Wuliang Hall

Wuliang Hall

Wuliang Hall of Linggu Temple is located in Linggu Park, Zhongshan scenic spot, Zijin Mountain, Xuanwu District, Nanjing city. It is the longest and largest brick arched temple in China. It was built in 1381 of the Ming Dynasty. It was originally Wuliang Hall of Linggu Temple, which worships wuliangshou Buddha. Because the whole building adopts brick arched structure without wooden beam, it is also called Wuliang hall, which was listed in 2001 It has been listed in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

The Wuliang hall is tall and built with bricks instead of nails. Therefore, it is also called Wuliang hall. It is the earliest and largest building of its kind in China. In 1931 (20 years of the Republic of China), the national government rebuilt Wuliang hall as the memorial hall of the National Revolutionary Army soldiers' cemetery, named Zhengqi hall. Now Wuliang hall is opened as the wax museum of 1911 Revolution celebrities.

Historical evolution

In 1381 ad, located at the foot of Zijin Mountain in Nanjing, a magnificent brick and stone building, the Wuliang hall, was erected. More than 600 years later, Wuliang hall has gone through many wars and vicissitudes, but with its solid stone brick structure, it has been well preserved to this day. Wuliang hall is now a memorial hall for the dead soldiers' cemetery.

Wuliang Hall of Linggu Temple was built in the 14th year of Hongwu (1381) of Ming Dynasty. The hall worships Wuliang longevity Buddha, so it is called Wuliang hall. Because the whole building is built with bricks and there are no wooden beams and columns, it is also called Wuliang hall. According to the records, Wuliang Temple once worshipped three Buddhas in the orthodox period, with 24 celestial statues on both sides, and was used for Sutra collection. It was repaired many times in the Jiaqing and Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty. In the Xianfeng years, Linggu Temple was the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army. Most of the buildings in the temple were destroyed by the war between the Qing army and the Taiping army. Only this brick Wuliang Temple survived.

In 1928, the national government built a cemetery for the soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army on the original site of Linggu Temple, which was completed in 1933.

In 1931, Wuliang hall was completely repaired and changed into a memorial hall in a cemetery, named Zhengqi hall. In the south of Wuliang hall are the gate and archway of the cemetery, and in the north are the cemetery, the Memorial Hall (now SONGFENG Pavilion) and the memorial tower (now Linggu tower). In 1981, Nanjing Municipal People's Government of the people's Republic of China renovated the beamless hall again.

Architectural features

Linggu Temple is the largest one of the similar structures in China. The hall faces south, with a platform in front. It is five rooms wide from east to west, 53.8 meters long, three rooms deep from south to north, 37.85 meters wide, and the top of the hall is 22 meters high.

There are three white glazed Lama towers in the middle of the main ridge on the top of the hall. The largest glazed Lama tower in the middle of the hall has a hollow octagonal base, which is connected with the top of the caisson in the hall and can leak light into the hall. This design is very rare in the existing ancient buildings in China. The hall is a brick arched structure, with three arched structures in the east-west direction. The middle arched structure has a span of 11.5 meters and a net height of 14 meters. The arched structures on both sides are slightly smaller, with a span of 5 meters and a height of 7.4 meters. There are three doors on the front and back eaves of the hall, one window on each side of the arch of the front eaves, four windows on each side of the wall, and the doors and windows are also in the form of arches. The front and back eaves are about 4 meters thick, and the structure is very strong.

Architectural pattern

At the back of Wuliang hall is the first cemetery of soldiers killed in battle. This tomb, together with the second and third cemeteries located 300 meters from east to west, buries 1029 soldiers killed in the Northern Expedition and anti Japanese war. Behind the arc-shaped tomb wall is SONGFENG Pavilion, which is built on dozens of steps. The pavilion is 10 meters high and 41.7 meters wide. It has two floors of nine pillars, an ambulatory, surrounded by red pillars. The second floor is hollow, covered with green glazed tiles and blue eaves. There is a Baoding in the middle of the corridor behind the pavilion. It is engraved with the four characters "Mingding chuxun". One hundred meters to the north of Linggu Temple is Linggu tower, the landmark scenic spot of Linggu Temple. The tower is 66 meters high, with nine floors and eight sides. The diameter of the bottom floor is 14 meters, and the diameter of the top floor is 9 meters. It is a mixed structure of granite and reinforced concrete. It was built in 1933. It was called the memorial tower of the dead in battle at that time, commonly known as the nine storey tower. Inside the tower, there are 252 spiral steps around the central stone column. Each floor is covered with blue glazed tile eaves. Outside the tower, there is a circle of corridors, which are surrounded by stone railings for visitors to overlook.

In the east of Wuliang hall, there is Linggu Temple, in which the main hall is for Tathagata Buddha; daojue hall is for the spiritual bones of master Xuanzang; Guanyin Pavilion is for Guanyin Bodhisattva; there are also Sutra collection building, Maitreya hall, ancestral hall and other buildings. Opposite the temple gate is a yellow screen wall with a top. There is a quality monument in the east of the temple, which is about 5 meters high and engraved with the word "Linggu Shensong". Further east across the bridge is a five Ying ancient building called Liuyuan hall, which is now a foreign restaurant.

