Chongfu temple in Shuozhou

Chongfu temple is a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is located in the north of the East Street in Shuozhou ancient city. It was built in 665 by Yuchi Jingde, Duke of Hubei Province. The main hall of Chongfu temple is Mituo hall. It was built in 1143, and has a history of more than 800 years. The hall is seven rooms wide, 40.96 meters wide and 22.31 meters deep. Hall for the single eaves Xie peak, the total height of about 21 meters. The hall is located on a high platform with a height of 2.4 meters. There is a spacious platform in front of the platform, which makes the hall tall, magnificent and spectacular. Under the eaves of the front of the hall, there is a vertical plaque of "Mituo hall", which is the original object of the 24th year of jindading (1184). In front of the hall, there are five separate doors. In the back eaves, there are two large plate doors for visitors to enter the hall. In order to expand the internal space area, be careful of five rooms, subtract the central pillar, and leave only two gold pillars in the front slot, and move them to the middle line of the second room, which increases the space of the Buddhist altar and the part of worshiping the Buddha. This method of reducing and moving the pillars is a bold innovation in the history of Chinese architecture. The statues in the hall of Amitabha are distributed on the big Buddha altar with four long spans. The main statue is seated at the beginning. In the middle is Amitabha Buddha, on the left is Guanyin Bodhisattva, and on the right is dashizhi Bodhisattva. Buddhism calls it the "three saints of the west". There are four Bodhisattvas on both sides of the main statue, and their bodies are slightly curved. There are two vajras standing at the two corners of the stage, majestic and vigorous, with angry eyes. It seems that they are performing their respective duties of protecting the law. These colored sculptures were all created at the time of building the palace. Although they were re decorated in the Ming Dynasty, their shape, body, clothing and face did not change greatly. They are still treasures of the statues of the Jin Dynasty in China. There are 345.75 square meters of murals all around the hall, which is also a work of Jin Dynasty. The main content of the painting is Buddha and Bodhisattva. In one hall, there are many kinds of Jin Dynasty cultural relics, such as architecture, statues, murals, glass, doors and windows, plaques under the eaves, ink inscriptions and so on. After more than 800 years of cold and heat, they are intact, which is really rare. In addition, there are Qianfo Pavilion, Tianwang hall, bell and Drum Tower, Manjusri hall, dizang hall, Sanbao hall, Guanyin hall, etc., which are also quite spectacular. In addition to the above-mentioned splendid buildings, Chongfu temple also preserves wooden pavilion shaped niches, stone sculptures of Tang, Liao and Song Dynasties and many unearthed cultural relics. Among them, the stone statues of Liao Dynasty and the stone pagodas of Northern Wei Dynasty are also very attractive.

Chongfu temple in Shuozhou

Chongfu temple is a national key cultural relic protection unit, north of the East Street in Shuozhou ancient city. It was built in 665 by Yuchi Jingde, Duke of Hubei Province.

From the end of the epidemic to December 31, 2020, medical workers across the country (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) can visit the scenic spot free of charge with valid certificates.

General situation

The main hall of Chongfu temple is Mituo hall. It was built in 1143, and has a history of more than 800 years. The hall is seven rooms wide, 40.96 meters wide and 22.31 meters deep. Hall for the single eaves Xie peak, the total height of about 21 meters. The hall is located on a high platform with a height of 2.4 meters. There is a spacious platform in front of the platform, which makes the hall tall, magnificent and spectacular. Under the eaves of the front of the hall, there is a vertical plaque of "Mituo hall", which is the original object of the 24th year of jindading (1184). In front of the hall, there are five separate doors. In the back eaves, there are two large plate doors for visitors to enter the hall. In order to expand the internal space area, be careful of five rooms, subtract the central pillar, and leave only two gold pillars in the front slot, and move them to the middle line of the second room, which increases the space of the Buddhist altar and the part of worshiping the Buddha. This method of reducing and moving the pillars is a bold innovation in the history of Chinese architecture.

The statues in the hall of Amitabha are distributed on the big Buddha altar with four long spans. The main statue is seated at the beginning. In the middle is Amitabha Buddha, on the left is Guanyin Bodhisattva, and on the right is dashizhi Bodhisattva. Buddhism calls it the "three saints of the west". There are four Bodhisattvas on both sides of the main statue, and their bodies are slightly curved. There are two vajras standing at the two corners of the stage, majestic and vigorous, with angry eyes. It seems that they are performing their respective duties of protecting the law. These colored sculptures were all created at the time of building the palace. Although they were re decorated in the Ming Dynasty, their shape, body, clothing and face did not change greatly. They are still treasures of the statues of the Jin Dynasty in China.

There are 345.75 square meters of murals all around the hall, which is also a work of Jin Dynasty. The main content of the painting is Buddha and Bodhisattva. In one hall, there are many kinds of Jin Dynasty cultural relics, such as architecture, statues, murals, glass, doors and windows, plaques under the eaves, ink inscriptions and so on. After more than 800 years of cold and heat, they are intact, which is really rare. In addition, there are Qianfo Pavilion, Tianwang hall, bell and Drum Tower, Manjusri hall, dizang hall, Sanbao hall, Guanyin hall, etc., which are also quite spectacular.

