001 Architecture Taishi Que The Taishi Que (pillar-gates) stand some hundred paces south of the Zhongyue Temple in Dengfeng, Henan, serving as the spirit-road gates before the temple of Mount Taishi of the Central Peak. They were first built in the fifth year of Yuanchu under Emperor An of Han (118 CE) by Lü Chang, magistrate of Yangcheng. The lintel bears a raised-seal inscription reading “Central Peak Taishi Yangcheng.” The front inscription praises the mountain spirit: “the mound earth…, the purest qi of Dai, spring gives birth to all things, clouds rise from an inch of skin.” A rear inscription was added in the fourth year of Yanguang. Together with the Shaoshi Que and the Qimu Que, they are known as the Three Han-Dynasty Que of Mount Song. Eastern Han Dengfeng City, Henan Province Taishi Que · Han Dynasty · Stone Que
002 Architecture Shaoshi Que The Shaoshi Que stand west of Xingjipu at the eastern foot of Mount Shaoshi in Dengfeng, Henan, serving as the spirit-road gates before the temple of Mount Shaoshi, with east and west pillars facing each other. The north face bears the six-character inscription “Spirit-Road Que of Shaoshi.” The pillar bodies are carved with images of cuju (football), hounds chasing hares, and unicorns. The Song Shu comments that their style is “especially archaic and unadorned.” The temple itself vanished long ago; the Jinshi Tu notes: “The Shaoshi temple can no longer be seen; only these que remain.” Eastern Han Dengfeng City, Henan Province Three Great Que of the Han Dynasty · Shaoshi Que · Han Dynasty Architecture
003 Architecture Qimu Que The Qimu Que stand due south of the Qimu Stone beneath Mount Taishi on Mount Song in Dengfeng, Henan. They are spirit-road gates built in the second year of Yanguang under Emperor An of Han (123 CE) by Zhu Chong, Grand Administrator of Yingchuan. The Qimu Stone is said to be the transformation of Tushanshi, wife of the Great Yu—Yu turned into a bear while taming the floods; Tushanshi fled in shame and at the foot of Mount Songgao turned to stone, which cracked open on its north side and gave birth to Qi. The left side of the pillar body bears a large-seal inscription narrating Yu’s flood-control deeds. Eastern Han Dengfeng City, Henan Province Three Great Que of the Han Dynasty · Qimu Que · Han Dynasty Architecture
004 Architecture White Horse Temple White Horse Temple (Baima Si) stands in Luoyang, Henan. Later texts call it the first Buddhist monastery in China, founded by Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han; its name derives from the white horse on which Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna are said to have carried the scriptures into Luoyang. After the wartime fires of the Jingkang era, the eastern pagoda cloister was rebuilt under the Jin; the main temple was restored under the Yuan; and it was repaired again in the Hongwu and Jiajing eras of the Ming and the Kangxi era of the Qing. Eastern Han Dynasty Luoyang, Henan Province Buddhist Architecture · Eastern Han · White Horse Temple
005 Architecture Feng Huan Que The Feng Huan Que stand at Zhaojiaping beside Tuxi Field in Quxian. Their owner, Feng Huan, was a native of Dangqu who rose to Inspector of Youzhou under Emperor An of the Eastern Han. In Jian'guang 1, a forged imperial edict led to his imprisonment; after he appealed and died in custody, the court still granted burial compensation. Local gazetteers say he was returned to his home district. Song and Qing epigraphic works use the que inscription, imperial edict, broken stele, and stele reverse to recover his unrecorded tenure as Inspector of Yuzhou and explain “Yanwang Tomb” as a local misnomer. Eastern Han Quxian, Dazhou, Sichuan Province Feng Huan Que · Han Dynasty · Stone Que
006 Architecture Wuhou Shrine In the third year of the Zhangwu reign of Shu Han (223), Liu Bei was buried in the Huiling Mausoleum in Chengdu; the Temple of the Former Sovereign founded under the Southern Qi and the Wuhou Shrine that appeared during the Northern and Southern Dynasties thereafter stood separately beside the tomb. In the twenty-fourth year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming (1391), Zhu Chun, Prince Xian of Shu, abolished the separate shrine to Marquis Wu and moved Zhuge Liang into the Temple of Emperor Zhaolie of Han; after the rebuilding in the Kangxi reign of the Qing, Liu Bei came to occupy the front and Zhuge Liang the rear. The main gate still bears the plaque “Temple of Emperor Zhaolie of Han,” while the whole joint mausoleum-temple of sovereign and minister is popularly known as the “Wuhou Shrine.” Shu Han Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province Wuhou Shrine · Chengdu Wuhou Shrine · Temple of Emperor Zhaolie of Han
007 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
