Zhenguo Temple () is a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
temple located 10 km from
Pingyao
Pingyao, officially Pingyao Ancient City, is a walled city in central Shanxi, China, famed for its importance in Chinese economic history and for its well-preserved Ming and Qing urban planning and architecture. Administratively, it comprises ...
in the village of Hadongcun, in
Shanxi Province
Shanxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The temple's oldest hall, the Wanfo Hall, was built in 963 during the
Northern Han
The Northern Han () was a dynastic state of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was founded by Liu Min (), formerly known as Liu Chong (), and lasted from 951 to 979.
Founding of the Northern Han
The short-lived state of Later Ha ...
dynasty, and is notable for featuring very large
brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
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
Pingyao, officially Pingyao Ancient City, is a walled city in central Shanxi, China, famed for its importance in Chinese economic history and for its well-preserved Ming and Qing urban planning and architecture. Administratively, it comprises ...
county written in the 19th century. A
stela
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
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
The Northern Han () was a dynastic state of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was founded by Liu Min (), formerly known as Liu Chong (), and lasted from 951 to 979.
Founding of the Northern Han
The short-lived state of Later Ha ...
dynasty. Although little is known of the temple's history, stelae record that it was renovated in 1540 and in 1816. In 1997, along with Pingyao city and
Shuanglin Temple
The Shuanglin Temple () is a large Buddhist temple in the Shanxi Province of China. It is situated in the countryside of Qiaotou village about southwest of the ancient city of Pingyao. It is among the many cultural monuments located in the Pingya ...
, the Zhenguo temple was inscribed on the
World Heritage
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
list as ‘Ancient City of Pingyao’.
[
]
Layout
The temple contains two main halls and a gate, with two courtyards in between the three buildings. There is a wall surrounding the entire complex. The temple opens to the south, with the Tianwang Hall (天王殿) acting as the temple's gate.
[Steinhardt (1997), 78.] The next hall, to the north, is the Ten-Thousand Buddha Hall, and the final hall is called Sanfo Hall (三佛殿), which dates from the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
. The northern courtyard also features two minor halls facing to the east and west called the
Guanyin
Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...
(观音殿) and Dizang Halls (地藏殿), which both date from the
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
. There are also two bell towers located on either side of the Tianwang Hall.
[
]
Ten-Thousand Buddha Hall
The most important hall in the temple is Ten-Thousand Buddha Hall (''Wànfó diàn'' 万佛殿), one of China's oldest wooden buildings. It is a three-bay single-eaves hip
In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint.
The hip region is ...
and gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d hall that is nearly square in shape, measures 11.6 by 10.8 meters, and is 8.8 m high. Despite the building's small size, and features that would identify it as a regular hall (such as pillars
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
that have been implanted directly into the floor instead of on a stone pedestal
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ci ...
), the structure is quite complex. There are doors at the front and back of the hall. In addition, the front of the hall has two windows on either side of the door. There are twelve pillars supporting the structure.[ The corner and column-top ]brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
holding up the roof are of the 7th degree, one of the most complex and large types according to Yingzao Fashi. These bracket sets are nearly 2.5 meters high – 70% the height of the column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s. Inter-columnar brackets that occur between every two pillars are of the 5th degree. The hall has no ceiling, and the upper and lower set of rafters are exposed. Nancy Steinhardt speculates that the complex brackets on what would have been a humble structure were an attempt by the Northern Han rulers to build a magnificent structure with limited resources.[Steinhardt (1997), 80.]
The hall contains eleven sculptures from the Northern Han period. These are the only Chinese sculptures from the period that survive from outside the Mogao Grottoes
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gans ...
. There is a main statue of Sakyamuni
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
flanked by Bodhisattvas
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In the Early Buddhist schools ...
and the Heavenly Kings.[Howard (2006), 375.]
File:Pingyao Zhenguo Si 2013.08.26 15-19-03.jpg, Tianwang Hall
File:Pingyao Zhenguo Si 2013.08.26 15-19-30.jpg, Tianwang Hall
File:Pingyao Zhenguo Si 2013.08.26 15-31-59.jpg, Wanfo Hall
File:Zhenguo Temple 2.jpg, Statues inside the Wanfo Hall
Notes
References
* Howard, Angela Falco, et al. ''Chinese Sculpture''. New Haven: Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
, 2006.
* Miller, Tracy. "Constructing Religion: Song Dynasty Architecture and the Jinci Temple Complex." Diss. University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
* Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. ''Liao Architecture''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1997.
* Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman ed. ''Chinese Architecture''. New Haven: Yale University, 2002.
* Zhao Yu, ed. ''Shanxi''. Beijing: Chinese Travel Press, 2007.
External links
Zhenguo Monastery, Architectura Sinica Site Archive
{{good article
World Heritage Sites in China
Buddhist temples in Jinzhong
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Shanxi
Timber framed buildings in China