I have seen most of the scenic spots in the Summer Palace in front of me, I have seen the front and rear dormitories, I have seen the east, west, south and north shores of Kunming Lake, I have also seen the banks of the Houxi River, and I have seen the halls, temples and pavilions on the front and middle roads of Longevity Mountain. After that, you must also take a look at the back mountain of Longevity Mountain. The most important building in the front mountain is the Paiyun Temple and the Foxiang Pavilion, and the most important building in the back mountain is the Houda Temple, which is now called Sibuzhou.
The royal family of the Qing Dynasty admired Tibetan Buddhism. In fact, not only the Qing Dynasty, but also the Yuan Dynasty. The emperors of the Yuan and Qing Dynasties had a Living Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism as their emperor's teacher. In the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan’s imperial teacher was Basiba of the Sakya Sect; in the Qing Dynasty, Gelug sent Bazhou Living Buddha as the national teacher of Chechen, and after the Kangxi Dynasty, it was Zhangjia Living Buddha. Most of the northern nomads believed in shaman at the earliest, which is a primitive worship similar to Zoroastrianism, and the practicing priests are wizards called shamans. Shaman has basically disappeared in China now, but Koreans still believe in it. The Jurchens gradually embraced Buddhism from the Jin Dynasty, and by the Qing Dynasty they had already vigorously advocated Tibetan Buddhism. It's not to say how much the Qing royal family embraced Tibetan Buddhism, but that advocating Tibetan Buddhism is beneficial to the management of the Mongolian and Tibetan areas. "Promoting the Yellow Sect to Anmeng Tibet", the Yellow Sect is the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
In order to promote Tibetan Buddhism, that is, Lamaism, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty built Lama Temples everywhere. All the temples built in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty were Lama Chanting Temples. These lama temples are not all Tibetan-style temple buildings, but a combination of Tibetan and Chinese. When Emperor Qianlong built Qingyi Garden, he built a Dabaoen Yanshou Temple at the southern foot of Wanshou Mountain, which is a Han-style temple building. At the northern foot of Wanshou Mountain, a temple building with a combination of Tibetan and Han was built, which is now called the Four Buzhou Building Complex. Lamas recite scriptures in these two temples. The first lamas in the Qing Dynasty were all Mongolian and Tibetan lamas. By the Qianlong period, a large number of Manchu lamas had already entered the temple to chant scriptures.
The most convenient way to go to the Summer Palace to visit the four major continents is to go through the North Palace Gate. I arrived at the North Palace Gate early in the morning. There is a very formal screen wall opposite the palace gate.
Since there is a shadow wall, it means that this is a very formal palace gate. How formal is it? There is a formal square in front of the palace gate, or courtyard. I have said in the past that the folk courtyard is called the courtyard, the courtyard of the family; the royal courtyard is called the court courtyard, the courtyard of the imperial court. Strictly speaking, only the squares of the three front halls and the three rear palaces of the Forbidden City can be called courtyards, and garden buildings such as the Summer Palace are more suitable to be called courtyards. The screen wall is of course an end wall of the courtyard.
There should be water in front of the regular palace gate, and there was a small river at the beginning outside the Beigong gate. This small river should be a stream that used the Yin of Longevity Mountain during the Qingyi Garden period. The creek is now completely dry and buried. A white stone arch bridge built over the small river in the past is still there, with white stone handrails on the bridge, which is now covered by a wooden bridge.
In the first episode of this series of travel notes, I said that the Moon River in front of the East Palace Gate is behind the big screen wall, which means that there has never been such a formal small river and stone bridge in front of the East Palace Gate. After crossing the Baishi bridge, there is actually a courtyard with steps in front.
It is said to be a courtyard because it has a brick wall, so this courtyard is the palace gate courtyard, but why is the big screen wall outside the gate courtyard? It turns out that there was no such screen wall here at first, but it was moved from the gate of Changchun Garden in Yuanmingyuan during the period of the Republic of China. Before that, it was a hill built by Laogandui.
As usual, there are wing rooms on both sides of the palace gate, which are equivalent to the side halls. They are the east and west rooms outside the gate. Look at the West Value Room, which is now the ticket office.
The stone lions in front of the gate are still there, full of vicissitudes of time. Is this the original Qingyi Garden?
This pair of stone lions is completely like the palace lions of the Qing Dynasty. You can see that its shape, posture, and hairstyle are the same as the bronze lions in the Forbidden City. Remember the appearance of this lion first, and talk about it later.
