Chongtai Temple

Chongtai temple is located on a high hill in the middle of gaolisi village, yanjiazhai village and Cuijiazhai village in yongquanzhuang Township, northwest of Yuxian County. It is the oldest, largest and most complete millennium old temple in Yuxian County. Chongtai temple was first built in Liao Dynasty. It was rebuilt in the ninth year of Hongzhi of Ming Dynasty (1496) and named "Sansheng Temple". Later it was rebuilt and renamed "Chongtai Temple". It was rebuilt several times in Qing Dynasty.

Chongtai temple is located on a high hill, surrounded by two sand rivers in the East and west of the temple. The temple covers an area of 6580 square meters, with 120 halls and houses, Yuanwang building, pavilion, hall, platform, tower and house. It is in a state of great magnificence. At present, the buildings preserved in the temple include Mountain Gate, bell and Drum Tower, Maitreya hall, Tianwang hall, thousand Buddha Hall, Guanyin hall, Shuiluo hall, Sanjiao building, sutra Pavilion and dongxipeidian. Each hall has murals. The dongxigable preserves many Qing Dynasty opera inscriptions, which are valuable materials for studying the stage of Liyuan. There is a Pagoda Forest in the northwest of the temple. Today, there is only one Linggu Pagoda in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. There is also a Pagoda Forest in the west across the gully. There is no Pagoda Forest now.

Chongtai Temple

Chongtai temple is located in Gaoli Temple of yongquanzhuang Township in the northwest of Yuxian City, on a high hill in the middle of yanjiazhai and Cuijiazhai villages, 22 li away from the county seat. It is the oldest, largest and most complete millennium old temple in Yuxian County. The temple is vast, the buildings are towering, simple and magnificent, reflecting the wisdom and artistic creation of the ancient Chinese working people power. It is a key cultural relic protection unit in Hebei Province.

Historical changes

As for the construction age of the temple, according to the new Yuxian annals published in 1995, it has been confirmed that it was built in the Liao Dynasty (from about Maoding to AD). According to folklore, there was a confrontation between Song Dynasty and Liao Dynasty at that time, and the two countries fought for years. The prince of Liao opposed the war and became a monk in Chongtai temple. According to the exact written records, the temple was rebuilt by monk Zhenhui in the ninth year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (1496 AD) and named Sansheng temple. "It was rebuilt in the sixteenth year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (2003 AD) and rebuilt in the ninth year of Jiajing (30 AD). The king of Lucheng in Shanxi Province was lucky to have built the temple because he avoided feuds. This period of history needs further research and Research). After the reconstruction, the temple was named Chongtai temple. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty, it was once called Luohan temple.

Architectural pattern

Chongtai temple is located on a high hill, surrounded by two sand rivers in the East and west of the temple. The temple covers an area of 6580 square meters, with 120 halls and houses, Yuanwang building, pavilion, hall, tower and house. It is in a state of great magnificence. The main buildings of Chongtai temple are arranged along a vertical axis from north to South and symmetrically along the horizontal axis from east to west. There are eight buildings on the central axis. From south to north, they are theater building, Maitreya hall, thousand Buddha Hall, Guanyin hall, Shuilu hall, Shiying hall and Sanjiao building. The theater tower faces north and south, facing the mountain gate. It turns over the top of Xiwa with a single shot. It is three rooms wide, two rooms deep and six beams. On the south wall of the theater building, a galloping flag is painted. It is more than two meters high and more than four meters long. It is majestic. There are many Qing Dynasty opera inscriptions on the East and West Gables, which are valuable materials for studying the stage of Liyuan. In the past, the temple fair on the 15th of the true month of the lunar calendar was very lively. Many troupes came here to perform. During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, a famous actor in Guihua city (now Hohhot) once performed on the stage.

