Yongan Temple

Yongan Temple

Yong'an temple, located in the North Lane of northeast Drum Tower in Hunyuan County of Datong, is the largest ancient building in Hunyuan county. The courtyard of the temple is flat, the layout is strict, the palace is lofty, simple and magnificent. The building faces south, 80 meters long from north to south, 50 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of more than 4000 square meters.

Yongan temple is a key cultural relic protection unit of the state.

Historical evolution

According to the records of the whole world and the inscription of the great Yongan temple, Yongan temple was built in the Jin Dynasty and destroyed by fire. In the early Yuan Dynasty, Gaoding and his son rebuilt on a large scale on the ruins. Since then, yuan to Yuan 26 years (AD 1289), yuan to yuan 30 years (AD 1293) have been built.

In the second year of yuanyanyou (1315 AD), Gao Pu, the grandson of Gaoding, donated money to build the largest extant orthodox Hall of preaching Dharma in the temple. Other buildings, such as Shanmen, Tianwang hall, dongxiduo hall, and auxiliary hall, are all relics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

After the Qing Dynasty established its capital in Beijing, the Buddhist ancestor Fulin of the Qing dynasty built a Tibetan white pagoda on the abandoned site of Guanghan hall in 1651 at the request of the Tibetan Lama naomuhan, and built a "White Pagoda Temple" (Yongan Temple) in front of the pagoda.

Folklore

It is said that in the early days of the founding of the people's Republic of China (1950), the State Administration of cultural relics organized a group of experts and scholars to conduct an investigation in Datong City, Shanxi Province. After inspecting the Yungang Grottoes, shangxiahuayan temple, Xuankong Temple and other famous cultural relics in the ancient city of Datong, experts deeply feel that Datong is a place where cultural relics gather.

What surprised them even more was that when they visited the Yong'an temple in Hunyuan, they found the plaque of "the hall of preaching the Dharma and orthodoxy" inscribed by monk xue'an, a great calligrapher of the early Yuan Dynasty, who was almost the best in the country, as well as the heavy colored murals of the yuan Dynasty in the hall. They sighed and said, "who would have thought that there are such cultural relics in this small mountain county.

Cultural relics protection

More than 50 years later, the Yongan temple has attracted people's great attention and attention. And has been listed in the national key cultural relics protection units.

Hunyuan County, Shanxi Province, at the foot of Hengshan Mountain, is a place with a long history and rich cultural relics. There are famous mountains and temples, ancient Great Wall, ancient pagodas and temples, ancient tombs and sites, hot springs, rich folk customs and snacks, etc. Cultural relics tourism resources are rich and diverse. Yongan temple, a well preserved building of Yuan Dynasty, is a bright pearl among the existing ancient temples. Its main building: the authentic Hall of zhuanfa (the main hall) and the ten Ming kings in the hall have attracted worldwide attention for their distinctive style of Yuan Dynasty and superb artistic level. When you enter the North Lane of Gulou in the northeast corner of Hunyuan County, you can see the grand Yong'an temple. The local people call it "the great temple". According to the records of Huanyu Tongzhi and Da Yong'an Temple inscription, Yong'an temple was first built in Jin Dynasty and then destroyed by fire. In the early Yuan Dynasty, Gao Ding and his son, the marshal of Hunyuan Prefecture, rebuilt on a large scale on the original ruins. In the second year of yuanyanyou (1315 AD), sun Gaopu of Gaoding donated money to build the largest extant orthodox Hall of zhuanfa in the temple. Other buildings, such as Shanmen, Tianwang hall, dongxipeidian and so on, are all relics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The whole temple is divided into three parts: the front, the middle and the back (the back yard has been destroyed). The courtyard is spacious and flat, the layout is strict, and the temple is rugged and simple. The temple faces south from the north, more than 80 meters long from north to South and 50 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of more than 4000 square meters. Among them, the most attractive is the hall of the orthodox preaching.

According to the records of Hunyuan Prefecture, it is said that the authentic hall is tall, with five rooms wide and three rooms deep. The original statue on the top of the hall with single eaves has been destroyed, covered with yellow glazed tiles and decorated with flower ridges. The Tiangong pavilions and caissons carved between the beams and frames of the Ming Dynasty are the remains of the Yuan Dynasty, which are rare in Shanxi Province.

Main landscape

The authentic Hall of preaching the Dharma is located in the middle of the temple, behind the heavenly king hall. It is high on the base, with a platform and stone steps in front.

The central part of the top of the hall is covered with yellow glazed tiles, while the four sides are decorated with blue and green glazed tiles. Under the eaves, the Ming room and the second room are all equipped with partition doors. The back wall is opened with panel doors. The two big characters of "Zhuang, Yan" at the left and right ends of the lower part show that the main hall is more dignified. The whole hall adopts the traditional Chinese architectural technique of combining wooden bone and bucket arch, which is stable and solemn, and has a simple style. The pillars in the hall are arranged in a special way, and the Ming room is the widest. Following the practice of Jin Dynasty, subtracting the front trough gold pillar, while maintaining reasonable load-bearing, maximize the internal space of the building, not only to meet the needs of religious activities, but also to save wood, the design is very scientific and reasonable.

