Xiyue Temple

Xiyue Temple

Xiyue temple is located at the east end of Yuezhen Town, about 1.5 km east of Huayin City, Shaanxi Province. Xiyue temple is dedicated to King Jin, the warlord of Xiyue mountain

It is the holy land of Quanzhen sect. In the first year of Yuanguang (134 B.C.) in the Western Han Dynasty, Jiling palace was built in huangfuyukou. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was moved to the current site and later renamed Xiyue temple. It was an important place for emperors to worship the God of Huashan. The temple covers an area of 124000 square meters. There are a lot of inscriptions in Xiyue temple. There are now "Huayue Temple steles" in the Later Zhou Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, "Emperor Xuanzong's inscription on Huashan" was re engraved. In the Ming Dynasty, Wanli engraved "the picture of Huashan lying". At the beginning of the picture are Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Chen Tuan and other celebrities in the Tang and Song dynasties.

In 1988, Xiyue temple was selected as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Historical evolution

In the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty built the first temple at the foot of Huashan Mountain to offer sacrifices to the God of Xiyue. Later, he moved to the current site near the road from Chang'an to Luoyang. According to the geographical records of the Tang Dynasty, it was moved in 134-132 BC (the first year of Yuanguang reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty); it was also said that it was moved in 220 BC (the first year of Huangchu reign of Emperor Wen of Wei of the Three Kingdoms); and it was also said that it was moved in 454 BC (the first year of Xingguang reign of Emperor Wen of Northern Wei Dynasty).

Due to the chaos of the Five Dynasties, Xiyue temple was badly damaged. It was rebuilt in the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it was not newly built.

In the winter of the 12th year of Kaiyuan (724), Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji of Tang Dynasty ordered the whole country to confer the title of Huashan God as "king of heaven", and Xiyue temple was renamed as "king of Heaven Temple".

In the second year of Jianlong in the Northern Song Dynasty (961), Zhao Kuangyin, the Taizu of the Song Dynasty, built the Xiyue temple on a large scale and expanded it on the basis of the old foundation of the Tang Dynasty. Since then, the annual sacrifice has been customized.

In 1265, the second year of Zhiyuan reign of the emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, the system of annual sacrifice to Huashan Mountain was established. In the first month of spring of the 28th year of Zhiyuan reign (1291), the God of Xiyue was granted the title of "holy emperor of golden heaven and great Lishun of Xiyue".

In the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty, the title of Xiyue God, which was added by the emperors of Tang, song and Yuan Dynasties, was cancelled. At that time, Huashan God was regarded as the Almighty God.

In the 18th year of Chenghua (1482), the emperor Xianzong of Ming Dynasty carried out the construction, which lasted 28 years from the autumn of Yihai in Chenghua to the end of renyinxia project.

Around the 20th year of Jiajing (1541), the decadent Xiyue temple was repaired again. After the construction of the Xiyue temple, "there are five main halls, two bedrooms at the back of the hall, the front is the Lingxing gate, seven head gates, five national stele towers, two East and West dryboats, and the outside is the Lou Ying, connected with the turret. There are two more Yulei Shencha halls, namely the Yuming palace of the present spirit palace, and the seven head gates refer to seven Lingxing gates with seven rooms, which are the same shape as the present Lingxing gate.

In 1562, another overhaul was carried out, which took two years to complete. The restored Xiyue temple has two bedrooms, two halls, two gates and two pavilions.

In the Qing Dynasty, Xiyue temple was built twice. First, it was built in 1705, the 44th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi. The second overhaul was carried out in 1777, the 42nd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign. Because the God of Xiyue was "close to the age, the wind and the rain were even, and he was always ready to respond to it." in particular, Bi Yuan, governor of Shaanxi Province, said that Xiyue Temple was in a state of decline and in urgent need of repair. Without hesitation, Emperor Qianlong appropriated 120000 liang of silver to allow Bi Yuan to handle it at his own discretion, and told Bi Yuan to repair Xiyue Temple "so that the project would be firm and the temple would have a new appearance.".

In 1932, Feng Yuxiang, a Kuomintang garrison, entered Xiyue temple, which suffered serious damage.

In 1979, the cultural relics management office of Xiyue temple was formally established, and began to take back the management and protection right of the central axis buildings. It took protective measures for stone carvings, stone carvings and ancient buildings, collected and sorted out some historical and cultural materials, and collected a number of precious cultural relics. In the 1980s, some collapsed sections of jinchengmen, lingxingmen and Xicheng wall were built, and 17 units and 36 households' houses in Qipan street in front of the temple gate were demolished.

In January 1988, Xiyue temple was announced as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

On April 18, 1996, the main gate of Xiyue temple, HaoLing gate, was opened to the public.

