Geyuan Temple

Geyuan Temple

Geyuan temple is located in the middle of Laiyuan County, Hebei Province, in the city wall on the west side of the drum tower in the old county. It is a millennium old temple and a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Geyuan temple, "founded in the Eastern Han Dynasty and rebuilt in the Tang Dynasty", the earliest existing building is Manjusri hall built in the early Liao Dynasty. It is the earliest, large-scale and best preserved civil building in China. It is one of the few civil buildings with more than one thousand years in China, and has high historical, scientific and artistic value.

Geyuan temple was called "Gezi Temple" before Ming Dynasty. It may have been a temple mainly composed of attics. Geyuan temple, a famous millennium old temple, is undergoing its first major repair since the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, and will be reopened to the public in 2020.

Brief introduction to the temple

Geyuan temple as a "national treasure", the core refers to the "Manjusri hall". From the historical, scientific and artistic value of this Manjusri temple, it can represent the civilization of the Chinese nation in the early Liao Dynasty.

The Manjusri temple is one of the few civil structures that have been built for more than a thousand years in China. Moreover, the Manjusri hall is large-scale, well preserved, and has never been overhauled. Manjusri hall is the representative of the official architecture in the early Liao Dynasty. In the history of Chinese ancient architecture, its columns, brackets, window lattice, murals, color paintings on the outer edge, the original body image in the hall and the ancient bell in the southeast corner of the courtyard are the "seven wonders" of Geyuan temple. Among them, the large iron bell in the southeast corner of Geyuan temple is the only existing large iron bell of Liao Dynasty with a clear date in China. It was cast in the fourth year of Tianqing (1114). The bell is 1.6 meters high, 1.5 meters in diameter and weighs about 4000 Jin. The bell has six ears, which symbolizes "six roots", namely, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. There are more than 1200 words on the bell. The upper part of the clock is the Vajra Sutra, and there are 55 ancient Indian characters, namely Sanskrit. Tourists who have not seen Sanskrit can see what Sanskrit looks like. Geyuan Temple: 5 yuan

Historical evolution

Geyuan temple, also known as "big temple", is located in the northwest corner of Laiyuan County, Hebei Province, northern China. It is a Buddhist temple with the architectural style of Liao Dynasty (916-1125 AD).

It is said that the Geyuan temple was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 A.D.) and rebuilt in the Tang Dynasty. In the Liao Dynasty, it was repaired on a large scale, and most of the existing buildings retain the architectural characteristics of the Liao Dynasty.

Geyuan temple covers an area of about 6900 square meters. There are some existing buildings in the temple, such as Tianwang hall, Manjusri hall, dongxipeidian hall, sutra building, dongxichan room, etc. Wenshu hall, the main building of Geyuan temple, was built in 966 A.D. in the 16th year of Liao Dynasty. It is nearly square in plane, with a construction area of 484 square meters. It has a single eaves and a gable roof.

There is a broad platform in front of the hall, on which two ancient pines are planted. The wooden structure, the bucket arch and some decoration of the hall all show the obvious architectural style of Liao Dynasty. The original Manjusri lion riding wall is only one in China, but it has been damaged. In front of the Manjusri hall stands a white jade Scripture building with eight ridges in Liao Dynasty. On the base of the bell tower in the southeast of the hall, there is an iron bell cast in 1114 A.D.

There are eight temples

① It is the oldest existing civil structure building in China; the most typical official building in the early Liao Dynasty; the only three Bay, square building with reduced columns in China; this pattern is the only mural representing the highest level of Liao Dynasty and the largest single Buddha scale in China;

⑤ It is the earliest existing Linghua lattice; it represents the highest level of Chinese ancient architecture; it is the earliest blue-green colored painting on the outside; it is the only Liao Dynasty clock with clear inscription in China.

The plane of Manjusri hall is nearly square, with three rooms wide and three rooms deep. It is built on a 0.75-meter-high brick platform, with a wide platform in front. Two ancient pines stand symmetrically in front of the hall, making the hall more simple and solemn. Its architectural form is a single eaves bouachier peak, overlapping astringent ridge, green glass kiss.

The structure of the arch of Manjusri hall is rigorous, natural and harmonious. Each component is occluded with each other, leaving no gap. The supporting force fully conforms to the mechanical principle. Due to its exquisite materials and reasonable structure, it is still standing upright despite thousands of years of wind and rain.

Manjusri hall has three treasures. One is the unique architectural style of the hall itself. The second is the lattice lattice doors and windows, which can be called the isolated wood carving. At the main entrance of Manjusri hall, there are two lattice lattice doors and windows of the Liao Dynasty that have been in good condition for thousands of years. This is one of the oldest, well preserved and still in use wooden window lattice in China. It is known as an isolated piece of wood carving. The third is excellent murals.

In Manjusri hall, there are large murals on the East, West and North walls, which have been preserved for a long time because they are covered with yellow mud. From the content of the mud slab, the painting is a Buddhist story, and the painting style retains a strong Tang Dynasty style. It seems that his exquisite painting skill is not from the hands of folk artists, but from the masterpieces of the palace painting academy.

Geyuan temple, a famous millennium old temple, is undergoing its first major repair since the 20th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, and will be reopened to the public in 2020.

Due to thousands of years of wind and rain, many ancient buildings in Geyuan temple, such as Manjusri hall, Tianwang hall and Sutra house, have appeared cracks. In order to protect this ancient temple, experts from the State Administration of cultural relics approved the master plan of cultural relics protection of Geyuan temple with a total investment of 45 million yuan in 2009. It is planned to be completed in three phases, and the first phase of the project will start at the end of October that year. According to the records of the stele of renovating Geyuan temple in the 20th year of Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, there has been no large-scale renovation of Geyuan temple since it was renovated in the 20th year of Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty. The renovation project is expected to be completed around 2020.

Address: west side of Guangchang street, Laiyuan County, Hebei Province

Longitude: 114.68835382409

Latitude: 39.35367269144

Chinese PinYin : Ge Yuan Si