In Guan Gong’s family temple, the statue of the dignified and serene Lady Guan in the Empress Hall, and the elegant and simple statues of Guan Ping and Guan Xing in the Hall of Guan Ping and Guan Xing combine the richness of Guan Gong’s culture. The content of family ethics and morals has been further expanded and improved, that is, the moral call of a good wife and mother, and the ethical norms of a son inheriting his father's will.
As for the myths, legends and folk stories surrounding the magical plants such as tiger cypress, phoenix cypress, and five generations of mulberry trees in Guan Gong’s family temple, they add more meaning to Guan Gong’s life and experience. The legendary content and mythical color have made Guan Gong's story and Guan Gong culture more widely circulated among the general public. At the same time, it also brought more prosperous incense to Guan Gong temple and won more respect and worship. An ancient poem about Guan Gong's family temple said: The old house has been there for more than a thousand years, and I can't see whether the prince will return. A hero's book is light and his clothes are thin. The ancient tomb is high with locust trees, and the niche is covered with fine grass. The two swallows painted on Liang still look like they were flying during the Han Dynasty. Changping Guan Gong Family Temple, as the only temple at home and abroad that worships Guan Gong's family, serves as an important physical carrier for the expansion and deepening of Guan Gong culture, and has unique value and status in understanding and researching Guan Gong culture. Indeed, in the drizzle and breeze, with the swallows flying sideways, visiting or paying homage to this ancient family temple with dense ancient cypresses and lush green grass can make people feel infinite sadness and emotion. At the same time, it can also make people understand the more profound aspects of Guan Gong's culture. For rich and complex spirit and connotation. Guan Gong's hometown is in ancient Hedong County (now Jiezhou Town, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province), where there is the largest Guan Di Temple, Guan Gong's family temple and Guan Gong's ancestral tomb in the country. It is a holy place of worship for Guan Gong believers around the world. With the rise of Guan Gong culture and Guan Gong's hometown tourism, Guan Gong's hometown has formed a huge industrial chain specializing in the production of Guan Gong bronze statues.
The most influential brand in the country is: the bronze statue of "Guan Gong Jiezhou". The "Jiezhou Guan Gong" here is not only a noun in a regional sense, it is a cultural brand that has been registered with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. It is the first Guan Gong brand in China and a famous cultural brand in Shanxi Province. The bronze statue of "Guan Gong in Jiezhou" in Guan Gong's hometown inherits Chinese bronze history, carries thousands of years of Guan Gong culture, and integrates the pure spirit of Guan Gong's hometown. It has become the most valuable Shanxi cultural business card and is favored by all walks of life. It has the following characteristics and cultural connotations:
1. Guan Gong’s facial expression is lifelike, and his rich expressions give Guan Gong life;
2. The decoration is realistic and exquisite, and the carving craftsmanship is exquisite.
3. The artistic modeling refers to the murals and historical materials in the Guandi Temple in Jiezhou;
4. The original works are guided and controlled by famous sculptors and Guan Gong research experts;
5. The clay model of the work is carefully carved from the water of the Yellow River and the loess from Guan Gong’s hometown;
6. It is carefully cast from high-quality electrolytic copper produced in Zhongtiao Mountain, Guan Gong’s hometown;
7. Traditional manual processes, refined over time, and special surface anti-rust and anti-oxidation treatment;
8. Uniqueness of property rights. All works have been copyright registered and applied for appearance patent protection;
9. Consecrating light and receiving spirits at the Guan Gong family temple in Guan Gong’s hometown is the most authentic and spiritual;
10. 2010 Shanghai World The expo represents specific products of Shanxi traditional culture;
11. Cultural gifts specially selected by the Shanxi Provincial Government at the 2011 Central China Investment and Trade Expo
12. Intangible cultural heritage "Guan Gong Beliefs and Customs" The best carrier; 1. "Reading the Spring and Autumn Annals at Night" by the bronze statue of Guan Gong at the World Expo. In 2010, he represented the Shanxi Provincial Government in the Shanghai World Expo, which aroused great repercussions.
2. "Integrity" Guan Gong. At the Sixth Central China Investment and Trade Expo in 2011, the Shanxi Provincial People's Government selected special cultural gifts and presented them to leaders of the world's top 500 companies. Although there are many Guan temples in China, the Guansheng Family Temple is unique and unparalleled in the world. The Guansheng Family Temple, also known as the "Guandi Ancestral Temple", is located in Changping Village, Yuncheng, the hometown of Guan Gong. It echoes the Guandi Temple in Jiezhou. According to legend, it was founded by Changping villagers in the early Sui Dynasty. It started as an ancestral hall and became a temple in the Jin Dynasty. According to the "Reconstruction of Changpingguan Shengjia Temple Stele" written by Wei Yangmeng in the 20th year of Wanli Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1599 AD), Wang Xing, a native of Changping Lishe in the Jin Dynasty, built the main hall in the 17th year of Dading (1177 AD) of Emperor Shizong of the Jin Dynasty. There are three rooms, 40 rooms in the surrounding corridor, three rooms in the sleeping hall and three ceremonial gates, and three doors in the north direction. Later, Hu Fu, a native of Changping Village, partially repaired and expanded the temple. In the 42nd year of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1777 AD), the Holy Ancestor Hall was built. Since then, there has been no repair. The temple faces north and faces south. It is grand in scale, rigorous in layout, and magnificent in pavilions. It covers an area of ??13,320 square meters. There are three archways built in front of the temple. The ones on the east and west sides are wooden structures with three gates and four columns on the top of the verandah, named "Lingzhong Qianhai" and "Xiu Yutiao Mountain" respectively. The one in the middle is a stone structure with three gates and four columns. Directly in front A pair of iron lions are placed, and the four words "Hometown of King Guan" are written on the door in the Ming Dynasty. On the central axis of the temple, six buildings are arranged from front to back, including the Shanmen, Meridian Gate, Xian Hall, Chongning Hall (Guandi Hall), Niangniang Hall (Guan Madam Hall), and Shengzu Hall, with bells on both sides. The overall layout of the temple, the second floor of the drum and wing rooms, the side halls, the stele pavilion, the cloister and the Taoist courtyard, etc., follows the same "front and back sleeping" style as the Jiezhou Guandi Temple. The Shanmen, Meridian Gate and Xian Hall are all three rooms wide, with single eaves hanging from the top of the mountain, covered with gray tube tiles and trimmed with green glazed tiles.
