001 Architecture Zhihua Temple Zhihua Temple, in Lumicang Hutong in Beijing's Dongcheng District, was completed in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming (1444). After his restoration, Emperor Yingzong erected a shrine to Wang Zhen inside the temple; the Qianlong emperor later approved Shen Tingfang's petition to destroy the statue and the stele, after which the temple lost its patronage and gradually declined. By the Republican era, Abbot Puyuan could only keep the monastery going by renting out rooms and felling and selling its ancient cypresses. In 1930 the two caisson ceilings of Zhihua Hall and Wanfo Pavilion were dismantled and sold: the former entered the Philadelphia Museum of Art the same year, while the latter was purchased the following year by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from a Beijing antiquities dealer. Ming dynasty Dongcheng District, Beijing Zhihua Temple · Zhihua Chan Temple · Ming dynasty architecture →