Dongyang Houtu Temple

Dongyang Houtu Temple

Dongyang Houtu temple was first built in 1282, and was destroyed by the earthquake in 1303. It was rebuilt in 1345. The existing hall, pavilion and stage still keep the style of Yuan Dynasty.

brief introduction

Houtu temple in Dongyang

From the northwest of Linfen City, you can drive 15 kilometers to Dongyang Dongyue Temple, the famous opera stage of the Yuan Dynasty. Push open the door of the temple, eyes were immediately shocked. Among the shade of green trees and the ornament of flowers, stands a large red wall and brown tile stage - the famous Dongyue Temple stage in Dongyang.

history

The stage faces north and south, with a square plane, 7.47 meters wide and 7.55 meters deep. The front porch is open, the three sides are closed, and the cross is at the top of the mountain. The steps are 1.75 meters high and 3.5 meters deep. There are two round stone columns in front of the stage, and a lotus covered column base. The patterns of lotus and peony peanut boy are embossed on the columns. The inner eaves are three layers of Dougong, which are folded into Eight Trigram shaped caisson. The structure is unique and exquisite, so the stage is also called Eight Trigram Pavilion. The murals on the back wall of the stage are lifelike. The stage of the Yuan Dynasty in Dongyang is the most exquisite of the seven remaining early stages in China, with exquisite workmanship. It is an important material for studying the development history of Yuan Zaju in Pingyang and the construction regulation of stage in Jin and Yuan Dynasties.

In history, Dongyang Dongyue Temple is full of incense and smoke. In the main hall, the statue of emperor Dongyue is more than 3 meters high. In the East chamber, the statue of hell is on the 18th floor. In the west chamber, the statue of arhat and some unknown gods are on the 18th floor. Every year, March 12 is the birthday of empress Houtu. People from surrounding villages come to catch up with the temple fair. During the land reform period, Dongyue Temple became a primary school in the village, where he and the children went to school. In the 1970s, because of the reconstruction of the classroom, the East and West Wing rooms were demolished. Later, because the main hall of Dongyue Temple became a dangerous building, and the gables and back walls were about to collapse, the villagers supported it with wooden columns. They were afraid that students would go in and play in danger. The village simply demolished the main hall. The only thing left in the whole temple was Houtu Notre Dame hall. Dongyue Temple in Dongyang village has another name Word - Houtu temple.

Notre Dame is an eye opener. The empress dowager, empress WA, and Princess Bixia, who are dressed in Ming Dynasty costumes, sit on the lotus throne like stars holding the moon. Their hair style adopts a special bun. There are four golden peacocks in the special bun, with a pearl knot in the mouth. There is a peacock on the front, one on the left and one on the right, with a pearl tube in the middle, which is a typical Ming Dynasty hair style. The three Notre dames have plump faces and a golden yellow forehead in the middle of their forehead, which complements their eyebrows and red lips. The costumes of the three Notre dames are shawls, cross necked blouses, breast and back with patches; one holds a GUI, the other holds it; the waist has a jade ring belt, and the feet wear cloud head shoes, showing women's dignity. The maid next to her is lifelike. She wears a black felt hat with a pendant. On the top of the hat, there are golden flowers and birds carrying beads. With yellow forehead, plump face, long Bijia and exposed inner skirt, it should be a kind of costume in Wanli period of Ming Dynasty. In addition, one of the maids in the temple is not as stiff as before. She just pushes the door of the house to cover her face, which is comparable to the elegant and pure nature of the maids in the temple of Jin and Song dynasties. Around and on the beams of these exquisite Ming Dynasty statues are decorated with wood carvings of dragons and Phoenix, and the immortals standing on the peony group brocade are even more lifelike.

Nowadays, these exquisite sculptures are either missing arms or broken hands, or even lying on the wall in different places. And most of the colors have seriously peeled off. The wooden sculptures on the back of the statue and around the main beam are bent, broken or crumbling. Under the cover of dust, they still can't hide her beauty. Looking around, the hall is full of wind, and the gables outside are cracked in many places.

Architecture

On both sides of the stage are two square stone columns with a height of about 5 meters and a width of more than 40 cm. There is a lotus child embossed on the column. On the front of the stage is a Yuan Dynasty mural, Zhong Kui catching ghosts, which is lifelike. What's more amazing is that the whole stage has no main beam, but the "eight trigrams save the top" formed by overlapping the Dou Gong and the wellhead Fang layer upon layer, which can be regarded as a unique ancient architecture in China.

Dongyang stage has a large scale and is the best stage in Yuan Dynasty. The entrance is 7.75 meters wide and the body is 3.5 meters deep. Such a spacious building is located on the 1.75 meter high platform, which is open and bright. It is really the best place for performing arts on it. The sagacity of our ancestors has been delivered from the depth of history. Not to mention, there are stone pillars on both sides of the stage, on which are engraved with lotus flowers and children; the top is of the cross Xieshan style, and the inner eaves and beams are folded into algal wells, which are in the shape of eight trigrams, also known as the eight trigrams stage; there is a back wall behind the stage, on which Zhong Kui's greed is painted. Today, this is a precious picture. Zhong Kui's angry eyes are wide open, and he is stabbing the beast in his crotch with his sharp blade. This beast is greed. All kinds of animals can be found everywhere, but the greedy one is not found. It turns out that the greedy one is not something else, or the greedy one that people often say is "the snake swallows the elephant, the greedy one can't swallow the sun"! I don't know if there is such an animal as greed in the world, but the wise predecessors activated it here to remind people not to die of greed under Zhong Kui's blade. If today's world needs an anti-corruption picture to guard against corrupt officials and curb material desires, it will not take the painstaking efforts of the painter to create it again. This picture of Zhong Kui's corruption can be used and printed in large quantities.

Culture

"When it comes to Dongyang stage, we have to start with drama." Qiao Zhongyan, a famous essayist, said that as early as the Tang Dynasty, China had "song and dance drama" and "military drama". Especially in the song and Yuan Dynasties, it gradually developed into a "Zaju" in which characters perform stories. With the development of drama art, the stage has developed from the earliest flat fence theater to the "open-air" stage built on flat ground and surrounded by people. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols took Shanxi as their rear area. Because Pingyang Prefecture was rarely damaged by war, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. In addition, the people of Pingyang liked to sing songs, so the drama art flourished for a time.

There is an unwritten custom here that every temple fair will sing opera. One is to pray for good weather and good harvest, and the other is to pray for exorcism and family safety. Opera itself is a kind of ceremony to reward the gods. The stage was built entirely with the help of the villagers. After it was built, many famous actors even performed for several days.

Address: Dongyang village, Tumen Town, Yaodu District, Linfen City, Shanxi Province

Longitude: 111.50467940348

Latitude: 36.19145325791

Chinese PinYin : Dong Yang Hou Tu Miao