Shanhua 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 A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

located in

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...

Shanxi Province Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. The temple was first founded during the early 8th century of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, but its earliest surviving building dates from the 11th century. The temple was heavily repaired over the years, and today three original halls and two recently rebuilt pavilions survive. The largest, and earliest hall, dating from the 11th-century

Liao dynasty The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...

, is the

Mahavira Hall A Mahavira Hall, usually simply known as a Main Hall, is the main hall or building in a traditional Chinese Buddhist temple, enshrining representations of Gautama Buddha and various other buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is encountered throughou ...

and is one of the largest of its kind in China. Also historically significant are the Main Gate and Sansheng Hall, both dating from 12th century during the Jin dynasty.

History

The Shanhua Temple was first founded during the Kaiyuan period of the

(713-741) under the patronage of emperor Xuanzong, at which time it was known as the Kaiyuan Temple. After the fall of the Tang dynasty during the

Five Dynasties The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...

period (906-960), the temple underwent a name change and was known as Da Pu’ensi. During this chaotic time, out of ten buildings at the temple, only three or four escaped destruction. After the takeover by the

in 960, the temple assumed its present configuration.Steinhardt (1997), 141. The temple was again heavily damaged when the Jin dynasty took over in 1120, and in 1128 repair work was started that took fifteen years to complete.Steinhardt (1997), 142-143. In 1421, more repairs were undertaken, this time by a monk named Dayong. In 1445, he received an imperial presentation of sutras. This is also the first time that the temple was referred to by its present name, Shanhua Temple. In the late 16th century, drum and bell towers were built on the same stone platform (''yuetai'', 月台) supporting the Mahavira Hall. Further repairs were made to the temple over the next two hundred years but by the late 18th century the temple was once again in a state of disrepair, and the use of one of the halls as a

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...

stable had caused a wall to collapse.Steinhardt (1997), 143. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the Puxian pavilion was destroyed, and was rebuilt in 1953.Steinhardt (1997), 147.

Architecture

The Shanhua Temple today consists of three main halls (The Mahavira Hall, the Sansheng Hall and the Main Gate) arranged on a north–south axis and two pavilions located to the east and west of the Sansheng Hall. There are also two smaller halls on each side of the Mahavira Hall. The main halls were all first built during the

(907-1125), but only the Mahavira Hall is now considered a Liao Building. The Main Gate and Sansheng Hall were extensively renovated during the subsequent Jin dynasty, and are classified by scholars as being Jin buildings.

Main Hall

The Main or

(, ''Dàxíongbǎo Diàn'') is the northernmost and largest hall, and dates from the 11th century. It measures seven by five bays (40.5 by 25 m) and has three doors at the front of the hall. The hall is built on an elevated three meter high platform that was once the site of both a drum and bell tower that are no longer extant. According to the standards in the 11th-century Chinese architectural treatise ''

Yingzao Fashi The ''Yingzao Fashi'' () is a technical treatise on architecture and craftsmanship written by the Chinese author Li Jie (李誡; 1065–1110), the Directorate of Buildings and Construction during the mid Song Dynasty of China. He revised m ...

'', the hall is held up by fifth rank bracket sets (鋪作) in a system of eight ranks.Steinhardt (1997), 145. The interior contains four large Buddha statues representing the four cardinal directions, and a central statue representing

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 ...

.Howard (2006), 376. The statues are similar, and represent the Buddha displaying different

mudra A mudra (; sa, मुद्रा, , "seal", "mark", or "gesture"; ,) is a symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. As wel ...

s (symbolic hand gestures).Howard (2006), 378. Above the Sakyamuni statue, is a caisson (), an octagonal wooden ceiling that is painted and decorated. Along with other statues of disciples and attendants grouped with the large statues, there are also statues of the Twenty-Four Celestial Devas located next to the east and west walls. There are 190 square meters of murals in the hall. They date from 1708 to 1716, but have been damaged over the years.

Sansheng Hall

The Sansheng Hall () is the middle hall, and was built during the Jin dynasty. It houses statues of the three sages of the Avatamsaka Sutra - a central one of

Vairocana Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East ...

(the universal aspect of Shakyamuni) and two accompanying statues of

Manjusri Mañjuśrī (Sanskrit: मञ्जुश्री) is a ''bodhisattva'' associated with '' prajñā'' (wisdom) in Mahāyāna Buddhism. His name means "Gentle Glory" in Sanskrit. Mañjuśrī is also known by the fuller name of Mañjuśrīkumārab ...

and Samantabhadra. The hall has very few central pillars for its support and depends on complex rafters and brackets of the 6th rank for its support. Shanhua Temple 3

Puxian Pavilion

The Puxian Pavilion () was initially built during the Liao dynasty, and was examined by

Liang Sicheng Liang Sicheng (; 20 April 1901 – 9 January 1972) was a Chinese architect and architectural historian, known as the father of modern Chinese architecture. His father, Liang Qichao, was one of the most prominent Chinese scholars of the early ...

in the 1930s. He reported a heavily damaged structure with two stories. On the first story was a miniature building and niche with two images. On the top story was a statue of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. The building was rebuilt in 1953 after having been destroyed during the war. The pavilion measures three bays by two, but is nearly a perfect square. It is built on a short stone platform called a ''yuetai'' (月台) which is accessed by a short set of stairs. While from the outside, the pavilion appears to only have two stories, there are actually three, with the second floor being hidden from outside view. Each of the exterior levels is surrounded by a perimeter of columns.

Wenshu Pavilion

This pavilion () was destroyed in the early 20th century after it caught fire after being converted into a

tannery Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

. It was rebuilt in 2008 by the local government.China.com.cn (2008
大同文殊阁修缮进展顺利古建筑群对称美感将现
Retrieved on 2009-06-29.

Main Gate

The Main Gate () is a large hall that was built during the Jin dynasty in the 12th century, and is the entrance building of the temple.Shen (2002), 47. The hall contains statues of the

four heavenly kings The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods, each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. In Chinese mythology, they are known collectively as the "Fēng Tiáo Yǔ Shùn" () or "Sìdà Tiānwáng" (). In the ...

, with two on the east side, and two on the west side. It is five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

long, and two bays wide and has an area of 278 square meters.Shen (2002), 46-47. The

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 ...

used to support the structure are of the 5th rank.Shen (2002), 46.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Howard, Angela Falco, et al. ''Chinese Sculpture''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. *Guo Daibeng. "The Liao, Song, Xixia and Jin Dynasties." in Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, ed., Chinese Architecture (New Haven: Yale University, 2002), 131–198. *Shen Weichen, ed. ''Huayan Temple, Shanhua Temple, Wall of Nice Dragons''. Taiyuan: Shanxi People's Press, 2002. *Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "Liao: An Architectural Tradition in the Making," ''Artibus Asiae'' (Volume 54, Number 1/2, 1994): 5–39. *Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. ''Liao Architecture''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997. *Zhao Yu, ed. ''Shanxi''. Beijing: Chinese Travel Press, 2007.

External links

Shanhua Monastery, Architectura Sinica Site Archive
{{good article Buddhist temples in Datong Jin dynasty (1115–1234) architecture Liao dynasty architecture Tang dynasty Buddhist temples Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Shanxi 8th-century establishments in China 12th-century Buddhist temples 12th-century establishments in China