Facing south, the mountain gate is located on a 10 meter high brick platform. It has a hundred roofs in the hard mountain city of Danpo. It is three rooms wide and two rooms deep. There is a pair of stone lions under the mountain gate. Their faces are slightly inward. They look kind and dignified. Now the stone lion has been moved to Sakya temple. Qin Shuxin, the door god of the two walls, painted a new durian ridge, Zhongbao, yuchigong and chajutuojia. Luo kuzhe painted it again, and built a new slip of tiles. On both sides of the tower, there are eight immortals. They are talented and can tell why they are immortals. The kiss on the edge of the ridge is more steady than the old. There are two lions in front of Maitreya hall on the first floor of the North Center of Renshan gate. Now they have been moved outside the gate. The shape is similar to the original stone lion. There is nothing else in the hospital, and there is a pine in the East. Maitreya hall is three rooms wide and two rooms deep. The frescoes in the hall are very vivid. On the east side of Yemen is the bell tower, and on the west side is the drum tower. The top of Yemen is made up of a cross shaped ridge. In addition, a new set of animals is used to keep out the corners. The new cast iron wind chime under the set of animals (now lost) and a small Linglong are used. In those days, the stairs under the double buildings were built to build a small Kang, which was the residence of the watchman monks. Although the bell of Chongtai temple is not as famous as the bell mentioned in Zhang Ji's poem "Night Mooring on the maple bridge" in Tang Dynasty, its long-distance sound is also famous in WeiLuo mountains and rivers.

Wei Xiangshu (from Weizhou), a direct Minister of the Qing Dynasty and Minister of the Ministry of punishment, was born in about A.D? He visited this famous temple with Guangdong celebrities Ling Shizhai and Jiang Guilong, who are good at cursive calligraphy, and wrote two poems with seven rhythms entitled "visiting Chongtai temple and seeing five hundred iron Arhats together". At the end of the poem, he wrote, "after the boundless spring rain, the bell rings ten li people slant to air." It can be seen that the bell sounds far away. According to folklore, there were two martial monks in the Ming Dynasty. After burning incense in this temple and striking the bell, they went to the front and back taifo temples to burn incense. When they returned, the sound continued. Chongtai temple and Houtai Buddhist temple are 20 li away from each other. The bell sounds like exaggeration, but it can be proved that the bell is Cao

Quality deserves its reputation. The second floor hall is the thousand Buddha Hall, which is three rooms wide and two rooms deep. In the east of the courtyard is Erlang temple, which has three rooms, deep and wide. In the west of the courtyard is the "qilanlang Temple" of Guandi. In addition to the statue of Guanyu, the temple is also a hanging statue. On the hanging mountain, the stories of the three kingdoms are vividly depicted, such as "hulaoguan, Sanying and Lvbu" in the south wall and "leikouchuan, the seven armies submerged in the water" in the north wall. The small courtyard on the east side of thousand Buddha Hall is a forest of steles. There were 13 steles erected in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Tongzhi years in the East and West corridors. Now there is only one stele base and stele. There are two short corridors and one long corridor in this courtyard, and the layout is compact.

On the third floor is the Guanyin hall, which has a wide face and a deep depth. Standing in the hall, you can see that it used to be more than three meters high, with simple clothes, delicate texture and kind-hearted eyes. Against the backdrop of twining branches, precious flowers and lotus petal Buddha seat, it has a dignified posture. This hall is located in the Buddha Hall and the water and land hall. On the east side of the hall is the Luohan hall, which is five rooms wide and one room deep. In the past, the four walls of the hall hung on the mountain, with 500 statues on the top, the bottom, the left and the right. The golden light was shining, and the shape of the iron Buddha was bronze. It was full of dazzling colors, vivid and lifelike. Because of the large number of 500 Arhats and the huge cost, most of the temples with arhat hall are Daming temples.