On January 1, 2014, the stele of rebuilding Huashan temple in Xiyue, which was made by Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, was re erected.

architectural composition

Xiyue temple is a palace imperial style ancient building community in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its axis forms a line with the main peak of Huashan Mountain. The layout is a rectangular big temple with heavy city style sitting in the north and south, facing the main peak of Huashan Mountain. The main buildings are symmetrical along the north-south axis. The surrounding walls were built in the Ming Dynasty, 10 meters high, 525 meters long from north to south, 225 meters wide from east to west, and 1825 meters long. The overall layout of Xiyue temple is rigorous, with a central axis running through the north and south, forming a multi unit spatial structure with pavilions, halls, buildings and squares staggered. The front and back of the Xiyue temple complex are divided into six spaces, with HaoLing gate, Wufeng tower, Lingxing gate, Jincheng gate, HaoLing hall, bedroom, Yushu tower and Wanshou Pavilion arranged on the central axis from north to south. The first space is the entrance part in front of Wufeng building; the second space is the courtyard behind Wufeng building The third space is the courtyard from Lingxing gate to Jincheng gate; the fourth space is mainly composed of HaoLing Hall (main hall) < / I, etc.; the fifth space is mainly composed of imperial study, etc.; the sixth space is mainly composed of Wanshou Pavilion, youyue square, Wanghe tower, etc. The whole building presents the pattern of low in front and high in back. These six spaces set off each other, coordinate and contrast, forming an inseparable whole.

Main buildings

HaoLing gate

The first gate of Xiyue temple is called HaoLing gate, also known as liansanmen. It is the main building of Xiyue temple. It has nine rooms wide and five rooms deep. It is a place for emperors or imperial ministers to worship the God of Yue. The whole hall is located on the convex Xumi platform, surrounded by corridors, high eaves, dense brackets, tall and grand, majestic momentum, resplendent. On the lintel of the main hall, there is a gold plaque of "HaoLing hall". In the hall, there is a plaque of "the God of Xiyue Huashan". There are three gold plaques of dragon pattern, namely "ruining Xianzhang" written by Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty, "Xianzhang Lingyun" written by Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty and "jintianzhaorui" written by Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty.

the Meridian Gate

Meridian Gate is the second gate of Xiyue temple, which is composed of five gate holes. On the Meridian Gate of the stone brick certificate, there is a "five Phoenix building" with a width of seven rooms and a depth of three rooms. It is a pavilion style building with glazed tiles and single eaves. The two ends of the building are accompanied by corridors. On both sides of the building, there are horse paths made of stones to climb the city. Wufenglou is the South Gate of the main city of Xiyue temple. On both sides of it, there are turrets opposite to it, which makes the whole south wall full of pavilions and palaces, magnificent and magnificent. Li Kai of the Ming Dynasty wrote a poem praising: "the palace of Zhou Yuan, the White Emperor's palace, can receive the moonlight and report to the sky. Lotus green pregnant open ring sea, cloud shadow cold born meet big Mongolia. Don't forget that Xianyang extinguished the fire of Chu, and Zeng Wusi's iron galloped the wind of Qin. Ji win generation building to do, suspect that Huang Tu in this Along the royal road, in the southwest of the courtyard are the huge "Five Mountains stone remnant stele" and "Huashan stele" made by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. In the southeast of the courtyard are the Yuxiang Pavilion. There are many famous steles on the East and west sides of the courtyard, with a variety of seal characters, Li characters, lines and grasses, enjoying the reputation of "small forest of Steles".

Lattice star gate

Lingxing gate is the third gate of Xiyue temple. It is a seven Bay archway style gate building. Three of them are tall gate buildings, and the middle gate building is the highest. Each of them is separated by a brick hard Hill sandwich wall house as ear room, a total of four. The overall appearance is like a magnificent archway with seven floors and eight columns. The subtlety of the temple is the dense distribution of Dou Gong, and the nine dragon heads carved on the long arch head show the high level of the temple. Therefore, lingxingmen is called "jiulongkou" of Xiyue temple. Entering the Lingxing gate, the central stone archway stands in the courtyard, which is a Qing style archway with four columns, three bays and five floors. It uses a variety of techniques such as round carving, openwork carving, relief carving and line carving to carve many patterns symbolizing auspicious and rich things in traditional Chinese culture. The couplets engraved on the north side of the column clarify the scope and functions of Huashan God. The whole archway has beautiful shape and smart structure. On the East and west sides of the archway are two sacrificial tablets of the Ming Dynasty, tall and majestic. On the east side is the monument of "Zhaoshi Wuyue Hedu" in Hongwu third year of Ming Dynasty, and on the west side is the monument of "rebuilding Xiyue temple in Huayin county" in Wanli year of Ming Dynasty.

Jinchengmen

Jincheng gate, with five rooms wide and two rooms deep, is a hall style building with six citron houses, glazed tiles, single eaves and a cloister on the top of the mountain. Its name takes the meaning of "Guanzhong solid, Jincheng thousand li". It is the fourth gate of Xiyue temple. It is located in the south of HaoLing hall and is the main hall gate. In front of the door, the flowers and trees are sparse, and the scenery is quiet. The atmosphere in Jincheng gate is solemn and solemn. Jinshui bridge, also known as Wangxian bridge, is composed of three arch bridges. On the guard board and pillar of the bridge, there are carved stone lions of various shapes and precious flowers. The carving is exquisite. Under the bridge, there is water, named Yudai River. The water comes from Liquan in the southeast of the temple and flows into the release pool in the temple garden.

religious activities

In the first year of beitaichang (531), Emperor Xiaowu of Wei sent envoys to offer sacrifices to Huayue.

In August of the second year of Taiping (557), Emperor Liang Jingdi drove West

Chinese PinYin : Xi Yue Miao