Sheng Shou Temple

Sheng Shou Temple

Shengshou temple, also known as Baoding Shengshou temple, is located 15 kilometers northeast of Dazu District, Chongqing City, on the right side of dafuwan in Baoding mountain. It was built in the Chunxi period of Southern Song Dynasty. It is a Buddhist temple of Tantric school built by Zhao Zhifeng, a famous monk. Originally known as the five Buddha cliff, after expansion with the current name. The original temple has been abandoned. The existing temple is built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The temple is built close to the mountain, with towering temples and exquisite carvings. The main halls of Shengshou temple include Tianwang hall, Yuhuang hall, Daxiong hall, Jingdian hall, dengdeng hall, Weimo hall, etc. During the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty, a "longevity building" with more than 20 meters high and octagonal eaves was built on the south side of the temple. Shengshou Temple flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Shengshou temple, the temple carved with the prototype of the statue of dafowan, should be the blueprint of the statue of dafowan.

Brief introduction to temples

Shengshou temple is located in Baoding mountain, northeast of Dazu District, Chongqing. Shengshou temple was founded in Song Dynasty and destroyed in war at the end of Song Dynasty. It was rebuilt in the 16th-22nd year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1418-1424). At the end of Ming Dynasty, it was destroyed by war. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1662-1722), it was rebuilt. Tongzhi first year (1862) to repair. After 1961, it has been repaired one after another.

The main buildings of Shengshou temple are Mountain Gate, Tianwang hall, Dishi hall, Daxiong hall, Sanshi Buddha Hall, Guanyin cave, dengdeng hall, davimo Hall (Baoding), etc.

Dazu is known as the "hometown of stone carving". Baoding was named after Zhao zhizong, the founder of stone carving. There are more than 40 stone carvings in Dazu, and Baoding mountain, where Shengshou temple is located, is the most concentrated, with the largest scale and the highest artistic value. At the same time, Baoding mountain is also a holy place for Buddhists to worship. In history, it is known as "going to Emei and going to Baoding". Zhao Zhifeng's contribution lies not only in the creation of Shengshou temple, but also in the carving of cliff statues on Baoding mountain.

Stone Buddha

The stone carvings in Baoding mountain are mainly divided into two groups, dafowan and xiaofowan. Dafowan "East, South and North cliff, about 500 meters long, chiseled 31 niches, seven steles, 17 inscriptions, two pagodas. The contents of the stone carvings include: the statue of Dharma protector, the reincarnation of the six paths, the three Immortals' shadow of xiutuoni, the three saints of the west, the thousand handed Avalokitesvara, the holy trace of Sakya nirvana, the armpit birth, the crown prince of Jiulong bath, the peacock king Sutra change, the parents' benediction Sutra change, the Dafang Buddha's benediction Sutra change, the hell change, the liuben zunxinghua Taoist temple, the ten Ming kings, Yuanjue cave, and the picture of herding cattle. Compared with Dunhuang Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes, it is the fourth largest grotto statue of Chinese Buddhism.

Xiaofowan is the earliest statue created by Zhao Zhifeng. It is the orchid version of dafowan statue. The original scale is quite grand. The hall is made of stone, and the inside is full of Buddha and Bodhisattva statues. In addition, there are Dharma tower (commonly known as Jingmu tower) and stone cave in xiaofowan. The Dharma tower is ten meters high, with three stories and four squares. About 584 sutras are carved around the tower, many of which have long been lost. The stone cave is Pilu nunnery, in which there are not only the statues of Pilu Buddha, but also many statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva. Although the stone carvings in xiaofowan have been destroyed many times, they are still a magnificent and colorful treasure house of ancient art.

Beautiful scenery in the temple

Shengshou temple is located in the famous Baodingshan stone group. Baoding mountain is located 15 kilometers northeast of Dazu County and 162 kilometers east of Chongqing city. It is famous for its cliff statues in the world. There are tens of thousands of stone carvings of Buddha, including 41 stone carvings. Stone sculptures were first carved in the first year of Jingfu in Tang Dynasty (892) and finally completed in the Southern Song Dynasty. Baoding and Beishan are the representative works of the late grotto art in China. Baoding mountain, also known as "Xiangshan", is a large-scale esoteric Taoist temple built by Zhao Zhifeng, a famous monk of Shu in the Song Dynasty from 1179 to 1124. It has a huge scale and more than ten thousand cliff statues. The whole statue is like a long scroll picture with beautiful shape and rich content. It is especially famous for the unparalleled thousand handed Avalokitesvara and the 31 meter long reclining Buddha.

Sculpture art

Dafowan and xiaofowan are the largest scale of Baodingshan cliff inscriptions. Dafo Bay is a deep horseshoe shaped mountain bay, one kilometer long. The sculptures are distributed in the East, South and North. There are more than 30 giant sculptures. The most famous ones are Huayan Sansheng, Qianshou Guanyin and Yuanjue cave. The three statues of Huayan are under the South Cliff. They are all 8 meters tall, leaning forward slightly. The seven level pagoda held by Manjusri Bodhisattva is 1.8 meters high and weighs about 1000 Jin. The reason why it has not fallen for more than 800 years is that Manjusri's sagging cassock supports his arm. There are 1008 hands engraved on thousand handed Guanyin, which are of different shapes. It is a masterpiece of the Song Dynasty. In Yuanjue cave, which is 6 meters high, 9 meters wide and 12 meters deep, there are 16 Buddha statues, full of spirit and form. The light outside refracts from the "skylight" with a width of about 2 meters and a length of about 1 meter at the top of the cave, and the soft light reflects on the cave, which is another crystallization of the ingenuity of the stone carving masters of the Song Dynasty.

Academic value

Xiaofowan is on the side of Shengshou temple. The stone carvings there are more than 600 statues, which were carved by Zhao Zhifeng as the blueprint of dafowan. Xiaofowan is most famous for its stone pagoda, which is three-story square and about seven meters high. Besides statues, the pagoda is full of twelve catalogues of Tibetan scriptures. Its categories are different from those of general catalogues of Tibetan scriptures, which is of great academic value.

In the VIMA Hall of Shengshou temple, there is a stone statue of Vimalakirti reclining. The Vimalakirti Sutra says that he is proficient in Mahayana Buddhism, and even Manjusri, who is famous for his wisdom, admires his wisdom and eloquence.

Construction layout

The main existing Buddhist buildings in Shengshou temple include dashanmen, sitianwang hall, Dishi hall, Guanyin hall, weimoyu hall, Daxiong hall, third Buddha Hall, reception hall, etc. Master Zhao Zhifeng is the founder of the mountain. The famous Buddhist masters include Nanweng, Qingzhou, huimiao and Zhaozhi. Its inheritance law system is Xianmi in the early stage and linjizong in the later stage. Most of the plants in the temple are hundreds of years old trees, such as Ginkgo biloba, Scutellaria baicalensis, Cupressus, cinnamon, etc. There are also three Buddhist relic pagodas, the most famous of which is "Nanweng Buddhist pagoda". More than 200 years ago, there are 17 steles and 3 Buddhist scriptures in the temple.

Address: Tianlongshan scenic spot, 11 kilometers west of Jinci Town, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan City

Longitude: 112.38498187065

Latitude: 37.735695332585

Ticket information: no ticket required.

Chinese PinYin : Sheng Shou Si