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Northern Wei Dynasty

Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes from the Northern Wei Dynasty period: 5 entries, including Huangze Temple, Lingyan Temple, Songyue Pagoda, and more.

001 Architecture Songyue Pagoda The Songyue Temple Pagoda stands at the southern foot of Mount Taishi in Dengfeng, Henan. With fifteen closely spaced eaves and a dodecagonal plan, it is the oldest surviving brick pagoda in China. Originally the detached palace of Emperor Xiaoming of the Northern Wei, it was converted into a Buddhist temple in the first year of Zhengguang (520). During the Later Zhou suppression of Buddhism, it was proposed to “turn the temple into a Daoist abbey and the ancient pagoda into an altar,” but the pagoda was ultimately spared because of “the protection of the Eight Divisions.” Li Yong’s stele describes the pagoda as “rising from the ground on four tiers and rounding into the sky in eight aspects.” Northern Wei-Northern and Southern Dynasties · Henan · Dengfeng, Henan Province
002 Grottoes Huangze Temple Huangze Temple stands on the west bank of the Jialing River in Guangyuan, Sichuan. Its cliff carvings were begun in the late Northern Wei, with further caves opened under the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang. This article traces the Tang Buddha pavilion, the Later Shu temple of Wu Zetian's old residence, the Northern Song Hall of Empress Wu's True Countenance, and Qing-dynasty visits, and includes old photographs by Ernst Boerschmann and Liang Sicheng. Northern Wei · Sichuan · Lizhou District, Guangyuan, Sichuan Province
003 Architecture Lingyan Temple In the Zhengguang era of the Northern Wei, the Chan master Fading came to Mount Fang and founded a place of Buddhist practice; in the Tang, a monastery was re-established beside the damaged images left by the Huichang suppression of Buddhism. In the Northern Song a complex of more than five hundred bays drew crowds of pilgrims, only to fall quickly into decline amid famine; in the Jin the monks defended the temple's mountain forest on the strength of old steles; in the Yuan more than five thousand volumes of scripture waited forty-five years for the Dragon Treasury Hall; in the Ming the Hall of the Thousand Buddhas was rebuilt; and in the Qing the treasury hall was destroyed by fire. Through its many cycles of rise and decline, the temple has left behind stele inscriptions, rubbings, and photographs from successive ages. Northern Wei Dynasty · Shandong · Changqing District, Jinan, Shandong Province
004 Architecture Xiuding Temple A Tang-dynasty biography records how Zhang Sengmeng gave up hunting after wounding a deer, and how he hid a tiger to save its life during a hunt by Emperor Xiaowen of the Wei—from which Tiancheng Temple arose. The temple bore in turn the names Chengshan Temple, Heshui Temple, and Xiuding Temple; at the Northern Zhou persecution of Buddhism it left the record that “this pagoda alone survived”; the Sui and Tang restored the temple, and Song and Yuan inscriptions still show the pagoda standing and the temple flourishing. These materials trace the name, ruin and revival, and repairs of Xiuding Temple in Anyang, Henan, and provide documentary clues for studying the extant Tang-dynasty square relief-brick pagoda. Northern Wei Dynasty · Henan · Anyang County, Henan Province
005 Architecture Xuankong Temple Xuankong Temple of Hunyuan, Datong, Shanxi stands in Ciyao Gorge on Mount Heng, a complex of Buddhist temple buildings set against a cliff whose official dating reaches back to the late Northern Wei. The surviving halls and pavilions derive mainly from Ming and Qing rebuildings: niches and chambers are cut into the rock face, while timber structures and plank walkways jut out beyond the cliff. This entry gathers the Jin-dynasty Record of Xuankong Temple, with Poem, Ming and Qing travel accounts and gazetteers, the restoration story recorded in the Tongzhi third-year (1864) Stele of the Reconstruction of Xuankong Temple, and an old photograph from the 1937 Yilin Monthly: Special Travel Issue. Northern Wei · Shanxi · Hunyuan County, Datong, Shanxi Province

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