008 Architecture Lingyan Temple In the Zhengguang era of the Northern Wei, the Chan master Fading came to Mount Fang and founded a place of Buddhist practice; in the Tang, a monastery was re-established beside the damaged images left by the Huichang suppression of Buddhism. In the Northern Song a complex of more than five hundred bays drew crowds of pilgrims, only to fall quickly into decline amid famine; in the Jin the monks defended the temple's mountain forest on the strength of old steles; in the Yuan more than five thousand volumes of scripture waited forty-five years for the Dragon Treasury Hall; in the Ming the Hall of the Thousand Buddhas was rebuilt; and in the Qing the treasury hall was destroyed by fire. Through its many cycles of rise and decline, the temple has left behind stele inscriptions, rubbings, and photographs from successive ages. Northern Wei Dynasty Changqing District, Jinan, Shandong Province Lingyan Temple · Mount Fang · Mount Yufu
009 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
010 Architecture Yunju Temple, Fangshan Yunju Temple stands at the foot of Shijing Mountain in Fangshan, Beijing. In the Daye era of the Sui dynasty, the monk Jingwan carved Buddhist scriptures onto stone to preserve them against Dharma decline. Over the following millennium, Tang Princess Jinxian donated sutras and land, and the Liao court funded four major scriptural canons — altogether 1,122 texts on 14,278 stone slabs. After Japanese artillery destroyed all halls in 1942, the stone scriptures in caves and underground vaults survived intact. Sui dynasty Fangshan District, Beijing Buddhist Architecture · Stone Carving · Buddhist Pagoda
011 Architecture Longxing Temple In the sixth year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui, the regional inspector of Hengzhou, acting on imperial command, exhorted and rewarded ten thousand people of the prefecture to jointly build the Longzang Temple; the 藏 in the temple's name is read “zàng,” referring in Buddhism to the Mahāyāna canon or the scripture-treasury of the dragon palace. The temple plaque was later changed to Longxing Temple (龙兴寺, “Dragon Rising”); in the Ming, Du Mu recognized from a half-buried Sui stele before the hall that the two were originally one temple. In the forty-ninth year of the Kangxi era it was again granted the plaque “Longxing Temple” (隆兴寺, written with different characters). Three closely related names, linked together by a single Sui stele that still stands within the temple. Sui Dynasty Zhengding County, Hebei Province Buddhist Architecture · Longxing Temple · Pavilion of Great Compassion
012 Architecture Yuquan Temple During the Kaihuang era of the Sui, Yang Guang, Prince of Jin, built a monastic center on Mount Yuquan in Dangyang for the Tiantai master Zhiyi. In the sixth year of the Jiayou era of the Northern Song, Hao Yan and his maternal aunt of the Han family donated iron, and craftsmen of the Two Zhe circuits cast it into a thirteen-story pagoda for the Buddha's tooth relic. After the wars at the end of the Song, the temple fell for a time into “daily deepening decay,” and under the Yuan the monk Guangzhu rebuilt its halls and pavilions. In the thirtieth year of the Wanli era, the monk Zhenghui vowed to rebuild the main hall, and the layman Ren Chengzhou joined in aiding the work; the extant main hall still retains a Yuan-dynasty lower sill and Ming-dynasty bracket sets. Sui Dynasty Dangyang, Hubei Province Yuquan Temple · Yuquan Iron Pagoda · Mount Yuquan
013 Architecture Giant Wild Goose Pagoda The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda stands within the Da Ci'en Temple in Xi'an. According to the *You Chengnan Ji* (A Record of Travels South of the City), the monk Xuanzang began building the pagoda in the third year of Yonghui (652). It originally had only five stories, with a brick exterior and earthen core, modeled after the Indian stupa. During the Chang'an era it collapsed; Empress Wu and members of the nobility funded its reconstruction to ten stories. After subsequent wars, only seven stories survived. The east and west niches at the base of the pagoda preserve the Preface to the Holy Teachings of the Great Tang Tripitaka and the Record of the Holy Teachings, both inscribed by Chu Suiliang. Tang Dynasty Xi'an, Shaanxi Province Buddhist Pagoda · Tang Dynasty Architecture · Xi'an
014 Architecture Small Wild Goose Pagoda The Small Wild Goose Pagoda stands within the Jianfu Temple in Xi'an. Built during the Jinglong era of the Tang dynasty with funds contributed by palace women, it originally had fifteen stories. According to the Shaanxi Tongzhi (Shaanxi Provincial Gazetteer), the Yimao earthquake of the Jiajing era split the pagoda in two, and the Guihai earthquake reunited it. During Wang Fuchen's rebellion the pagoda split again, and after the rebellion was quelled it returned to its former state. The temple buildings were completely destroyed during the Jurchen-era migration, leaving only the brick pagoda standing. Tang Dynasty Xi'an, Shaanxi Province Small Wild Goose Pagoda · Jianfu Temple · Xi'an
015 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
