Shanghuayan temple
Shanghuayan Temple, located in Datong City, Shanxi Province, 1983, has been designated as a key Buddhist temple in national minority areas by the State Council.
Shanghuayan Temple covers an area of 20-30 mu, centering on Daxiong Hall, as well as the mountain gate, front hall, bell and drum tower, ancestral hall, meditation hall, Yunshui Hall and hatchback corridor. The layout is neat and orderly.
Daxiong Hall is a Liao-Jin building with unique style and high artistic level. The Great Hall of Fengguo Temple in Yixian County, Liaoning Province is also known as the two largest existing wooden Buddhist halls in China. The Hall of Great Heroes stands on a platform more than 4 meters high. The front of the platform is set with stone steps, surrounded by goulan, surrounded by giant pines and lush foliage. Daxiong Hall faces east, with nine rooms wide and 53.75 meters; Five halls, with a depth of 29 meters and a total area of 65,438+0,559 square meters, are magnificent and one of the largest Buddhist temples in China.
Its structure is a single eave with five ridges. The eaves are 3.6 meters high, 9.5 meters high, the main ridge of the roof is 1.5 meters high, the glass kisses at both ends are 4.5 meters high, the tiles are 0.8 meters long and weigh about 27 kilograms. It is rare for two prime ministers to form couplets with a hanging animal on the ridge of the field. This kind of building structure is very solid, and it is still solid, solid and magnificent after 800 years.
Because the temple needs quite spacious space to worship the Buddha statue, it adopts "reducing the column Han". In seven places in the temple, twelve gold poles in the inner groove are reduced, and the outer groove poles are pushed inward slightly, which not only reduces the density of poles in the temple, but also can bear the load reasonably, saving a lot of materials. This fully embodies the ingenious application of structural mechanics principles in Liao and Jin architecture, thus creating this outstanding work.
There are five kinds of archways on the eaves of the main hall, all paved by five roads. The shape is huge and powerful, which not only shifts the load on the top of the hall, but also increases the aesthetic feeling of the building. Among them, the application of 60 and 45 inclined arches in careful rooms and two levels of supplementary questions is quite diverse, which is the unique style of Liao and Jin architecture. The front door is three-open, and the door panel is decorated with pot front teeth, which is simple and has the characteristics of Liao and Jin Dynasties. There are five Buddha statues in the center of the hall, named Five Dhyani Buddhas. In the middle is Dharma Buddha, next to Ruchenava. The first one on the left hand is Nanbao Buddha, which means Buddha nature, and the second one is Oriental closed Buddha, which means enlightenment; The first one on the right hand is Amitabha Buddha in the west, indicating wisdom, and the second one is Buddha in the north, indicating career. These five buddhas explain the meaning of buddhas according to tantric theory. These five Buddha statues were all made in the Ming Dynasty, with three in the middle being wood carvings and two on both sides being clay sculptures. There are 20 Ming Dynasty sculptures on both sides of the Buddhist altar, with different postures and expressions. Lean forward 15 degrees, unique shape.
The top of the hall is decorated in Ming and Qing Dynasties, with more than 970 pieces decorated with dragons and phoenixes, flowers and plants, cranes and Sanskrit. , making the hall magnificent. The wall is covered with murals, reaching 875 square meters, mostly painted in the late Qing Dynasty, and some works before the Ming Dynasty. Buddhist stories, Buddhist sutras changes, Huayan sutras changes, kindness, wealth and childlike innocence Guanyin worship have a wide range of themes, bright colors and well-preserved. In the layout of the temple, Shanghuayan Temple also skillfully used the design technique of comparing first and then suppressing, highlighting the grandeur and elegance of Daxiong Hall. The small courtyard at the head of the temple is composed of the mountain gate, the front hall, the meditation hall and the monk's room, which is in sharp contrast with the magnificent Hall of Great Heroes behind. The front yard sets off the grand momentum of the main hall, achieving the effect of restraining first and then promoting. There is a small archway in front of the high platform of Daxiong Hall, with simple bell pavilions and drum pavilions on both sides, which is also the layout feature of Liao and Jin Buddhist temples. The small archway and bell and drum pavilion in front of the main hall set off the height of the main hall. As far as Daxiong Hall itself is concerned, its exterior looks rough and majestic, but the inside walls are painted, the ceiling is red-painted, and the Buddha statue is glittering and beautiful, which is in stark contrast to the broad and rough style outside. It is precisely because of the blending of northern minority culture and Han culture that unique Buddhist temples have emerged. Huayan Temple, with its magnificent architecture, beautiful structure, majestic spirit, exquisite sculptures and rich murals, occupies an important historical position in China's Buddhist culture.
There are also many precious stone inscriptions and cultural relics preserved in Shanghuayan Temple. For example, the outer wall at the northern end of the front eaves of the Hall of Great Heroes is inlaid with four tablets of the Book of Changes written by Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty, which were engraved during the Chongzhen period in the late Ming Dynasty. There is an octagonal Dalagni Shijing Building in the second year of Liao Dakang (1076) and an iron dream incense burner in the twenty-second year of Ming Wanli (1594) in the center of the platform of Daxiong Hall. There is also a poem tablet inscribed by Wen Zhiming, a calligrapher in Ming Dynasty. The former poem is entitled Taihu Lake, and the latter poem is entitled han cun Daozhong, a treasure of calligraphy art. ..
1983, the State Council listed Shanghuayan Temple as a national key Buddhist temple in Han nationality area. 1984 was handed over to the monk for management. Under the leadership of the abbot, Master Zangbao, the temple has been renovated and managed by the religious circles, and now it has become the center of Buddhist activities in Datong, receiving groups of Buddhist believers and tourists at home and abroad.