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Hall Of The Four Heavenly Kings
The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings or Four Heavenly Kings Hall (), referred to as Hall of Heavenly Kings, is the first important hall inside a shanmen (mount gate) in Chinese Buddhist temples and is named due to the Four Heavenly Kings statues enshrined in the hall. Maitreya Buddha is enshrined in the Hall of Heavenly King and at the back of his statue is a statue of Skanda Bodhisattva facing the northern Mahavira Hall. In Buddhism, the Maitreya Buddha, also the future Buddha is Sakyamuni's successor. In the history of Chinese Buddhism, Maitreya Buddha has the handsome image in which he wears a coronet on his head and yingluo () on his body and his hands pose in mudras. According to ' (; ''Sung kao-seng chuan''), in the Later Liang Dynasty (907-923), there was a fat and big-stomached monk named "Qici" () in Fenghua of Mingzhou (now Zhejiang). Carrying a sack on his shoulder, he always begged in the markets and streets, laughing. So local people called him "The Sack Monk" (). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhenguo Temple
Zhenguo Temple () is a Buddhist temple located 10 km from Pingyao in the village of Hadongcun, in Shanxi Province, China. The temple's oldest hall, the Wanfo Hall, was built in 963 during the Northern Han dynasty, and is notable for featuring very large brackets that hold up the roof and flying eaves. The sculptures inside the hall are among the only examples of 10th century Buddhist sculpture in China. History The history of the temple begins in 963, when it was recorded that Ten-Thousand Buddha Hall (''Wànfó diàn'' 万佛殿) was built. The date is written on a beam in the hall, and is also the date given by a local history of Pingyao county written in the 19th century. A stela written in 1819 also confirms this date.Steinhardt (1997), 77. Wanfo Hall is the oldest building at Zhenguo temple, and is the only surviving building that dates from the short-lived Northern Han dynasty. Although little is known of the temple's history, stelae record that it was renovated in 15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fenshen
''Fenshen'' 分身 (lit. "divide the body") or ''fenxing'' 分形 ("divide the physical form") was a legendary Daoist and ''fangshi'' Master of Esoterica technique for multilocation, that is, transforming or multiplying one's body into two or more identical versions. A famous story about ''fenshen'' concerns general Cao Cao ordering the execution of the alchemist Zuo Ci, who when taken into prison playfully divided himself into multiple Master Zuos, thus bamboozling the guards and escaping death. Terminology The Chinese word ''fēnshēn'' is a compound of ''fēn'' 分 "divide, separate, split, divert; differentiate, distinguish, discriminate, demarcate" and ''shēn'' 身 "torso of a man or animal, trunk of the body, the body below the neck; by synecdoche, general term for bodyKroll, Paul K. (2017), ''A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese'', rev. ed., Brill.". The Chinese ''Hanyu Da Cidian'', which is lexicographically comparable to the ''Oxford English D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Architecture
Buddhist religious architecture developed in the Indian subcontinent. Three types of structures are associated with the religious architecture of early Buddhism: monasteries ( viharas), places to venerate relics (stupas), and shrines or prayer halls (chaityas, also called ''chaitya grihas''), which later came to be called temples in some places. The initial function of a stupa was the veneration and safe-guarding of the relics of Gautama Buddha. The earliest archaeologically known example of a stupa is the relic stupa located in Vaishali, Bihar in India. In accordance with changes in religious practice, stupas were gradually incorporated into chaitya-grihas (prayer halls). These are exemplified by the complexes of the Ajanta Caves and the Ellora Caves (Maharashtra). The Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar is another well-known example. The pagoda is an evolution of the Indian stupas. Early development in India A characteristic new development at Buddhist religious si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Meru
Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. There is no clear identification of Mount Meru with a particular geophysical location. Many famous Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne" 須彌座 xūmízuò style base is a common feature of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru. Etymology Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain is Meru (Sanskrit: Meru), to which is added the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful Meru". ''Meru'' is also the name of the central bead in a mālā. In other languages In other languages, Mount Meru is pronounced: * Assamese: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus''). Mice are also popular as pets. