001 Architecture Guangsheng Temple Today's Guangsheng Temple is split between the heights and foot of Mount Huo, yet the Tang documents record only one ancient foundation of an Aśoka pagoda. Thereafter buildings arose beside the Huo Spring, a Buddha hall stood at the southern foot of the mountain, and a glazed pagoda was rebuilt on the summit. In the thirteenth year of the Jiajing era, Wang Shilong, leading troops on a relief expedition, took his meal at the foot of the pagoda, and after the revolt was pacified had his poem carved on the pagoda wall; not until the Kangxi era did the names “Upper Temple” and “Lower Temple” appear explicitly in a stele. The extant Feihong Pagoda was built under the monk Dalian between the Zhengde and Jiajing eras. Northern Zhou Dynasty Hongtong County, Linfen, Shanxi Province Buddhist Architecture · Northern Zhou · Tang Dynasty →
002 Architecture Qinglian Temple Qinglian Temple stands on Xiashi Mountain in Zezhou, Jincheng, Shanxi; formerly called Xiashi Temple, the mountain already held a Buddhist sanctuary in the Northern Qi. During the Taihe era of the Tang, the monk Huaigong built a monastic compound on the mountain with the support of local officials and people; later the old temple below the mountain received the bestowed plaque “Qinglian,” and the compound above received the plaque “Fuyan.” Today the lower cloister preserves six Tang painted sculptures, and the upper cloister retains the Northern Song Shakyamuni Hall and a sutra repository pavilion repaired through the ages; the temple's steles record the construction and restoration of both compounds. Northern Qi Dynasty Zezhou County, Jincheng City, Shanxi Province Qinglian Temple · Xiashi Temple · Fuyan Chan Monastery →