Taishan Longquan Temple

Taishan Longquan Temple

Taishan Longquan Temple is the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council in 2013. It was built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is located in Taishan, fengyugou, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan city. Originally known as Haotian temple, it was built in 710, the first year of Jingyun in Tang Dynasty. It was originally a Taoist temple. It was destroyed in Jin and Yuan Dynasties and rebuilt in Ming Dynasty. It was changed into a Buddhist temple. The temple was built on the mountain and divided into upper and lower courts. Shangyuan is the Guanyin Pavilion rebuilt in Ming Dynasty. The main hall of the lower courtyard is a double-layer pavilion type building, with Guanyin Bodhisattva at the lower level and Sakyamuni Buddha at the upper level. There are six tombstones in the west of the temple.

geographical position

Taishan Longquan Temple is located in Fengyu Valley in the southwest of Taiyuan, about 3 kilometers away from Mengshan in the north and 7 kilometers away from Jinci in the south. After passing Fenhe bridge in the West from nanneihuan street in Taiyuan City, turn to the southwest, along s039 Provincial Road (Jinci Road), through Jinsheng Town, to the T-shaped intersection of luanshitan village, turn to the west, and enter the mountain along Taigu Road (Taiyuan Gujiao), about 1km away from the mountain pass, to longquansi parking lot.

Historical records

According to the old local chronicles, Longquan Temple was originally a Taoist Haotian temple. It was built in 710 (the first year of Tang Jingyun). It was destroyed in the war of Jin and Yuan Dynasties. When it was rebuilt in 1391 (the 24th year of Hongwu of Ming Dynasty), it was changed into a Buddhist temple, and the nearby Guanyin temple and Tongzi temple were merged. It is said that there was no rain at that time. Local officials and all the people went to Taishan to pray for rain. They found a spring flowing with water. They thought it was praying for rain. The Dragon King gave the temple the elegant name of "dragon spring" and built a Dragon King Temple on top of the spring. Since then, Taishan has been famous for its Longquan water, and there has been an endless stream of worshippers from far and near. The Longquan Temple is full of incense.

characteristic

Taishan Longquan Temple faces south from the north. The pavilions and pavilions are built according to the situation of the mountain. Beyond the mountain gate is a large area of flat land, and the cave like platform foundation of lelou still exists today. The gate is on the top of the mountain. It is called "mountain forest ancient temple". The rafters and columns under the eaves of the gate still retain the traces of Taoist "eight trigrams". The left and right wings of the bell and the drum tower are of brick and wood structure. The iron bell on the bell tower was cast in 1745 (the 10th year of Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty) and is still intact. Entering the mountain gate is the front yard, facing the two-story main hall, which is five rooms wide and two rooms deep; the brick cave at the bottom is dedicated to Guanyin Bodhisattva; the brick and wood structure hall at the top is originally worshipped by Sakyamuni, the Buddha. On the ceiling of the hall is hung with two dragons playing with pearls. The two dragons hold their heads high and want to fly. Peony, peony, rose and other flowers are planted in the courtyard. There are four ancient pagoda trees in the four corners of the courtyard. When the flowers bloom in spring and summer, the fragrance of the courtyard is refreshing. Beside the ancient trees in the northeast corner of the front yard, there is a large stone tablet with a height of 5 meters and a width of 1 meter, which was erected in 711 (the second year of Tang Jingyun). The handwriting is lost and can not be recognized. However, the carved head on the forehead still exists, which shows the style of the Tang Dynasty.

Backyard of Longquan Temple

The platform of the backyard of Longquan Temple is wide and spacious. It is surrounded by cruciferous walls and low hurdles. There are three octagonal buildings with pinnacles in the middle. They are Guanyin hall, Manjusri hall and Puxian hall. They were built in 1538 (the 17th year of Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty). Guanyin Pavilion in the middle is octagonal in shape, with yellow carved glass ridges and colorful brackets. The eaves are deep and the building structure is exquisite. On the front side of the pavilion, there are three Buddha statues of Sakyamuni. On both sides of the pavilion, there are four statues of the heavenly king protecting the Dharma. The rest of the space are suspended sculptures of figures, temples, mountains and rivers, flowers and plants with a strong three-dimensional sense. On the top of the hexagonal lotus platform in the middle of the pavilion, there is Guanyin Bodhisattva, with 18 statues on both sides Han made a pilgrimage to the Bodhisattva. Hanging on the wall, the immortals gather on the sea waves, and their ideas are unique. On both sides of Guanyin pavilion are Manjusri hall and Puxian hall. There are clay sculptures of Manjusri riding a green lion and Puxian riding a white elephant.

