Zishou Temple

The temple was founded in 870, the 11th year of Xiantong in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the Song Dynasty. It is named after praying for the blessing of the Buddha and the longevity of the common people.

Zishou Temple

According to the existing inscriptions, the temple was founded in 870, the 11th year of Xiantong in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the Song Dynasty. It was named "Zishou Temple" after praying for the blessing of the Buddha and the longevity of the common people. The so-called "capital" is to supply and give. Zishou temple, commonly known as Suxi temple, is located in the west of Suxi village, 10 kilometers east of Lingshi County, Shanxi Province. It is about 8 kilometers away from Lingshi County and 5.7 kilometers away from Jingsheng Wang's courtyard.

Zishou temple, which faces south from north, is built on the hillside of 36 degrees north latitude and 11 degrees east longitude. Behind the temple, there are many green mountains. In front of the temple, there are many streams and streams. The mountains are surrounded by water, and the water is beautiful and the mountains are green. It is a rare scenic spot among the ancient temples in the three Jin Dynasty. On June 25, 2001, as an ancient building of Ming Dynasty, Zishou temple was included in the dictionary of Chinese scenic spots and was approved by the State Council to be listed in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Historical evolution

According to the existing inscriptions, the temple was founded in 870, the 11th year of Xiantong in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the Song Dynasty. It was named "Zishou Temple" after praying for the blessing of the Buddha and the longevity of the common people. The so-called "capital" is to supply and give. It is said that in the Song Dynasty, incense was more prosperous in temples, and there were more than 20 monks who went to the temple every day. At the end of the Jin Dynasty, the temple was destroyed by the fire of the surrounding trees.

Then, the monks went to different places and cut off the incense. It is said that in the first year of yuantaiding, a monk named Fahai went to baofo temple in Mianshan to visit his friends. He was very sorry to witness the collapse of the temple, so he left his feet for a day to preach Buddhist scriptures along the door in dozens of neighboring villages, aiming to inspire the local villagers to rebuild the temple. It worked so well.

Rebuilding in Ming Dynasty

Soon, the surrounding gentry, business firms, villagers and so on donated money and property, and started to rebuild the temple in the third year of TAIDING (132). In the 16th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1521), a large-scale work was carried out, but the fragrance was not as good as before. Fortunately, in the later dynasties, although there were many wars, the damage of temples and Buddha statues was not great. All the existing buildings were rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, covering a total area of more than 3000 square meters.

The ancient temple building groups are all brick and wood structures.

Layout structure

The ancient temple is towering, with four cornices, high pavilions and numerous pavilions. At the top, there are three colored glazed tiles alternating with each other. From a distance, you can see the flying Pavilion and flowing elixir, which is very magnificent. The main building is 896 square meters, with the shielding brick wall of the instrument door (namely the screen wall) as the central axis. There is a 20 meter long brick Gallery approach at the entrance, which gradually extends from low to high to the courtyard. The wonderful thing is that the setting of the instrument door is quite impressive. It is a two-story structure, mainly refined in the upper floor. Top gray ridge beast. Tile hanging green Beast, four eaves, around eight columns support, forming the corridor style. You can have a bird's-eye view of the whole temple. The temple is divided into two chambers.

Courtyard outside the palace

The front courtyard, also known as the outer courtyard, is mainly built with the heavenly king hall. Here, the first thing that comes into view is Mr. Fu Shan's calligraphy plaque on the front of the hall, which has four gold characters on a black background: "wild interest in mountains and forests", giving people the impression of being cast in bronze and iron, majestic and upright. It is said that this was the title of Fu Shan when he was invited to lecture in the he family of Liangdu, one of the four Lingshi families. The hall is 3 rooms wide and 2 rooms deep. The front and back doors open to the back yard. There are four statues of the heavenly king on both sides of the hall, all about 3 meters tall. The face of the characters is vivid and full, and the shape is burly and lifelike, which is full of the strong and powerful image characteristics of ancient warriors.

Back yard of the palace

The backyard is relatively spacious. On the platform in the center, there is the main hall of thunder sound, which echoes the temple of heavenly king. This is the main hall of the whole temple. There is a book hanging on the forehead of the door, with a horizontal plaque of "Wan De Wei Wei". The handwriting is soft but firm, natural and unrestrained. It was written and engraved by local literati when the temple was repaired in the 12th year of the Republic of China. There are three pavilions in which there are three statues of Sakyamuni. The two ends of the hall are equipped with Maitreya Buddha Hall and pharmacist hall, respectively. The East and West corridors under the platform are respectively equipped with Maitreya Buddha Hall, three great scholars hall, di Zang Wang hall and ER Lang hall. The width of the hall is 3. Secondly, on the left and right sides of the space between the two courtyards, there are bells and drums on the second floor.

If you walk into the backyard from the front yard, you can clearly see that when the ancients set up this group of buildings, they paid attention to the symmetry of orientation and structure everywhere. Even the four small and exquisite stele pavilions in the courtyard were symmetrically distributed. It can be seen that the combination of the temple architecture mainly absorbs the characteristics of Chinese traditional symmetrical aesthetics.

Painted sculpture

Step by step, you can see the painted sculptures, sculptures, and structures of the halls in the backyard, which have their own advantages and are relatively perfect. If we compare them from the perspective of art, the main hall, pharmacist hall and the three great scholars hall are the most attractive.

One is the painted sculpture of the hall of the three great scholars. The statue of Guanyin of the three great scholars in the hall and the 16 Arhats of different sizes around him are beautiful in shape, lifelike in expression, simple in color and natural in pattern, which can be called the best of more than 90 existing colored sculptures in the temple. Some of them meditate together, some sit in meditation, some are angry, some are laughing and talking It's really lifelike, tough as life, breaking through the pattern of the ancient painted sculptures in which the dry parts tend to be the same. It's worthy of being a treasure of the existing Ming Dynasty painted sculptures in China.

The second is the murals of the main hall and pharmacist hall. Although they have gone through many vicissitudes, they are still well preserved. The nine murals in the temple are unique in composition, color, and technique. The pictures respectively record the legend of Sakyamuni, the Buddha. There are green mountains, green waters, flowers and birds. The subtlety of the pictures is that the hooks of the pictures are decorated with gold, which is full of a strong sense of directness. The characters are vivid and delicate, and the lines of clothing patterns are vivid Clear and natural. After chewing and tasting for a while, all of them admire the exquisite skills of the ancients.

The third is the ceiling of pharmacist hall. Its structure design is exquisite and unique. Not to mention the beauty of herbs and flowers drawn in dozens of squares, the two rectangular roofs decorated with gold embossed Panlong in the middle are enough for you to appreciate. They use countless small and symmetrical color painted brackets, according to the pattern of eight seals, layer upon layer upward, about 1 meter deep, forming a three-dimensional atmosphere of the eight seals of Panlong. This kind of ingenious structure is rare in the ancient temples in northern China.

Coexist day and night

In addition, in the northwest corner, there are Sutra collection building, Zhenwu Pavilion, Abbot's courtyard, thousand hand Guanyin hall and Zen hall; in the southeast corner, there are related emperor temples and theatres. They coexist with the main building day and night.

Address: Zishou temple, 007 Township, Lingshi County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province

Longitude: 111.835667

Latitude: 36.890879