At that time, Zhao Xiangzi in the Warring States, Liu Heng in the Han Dynasty, Gao Yang and his son in the Northern Qi Dynasty, Li Yuan and his son in the Tang Dynasty, Li Cunxu in the Five Dynasties, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi and others all set out from Jinyang. Zhoushan, north of Jinyang, has always been regarded as the dragon horn, Longshan and Tianlong Mountain in the southwest are the dragon tail, and Jinyang in the middle is the dragon belly.
Therefore, "the real dragon emperor" often appears. Therefore, Zhao Guangyi razed Jinyang City to the ground under the pretext of "no competition".
In 979, after the Northern Han Dynasty was destroyed by Zhao Guangyi, Song Taizong, in order to "accumulate virtue" and ensure that the Great Song Dynasty was handed down from generation to generation, he built a large-scale project in Jinci, making Jinci unprecedented and brand-new.
The expansion of Jinci Temple lasted for five years. Song Taizong not only repaired and expanded the temple, but also ordered Zhao, assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance, to imitate the practice of Emperor Taizong, and wrote an article by Zhang Renqing, a calligrapher in the Northern Song Dynasty, and set up a "parallel new inscription on Jinci".
The inscription describes the rebuilt Jinci complex:
The main hall is opened in the middle, and the promenade is decorated with ornaments, and even bamboo slips cover the sun and fly across the sky. Then there are thousands of stars and thousands of algae shining.
This stone tablet, also known as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Monument, was placed in the Tang Memorial Monument Pavilion together with the stone tablet in front of Li Shimin of Emperor Taizong. However, after Song Taizong and Zhao Guangyi took Jinyang after many twists and turns, they completely destroyed the ancient city. There were countless displaced people and they were deeply resented by Taiyuan people. So they vented their anger on the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Monument" set up by Song Taizong and Zhao Guangyi in Jinci.
In this way, the monument of "Taiping Xingguo" gradually disappeared under the long-term knife carving and stone grinding of tourists, and finally became a wordless monument. "
After Zhao Guangyi in Song Taizong, Jinci was rebuilt or expanded many times in the Song Dynasty. During the heyday of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Zhen issued a decree to establish the founding monarch of the Western Zhou Jin State as the "King Fendong" and built Notre Dame to worship the princess and her mother.
However, Notre Dame Hall was called "Maiden's Hall" when it was first built, and it was called "Notre Dame de Evonne" after Zhao Zhuan 1077 in Song Shenzong. While building the Notre Dame Hall, buildings such as fish ponds and flying beams were also repaired.
Notre Dame Cathedral, located at the western end of the central axis of Jinci, is the most magnificent and oldest large-scale building in Jinci, and it is also one of the national treasure-class buildings renowned at home and abroad.
It sits west to east, with its back against the suspended Wengshan Mountain, leaning against the fish pond flying beam in front, with the old spring in trouble on the left and the good spring on the right. In front are the fish pond flying beam, the sacrificial hall and the Fang Yue. The hall is solemn and simple, grand and spectacular.
Its architectural form, specifications and construction methods are typical examples of architecture in Song Dynasty in China, and three architectural techniques of "column rising", "column side foot" and "column falling" in Song Dynasty have been preserved. Later, it was renovated in all generations.
The roof of Notre Dame is a double-eaved mountain-resting type, with a total height of 19 m, a width of 30. 17 m for the seventh hall and a depth of 25. 15 m for the sixth hall. The plane is approximately square with corridors around it. The most peculiar thing is that the front porch is two rooms deep and the porch is extremely wide, but there is no fence in it, but the roof truss of the temple is supported by the porch fence and eaves columns around the temple body. This is the earliest example of reducing column structure method of circular corridor building in Song Dynasty in China.
The main hall has 16 columns, which makes the front porch and the inner hall very spacious and creates enough space for setting up shrines and statues. Moreover, the surrounding columns are slightly inclined inward, becoming "side corners", and the four corner columns are obviously raised, which is suitable for "rising", which not only enhances the stability of the building, but also makes the four corners of the front eaves tilt upward, showing the beauty of curves.
This arrangement of temples and columns embodies the superb skills of wood structure architecture in Song Dynasty. Around the column, a bucket arch is used to support the eaves of the far wing. The shape of the bucket arch is complex and diverse, and the upper eaves and lower eaves are flexible and beautiful.
There are eight carved dragons on the eaves column in front of the temple, which is the oldest carved dragon in China. Among them, 6 woodcut dragons were carved on 1087 and 2 woodcut dragons were carved on 1 102.
Among the eight woodcut dragons, two of the two pillars in the middle are called Ying Long, the two pillars next to them are called Panlong, the two pillars without scales are called dragons, and the two pillars at the end are called Jilong. Eight Panlong scales are stacked on top of each other, and all the fibrous roots are rooted, each holding a big column, glaring and grasping, and the whole body is full of vitality.
On the north and south sides under the front eaves gallery, there are two tall and strong statues of generals, about 4 meters high. Wearing armor, armed with weapons, heroic and spirited, and his face contains formidable and unyielding power.