In addition to the small river and stone bridge in front of the North Palace Gate, the screen walls, squares, and value houses are not as large as the East Palace Gate. Look at the door again.
Because this palace gate is a two-story building, it was called "Beilou Gate" in the Qingyi Garden period, and was renamed "Beigong Gate" in the Summer Palace period. The East Palace Gate in the period of Qingyi Garden is called "Dagong Gate", which is very appropriate. The gate tower of the North Palace Gate is five rooms wide and one room deep, and there is a circle of eaves corridors on the top and bottom. On the first floor, the open room and the second room are opened, and the door is slightly closed. The door leaf is on the back eaves column, and the front door hall is very large. The side eaves on the first floor are also closed, so the first floor looks like it is seven rooms wide. On the second floor, there is a door in the open room, sill walls and windows in the second room and a little room, and there is a circle of handrails and wooden railings under the corridor. On the top is the top of the mountain with beams and gray tiles and single eaves rolling shed. Because it is a building, there is no waist eaves, and there is a circle of shading boards at the waist eaves, or hanging eaves. The red pillars are green, and the square beams are painted in the official style of Su style. The ceiling on the first floor is the smallpox of Tuanhe Pingqi, and the second floor is completely built in the Ming Dynasty.
On the second floor, there is a door plaque "Feng Ce Yang Hui" hanging on the door.
This is also Cixi's handwriting, and there should have been a plaque inscribed by Lao Gan. Feng Ce Yang Hui comes from the "Turtle Book Turui,...Feng Ce Yang Hui" in "Ode to Qian Yuan Palace" by Wang Bo of the Tang Dynasty, which refers to a gorgeous article. The phoenix policy is the whip held by the immortals when they ride the phoenix. The immortals on the ridge of the ancient building usually hold the rein with both hands and do not hold the whip, so we rarely see the phoenix policy. Come and see the yellow glazed fairy riding a chicken on the roof of the Summer Palace. In fact, the official name should be called Immortal Riding Phoenix, but because the phoenix looks too much like a rooster, I call it Immortal Riding Chicken.
A pair of couplets is hung on the pillars of the Ming room on the first floor: When the pheasant fan is opened, Wahuang plays Qi Tianle happily, and Shunguan and Chen Yi map at Fengshao Pupu. The pheasant fan is a ceremonial barrier fan that has existed since the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Wa spring, it is said that Nu Wa made the spring, which is the sheng in ritual music. Fengshao is Yushun's Shaoyue; Shunguan (Nianguan) is the jade flute of Shun's time. Kai Chen is to show together. The explanation of Yizuo rewards, Yimap refers to the map of Shenzhou given to Yu Shun by the Queen Mother when he came to power, that is, the Shenzhou was handed over to him for governance.
The "Treasure of Empress Dowager Cixi's Royal Brush" on the door plaque is common to us, and it is spread all over the courtyard. There is a very rare seal of "The Treasure of Empress Dowager Cixi's Royal Brush" on the couplet.
There is also a pair of spare seals of Cixi on the couplet, the upper one is a negative engraved square seal of "Zhi Le Ren Shou", and the lower one is a positive engraved round seal of "Hai Han Chun Yu". This pair of couplets was redone, and there is no cover in front, which is more realistic than the seal on the couplets seen at Paiyunmen. I once talked about the meaning of this set of idle chapters in the episode Paiyundian.
Go in and look back. The stairs of this gatehouse are not inside the building, but on both sides outside the building. It is very special, it seems to be the horse path inside the city gate.
If Lao Gan wanted to bring his mother into the Houshan Temple to burn incense, he had to go through the North Building Gate. Entering the North Palace Gate is a rockery.
In the rockery, there is a royal road with twists and turns. After passing the rockery, you can see a big stone bridge, which is the three-hole bridge on the Houxi River.
Under the bridge is the gurgling water of the back lake, and beside the water is the shopping street that Lao Gan built for his mother that I saw in the last episode.
Standing on the three-hole bridge, you can see the famous "Hui Yin" archway on the opposite side. It is said that it is famous because the word "Hui Yin" on the forehead of the picture below is not visible at all, oh? Why? Because those two characters are on the architrave facing south on the back. In fact, facing north is the front, and the blank architrave on this side should also have words. According to the records in "Imperial Rixia Old News Test", the word here should be "compassion".
