Xishan Temple

Xishan Temple

Xishan temple, originally known as Guandi temple, is located at the east foot of Daliang Fengshan (also known as Xishan) in Shunde District of Foshan City. It was first built in 1541, the 20th year of Jiajing reign of Ming Dynasty, and was completed in 1564, the 43rd year of Jiajing reign of Ming Dynasty. The temple is built close to the mountain and has been rebuilt and expanded. Now it is rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty. It covers an area of 4800 square meters and a building area of 3700 square meters. The front seat consists of the gate and the front hall. The front is in the style of Que gate. The three gates are side by side, and the high hall is open. On both sides of the que gate are the left and right Qu gates, and the original wide road leads to the back mountain. The back seat is the main hall, standing on dozens of broad stone steps. Outside the temple, there are brick carvings, grey sculptures, murals and painted pottery statues. The temple was rebuilt by the county government in 1985. Now it is a cultural relic protection unit in the district.

brief introduction

Xishan temple, formerly known as Guandi temple, is located on the West Road of Daliang street, Shunde District, Foshan City. Because it was built at the foot of Xishan (Fengshan) in Shunde County, people call it "Xishan Temple".

Human history

The temple was built in the 20th year of Jiajing (1541) of Ming Dynasty. It has been rebuilt in all dynasties, making the layout more complete. Generations of famous craftsmen have left behind colorful treasures of ancient architectural decoration. Moreover, it is built close to the mountain, with magnificent shore and mountain gate. The temple is elegant and powerful, simple and solemn. It has become a famous scenic spot of Jufeng mountain for its beautiful landscape and collection of ancient architectural art elites hotspot.

Tourism information

main hall

Facing the northeast, Xishan temple is a courtyard style building in Qing Dynasty, covering an area of about 6000 square meters. It is divided into Mountain Gate, front hall, main hall, side hall, courtyard steps, incense Pavilion, veranda and other parts.

The main hall is built with a hard mountain top and five beams. The roof is covered with green glazed tiles, with dripping water and eaves decorated with flowers and plants, wood carvings, figure story paintings, etc. the dragon shaped corner bucket arch is decorated. The pillars in the temple are square and round, and the materials are wood and stone. The edges of the stone pillars are mostly carved in the shape of bamboo, prism and circle.

The column bases are covered basin, melon ridge, bucket shaped, square and so on. A pair of couplets are engraved on the log pillars of the main hall:

The control of the three cities by the earth's veins depends on the long-standing work of the Holy Spirit; the emperor's heart surpasses all ages, and the benefactor protection is also well-known

The first couplet refers to that there are only three gates in the East, South and north of the ancient city of our county, where the temple of Guandi was built in the West; the second couplet refers to that Zhoucang and Guanping, who followed Guandi, were also famous in the world. The couplet was written in 1895.

Shanmen

The mountain gate is five rooms wide, and the ridge top is decorated with double-sided ceramic paintings of Shiwan, Apollo, Luna, two immortals of hehe, Aoyu, double dragons playing with pearls, double phoenix rising sun, auspicious animals, etc.

The pottery and plastic paintings are all the story themes of the Three Kingdoms, such as "reading at night by holding a candle", "Crouching Niushan", "guanjiazhuang", "visiting the water mirror", "looking at the thatched cottage" and so on.

On the left and right sides of the plaque are ceramic "two dragons fighting for pearls" made by wenyi'an hall in Shiwan in the late Qing Dynasty. On the bottom are brick carvings of "seeking virtue in the Wei River" and paintings of Qilin and Phoenix. The couplet of gold lacquer wood carving hanging beside the main door:

May heaven always give birth to good people

May people always do good deeds

In front of the main entrance, there is a piece of tuanlong Shibi. On the lintels on both sides of the entrance, the words "zuoque gate" and "youque gate" are engraved respectively.

On both sides of the steps in front of the gate, there are a pair of stone lions as high as two meters. Down the steps, there are stone gate buildings and sidewalks on the left and right. They are respectively engraved with "Lu Jing Rong Yin" and "Feng Ling Chao Hui" (both named "Shunde eight sceneries" in the Qing Dynasty). The whole Mountain Gate villa is solemn and magnificent.

After entering the mountain gate, the stone steps with a width of 11 meters are displayed in front of you, which makes you feel cheerful.

Looking up, the gray tile ridge of the hall behind the platform looms among the green leaves. After climbing twenty-one stone steps and passing three small platforms, you can reach the broad courtyard steps in the temple.

On the left side, there is a small landscape of "Yuquan", with gurgling water, winding paths and winding paths. It was donated by Mr. He Zhuping, a native of Hong Kong.

There are two giant banyan trees on the left and right, which cover the front platform and half of the courtyard steps. Although it is in midsummer, the summer heat disappears completely.

palace

Inside the hall, there is a statue of Guan Yu, two meters high and made of copper, weighing 3000 Jin.