Chongning Hall is the main building in the temple. It is built on a brick platform. It is five rooms wide and four rooms deep. The surrounding corridors are one room deep. The total width is seven rooms and the total depth is six rooms. It has double eaves on the top of the mountain. It is covered with green glazed and decorated with flowered glazed ridges; there are two panel doors in the bright room of the main hall, and mullioned windows in the left and right rooms; the wooden shrine in the hall is richly decorated, with a built-in statue of Guan Yu, with majestic utensils and a solemn expression. There are four statues of waiters inside and outside the niche. They are plump in shape, lifelike in expression, and humble and respectful. The Queen's Hall is five rooms wide and five rooms deep, with double eaves resting on the top of the mountain. A corridor is built on the front eaves and a hanging flower door is built. Side halls are built on the left and right sides, forming a self-contained courtyard. There are shrines in the hall for the statue of Lady Guan, and the statues of maids or holding handkerchiefs on the left and right sides. , or holding a scepter, standing respectfully, are masterpieces of Qing Dynasty sculptures. The Holy Ancestor Hall is at the back end of the temple. It was built in the 38th year of Qianlong reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty (1773 AD). It is three rooms wide, with a single eave hanging from the top of the mountain. It is covered with gray tube tiles and placed on a masonry platform. The front platform is spacious, and the hall contains statues of Guan Yu's ancestor, great-grandfather, grandfather, father and his third ancestor's wife, which are unprecedented in other martial arts temples at home and abroad. There is a hexagonal seven-level brick tower on the right side of the front eaves of the Meridian Gate in the east corner of the temple, about 15 meters high. The bottom of the tower is a square base, and the four walls are inlaid with the 17th year of Dading (1177 AD) of Jin Shizong, the 8th and 44th year of Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty (1529 AD) and the 44th year (1565 AD), and the 20th year of Jiaqing of Emperor Renzong of Qing Dynasty. In the second year (1817 AD), four stone tablets were built. The upper and lower parts of the pagoda are greatly divided. The eaves are overlapped between layers and retracted in reverse to form the eaves of the lower layer and the base of the upper layer. The top is built with a circular disk. Unfortunately, the upper pagoda temple no longer exists. The brick pagoda is plump and solemn, dignified and stable, with no decorations. It has survived the great earthquake in the Hedong area during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1552-66 AD). At the foot of Zhongtiao Mountain in the south of the temple, there are green ancient cypresses and numerous stone steles, which are the ancestral tombs of the Guan family. There were sacrificial halls, sacrificial altars, etc. built on the passage from the Guansheng Family Temple to the Guan family's ancestral tomb, but unfortunately they no longer exist. There are dozens of various steles in the temple, describing in detail the title of Guan Yu, the hereditary inheritance of the Guan people, and the history of the temple. The ancient trees in Guanshengjia Temple are towering, intertwined with roots, lush and green, with criss-crossing branches. Almost every ancient tree has a meaningful and magical legend. There is an ancient mulberry tree in the courtyard of the Queen's Palace. It was planted in the Ming Dynasty. It is more than 500 years old. It is thick enough to enclose and has a scaly skin. It is commonly known as "Qilin Skin". Generally, the mulberries from mulberry trees mature only once a year, but the mulberries from this mulberry tree can ripen five times and fall five times a year. There are five tree roots at its lower part, about the thickness of a bowl, and about 1 meter exposed on the ground. Above the root is the trunk, with five thick branches extending out about 5 meters from the ground. This not only echoes the five ancestral roots under the trunk, but also echoes the family temple dedicated to Guan Yu's great-grandfather, grandfather, father, Guan Yu himself, and Guan Yu's son Guan Ping. Coinciding with the Five Dynasties of Guanxing, it is known as "Five generations live under the same roof". There is another ancient cypress in the northwest corner of the Empress Hall in the temple, named "Yunbai". The trunk is split in the middle and is protected by iron hoops. The tree body is tilted at a 45-degree angle with the ground, pointing directly at Jiezhou Guan Temple 10 kilometers away. . Every winter, heavy snow falls, covering everything. However, this cypress will melt when the snow falls, without covering it, so it is also called "hot cypress", "snow-melting cypress", and "snow-free cypress". According to visitors from Japan, this type of tree species is an endangered species and extremely rare in the world. On the left and right sides of the front eaves of the Chongning Hall, the main building of the temple, there are two ancient cypresses named "Dragon" and "Tiger" cypresses. The inner trunks of the two cypresses have convex and concave bark about 1 meter away from the ground, forming the body of a dragon and the head of a tiger. , natural, wonderful and imaginative, amazing. It is a custom in the village to wrap a red rope around the body of dragon and tiger cypress, and then cut a section of the red rope wrapped around dragon and tiger cypress to make a collar for the young son. This is to consider him as the "godfather", who can bless his children to grow up healthily and bring prosperity to the world. This custom has lasted for a long time, and its legacy still exists today.