The inscriptions on the forehead of this archway are all Zen words. Wisdom is the wisdom of the Buddha, and in Sanskrit it is Prajna (Nianpoja); cause, reason, is the source of cause. Compassion is the mercy of the Buddha, and happiness is the blessing of the Buddha. In the past two years, taking advantage of the epidemic, this archway has been heavily oiled again. By the way, the stone plaque on the forehead was replaced, and the word Cifu was restored. Look at the archway after heavy oil, it can be called "Cifu Archway" again.
The Cifu archway is very beautiful, with four pillars and seven floors, and brackets and beams. Yellow glazed tiles have a single eaves on the roof of the hall, and on the vertical ridge there are immortals riding chickens leading three ridge beasts. On the horizontal beams, there are royal gilt and seal paintings and xuanzi paintings, and there are gold dragons and phoenixes on the hollowed out wood carvings. Under the square is the sparrow of the Longmen. I once mentioned the characteristics of the sparrow of the Longmen in the episode of Paiyundian. It was only found on the highest-standard archway in the Qing Dynasty. This archway has the same specifications as the Yunhui Yuyu archway in front of the Cloud Dispelling Hall, but it is one size smaller.
According to the regulations, there should be a group of three archways in a half circle in front of the gate of Dasha. This Cifu archway is one of such a group of archways. Below the archway is the square in front of the Houshan Temple. There is another archway on the east and west sides of this square, which should be exactly the same as the Cifu archway with four pillars and seven floors. According to records, "Brahma" and "Baodi" are written on the archway on the west side of the archway. Brahma should refer to the great Brahma in the color world; the forest should refer to the forest (Nianqi forest), which is the garden; the lotus world is the world of lotus flowers mentioned in the "Avatamsaka Sutra", the country where Lushana Buddha became enlightened. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860 A.D.), when the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing, the Summer Palace was burned. In the 10th year of Guangxu (1884 A.D.), when Xiaoguang was rebuilt, he did not go here, but only built the front mountain building. The archway seen today was rebuilt as it was in 1980, but the archways on the east and west sides were not repaired, and the remaining pillars and the restored courtyard walls of the two archways can still be seen now.
Look carefully, there is a stone pit on the ground behind the pillars.
This is the installation stone nest supported by the wooden archway gate pole (reading gun pole), that is, the slanted support pole. The front and rear columns of the wooden archway are supported by closing rods, which act as mechanical reinforcement. The current Cifu Archway and the Yunhui Yuyu Archway in front of Paiyun Hall do not have support poles. That is because they were replaced with reinforced concrete columns when they were rebuilt, and removing the poles can increase the beauty. The Hanxu archway outside the East Palace Gate still retains the closing pole, which is just to keep the original shape. In fact, it must have been changed to a reinforced concrete structure column.
This small square is commonly known as "pine hall" because it is full of Chinese pines. Now this is the place for Jingmin to keep fit. A few years ago, there was a chorus of elderly people who sang here, and there were also those who practiced Tai Chi, bang, bang, and danced, and those who did aerobics etc. Now all the singing in the Summer Palace has been banned, and those who play music, dance and do exercises have also been deleted. There are only shuttlecock kickers left here, who can exercise without making noise. When I came today, they hadn't arrived yet, maybe they were all buying buns on the street.
The Houshan Temple is located at the northern foot of Wanshou Mountain, so it faces north from south, and because of the mountain blocking the light, the front of the building does not see sunlight all year round. After passing the square in front of the gate, you will start to climb up the steps. This large temple has no mountain gate, so you can see the main hall of the four major continents and the buildings of Beiju Luzhou in the distance.
Those standing on the top floor are not tourists, but black guides explaining the Beijing Summer Palace to tourists. Passing tourists tend to avoid them because they do not speak with a Beijing accent. They tell a passage to every passing tourist, allowing tourists to listen to it for free. I'm really afraid that they will say that the Summer Palace was built by Huang Taiji for Nurhachi's birthday. It's okay, they didn't say that. They said that the Summer Palace was built by Emperor Qianlong for Empress Dowager Cixi's birthday, and it was spent by Li Hongzhang to buy warships for the Royal Navy.
You can see that there are two small steps on this step. In fact, there is a platform between the two small groups. On the east and west sides of the platform, the base of the Qingyi Garden building can be seen in the past. Later, a food store was built on one base; a public toilet was built on the other base. There is still a long way to go to see the buildings above. Before continuing to visit, tourists had better visit these two places on both sides. Check out the food store on the west side.