In addition to the above-mentioned splendid buildings, Chongfu temple also preserves wooden pavilion shaped niches, stone sculptures of Tang, Liao and Song Dynasties and many unearthed cultural relics. Among them, the stone statues of Liao Dynasty and the stone pagodas of Northern Wei Dynasty are also very attractive.

historical background

In the Mituo Hall of Chongfu temple, there is a precious cultural relic, the thousand Buddha stone pagoda, which reflects the artistic achievements of Buddhism in the Northern Dynasties. The stone pagoda of Thousand Buddhas is a sacred relic of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a treasure of Chongfu temple in Shuozhou, and a national first-class cultural relic collection. According to the records at the bottom of the pagoda, in the first year of Tian'an in the Northern Dynasty (466 AD), Cao Tiandu, a small Minister of tuobahong, devoted his family's assets to carving. It has a history of more than 1500 years. The tower is composed of tower base, tower body and tower brake. It is about 3 meters high and made of stone. The plane of the thousand Buddha stone pagoda is square. The height of the pagoda is 205 cm, with a total of nine floors. There are more than 1400 relief Buddha statues on the pagoda. In particular, the statue of Shili Bodhisattva is 1.81 meters high, which is similar to that of a real person. The niches on the Tasha are unprecedented. The lower part of the tower brake is carved into a brake base column, which is stably placed at the top of the top layer. The plane is square, and the total height is about 50 cm. The base pillar of the temple bears the body of the temple, and each corner has a niche. In the niche, two small Buddha sitting statues are embossed, and one figure is carved on the corner column. Under the niche, lotus is used as the knot, and the upper part is raised out of the eaves, bearing the battlement shaped banana leaves, and the small Buddha sitting statues are carved in the middle of the mountain flowers. The top of the eaves is covered with bowls, on which there are nine rings and beads. The most vivid part of the stone pagoda is that there is a "Xiaohun" curve on the left and right sides of the niche, surrounded by small Buddhas on the upper left and right sides, completely shaping a world of Buddhas. The statues and artistic style are very similar to the pillars of Yungang Grottoes. At the top of the four corners of each floor, the eaves of the tower are tilted, the wing angles are slightly tilted, and the rafters, eaves and stone roofs are all complete, which are completely carved in imitation of wood structure. The facade image of the stone tower is exquisite and beautiful. The height of each layer is gradually low, and the width of the tower is gradually decreasing. The outline of the tower is slightly inward, tall and handsome, and it is in the shape of a pyramid. It is the product of the ingenious combination of Chinese heavy building and Indian tower structure. It is the earliest existing Pavilion style Pagoda in China, which has important reference value for the study of Buddhism, pagoda building and carving art in Northern Dynasties. Mr. Huang Yongchuan, director of Taipei Museum of history and cultural relic expert, has studied the thousand Buddha stone pagoda for many years. He has studied the significance of making stone pagoda, image carving, carving significance of decorative patterns, color accessories, art form and style, and highly praised it. He calls the thousand Buddha stone pagoda a national treasure. Sun xuerui, a staff member of Chongfu temple and an expert in cultural relics research, has been keeping the Tasha since 1984. He said that if it had not been taken away by the Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China, there would have been no separation of the body and head of this masterpiece for more than half a century. When sun xuerui was young, he lived in the West Street of Shuocheng district. He shared the street with a Ding family. In the local area, the Ding family is a big family with high cultural quality. Ding Kecheng, a man in the Ding family, once took many risks to protect Tasha. In 1937, after the Japanese occupied Shuo county (now Shuo city), the Japanese stationed in Chongfu temple. At that time, the thousand Buddha pagoda was stored in the southeast corner of Mituo Hall of Chongfu temple, which is the treasure of the town temple. Attracted by the exquisite carving art and cultural value of the stone pagoda, the Japanese Army wanted to take it as their own. In 1939, the Japanese army secretly transported the stone pagoda to Japan. Just as the stone pagoda was about to be taken away by Japanese aggressors, Ding Kecheng, out of patriotic complex, risked his life to hide the Tasha part of the stone pagoda. Later, the body of the tower was taken back to Japan by the Japanese army and placed in the imperial Museum of Tokyo like many other plunders. After Japan's unconditional surrender, the tower was returned to China, and then moved to Taiwan, where it is now in the Taipei Museum of history. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Ding Kecheng dedicated the Tasha to the country, and the Tasha returned to Chongfu temple. Tasha and the body of the tower have been looking at each other across the sea for more than 50 years. In 1979, Graz, a professor specializing in stone pagodas at a university in Austria, was very excited when he saw behind the thousand Buddha stone pagoda in Taipei. He said that the Tasha of Chongfu temple in Shuo county, Shanxi Province was the Tasha of the stone pagoda, and immediately published an article to discuss it. In 1984, after sun xuerui took over the custody of the Tasha, he found the Tasha with serious residual corrosion in the corner of the warehouse. He gently wiped the dust off the Tasha, and the fine carving lines were still vivid through the vicissitudes of time. Although lonely, but still vivid. Sun xuerui said that after more than 20 years of getting along with Tasha, he and Tasha already have feelings. In his eyes, Tasha is alive, can speak, can transmit a kind of message, and seems to be looking forward to an early reunion. The nine storey stone pagoda has been built

Chinese PinYin : Shuo Zhou Chong Fu Si