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 Dengfeng, Henan Province Songyue Pagoda · Dengfeng Henan · Northern Wei →
002 Architecture Foguang Temple Foguang Temple lies in Wutai County, Shanxi, and takes its name from an auspicious response of "Buddha's light." In the fifth year of the Dali era of the Tang, the monk Facao saw several beams of white light to the temple's south; during the Yuanhe era there was a memorial reporting that "auspicious clouds appeared beside Foguang Temple." The Dunhuang Record of a Journey to Mount Wutai describes its seven-bay great Buddha hall and its three-story, seven-bay Maitreya pavilion; after the Huichang persecution the monk Yuancheng "sought out Foguang Temple anew" and rebuilt it step by step. The East Hall that survives today is a relic of that reconstruction. Tang Dynasty Wutai County, Shanxi Province Foguang Temple · Great Foguang Temple · Wutai County →
003 Architecture Hua Pagoda at Guanghui Temple, Zhengding The Hua Pagoda at Guanghui Temple stands inside the south gate of Zhengding, also called Huata Temple or Duobao Pagoda. The temple's history traces back to the Sui and Tang, while the date of the pagoda itself drifts between the Jin Dading rebuilding and the Northern Song inscriptions discovered during 1990s restoration. The Qianlong Emperor climbed the pagoda and inscribed a poem; Liang Sicheng called it 'perhaps a sole surviving example within the seas'; in 1947 Zhao Shengming gave his life to protect the pagoda in battle. Tang / Song-Jin Zhengding County, Hebei Hua Pagoda Guanghui Temple · Zhengding · Buddhist Pagoda →
004 Architecture Jinci Temple The shrine was first raised for Tang Shuyu, and Emperor Taizong of the Tang personally composed and inscribed a stele here; four hundred years later the Northern Song Hall of the Sacred Mother was completed, and the principal deity shifted from Shuyu to the Sacred Mother — a shrine whose own later additions replaced its protagonist. Tang dynasty Taiyuan, Shanxi Jinci Temple · Hall of the Sacred Mother · Yuzhao Feiliang →
005 Architecture Nanchan Temple The main hall of Nanchan Temple is located in Lijia Village, Wutai County, Shanxi. An ink inscription under the beam reads “restored in the third year of Jianzhong of the Great Tang,” making it one of the earliest surviving Tang-dynasty timber structures with a definite date. Pre-restoration survey photos from 1953 show that the front-eave doors and windows, the eave bracket projections, and structural details still preserve original Tang construction. Tang Dynasty Wutai County, Shanxi Province Nanchan Temple Main Hall · Nanchan Temple · Wutai County →
006 Architecture Shanhua Temple After the Song envoy Zhu Bian was detained in the Jin state, he moved into the Da Pu'en Temple and lived for fourteen years amid the rubble left by the fires at the end of the Liao dynasty, witnessing firsthand as the monk Yuanman raised funds to rebuild more than eighty bays. He recorded the experience in a stele inscription, and his own captivity thus became a testimony to the rebirth of this ancient Tang-dynasty temple. Tang Dynasty Datong, Shanxi Province Shanhua Temple · Da Pu'en Temple · Kaiyuan Temple →
007 Architecture Dule Temple Dule Temple once belonged to Jizhou; old gazetteers place it southwest of the prefectural seat. The Liao-dynasty rebuilding of its Guanyin Pavilion survives mainly through the Liu Cheng stele: in the second year of Tonghe, Master Tanzhen entered the temple to rebuild the pavilion of two stories, five bays east to west and eight frames north to south. The Jingji Jinshi Kao still records the stele; Qing gazetteers note a 1753 imperial-funded restoration, and early modern albums preserve views of the mountain gate, the Guanyin Pavilion, the guardian kings, and the Guanyin image. Liao dynasty Jizhou District, Tianjin (formerly Ji County, Hebei) Dule Temple · Jizhou · Ji County →
