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 (; ; 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'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

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''), wh ...

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

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 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 ...

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 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 aest ...

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, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

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 ...

), 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

holding up the roof are of the 7th degree, one of the most complex and large types according to

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 ...

. 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 (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...

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. 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 Univers ...

, 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