Under the eaves of the main hall, the columns are decorated with Shi Wupu, which is used as a single copy, and the heavy arch is used to build the bucket arch. The style of the Dougong is simple and refined, without the disadvantages of complexity and separation. The scale proportion is appropriate to weigh with the building itself. The corner is made of "wrapped column". In addition to the column head, there are two pieces in the open space, two pieces in the secondary space and a little bit in the secondary space. The two mountain surfaces are all one piece. The layout is reasonable, showing clear primary and secondary, gorgeous and beautiful.

The fabrication of the beams in the hall is regular and rigorous, which also shows superb techniques. Visitors can't help but be impressed by the superb architectural techniques of the ancients, no matter from a distance or near. In short, in terms of architectural skills and style, the hall fully embodies the style and characteristics of ancient buildings in Yuan Dynasty and North China. It has become a physical witness to reflect the architectural style and artistic level at that time and in the north. As a well preserved Yuan Dynasty hall in our province, it is naturally valued.

The main structure is four rafters and two columns for the front and back breast. The gold pillars of the back trough are directly below the flat beam, on which the Shu pillars and fork hands are erected, and on which the climbing bucket arches are set. The upper and lower eaves are inserted between the back golden pillars and beams, and a hump and a bucket are set between them. Hump practice is similar to "song" practice. The eaves column and the head of the column are attached. On the top of it, the pupaifang is used as a sea rope flap. The front eaves are decorated with the eaves and the back eaves are decorated with the eaves.

Murals in the main hall

The four walls of the hall are painted with fine brushwork, 3 meters high and 56.8 meters long, with a total area of 170 square meters. It is a fine mural in Ming Dynasty with rich content and superb painting skills. There are 882 characters with vivid and natural expressions. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism blend together, providing important material materials for the study of the evolution and change of Chinese painting art and religious thought. The architecture of Yong'an temple is a part of the splendid culture of ancient China. It fully reflects the style and high artistic level of ancient architecture in the north. It is a precious heritage in the treasure house of ancient Chinese architecture.

The picture is rich in content and superb in painting skills. In particular, the painting on the front is the most exquisite, and the content is the painting of the top ten Ming kings of Buddhism Tantrism. The image is huge and weird, and the writing force is flying, which attracts the attention of archaeologists. Su Bai and other famous scholars identified it as a work of Yuan Dynasty.

The king of Ming is a Buddhist dharma protector. Because of his intelligence, he can destroy all magic obstacles. There are five Ming kings, eight Ming kings and ten Ming kings. It is said that in order to awaken the world, the king of Ming often appeared with a ferocious face, like a stick to drink, which made people know how to return. On the north wall just north of the hall, you can see a king of Ming with blue face, red hair and ferocious face. However, his hands are like opening his face, which shows that after tearing the face, he shows a kind and merciful face. It tells people that Buddhism sometimes looks vicious, but in essence it is compassionate. It also reminds people of the complex appearance and essence of all things in the world, and its philosophical implication is thought-provoking. The murals of Yuan Dynasty in the north of Yong'an temple are gorgeous, novel and skillful, which give people a strong artistic appeal. The author expresses his religious and life ideals through a grand and beautiful shape. Its flying round, powerful and expressive lines make people think endlessly.

In addition, the murals of Ming and Qing Dynasties on the East and west walls and the walls on both sides of the hall door are also eye-catching. The 18 meter long mural on the east wall shows the three realms of heaven, earth and man. In the upper level are the gods of heaven, such as sun, moon, water, wood, gold, fire and earth; in the middle level are the gods of tiangan, dizhi and 28xingxiu; in the lower level are the portraits of emperors, concubines, civil servants, generals, common people, monks and Taoists. The west wall of the main hall is also 18 meters long heavy brushwork, which is also divided into upper, middle and lower layers. The upper level is the five mountains God Emperor, the four seas Dragon King and other gods; the middle level is the ten hall Yan Jun, Yin Cao Di Fu officials; the lower level is the eighteen hell and fierce ghosts. If you look at these stories, you will find that life is too short to be kind to others, and you will feel deeply for the religious belief of the ancients. Compared with the modern civilized society, people seem to have less inner spiritual pursuit and sustenance.

Taking a comprehensive view of the murals in the hall of Yongan temple, we can see that the layout of the whole picture is unique, the brushwork is vigorous and mellow, the color is gorgeous, and the characters are vividly depicted. Become the most valuable part of Yong'an temple.

Unsolved mystery

There is still a puzzle in the hall of the orthodox preaching of the law in Yong'an temple. Maybe it's necessary to talk about it. That is the yellow glazed tile on the top of the hall.

In feudal society, this is the patent of the emperor, but it exists in a grand place. Isn't it a taboo? No trespass? What did Gao's father and son think of the temple builders at that time? As a courtier, don't you know this important political issue? Due to the lack of reliable historical records, it is still a case in point

Chinese PinYin : Yong An Si