The most complete 500 arhat halls in China are Biyun temple in Xishan of Beijing and Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. It is said that in the old days, a man who sold felt hat stayed in Chongtai temple. Because there were not many people, that is, every arhat wore a felt hat, there was still no exact number, and there was a great relief. Five hundred Arhats were turned into slag in the smelting of iron and steel in 1958, and the next one or three statues were left behind. On the west side of the temple of the king of hell is also a hanging statue, and the statue making process is as fine as that of Guandi temple. The stele of Yangyu in Tongcheng, Anhui Province, which was built in September of the 29th year of Daoguang, is an important basis for studying the history of the temple before and after Kangxi

The four auxiliary halls of the temple, Erlang temple, Guandi temple, Luohan hall, and yanwang hall, are all sculptures of Xuanshan, which is a major feature of the temple.

The fourth floor hall is the water and land hall, which is three rooms wide and two rooms deep. The murals in this hall are well preserved. There is a sutra collection building in the East and west of the hall, which is a light and dark Pavilion. Among the statues in the Qing Dynasty, the Sutra house has long been a misnomer. There are small brick doors in the East and west of the hall, and the hall of Sakyamuni in the backyard. The hall of Sakyamuni is three rooms wide, three rooms deep and square inside. It is the largest Hall of Chongtai temple, which is very grand and solemn. The hall has five beams at the top of the mountain, four beams at the front of the rolling shed building, which is also meters high. The steps in front of the building are decorated with three layers of hollow brick carvings, dragons and phoenixes, which are exquisite and vivid. Rafters are mud painted plastic, shop head ring. The walls of the temple come out from behind and close in front. The hard walls of the front wall are directly on the roof, and the hard walls of the back wall are all supported on the roof by douhong. In order to prevent the pilasters from being infested, the external wall foundation has "big" shaped Phoenix eyes with the number of columns, and the "big" shaped five heads, all of which are skillfully shaped, which shows the high wisdom of the ancient Chinese working people. Behind the hall of Sakyamuni, there are three religious buildings, also known as Prince building. The original wooden ladder was built in the south of the building, and it was rebuilt into 22 brick steps in the Guangxu period. Under the steps, there is a high channel for one person, even the East and the West hate the house. From the west house, the only person goes down the channel to the east house. There are brick railings around the building, and the eaves of the building are matched with the carved flying dragon by Liu Ju, an old carpenter of Gaoli temple. The main ridge, the side ridge, the open mouth beast, the close mouth beast, and the tip of the ridge kiss have all been rebuilt. In the middle of the main wall of the building, Buddha Shishi, Mou Ni and Confucius are on the left, Lao Tzu is on the right, and the waiters with GUI cards are in the middle. Cowardice, Buddhism and Taoism developed from the incompatibility of fire and water in the early period to the integration of the three religions, and finally came together, which was also the inevitable result of the religious development in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Buddhist stories such as the reincarnation of a white elephant, the birth under a tree, the sprinkling of water in Kowloon, the traveling in four gates, and the asceticism over the city are painted on the East and West Gables, which are worth years. The color of the pictures has been oxidized, and most of them are still lead. When you climb the tower, you can see from the north, from the pocket concave, and from the south, you can have a panoramic view of the whole temple. There are nine main rooms behind the Sanjiao building, as well as the rooms on both sides of Shishi hall, which used to be abominable. East and West there is a corner court, for the abbot, Taoist Shan room. When the incense was at its peak, there was only one Taoist priest and one Taoist priest, and there were two branches of Buddhism and Taoism. There were more than 60 disciples. In front of the temple, there is a storehouse and a dining room. In front of Erlang temple, there is a grinding room. In front of the temple, there is a well for the abbot, the abbot, the monks, the tourists and the benefactor. There is a Pagoda Forest in the northwest of the temple. Today, there is only one Linggu Pagoda in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. There is also a Pagoda Forest in the west across the gully, but it does not exist today. All the clay sculptures of the temple were destroyed in the cultural revolution.

Address: yongquanzhuang township (gaolisi village, yanjiazhai, Cuijia Village), northwest of Yuxian County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei

Chinese PinYin : Zhong Tai Si