016 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 · Guanghui Temple · Huata Temple
018 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
019 Architecture Xiantong Monastery Xiantong Monastery is located in Taihuai Town, Wutai County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province. In the time of Wu Zetian of Tang, Dafu Lingjiu Monastery was renamed Great Huayan Monastery. The Tang Huayan monk Chengguan lectured at the monastery and wrote a new commentary on the Huayan Sutra. The Northern Song court included Huayan Monastery among the ten monasteries of the Five Terraces to be rebuilt; in the Ming Yongle era the Buddhist registry of Mount Wutai was established at the monastery, and the monastery and its Buddha śarīra stupa were rebuilt. In the thirty-third and thirty-fourth years of Wanli (1605–1606), the Ming monk Miaofeng Fudeng installed the copper hall and completed the brick “Seven Sites and Nine Assemblies” hall, leaving the copper hall and the beamless hall as the monastery’s core Ming-dynasty remains. Tang dynasty Wutai County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province Xiantong Monastery · Great Xiantong Monastery · Dafu Lingjiu Monastery
020 Architecture Xingjiao Temple Pagodas The Xingjiao Temple Pagodas stand within Xingjiao Temple on the Shaoling Plateau in Xi'an. They are the collective designation for the three relic-burial pagodas of Xuanzang, Kuiji, and Woncheuk. The Xuanzang Pagoda occupies the center and is somewhat larger, erected when the temple was founded in the 2nd year of Zongzhang (669 CE); the Kuiji and Woncheuk pagodas flank it on either side and are somewhat smaller. The pagoda inscriptions of Xuanzang and Kuiji are Tang originals carved in the 4th year of Kaicheng; the Woncheuk inscription stone was broken and what is now embedded on the pagoda is a later re-carving. Tang Dynasty Chang'an District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Xingjiao Temple Pagodas · Xingjiao Temple · Xuanzang
021 Architecture Xuanmiao Temple The state Taoist system of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang gave the city of Suzhou its Kaiyuan Palace; in the Song it was retitled Tianqing Temple, and after repeated destruction by war it was rebuilt by the court. In the Yuan, a woman donated her hairpins and earrings to repair the Three Gates; in the Ming, the timber rafts for rebuilding the Miluo Treasure Pavilion were scattered by wind upon the river, yet the stele record says the drifting timbers afterward all gathered back together. The temple front also became the place where hundreds of weavers waited each day for work. In the Qing it was renamed Yuanmiao Temple and became an altar of birthday prayers for the southern tours; in 1912 the Miluo Treasure Pavilion burned down, while the Southern Song Hall of the Three Pure Ones has survived to this day. Tang Dynasty Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province Xuanmiao Temple · Yuanmiao Temple · Tianqing Temple
022 Architecture Guangxiao Temple From the Yu Garden of Yu Fan in the Sun Wu, to Faxing Temple of the Tang, to the Qianming Chan Cloister of the Song, and on to being occupied as the Guangdong Judges' School in the Republican era, Guangxiao Temple changed its name and its masters again and again over more than a thousand years. Yet the two iron pagodas of the Southern Han standing east and west, the Sixth Patriarch's Hair-Burial Pagoda, and the Xianping-era bell never left their original sites: the claim of a name change is refuted by the bell's inscription, the pagodas' dating is settled by reading the inscriptions on their bodies, and one old Republican-era photograph shows the school's gate plaque and a Southern Han iron pagoda together in the same frame. Ten Kingdoms – Southern Han Guangzhou, Guangdong Province Guangxiao Temple · Faxing Temple · Helin Temple
023 Architecture Liuhe Pagoda Liuhe Pagoda was first built in the third year of Kaibao (970) of the Wuyue Kingdom to subdue the tidal bore of the Qiantang River. It was destroyed by fire during the Xuanhe era and rebuilt in seven stories by the monk Zhitan through monastic fundraising during the Southern Song. After completion it also served as a lighthouse for night navigation. Though repeatedly damaged and restored over the centuries, its brick core endures. Ten Kingdoms-Wuyue Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province Liuhe Pagoda · Hangzhou · Wuyue Kingdom
024 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 · Dule Temple in Jizhou · Dule Temple in Ji County
025 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 Architecture
026 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
027 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 Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda in Dingxian · Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda in Dingzhou · Liaodi Pagoda
028 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
029 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