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are locally common. They are known to invade homes for food and shelter. Mice are typically distinguished from rats by their size. Generally, when a muroid rodent is discovered, its common name includes the term ''mouse'' if it is smaller, or ''rat'' if it is larger. The common terms ''rat'' and ''mouse'' are not taxonomically specific. Typical mice are classified in the genus '' Mus'', but the term ''mouse'' is not confined to members of ''Mus'' and can also apply to species from other genera such as the deer mouse, ''Peromyscus''. Domestic mice sold as pets often differ substantially in size from the common house mouse. This is attributable to breeding a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used when protecting oneself from rain, with ''parasol'' used when protecting oneself from sunlight, though the terms continue to be used interchangeably. Often the difference is the material used for the canopy; some parasols are not waterproof, and some umbrellas are transparent. Umbrella canopies may be made of fabric or flexible plastic. There are also combinations of parasol and umbrella that are called ''en-tout-cas'' (French for "in any case"). Umbrellas and parasols are primarily hand-held portable devices sized for personal use. The largest hand-portable umbrellas are golf umbrellas. Umbrellas can be divided into two categories: fully collapsible umbrellas, in which the metal pole supporting the canopy retracts, making the umbrella sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaiśravaṇa
(Sanskrit: वैश्रवण) or (Pali; , , ja, 毘沙門天, Bishamonten, ko, 비사문천, Bisamuncheon, vi, Đa Văn Thiên Vương), is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and is considered an important figure in Buddhism. Names The name is a derivative (used, e.g., for patronymics) of the Sanskrit proper name from the root "hear distinctly", (passive) "become famous". The name is derived from the Sanskrit ' which means "son of Vishrava", a usual epithet of the Hindu god Kubera. is also known as Kubera and Jambhala in Sanskrit and Kuvera in Pāli. Other names include: * , a calque of Sanskrit ' * . This was a loanword from into Middle Chinese with the addition of the word "heaven, god" * , THL ''Namthöse'', "Prince All-Hearing", a calque of Sanskrit ' * mn, Баян Намсрай is a loan from Tibetan ''thos sras'', a short form of Tibetan ''rnam thos sras'' with the addition of an honorific * th, ท้าวกุเวร ''Thao Kuwen'' or ''Thao Wetsu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, altho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Dragon
The Chinese dragon, also known as ''loong'', ''long'' or ''lung'', is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and Chinese culture at large. Chinese dragons have many Outline of life forms, animal-like forms such as Bixi (mythology), turtles and Chiwen, fish, but are most commonly depicted as snake-like with four legs. Academicians have identified four reliable theories on the origin of the Chinese dragon: snakes, Chinese alligators, thunder and nature worship. They traditionally symbolize potent and wikt:auspicious, auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it in East Asian cultural sphere, East Asian culture. During the days of Imperial China, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial strength and power. In Chinese culture, excellent and outstanding people are compared to a dragon, while incapable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virūpākṣa
Virūpākṣa (Sanskrit; Pali: Virūpakkha; traditional Chinese: 廣目天王; simplified Chinese: 广目天王; pinyin: ''Guǎngmù Tiānwáng''; Japanese: 広目天 ''Kōmokuten'') is a major deity in Buddhism. He is one of the Four Heavenly Kings and a dharmapala. Names The name ''Virūpākṣa'' is a Sanskrit compound of the words ''virūpa'' (ugly; deformed) and ''akṣa'' (eyes). Buddhaghosa interpreted ''virūpa'' as also meaning "various", which lends to the understanding that Virūpākṣa is endowed with clairvoyance. Other names include: *traditional Chinese: 廣目天王; simplified Chinese: 广目天王; pinyin: Guǎngmù Tiānwáng; Korean: 광목천왕 ''Gwangmok Cheonwang''; Vietnamese: ''Quảng Mục Thiên'', a calque of Sanskrit ''Virūpākṣa'' *Traditional Chinese: 毘楼博叉; pinyin: Bílóubóchā; Japanese: ''Birubakusha''; Korean: 비류박차 ''Bilyubagcha''; Vietnamese: ''Tỳ Lưu Bác Xoa''. This is a transliteration of the original Sanskrit name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed tip. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration Period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard. The word '' sword'' continue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virūḍhaka (Heavenly King)
Virūḍhaka is a major deity in Buddhism. He is one of the Four Heavenly Kings and a dharmapala. Names The name ''Virūḍhaka'' comes from the identical Sanskrit term, which refers to sprouting grain. As such, his name means "increase" or "growth.". Other names include: *Traditional Chinese: 增長天; simplified Chinese: 増長天; pinyin: ''Zēngzhǎng Tiānwáng''; Japanese: ''Zōjōten'' or ''Zōchōten''; Korean: 증장천왕 ''Jeungjang Cheonwang''; Vietnamese: Tăng Trưởng Thiên, a calque of Sanskrit Virūḍhaka *Traditional Chinese: 毘楼勒叉; pinyin: ''Bí lóu lè chā''; Japanese: ''Birurokusha''; Korean: 비루늑차''Biluneugcha''; Vietnamese: ''Tỳ Lưu Ly.'' This is a transliteration of the original Sanskrit name. *Tibetan: འཕགས་སྐྱེས་པོ, Wylie: 'phags skyes po, THL: Pak Kyepo, "Noble Birth" *Thai: ท้าววิรุฬหก Thao Virunhok is an honorific plus the modern pronunciation of Pali Virūḷhaka. Characteristics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