008 Architecture Fengguo Temple At the turn of the Liao and Jin, the flames of war spread through the northeast, and the Liao monasteries of the region were reduced to ash in a single blaze — only Fengguo Temple in Yizhou stood alone and intact. The stele of the seventh year of Dade traces the reason: Wang Xun, Grand Master of Splendid Happiness with Golden Seal and Purple Ribbon, ordered his men to keep constant watch, and the abbot Master Yang exhausted his resources on repairs, so the seven Buddhas within the hall and the nine-bay Great Hall passed through that war whole. Liao dynasty Yi County, Jinzhou, Liaoning Province Liao Architecture · Buddhist Temple · Great Hall →
009 Architecture Huayan Temple The chronology of Huayan Temple does not begin with a single record: a construction inscription of 1038 survives on a beam of the Hall of the Bhagavat Sutra Repository, while the History of the Liao dates the temple's founding to 1062. Thereafter, wartime fires, the Jin-dynasty rebuilding, the Yuan-dynasty revival, modern photographic surveys, and twenty-first-century expansion each left layers of text and image behind. The temple today thus faces both its old Liao and Jin structures and a newly spread-out courtyard complex, linking nearly a millennium of rise and decline. Liao Dynasty Datong, Shanxi Province Huayan Temple · Datong · Liao Dynasty Architecture →
010 Architecture Yunyan Temple Pagoda The Yunyan Temple Pagoda sits atop Tiger Hill in Suzhou, commonly known as the Tiger Hill Pagoda. The temple was founded in the second year of Xianhe of the Eastern Jin (334 CE) when the brothers Wang Xun and Wang Min donated their residence, yet the surviving pagoda dates from between the sixth year of Xiande of the Later Zhou (959) and the second year of Jianlong of the Northern Song (961)—temple and pagoda are separated by over six hundred years and share no common origin. An octagonal, seven-story brick pagoda in the timber-imitation pavilion style, its brickwork simulates columns, lintels, bracket sets, and diamond-tooth eaves projections; the tower leans toward the northeast. Later Zhou Suzhou, Jiangsu Province Yunyan Temple Pagoda · Tiger Hill Pagoda · Suzhou →
011 Architecture Liaodi Pagoda at Kaiyuan Temple, Dingxian (Dingzhou) The Liaodi Pagoda at Kaiyuan Temple stands in Dingzhou, Hebei. Ming-dynasty poets who climbed the pagoda wrote of gazing down over the prefectural city and far toward the frontier; the Yanshan Conglu states that from the summit one can see a hundred li, and links the pagoda's name to watching for the Khitan. Old photographs from 1902 to 1932 record the pagoda amid tree groves, fields, and alleyways. Northern Song Dynasty Dingzhou, Hebei Liaodi Pagoda · Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda · Dingzhou →
012 Architecture Qingjing Mosque In 1009 CE, Muslim merchants sojourning in Quanzhou raised the Ashab Mosque outside the city walls. Worshippers purified themselves at an ancient well, climbed the moon-watching platform to observe the crescent of Ramadan, and then prayed toward Mecca; over the next three hundred years the city of Quanzhou expanded southward, drawing the mosque into its streets, and a man from Shiraz came to rebuild it. Arabic inscriptions, a Ming imperial edict, and Chinese stele records chronicle the later centuries of this seafaring merchants' mosque. Northern Song Dynasty Tumen Street, Licheng District, Quanzhou, Fujian Province Qingjing Mosque · Ashab Mosque · Mosque of the Holy Friends →
013 Architecture Youguo Temple Pagoda The Youguo Temple Pagoda stands in Kaifeng, Henan Province, commonly known as the Iron Pagoda. It is a Northern Song dynasty octagonal thirteen-story pagoda built with iron-colored glazed bricks. In the fourth year of Qingli (1044), the wooden Linggan Pagoda of Kaibao Temple was destroyed by fire. Emperor Renzong initially heeded his advisors and halted reconstruction; yet five years later he issued a decree to 'rebuild the Linggan Pagoda and enshrine the relics.' The rebuilt pagoda did not replicate the old one but was relocated to Shangfang Courtyard in the eastern precinct of Kaibao Temple and raised anew in glazed brick. Northern Song Dynasty Kaifeng, Henan Province Youguo Temple Pagoda · Kaifeng Iron Pagoda · Shangfang Temple →
014 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 Haidian District, Beijing Vajrasana Pagoda Zhenjue Temple · Wutasi Pagoda · Zhenjue Temple →