In recent years, the convenience room and food store have been demolished, and the two annex buildings here during the Qingyi Garden period have been rebuilt according to the original system. Because the building on the back mountain faces north from the south, its upper left side building is on the west side, which is called Fazang Building. The building on the right side is on the east side, called Baohua Building. Come see Fa Zang Building.
This building has two floors, five rooms wide and one room deep, with eaves and corridors in front, and three-way hanging belts. On the two floors, there are four partition doors in the open room and the second room, with golden lock doors and windows, three interlaced and six bowls with lattice flowers, and gilded Ruyi skirt boards. Slightly between the sill wall sill window, the same partition window as the door leaf. There is no eaves above the first floor, but rafter boards. On the top are bucket arches and beams, yellow glazed tiles and green trimmed edges and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. The style of this building has been verified, and all the stone components cleared from the ruins of the original building have been reused, including stone strips and pillar foundations. Take a look at its plinth.
The plinth is divided into upper and lower sections, the upper section is a drum, and the lower section is a lotus flower. This kind of lotus plinth has its source. It comes from the royal architectural style of the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the royal palaces were all pilaster-shaped pillars, and lotus pillars were only used in temples and halls. The Qing Dynasty continued to follow the Ming Dynasty's royal architectural regulations, and only a few temples in the Qingyi Garden used lotus pillars.
Look at Baohua Building on the east side.
The shape of Baohua Tower is the same as that of Fazang Tower, but there is an ancient pine in front of it. For this ancient pine, a Baishi Xumizuo tree pool was built. It seems that this tree pool was originally here.
These two auxiliary halls should have been dedicated to Buddha statues or Bodhisattva statues. It is possible that the Fazang Building is dedicated to Manjusri Bodhisattva, and the Baohua Building is dedicated to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. There are no plaques in the two buildings, because the buildings are newly built, it may be that the plaque-making period has been delayed.
Going up one more step, you can see the large building in the four major continents, red and white, very grand.
This is the scene I saw a few years ago. Now a part of the original building in Qingyi Garden has been rebuilt here, called "Xumi Lingjing Hall". Now standing on this platform, it looks like this.
If you climb up the big figure-of-eight ladder at the back to watch, it used to be like this.
An empty square with a green brick floor and shops on both sides. Now look at this again, it is like this.
The base of Xumi Lingjing Palace was erected on the square, and all the plinths were installed on the base, and a circle of walls only as high as the front sill wall was built, and a circle of half wall columns was installed. This is the original state of the lowest floor of the main hall during the Qingyi Garden period. It can be seen that the Xumi Lingjing Hall is nine rooms wide and six rooms deep, which is quite large in scale. The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City is nine rooms wide and five rooms deep, which symbolizes the Ninth Five-Year Supreme. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is nine rooms wide, and there is a circle of eaves. Its side eaves are closed. Some people say that it is eleven rooms wide. Xumi Lingjing Hall is not seven rooms wide with a closed eaves corridor, its outermost bay is the same size as the inside, which shows that it is actually nine rooms wide and six rooms deep. Those pillar foundations in broad daylight are newly made fake ones, just for illustration. There must be a column mounting hole in the middle of the pure column foundation.
On the front of the main hall, the open door and the secondary room are opened, and the primary room, the short room and the end room are all closed by sill walls and sill windows. The pillars of the main hall are counted from the front row to the back: eaves pillars (also wall pillars), outer golden pillars, inner golden pillars, middle pillars, rear inner golden pillars, rear outer golden pillars, and rear eaves pillars, a total of seven rows of pillars; There are ten pillars, so there should be seventy pillars in total. Four central pillars were subtracted in the middle to make Buddhist niches, and six front and rear outer golden pillars were subtracted to make worship courts. There are actually fifty-four pillars.
Take a look at the half-column demo.
The red pine wood is pasted piece by piece, the inner body may be reinforced concrete, and there is no gray hemp paint on the outside. Look at the plinth, there are three sections. On the top is the same stone drum as the east and west wings, in the middle is the royal lotus, and at the bottom is the pillar. The pillars should normally be on the top floor, next to the wooden pillars. It is to allow the water on the column to go down the slope, and to prevent the water on the column foundation from climbing up along the wood gap of the column.