The tomb of Deng Yanda is less than 100 meters southeast of Liuchu hall. In the middle of the tomb is a round flower bed. There are open-air corridors on both sides, surrounded by concrete bars and Wisteria as awning, and a Square Pavilion at each end of the corridor. In front of the tomb are cedars and cypresses. There are lawns on the ground and stone walls on the East, West and north sides. There is a granite tombstone in front of the tomb, engraved with "the tomb of martyr Deng Yanda" written by He Xiangning. The tomb is round, built on a platform, 4.5 meters high and 9.5 meters in diameter. It is a provincial cultural relics protection unit.

There is a Wuliang hall beside Linggu Temple, which was originally called Wuliang hall. It got its name because Wuliang longevity Buddha was worshipped in the hall. The hall was built in the early Ming Dynasty, and it was named Wuliang hall because the whole building had no beam and column, and it didn't need inch wood nails. From the base to the top, it was built with huge bricks to form a hole dome. It inherits the traditional structure, arch style, five couplets three into, east-west length 50 meters, South-North width 34 meters, depth 37.8 meters, domed, into the top 22 meters high, before and after each three arches, four windows. Its architecture has a long history, magnificent momentum and solid structure, which can be rated as the best of its kind in China.

According to the records of sweeping and repairing Wuliang palace in 1718, the palace was founded in Hongwu Period of Ming Dynasty. During the reign of Zhengtong (1436-1449), three Buddhas were worshipped in the hall, and 24 celestial statues were erected by the two emperors, and scriptures were stored in the hall. It was repaired in Jiaqing (1796-1820) and Daoguang (1831). During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Linggu Temple was the site of the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army. All the buildings in the temple were destroyed by fire. Only the brick structure of the beamless hall survived. In 1928, the national government built a cemetery for the soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army on the site of Linggu Temple to "comfort the loyal souls". Wuliang hall, as a hall in front of the tomb, is known as "Zhengqi hall". In front of the hall, a gate and a stone square were built. At the back of the hall, a cemetery, a memorial hall (now SONGFENG Pavilion) and a memorial tower were built. Most of them are well preserved today. Now it has been turned into Linggu Temple Park.

Wuliang temple is one of the main buildings of Linggu Temple in Ming Dynasty, and it is also the only building of Linggu Temple in Ming Dynasty. The hall faces south. There is a spacious platform in front of it. It is five rooms wide, 53.8 meters long from east to west, three rooms deep, 37.85 meters from north to South and 22 meters high. The top of double eaves Geshan hall is covered with grey tiles, and the ridge is decorated with kisses, horned beasts and immortals. In the middle of the ridge are three white glazed Lama pagodas, the largest of which is octagonal with hollow base and connected with the caisson in the hall. This practice is the first in the existing ancient buildings in China. During the period of the Republic of China, the eaves and brackets were made of cement. The walls of the hall were built with Ming Dynasty bricks. There are three doors and two windows on the front eaves and three doors on the back wall. There are four windows on each side (one on the top and one on the bottom in the middle). They are all in the form of arch certificates, and the outside is pasted with polished bricks to make a pot door. The hall is composed of three long arches juxtaposed horizontally from east to west. The middle arch is the largest, with a span of 11.5 meters and a net height of 14 meters. The span of the front and back arches is 5 meters and the height is 7.4 meters. There is a thick wall under the arch. There are five holes in the front wall, and only one hole in each side of the back wall. There is an octagonal hole on the top of the caisson directly above Zhongquan Mingjian, which is just connected with Zhengji Lama tower and has light leakage. Due to the large lateral horizontal thrust of the column, the front and rear eaves of the hall are nearly 4 meters thick. Although the structure of Wuliang hall is simple, it is very firm. It has lasted for more than 600 years, and it is still majestic. There are wax statues of war in Wuliang hall, including Emperor Ming and Dr. Sun Yat Sen.

inscription on a tablet

The Wuliang Hall of Linggu Temple is built with three arched circles on the north side, each with a black framed stone tablet. In the center of the monument, Zhang Jingjiang inscribed "the memorial tablet of the soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army in battle", in the west, Chiang Kai Shek's oath of the northern expedition, and in the East, Chen Guofu's memorial to the central executive committee of the Kuomintang. After 1949, the inscriptions on the three stone tablets were polished, and when they were renovated in 1981, they were respectively engraved with "the spirit of the martyrs of the national revolution", "the National Anthem of the Republic of China" and "the will of the father of the nation". On the four walls of the hall, there are 110 pieces of Taihu blue stone steles with a total of 33224 soldiers and soldiers killed by the national revolutionary army. Among them, the first to the 61st steles are engraved with a list of the soldiers who died in the northern expedition from 1926 to 1930; the 62nd to the 67th steles are engraved with a list of the soldiers of the 19th Route Army who died in the Anti Japanese war in Songhu battlefield from January to April 1932; and the 68th to the 110th steles are engraved with a list of the soldiers who died in the Anti Japanese war in North China from September 1931 to may 1933.

Address: Wuliang hall, East Street, Canglang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

Longitude: 120.618169

Latitude: 31.292783

Chinese PinYin : Wu Liang Dian