Chapter 18 Section 18 Huayan Temple and Shanhua Temple in Liaojin Buddhist Temple in Datong

In the halls of Buddhist temples in the Liao and Jin Dynasties, in addition to the use of oblique arches, columns are often reduced and moved, sometimes to the point where they can no longer be reduced, which makes people feel dangerous.The Huayan Temple and Shanhua Temple on the outskirts of Datong were both built in the Liao and Jin Dynasties, with the special style of Buddhist temple buildings at that time. Huayan Temple is located in the southwest corner of Datong City, Shanxi Province. It is one of the important temples of the Huayan Sect of Buddhism in the Liao and Jin Dynasties.Huayanzong is a Buddhist sect that rose up in the Tang Dynasty. It was hit hard when Tang Wuzong exterminated Buddhism. It was revived in the Liao Dynasty, and Liao Daozong also wrote scriptures himself.In this case, Huayan Temple was successfully built.In this temple, the stone and bronze statues of the emperors of the Liao Dynasty were placed, so in a certain sense, it has the dual functions of a royal ancestral temple and a Buddhist temple.In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Huayan Temple was divided into upper and lower temples, each of which opened a mountain gate and formed its own pattern. In 1963, the upper and lower temples were integrated into one, collectively called Huayan Temple.

The layout of the upper temple is rigorous, with the Daxiong Hall as the main one.The Daxiong Hall adopts the column reduction method, and a total of 12 inner columns are reduced. It is one of the largest Buddhist halls in the Liao and Jin Dynasties.The hall is full of murals, not only surrounding the walls, but also 973 colored paintings on the ceiling, with a total area of ​​887.25 square meters. The contents include Sakyamuni's missionary stories, pictures of preaching, good fortune boys, arhats, and Avalokitesvara with thousands of hands and eyes, etc. , There are so many murals in a hall, which is rare in China.The five Buddha statues in the center of the hall are 3.1 meters high, and the bodies of the 20 gods on both sides are all tilted forward at 15 degrees, which is also rare in China.

The layout of the lower temple is relatively free and flexible, and the architectural style is also relatively lively, with the Bhagavat Tibetan Hall as the center.The Bhagavan Tibetan Hall, that is, the Buddhist scripture hall, was first built in the Liao Dynasty. Although it has been rebuilt in various dynasties, it still preserves the wooden structure, beams, colored paintings, and colored sculptures of the Buddha in the Liao Dynasty.Its architectural art has always been cited in the history of Chinese architecture.There are 38 double-layer eaves pavilion-style scripture cabinets around the walls of the hall, in which there are more than 1,700 Ming and Qing scriptures and more than 18,000 volumes, which are very precious.In addition, the Wen Zhengming Poetry Stele and the Jin Dading Second Year Stele in the temple also have high historical and artistic value.

Before the founding of the country, the Khitan people, to whom the ruler of the Liao Dynasty belonged, were popular with primitive witch religion, and it was still preserved as a religion after the founding of the country.Huayan Temple follows the religious belief that the east of Khitan is the top, and the main halls in the temple also face the east.Huayan Temple is a relatively large-scale and well-preserved Liaojin temple building in China. Shanhua Temple is located in the south gate of today's Datong City, Shanxi, also known as Nan Temple. It is one of the large Buddhist temple buildings accompanying the capital Xijing (now Datong) during the Liao and Jin Dynasties.It was first built in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty (713-741 A.D.). It was originally named Kaiyuan Temple and was renamed Dapuen Temple in the Five Dynasties. Most of the buildings were destroyed by war in the last years of the Liao Dynasty.The Ming Dynasty officially changed its name to Shanhua Temple and used it as a place for officials to practice etiquette.

Shanhua Temple covers an area of ​​15,000 square meters, with a relatively rigorous layout.On the central axis, there are buildings such as the Shanmen, the Sansheng Hall, and the Daxiong Hall. These buildings are layered on top of each other, and each is taller than the other.There are symmetrical walls on both sides of the mountain gate, leading directly to the main hall. Behind the mountain gate, there are east and west side halls. On the east and west sides of the main hall, there are Manjusri Pavilion (destroyed) and Puxian Pavilion.The layout of the temple is symmetrical but not monotonous. Due to the different sizes and locations of the halls, the rigor reveals vitality, reflecting the traditional architectural style of the Chinese nation.Shanhua Temple is the most complete and largest Liaojin temple in my country so far.

The Daxiong Hall is the main hall of Shanhua Temple. It is in the same style as Huayan Temple. It is majestic and rough, reflecting the architectural characteristics of the Liao Dynasty.On the Buddhist altar in the hall, there are five full-body clay Buddha statues more than four meters high, sitting on the lotus platform, with smooth clothes and dignified appearance.The clay sculptures on the east and west sides of the twenty-four heavens are magnificent and have different expressions; the Buddhist story paintings on the west and south walls have smooth and round lines and lifelike figures.Although these paintings were repainted in the Qing Dynasty, they retained the legacy of Yuan Dynasty painting to a great extent.The Three Saints Hall is named after the statues of Vairocana Buddha, Manjusri and Bodhisattva.There are 60-degree inclined arches between the left and right under the eaves, which are shaped like flowers in full bloom; the method of reducing columns is adopted in the hall, and the weight of the top of the hall is only supported by four large columns, and the interior is very open.Sansheng Temple is a representative wooden structure building in the early Jin Dynasty.There are four precious stone steles of the Liao Dynasty in the hall, among which "Dajin Xijing Dapu'en Temple Rebuilds the Great Hall" is the most famous, and its steles are important materials for studying the history of Shanhua Temple.