The one on the ground is actually not a blue brick, but a gold brick. It has been exposed to the wind and sun, soaked in rain and snow, and it is now like this. The base of the platform under the Xumi Lingjing Temple is now a simple plain white stone. Was it the Xumizuo in the past? The previous three-way step-out was resumed. The roof of the Xumi Lingjing Temple in those days should be a bucket arch and a beam, with yellow glazed tiles and green trimmed edges and double eaves on the top of the mountain. Since there is no eaves, in order to have a large enough eaves, brackets must be used. There are no pictures, let's make up your mind.
During the Qingyi Garden period, the Buddha of the third generation was enshrined in the hall. After the British and French allied forces burned it in the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860 AD), the Buddha statues also disappeared. Now, all the objects placed in front of the hall are the objects brought in when the Qianshan Dabaoen Yanshou Temple was rebuilt to dispel clouds. One is a pair of stone lions in front of the mountain gate.
This pair of Qianlong lions is very peculiar, its image is completely different from the royal stone lions. If you listen to me and remember the image of the lion outside the North Palace Gate, you will be surprised when you see this lion. First of all, its sitting posture is not like a royal palace lion sitting like a bell; it has a strange appearance, and it also has a goatee. The most conspicuous thing is the top of its head. There are forty-five convolutes on the head of the royal palace lion, but this stone lion has shawl-length hair on its head. Why did brother Hongli put a pair of such stone lions in front of the gate of the Great Repayment and Yanshou Temple where he prayed for the Queen Mother? This is obviously a pair of Hu lions. In addition to the wooden pagoda in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, there is also a Pure Land Temple, where there is such a pair of stone lions, which are said to be the original Khitan people of the Liao Dynasty.
Next to the pair of stone lions is a pair of scripture towers.
This is the original in front of the Daxiong Hall of Dabaoen Yanshou Temple during the Qingyi Garden period. It is engraved with the Diamond Sutra handwritten by Lao Gan, and the handwriting is still very clear. Hasn't this sutra building been expanded? Or is it that the ink stains have been cleaned?
At the bottom of the wall is a pair of dilapidated exposed seats.
Standing on this platform in the past, you can see the roof of the public toilet and the gray tile roll shed hanging from the top of the mountain.
Standing here now, you can see Baohua Building, decorated with gold ribbons on the mountain.
Building a house on a mountain is of course built layer by layer, with scattered heights. The temple complex at the back of Wanshou Mountain is divided into two parts. The lower part is a Han-style temple building, and the Xumi Lingjing Hall is the center of this Han-style temple.
There is no door on the side of Xumi Lingjing Temple, and it is hard to tell whether it is a complete solid wall or a sill wall and sill window. The door is opened in the Ming Room and Yiyi Room at the back of the hall, and the small platform outside the door is close to the tall diamond wall behind, and there are hanging belts on both sides of the platform to step up and down. This diamond wall is very tall and mighty, and there is a figure-of-eight ladder on the front for people to climb. Looking up from below, it is really high enough. It is also possible to use the old saying of Foxiang Pavilion in Qianshan, "the stone wall behind the temple is hundreds of feet, step up, and there is a nunnery." Three "white" are piled up and read "small" together.
Take courage to climb up the high steps. There used to be a "whitening barber shop" on Wangfujing Street. Because there are high steps in front of the door, it is commonly known as "high steps".
I came too early, and the temple after I went up has not yet opened.
The upward part from here is the building complex of the four continents. The temple in front of us used to be Nanfangbuzhou. Although everyone can pronounce "support", some people still pronounce it as "Nanzhan Buzhou".
Like the "Analects", there are also such quotations in the dialogue between the Buddha Sakyamuni and his disciples, which are called "Agama Sutra". According to the "Agama Sutra", the center of the universe is Mount Sumeru, and Mount Sumeru is surrounded by the Aral Sea. I guess the Aral Sea mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures is not the Aral Sea in Central Asia. The ancient Indians probably had no geographical concept of Central Asia. Central Asia has always been the place where the northern nomads who were defeated by the Han people in the Central Plains went into exile. The "Agama Sutra" says that in the Aral Sea around Mount Sumeru, there are Shengshen Continent in the east, Niuhe Continent in the west, Shanbu Continent in the south, and Julu Continent in the north. This is the source of the four major continents. Buddhist scriptures say that our world is in the southern continent, and the other major continents are legends.
