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Northern Song Dynasty

Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes from the Northern Song Dynasty period: 4 entries, including Liaodi Pagoda at Kaiyuan Temple, Dingxian (Dingzhou), Qingjing Mosque, Sakya Monastery, and more.

001 Architecture Liaodi Pagoda at Kaiyuan Temple, Dingxian (Dingzhou) The Liaodi Pagoda at Kaiyuan Temple stands in Dingzhou, Hebei. Ming-dynasty poets who climbed the pagoda wrote of gazing down over the prefectural city and far toward the frontier; the Yanshan Conglu states that from the summit one can see a hundred li, and links the pagoda's name to watching for the Khitan. Old photographs from 1902 to 1932 record the pagoda amid tree groves, fields, and alleyways. Northern Song Dynasty · Hebei · Dingzhou, Hebei
002 Architecture Qingjing Mosque In 1009 CE, Muslim merchants sojourning in Quanzhou raised the Ashab Mosque outside the city walls. Worshippers purified themselves at an ancient well, climbed the moon-watching platform to observe the crescent of Ramadan, and then prayed toward Mecca; over the next three hundred years the city of Quanzhou expanded southward, drawing the mosque into its streets, and a man from Shiraz came to rebuild it. Arabic inscriptions, a Ming imperial edict, and Chinese stele records chronicle the later centuries of this seafaring merchants' mosque. Northern Song Dynasty · Fujian · Tumen Street, Licheng District, Quanzhou, Fujian Province
003 Architecture Sakya Monastery Sakya Monastery, in Sakya County, Shigatse, is the ancestral monastery of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. Its North Monastery was founded in 1073. In the 13th century, Phagspa entered the Yuan court, created a new Mongol script by imperial command, and transmitted an ordination ritual that was translated into Chinese; in 1268 he commissioned the South Monastery. The Yuan Shi, Kangyou Jixing, and Qinding Kuo'erka Jilüe trace centuries of contact between the monastery, Tibet, and successive central governments. Northern Song · Tibet · Sakya County, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region
004 Architecture Youguo Temple Pagoda The Youguo Temple Pagoda stands in Kaifeng, Henan Province, commonly known as the Iron Pagoda. It is a Northern Song dynasty octagonal thirteen-story pagoda built with iron-colored glazed bricks. In the fourth year of Qingli (1044), the wooden Linggan Pagoda of Kaibao Temple was destroyed by fire. Emperor Renzong initially heeded his advisors and halted reconstruction; yet five years later he issued a decree to 'rebuild the Linggan Pagoda and enshrine the relics.' The rebuilt pagoda did not replicate the old one but was relocated to Shangfang Courtyard in the eastern precinct of Kaibao Temple and raised anew in glazed brick. Northern Song Dynasty · Henan · Kaifeng, Henan Province

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