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Shandong

Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes in Shandong: 3 entries, including Guangyue Tower, Lingyan Temple, Penglai Pavilion, and more.

001 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
002 Architecture Penglai Pavilion The Penglai Pavilion in Yantai, Shandong, was first built in the Northern Song and stands atop Danya Hill; the Song–Yuan harbor basin below the hill was expanded into the Dengzhou Water City in the Ming. A Yuan-dynasty gazetteer, excavated warships, Ming–Qing coastal-defense documents, and photographs from 1903 to 1928 record the vertical relationship between the pavilion and the naval harbor. Northern Song Dynasty · Shandong · Penglai District, Yantai, Shandong
003 Architecture Guangyue Tower The Guangyue Tower stands at the center of the old city of Liaocheng, Shandong. Built in the seventh year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1374) from timber left over from the city walls and first named the “Yumu Tower,” it is a four-story watch-and-drum tower on a high terrace, used to keep lookout for the city's defense and to sound the night watches and alarms. Drawing on Ming and Qing tower records, the Qianlong Emperor's poems on climbing the tower, and the local gazetteers, this entry tells of its naming and repairs and its part in the 1938 defense of Liaocheng, and presents old photographs from 1936 and 1947. Ming dynasty · Shandong · Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng, Shandong Province

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