In "Journey to the West", Wu Chengen adopted the theory of the four continents in Buddhist legends. He said that since Pangu opened the world and the Three Emperors and Five Emperors ruled the world, the world has been divided into four major continents, namely Dongshengshenzhou, Xiniuhezhou, Nanfangbuzhou and Beijuluzhou. Wu Chengen changed Dongsheng Shenzhou to Dongsheng Shenzhou. According to the Buddhist scriptures, the residents of Dongshengshenzhou have a special body, so they are named after their body. The Monkey King was born in a famous mountain in the Overseas Aolai Country of Dongsheng Shenzhou, which is Huaguo Mountain. Where is Dongtu Datang? It's in South Africa. Tathagata manages Xiniu Hezhou in the Paradise of Paradise, and the Jade Emperor manages Nanfang Buzhou in the Heavenly Palace. In order to seek the art of immortality, the Monkey King first crossed the sea to Nanbubuzhou; he learned how to dress and speak. Then he crossed the sea and went to Xiniu Hezhou to learn martial arts. Later, the Eastern Tang monk also went to Tianzhu Kingdom in Xiniu Hezhou to retrieve the Tripitaka.
In "Journey to the West", Shi Tao's family, Guanyin Bodhisattva often went to the Heavenly Palace to find something and turned into a monster to dig pits for Tang Seng. There is a reason why "Journey to the West" doesn't talk about Beiju Luzhou. According to ancient legends, there was a demon clan who raised ten golden birds, which were released in turn to act as the sun in the sky. One day all ten birds were released, and it became ten days, and the heat was dead. That's right, another Kuafu of the Wu clan died of heat while chasing the sun. As a result, Kuafu's son Hou Yi quit, so he shot nine golden birds to death with rockets. This led to the War of the Witches, in which both ended up losing. The monster clan was driven to the underworld, and the witch clan was also defeated to Beiju Luzhou. However, a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and no one from the Wu clan in Beiju Luzhou dares to provoke him. The Dragon King from Dongshengshenzhou, the Jade Emperor from Nanbubuzhou, and the Tathagata Buddha from Xiniuhezhou dare not mess with Beiju Luzhou. . The six-eared macaque came from Beiju Luzhou, which made Monkey King suffer a lot. Some people say that the six-eared macaque was actually the one who went to the west, not Monkey King at all.
The buildings above the eight-character ladder are all Tibetan-style, and Nanfangbuzhou in the Qingyi Garden period should also be a Tibetan-style temple. When it was rebuilt during the Guangxu period, it was not restored to its original state, but changed into the current Han-style gate hall. The gate hall is three rooms wide and one room deep, with a hall door in the open room and a sill in the wall and window in the second room. The partition door is an ordinary square lattice flower, but the sill window is very special. It is made into the common arched window on the mountain gate, and there is also a lattice flower on the window. This lattice flower is called "one yard and three arrows". When the gate hall is open, you can see two generals Heng Ha sitting on the shrines on both sides of the inside. These two statues are not Qingyi Garden objects, but painted clay statues remodeled in the 1980s.
Pass through the gate hall, or enter through the side doors on both sides, and you can see a hall with a width of five rooms.
There is a five-foot-high granite platform under the main hall, and there is a hanging belt in front of it. The hall is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. There are open doors in the open room and the secondary room, a little sill wall and sill window, and eaves corridors at the front and back. Doors and windows with golden locks, six wiped partition doors, gilded Ruyi skirt boards, three crosses and six bowls of lattice flowers. On the top is the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves, red pillars and green squares, gilded and painted seals.
Stand under the porch and take a look.
In the past, when the main hall was opened, it could be seen that the Buddha of the third generation was enshrined inside, and the Sakyamuni Buddha was in the middle. It should have been the Eastern Medicine Buddha on the left hand and the Western Amitabha Buddha on the right. This is the position of the third Buddha when the main hall is facing north and south under normal circumstances, but now this hall is facing south and north, so the positions of these Buddha statues are just reversed. This is because the person who placed the Buddha statue didn't know how to do it. In fact, no matter where Shakyamuni Buddha is facing, his left hand should be Medicine Buddha. Eighteen arhats sit on the shrine under the side wall.
