall, the hall of Dharma protector, the hall of pharmacists, the Buddha selection hall, the bell and Drum Tower, the Sutra collection building, and the cloud hall. In 1988, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

history

Fahai Temple was built in 1439 and completed in 1443.

From the 17th year of Hongzhi (1504) to the first year of Zhengde (1506), a major overhaul was carried out.

In 1682, it was rebuilt again.

In 1953, the municipal government allocated a large sum of money for a major maintenance of Fahai Temple.

In 1957, the Beijing Municipal People's Committee listed Fahai Temple as one of the first batch of ancient buildings and cultural relics protection units in Beijing.

In 1978, the Fahai Temple Cultural Relics depository was established.

Since 1983, Beijing has spent a lot of money on large-scale repair of Fahai Temple, renovating the mountain gate and the second floor of the bell and drum, repairing and strengthening the surrounding walls, adding protective facilities for the murals of Daxiong hall, and reconstructing the four heavenly kings hall.

On May 1, 1985, Fahai Temple officially opened to the public.

In January 1988, Fahai Temple was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

In 1987, a forest park was built in Shijingshan District with Fahai Temple as the center.

layout

The temple faces south from the north and is built on the mountain. The architectural layout is very regular. On the central axis, there were the Vajra hall for Dharma protection, the four heavenly kings hall, the Mahatma hall, the pharmacist hall, and the Sutra collection building in turn. On the two wings, there are the bell and Drum Tower, the Jialan hall, the second Hall of the patriarch, the first Abbot's house, the Buddha selection hall, the cloud hall, the kitchen, and the squatter room. About 1 km away from the temple, there is a distant gate. Now there are only the mountain gate and the Mahatma hall And so on. Among them, the main hall is five rooms wide, with yellow glazed tiles on the top of the hall. The murals of Ming Dynasty in the hall are the oldest and most complete murals in Beijing, which occupy an important position in the existing mural art in China.

mural

introduce

Murals are distributed on the walls of the hall, with a total of 9 shops, and 3 shops on the back wall of the niche. The paintings are Shui Yue Guan Yin, Manjusri and Puxian Bodhisattvas. Shuiyue Guanyin has a dignified and kind face, wears a light gauze, and has fine patterns, which seems to be floating. On the East and west walls, there are 35 characters painted in the legend, such as the emperor, empress, king, believer, strongman and boy. They are nearly 2 meters high and only 50 cm low. They are set off by auspicious clouds, flowers and animals.

The frescoes of Fahai Temple are famous for their typical works of the Ming Dynasty. There are 10 complete Ming Dynasty murals on the six walls of Daxiong hall, which are distributed on the west side of the north gate of Daxiong hall, behind the niches and behind the eighteen Arhats.

On the back of the niche are painted Guanyin, Manjusri on the right and two Bodhisattvas of Puxian on the left. Around them are painted shancai boy, Weituo, offering Buddha, machuan lion, elephant tamer, parrot and bird, clear spring, green bamboo and peony. Among them, shuiyueguanyin is the most vivid, giving people a fresh and quiet feeling.

There are 77 characters in the ten murals, with different and lifelike poses. Although it was created more than 550 years ago, it still has bright colors and can be regarded as a treasure of Buddhist art. The frescoes of Fahai Temple, which are comparable to the frescoes of song and Yuan Dynasties in Dunhuang, will be well sealed up. When visitors come back, they will see the printed copies of these frescoes. Due to the long-term erosion of air and dust, the murals preserved for 560 years appeared peeling and color fading. In order to protect these art treasures, the Municipal Bureau of cultural relics decided to copy the murals, and the original murals will be sealed up. On the basis of the original pharmacist hall, a pharmacist Hall of the same scale will be rebuilt. All the copied murals will be stored here, while the Daxiong hall with Ming Dynasty Murals will only be open to cultural relic experts.

According to reports, during the "Cultural Revolution", the red guards lived in the hall. In the past, the candles lit by monks in the hall blackened the lower part of the hall, while the upper part was relatively high, and there was no light in the hall. The red guards did not find that these murals were made of many gold foils, so they escaped.

There are three caissons on the top of the main hall, and the "Mandala" and Bodhi statues on the canopy are also exquisitely painted.

author

The author of these murals discovered from a Lengyan Sutra building near Fahai Temple, which was erected by Li Fushan, a winter eunuch of Jiazi in the ninth year of the Ming Dynasty (1444). Among the titles of Zhuyuan Xieshen, there are not only the names of bricklayers, stonecutters, sculptors, makeup artists, inlaid Goldsmiths and other craftsmen, but also sculptors such as Lu GUI and Xu Xiang, painting sergeants such as Wan Fuqing and Wang Shu, and painters such as Zhang Ping Wang Yi, Gu Xing, Li Yuan, pan Fu, Xu Fuyao and others. The Jingzhuang was set up in the second year after the completion of the construction of Fahai Temple. It was written by Chen Jing, deputy Jingkou of the camp repair Office of the Ministry of work. The names of the people listed on the Jingzhuang are undoubtedly the craftsmen who built Fahai Temple under the camp repair Office of the Ministry of work at that time. From this, we can see that these exquisite artistic masterpieces of Fahai Temple were painted by these painting sergeants and painters.

Ancient trees

There are many ancient and famous trees in Fahai Temple. For example, there is a small stone bridge on the incense Road southwest of the mountain gate. Xiaoshiqiao is the three forks of xiangdao. At the four corners of xiaoshiqiao, there grows an ancient cypress. The roots of the ancient cypress grow in the crevices of xiaoshiqiao, which becomes a wonder. People call it "four cypresses and one hole bridge". In front of the Mountain Gate of Fahai Temple, there are four towering ancient cypresses, which seem to be the four heavenly kings guarding the temple. People call them "Four Heavenly Kings cypresses". In front of the main hall of the temple, there are two huge white pines. Their green crowns are more than 30 meters high, and their white scales are mottled. One in the west is 5.5 meters long, and the other in the East is 5 meters long. In particular, the one in the west is stronger than the famous white pine "white robed general" in Beihai Tuancheng. The two white pines of Fahai Temple were planted in the Ming Dynasty when the temple was built. It has been more than 560 years now. They are like two silver dragons guarding the hall, which is called "white dragon pine". These two white pines are famous pines in the capital. The green crown of white trunk and the hall of the great male mirror each other. Pinus bungeana has been regarded as "white dragon" or "dragon" by Chinese people since ancient times. It is mostly planted in palaces, gardens, mausoleums and temples.

traffic

Take bus 336 at Fuchengmen to Shougang community, and walk for 15 minutes after getting off.

Address: No.48, modokou, south foot of Cuiwei mountain, Shijingshan District, Beijing

Longitude: 116.16237640381

Latitude: 39.939155578613

Tel: 010-88715776

Ticket information: 20 yuan

Opening hours: 9:00-16:00

Chinese PinYin : Fa Hai Si