Guanyin Pavilion of Taishan Longquan Temple

There is a "Lotus cave" on the north slope of Guanyin Pavilion of Longquan Temple in Taishan, commonly known as "Huanggu cave" and "cuigu cave". It is said that the daughter of a prime minister in the Tang Dynasty did not want to enter the palace as a concubine and cut the green silk into the empty door to live in this cave. On the other hand, there is a woman surnamed Cui who lived in Jinyang with her father as an official. Because of her unfortunate marriage, she became a nun and lived in the lotus cave in Taishan. In the north of the lotus cave, there is a huge stone, which looks like a crouching tiger. There is a small natural hole in the middle of the stone. It is said that it is a place for Buddhist monks to sit and nourish their hearts. There is a Longquan cave dozens of steps to the east of Longquan Temple. There is a Longwang temple built on the cave. The clear and sweet spring water flows out of the cave. This is the legendary spring that people find. Every time there is drought, people pray for the Dragon King to bring rain.

tourist resources

summary

Taishan Longquan Temple is located in a remote area, which was not damaged during the Japanese invasion and the war of liberation. In the 1980s, the relevant departments of the state maintained Longquan Temple and designated it as a key cultural relic protection unit in Taiyuan city. Now it is carved beams, painted buildings and resplendent. In recent years, Taiyuan city has set up the Taishan cultural relics management office, which has invested a lot of money to pave the original shangyangchang path into layers of stone steps, which is even more icing on the cake. Tourists walk on the stone steps in the middle of the mountain. The dense fog, like smoke and clouds, gathers and disperses from time to time. The mountains and green trees float in the air. The singing of birds and magpies is very clear and pleasant. When you climb Taishan Mountain and look into the distance, you can see Longshan mountain in the South and Mengshan Mountain in the north. It is vast and boundless, and the clouds are connected with the sky, which makes you feel like a fairyland. Close up, the trees are high and the Longquan Temple is elegant and quiet, which has a new natural charm. When the frost autumn season, the mountain red leaves, linger.

Underground treasure

Discovery of underground palace treasure letter

Taishan Longquan Temple, located in the North hillside of fengyugou, 3km west of Jinyang ancient city ruins, was built in the Tang Dynasty and belongs to the religious sacrifice area of Jinyang ancient city. Due to the lack of water in the mountain, and the cultural security unit, the improvement of the fire reservoir is urgent. On May 7 this year, when workers were building a fire reservoir in an open space east of the main hall of Longquan Temple, some stone bars and stone gates appeared in front of them. The staff of Taishan cultural relics preservation office immediately realized that these stone strips and stone gates might be historical relics, so they immediately called Taiyuan Institute of cultural relics and archaeology. After getting the news, Taiyuan Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology immediately sent professionals to the mountain for on-site investigation and rescue archaeological excavation. The building site is located on the hillside about 100 meters east of the main hall of Longquan Temple. Excavation shows that the remains of the building is the base of a Buddhist pagoda. The upper part of the pagoda base has been completely damaged, leaving only a rectangular base. There is an underground palace in the middle of the tower base, which is composed of passageway, stone gate and underground palace. On both sides of the stone gate, there is a powerful relief statue of the warrior.

Excavation of underground palace treasure letter

After opening the underground palace, in addition to the exquisite murals, archaeologists also found a stone letter in the underground palace, which was engraved with a large number of words and patterns. This makes archaeologists very excited, because the inscriptions on the stone letters are likely to provide effective information to help them understand important issues such as the age of cultural relics. As they slowly cleaned up the surface of the letter and read the inscription carefully, the words "Sabbath daduhu" and "Tian Yangming" came into sight. This man was recorded in both the old and the new books of Tang Dynasty. He was the governor of Anxi in the Empress Wu Dynasty, and his political achievements were outstanding. It turned out that the inscriptions on the stone letters recorded the names of the donors. Among these faithful men and women, there was Yang Ming's wife.

According to the research of experts, Shihan is a cultural relic of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The tower base should be built in the period from Wuzhou to Ruizong of the Tang Dynasty. Around 700 A.D., the building with Shihan and other relics should be the tower base underground palace.

In Tang Dynasty, most of the temples were pagodas and the main hall was behind them. Behind the Tang Dynasty tower base site of Taishan Longquan Temple, there is a Qing Dynasty stone tablet in the hall cleared by archaeologists.

Along the stone steps next to the base of the tower, archaeologists found a main hall. Some preserved wall coverings can still be seen in the corner, and the floor tiles on the ground are well preserved. Strangely enough, there is a stone tablet leaning against the wall in the hall, with an inscription on it, which clearly records the local flood disaster in the 20th year of Guangxu. Feng Gang, director of the Archaeology Research Office of Taiyuan Institute of cultural relics and archaeology, said: "the stone tablet unearthed in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty was in the house, which is very rare. We also find it very strange. We need experts from all aspects to study it. However, it is quite normal for multiple cultural layers of different ages to appear in the same place. "

On the afternoon of June 11, Li Yuqun, a researcher from the Institute of archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, visited the site of Longquan Temple in Taiyuan.

The underground palace is built of sand and stone, and its plane is hexagonal. This hexagonal underground palace immediately attracted his attention, he said: "hexagonal underground palace, popular in Song Dynasty, very rare in Tang Dynasty, this is an important information for us to study the underground palace system."

The secret of underground palace's treasure letter

After the stone letter was unearthed, archaeologists carefully opened it. At that time, people at the first scene described that large pieces of wood were scattered in the stone box, and a delicate gold coffin was lying on one side of the stone box. After nearly a thousand years, it was still as shiny as new. According to expert research, the wood chip should be the damaged wooden coffin in the stone letter, and the gilded copper coffin in the wooden coffin.

Experts immediately realized that this is a rare and important cultural relic, so in order to better protect the cultural relic, they quickly moved the whole stone box indoors to ensure a certain temperature and humidity.

The gilded copper coffin is exquisitely shaped. It is a relic of the Taji underground palace which has been scientifically excavated earlier. It has high historical, artistic, cultural and scientific research value.

Yesterday morning, experts from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the International Council of monuments and sites gathered in Taiyuan. book

Chinese PinYin : Tai Shan Long Quan Si