001 Grottoes Xiangtangshan Grottoes The Xiangtangshan Grottoes lie at the northern and southern ends of Mount Gu in Fengfeng Mining District, Handan—two sets of mortuary caves carved by the imperial family and powerful ministers of Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. The Zizhi Tongjian records that Gao Huan was secretly interred beside the Buddha's head in the great cave at North Xiangtangshan; the Xu Gaoseng Zhuan states that the great cave image backs onto the tomb of Emperor Wenxuan. South Xiangtangshan, according to the Stele of the Fushan Grottoes, was opened in the first year of Tiantong by the monk Huiyi and Prince Gao Anahong of Huaiyin. Eastern Wei Fengfeng Mining District, Handan, Hebei Province Xiangtangshan Grottoes · Xiangtang Temple Grottoes · Grottoes →
002 Architecture Yueyang Tower Yueyang Tower stands in Yueyanglou District, Yueyang, Hunan Province. In the Tang dynasty it was already the gate tower of the city of Yuezhou overlooking Dongting Lake; in the Northern Song it was rebuilt by Teng Zongliang, for which Fan Zhongyan wrote the Record of the Yueyang Tower; the surviving main tower follows the form established by the rebuilding of the sixth year of the Guangxu era of the Qing. Drawing on the original texts of poems, records, stele inscriptions, and gazetteers from the Tang and Song through the Ming and Qing, this entry also preserves, in old photographs from around 1900 to the years of the Japanese occupation, the former appearance of its city walls, lakeshore, streets, and courtyards. Tang Dynasty Yueyanglou District, Yueyang, Hunan Province Yueyang Tower · Yuezhou · Baling →
003 Architecture The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali The Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple stand below the Cang Mountains northwest of Dali Old Town, Yunnan. The main tower, the Qianxun Pagoda, is a square, closely-eaved pagoda of sixteen tiers. According to the Yunnan Tongzhi, an inscription atop the pagoda dates it to the first year of Kaiyuan of the Tang (713 CE), built by the Tang artisans Gong Tao and Hui Yi at the Nanzhao kingdom’s invitation. Two smaller pagodas flank it to the north and south, “each topped with a cast-gold finial bearing a golden roc.” Tradition holds that “dragons revere pagodas but fear the roc; Dali was once a dragon marsh, hence these were built to subdue it.” Nanzhao Dali, Yunnan Buddhist Architecture · Ancient Pagoda · Nanzhao →
004 Architecture Yuelu Academy The Yuelu Academy stands at the eastern foot of Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiang River in Changsha, Hunan Province. It was founded in the ninth year of the Kaibao era of the Northern Song (976) by Zhu Dong, prefect of Tanzhou, and in the eighth year of the Dazhong Xiangfu era (1015) Emperor Zhenzong bestowed its name-board, making it one of the Four Great Academies of the Song. In the Southern Song, Zhang Shi presided over its teaching and Zhu Xi came to the academy for joint lectures and to promote learning; destroyed and rebuilt time and again through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, it was converted in the twenty-ninth year of the Guangxu era (1903) into the Hunan Higher School and today belongs to Hunan University. The entry collects the original texts of the Comprehensive Examination of Literature, Zhang Shi's Record of the Restoration of the Yuelu Academy in Tanzhou, Chen Fuliang's record, Zhu Xi's dispatch, and Ding Sikong's memorial requesting the imperial plaque, together with old photographs of the academy from the 1920s. Northern Song Dynasty Yuelu District, Changsha, Hunan Province Yuelu Academy · Yuelu Mountain · Changsha →