This hall is currently the largest Buddhist hall in the four major continents. During the Qingyi Garden period, it was a three-story Tibetan-style hall called the Pavilion of Xiangyan Zongyin. The statue of the Great Compassionate Avalokitesvara is enshrined in the pavilion. According to the records in the old pictures, the pavilion is very large and has three floors from the outside. The first floor is five rooms wide, the second floor is three rooms wide, and the third floor is one room wide, which is basically the same height as Beiju Luzhou behind it. There are waist eaves above the first and second floors, which means that there are three floors on the outside, but there are actually five floors inside. The five floors are fake buildings. In fact, the interior of the pavilion is open to the sky, so that there is enough space for the statue of Avalokitesvara. This Xiangyan Zongyin Pavilion symbolizes Mount Sumeru and is the center of the four continents. The main hall we see now was rebuilt together with the front gate hall during the Guangxu period. Only one floor was built, which is called the third Buddha hall. The Buddha statue of the third generation inside is a remnant of the catastrophe that was moved from the Great Baoen Yanshou Temple in Qianshan.
This hall has just been repaired, look at the brand new eaves and brackets.
A brand new gold vase under the cornice.
This Xiangyan Zongyin Pavilion or the Sanshi Buddha Hall will be followed by other buildings in the four major continents. Those buildings are all Tibetan-style houses with Chinese-style roofs. The roofs of these blockhouses were burned down by the British and French allied forces in the tenth year of Xianfeng, and were not rebuilt during the Guangxu period. I remember that it was a dilapidated place at the earliest. When it was rebuilt in the 1980s, these bungalows were put on the roof. In recent years, they have been continuously refreshed, which looks quite spectacular.
There are various climbing ladders on both sides of the Sanshi Buddha Hall, and you can only reach the upper platform by going up them.
Check out the glazed decorations on the ridges of the walls along the way.
After going up, you can watch the roof of the Sanshi Buddha Hall.
This level of platform is the largest platform on the hillside of Sibuzhou. You can take a rest and enjoy the surrounding buildings.
The shadows of the trees are whirling, and there is still a lot of shade.
There is a steep ladder in the middle of the platform, and you can see a blockhouse on the top stacked stones, which is Beiju Luzhou.
Beiju Luzhou Diaofang is in the middle of the mountain, and its left hand is Dongshengshenzhou Diaofang.
Because the Houda Temple faces south and faces north, all east-west orientations are reversed. Therefore, Dongshengshenzhou is on the west side. On the east side is Xiniu Hezhou.
The three blockhouses are the same, Beiju Luzhou sits north and faces south; Dongshengshenzhou sits west and faces east; Xiniu Hezhou sits east and faces west. Climb up the big central ladder and look at the front of Dongshengshenzhou.
The glass-covered bowl ridge temple in Dongshengshenzhou.
The front of Xiniu Hezhou.
The glass-covered bowl ridge temple in Hezhou, Xiniu.
They are all two-story watchtowers, with bucket arches and beams on the top, yellow glazed tile single eaves veranda roof, and colored glazed ridge brakes. On the square beams under the eaves are official samples, seals and colorful paintings of Xuanzi. On the vertical ridge, there is an immortal riding a chicken leading five ridge beasts, and Fengduo hangs below. Stone arch gate, Tibetan trapezoidal false window.
The Beiju Luzhou Diaofang is the same, but there is no way to go there, you have to climb rocks and drill holes, which symbolizes the danger of Beiju Luzhou.
This is the middle road of Sibuzhou, and there are two buildings on both sides. Because the orientation of east and west is opposite, so I can only describe it according to left and right. The centers of the left and right roads are the Sun Temple and the Moon Hall. Look at the Moon Hall on the left hand side by side with Dongshengshenzhou. It is said that Dongshengshenzhou is "shaped like a half moon", so the Moon Palace is on the side of Dongshengshenzhou.
The Sun Temple on the right side is side by side with Xiniu Hezhou. It is said that Xiniu Hezhou is "round like a full moon", so the elliptical Sun Temple is on the side of Xiniu Hezhou.
These two halls symbolize the sun and the moon. They are two-storey blockhouses facing north and south, which are slightly smaller than the four-story blockhouses.
The roof is the same as that of the blockhouses of the four continents. The difference between the Sun and Moon Halls is that the front wall of the first floor of the Diaofang is flat, and the front wall of the Sun Hall is flat, representing a round of the sun.
The front wall of the Moon Hall is concave, indicating a crescent moon.
Tibetan-style blockhouses are equipped with Chinese-style Chishou diffusers for drainage on the second floor.