It is a cultural relic of the early Qing Dynasty. On the right side, there is a standing statue of Zhou Cang holding a knife with a dignified look; on the left side, there is a standing statue of Ping Yin Guan with a solemn look, and the shrine is covered with a flying cover, resplendent and resplendent.

The side halls on both sides of the hall are Guanyin hall and Luohan hall. The statues have different expressions, exquisite workmanship and lifelike, which make people stop and linger to enjoy.

top of a wall

All the walls of the temple are decorated with gray plastic paintings with the characteristics of the water town in the Pearl River Delta. The works of "cicadas singing in Lishu", "Kingfisher Lingbo", "Taiping overlooking", "Chun zhanchun Kui" are all original and vivid, while the works of "Qun Xian Heshou", "Eight Immortals crossing the sea", "Lao Tzu going out of the pass", "Taoyuan Jieyi", etc "Thousands of miles to see my sister-in-law off" and other ceramic wall paintings in Shiwan are even more dazzling and unforgettable.

pottery figurine

Xishan temple is characterized by ceramic tile ridge, grey sculpture on the top of the wall, murals on the eaves, stone and wood carvings. Ceramic tile ridge pays attention to artistic modeling, and the proportion of ridge decoration is relatively high. Ridge decoration "covers a wide range of drama and story themes, and exhibits local scenery, which is beautiful.".

The flower ridge at the gate of Xishan temple is decorated with the symmetrical distribution of single ceramic sculptures on the forehead, double gods of the sun and the moon, leading the way, shuangfengchaoyang and bainianhaohe. There are five groups of stories about the Three Kingdoms: looking at the thatched cottage, reading the spring and autumn at night, imitating the water mirror, closing Guanping and Woniushan, and the scenery is interspersed with each other. Thus, the flower ridge shows an orderly arrangement and produces an extremely rich rhythmic beauty Orderly three-dimensional picture, clear-cut, dazzling, magnificent scene.

The ceramic tile ridge of Xishan temple was originally created by Wen Rubi, a Shunde ceramic artist in Kangxi period, and made by Wen Yi'an hall. Wen Yi'an hall is famous for producing exquisite garden architecture pottery and ceramic tile ridge.

Now the tile ridge on the gate of Xishan temple is made by Shiwan art ceramics factory.

The grey sculptures of Xishan Temple start from the left and right leading walls and spread all over every corner.

There are mainly early Zhan Chunkui, Fulu, Yingchun, dashou, birdsong, Oriental red sun, sunset and so on.

The gray sculptures of Xishan temple were mainly remodeled by the Xingtan artist Zhou Yongchao.

stone carving

The stone carving of Xishan temple is the representative of the southern stone carving style. The stone lions on both sides of the mountain gate are made of fine Beige granite with round and rigid lines, showing a powerful and lovely look.

The male lion holds up his head and legs to play with the ball, with a heroic look; the female lion caresses her son and licks her calf. There is also tuanlong Shibi in front of the main gate. With the technique of relief, it carves out a stretching dragon.

Wood carving

The Chaozhou golden lacquer wood carvings of Xishan temple are exquisite and magnificent, showing the scene incisively and vividly. Ancient city meeting, gold seal and other gold lacquer wood carvings have strong integrity, grand scenes and vivid figures, which are rare fine crystals.

right

On the right side of the Xishan temple, it used to be the "Sanyuan Palace" of the ancient temple, and the former site of "Shunde County Agricultural army cadre school" during the great revolution.

Now it is the cultural relics exhibition room of the County Museum. In addition to the third floor room for "Shunde County unearthed cultural relics" basic display, other exhibition rooms often display a variety of special cultural relics, open all year round.

In addition, on the right hillside, there is a stele Gallery, which contains eighteen ancient steles of Shunde. There are steles of "defending against the Opium poisoning" of Shunde people, steles of "killing all the dragons" of Shunde people's Dragon Boat history, steles of "Tongxiang building" and "jimeifang River" of Shunde water conservancy historical materials And so on.

Rebuild

In the summer of 1985, the Xishan temple was rebuilt with funds from the people's Government of the county, and the Shunde museum was moved to it. Since its opening in 1987, the elegant style of the Xishan ancient architecture group and the rich connotation of the historical relics exhibition complement each other, attracting a number of tourists from home and abroad. On the most day, more than 100 tourists from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, overseas Chinese and foreign guests have come to visit the Xishan temple Famous cultural tourism hot spots at home and abroad.

In 1957, the county people's Committee designated it as a cultural relic.

In May 1991, when the county people's government announced the "list of the first batch of cultural relics protection units in Shunde county", Xishan ancient architecture group was re announced as the county's cultural relics protection units.

Address: 264 Taiwan, Yilan County, Yuanshan Township, 46 Aijie Road

Longitude: 121.687988

Latitude: 24.747827

Tel. + 886-5-9224674

Chinese PinYin : Xi Shan Miao