001 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 →
002 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 Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng, Shandong Province Guangyue Tower · Yumu Tower · Dongchang Tower →