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Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes in Beijing: 4 entries, including Yunju Temple, Fangshan, Prince Gong's Mansion, Vajrasana Pagoda at Zhenjue Temple, and more.

001 Architecture Yunju Temple, Fangshan Yunju Temple stands at the foot of Shijing Mountain in Fangshan, Beijing. In the Daye era of the Sui dynasty, the monk Jingwan carved Buddhist scriptures onto stone to preserve them against Dharma decline. Over the following millennium, Tang Princess Jinxian donated sutras and land, and the Liao court funded four major scriptural canons — altogether 1,122 texts on 14,278 stone slabs. After Japanese artillery destroyed all halls in 1942, the stone scriptures in caves and underground vaults survived intact. Sui dynasty · Beijing · Fangshan District, Beijing
002 Architecture Vajrasana Pagoda at Zhenjue Temple During the Yongle era, the Tibetan monk Pandita came to pay tribute and presented five golden Buddha figures together with the regulations for a Vajrasana pagoda; Emperor Chengzu built a temple to house him and named it Zhenjue. In the ninth year of Chenghua, following the Central Indian model, a stone platform fifty chi high was raised, with stairways hidden within its walls spiraling up left and right; on its top stood five pagodas each twenty chi tall, already celebrated by Ming poets who climbed them. Ming · Beijing · Haidian District, Beijing
003 Architecture Zhihua Temple Zhihua Temple, in Lumicang Hutong in Beijing's Dongcheng District, was completed in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming (1444). After his restoration, Emperor Yingzong erected a shrine to Wang Zhen inside the temple; the Qianlong emperor later approved Shen Tingfang's petition to destroy the statue and the stele, after which the temple lost its patronage and gradually declined. By the Republican era, Abbot Puyuan could only keep the monastery going by renting out rooms and felling and selling its ancient cypresses. In 1930 the two caisson ceilings of Zhihua Hall and Wanfo Pavilion were dismantled and sold: the former entered the Philadelphia Museum of Art the same year, while the latter was purchased the following year by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from a Beijing antiquities dealer. Ming dynasty · Beijing · Dongcheng District, Beijing
004 Architecture Prince Gong's Mansion Prince Gong's Mansion in Beijing began as the residence of Heshen, the Qianlong emperor's favorite; its nanmu house, built in imitation of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, was listed among Heshen's Twenty Great Crimes and survives as today's Xijin Studio. After confiscation in 1799, half of the mansion became Princess Hexiao's residence and half was granted to Prince Qing Yonglin; in 1852 the Xianfeng emperor allotted it to Prince Gong Yixin, whose northern garden was completed in the Tongzhi era; in 1937 it became the women's college of Fu Jen University. Listed in 1982 as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, it is now the Prince Gong's Mansion Museum. The article collects original texts from the Veritable Records of the Qing, the Draft History of Qing, and other documents, together with twentieth-century historical photographs. Qing Dynasty · Beijing · No. 17 Qianhai West Street, Xicheng District, Beijing

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