Unlike Theravada Buddhism, which only enshrines Buddha Shakyamuni, Mahayana Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism respect many Bodhisattvas and Arhats besides Buddha. We know that both Christianity and Islam worship single gods, while Chinese Taoism worships multiple gods. There are so many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in Buddhism, do you think it is worshiped by multiple gods or a single god? We often see the three saints of the West enshrined in temples, namely Amitabha Buddha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and Mahasthama Bodhisattva. In fact, there are also the Three Saints of the East, namely Medicine Buddha, Sunlight Bodhisattva and Moonlight Bodhisattva. Therefore, some people say that the Sunlight Bodhisattva and the Moonlight Bodhisattva are enshrined in the two blockhouses of the Sun and Moon Halls. This statement is just a statement.
There is also a pagoda at each of the four corners of the four continental complexes, and each pagoda has a different color. There are also eight small continents around the four towers. It is also because the four major continents of the Summer Palace face south and north, and the east and west directions are opposite, so I still use front, back, left, and right to describe the location. The red pagoda on the left front is in the left-hand pagoda courtyard of the Buddha III Hall, and next to it is the blockhouse of Chamoluozhou in Baxiaobuzhou near Nanfangbuzhou as mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures.
The architectural forms of the four pagodas are basically the same. Below is a square blockhouse as the pagoda hall. At the bottom of this red pagoda is a base with twelve corners on all sides, and above the base is a two-story bowl-covered tower body. There are double-sided yellow glazed lotus seats under each layer of covered bowls, and yellow glazed lotus decorations are inlaid on the covered bowls. There is a glazed eye door on the front of the covered bowl, inside is not a Buddha statue, but a Buddhist verse in Tibetan (reading a message). There is a yellow glazed dew plate on the top of the covered bowl, and above it are thirteen layers of phase wheels, which are the so-called thirteen heavens. There are two layers of canopy above the phase wheel, and thirty-six wind bells are hung on the lower canopy. When the wind blows, there will be a sound of gold. There are double-layer pagodas on the double-layer canopy, the lower part is the moon-raising orb, and the upper part is the flame orb. Some people say that the red pagoda represents Baosheng Buddha in the south, that is, Baosheng Tathagata.
The Nepalese pagoda is in the form of a covered bowl tower sitting on the palace room. Although the thirteen days above are also Nepalese style, the style of the covered bowl is not Nepalese style. The bottom of the Nepalese pagoda is also relatively large, and the bottom of the thirteenth day is very thick, which looks very solid. See the White Pagoda of Beijing Baita Temple. There were often palace rooms under the Tibetan pagodas in the Qing Dynasty, but the thirteen heavens were slender up and down. The Tibetan pagodas in the Qing Dynasty looked more stretched. See the White Pagoda in Beihai Park. This red pagoda is in the style of the covered bowl pagoda in the Liao and Jin Dynasties, see the covered bowl pagoda in Yinshan Pagoda Forest.
On the side of the red tower, there is also a Diaofang of Baxiaobuzhou, which is the Tihezhou near Dongshengshenzhou mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures.
The bungalows in Eight Xiaobuzhou are the same, with two floors, red on the bottom and white on the top. The lower floor has arched doors front and back, and also has trapezoidal false windows. Notice that the lower floor has red walls and white windows, while the upper floor has white walls and red windows. Red and white are the standard colors of Tibetan architecture. Red terraces and white terraces are commonly seen in Tibetan monasteries. The lower part of the four continents Tibetan-style towers in the Summer Palace is the red terrace, and the upper part is the white terrace. The top of the Baxiaobuzhou Diaofang is not a Han-style roof, but a flat roof with side walls.
In the pagoda courtyard on the right hand side of the Buddha III Hall is the green pagoda in the front right, and next to it is another eight-small continent razamo Luozhou watchtower near Nanfangbuzhou mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures.
The Green Pagoda is similar to the Red Pagoda, except that the double-layered bowl is different. The double-layer bowl of the green tower has twelve corners on four sides, which is a deformation of the bowl of the red tower. The glazed decoration on the pagoda is a shrine, and the shrine is not a Buddha statue, but a claw stick. Some people say that the green pagoda represents the oriental Buddha (recite Achu Buddha), that is, the Tathagata who does not move.
Behind the green tower is a Baxiaobuzhou blockhouse, which is the Shedizhou near Xiniuhezhou mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures.
On the left-hand rock of Dongshengshenzhou is the black pagoda at the left rear.
The body of the black tower is a double-layered bowl, and the glass decoration is Indian flying Kabuki. Some people say that the black pagoda represents the Buddha in the north who is not empty, that is, the Tathagata who is not empty. In front of it is the Diaofang of Vitihazhou in Baxiaobuzhou near Dongshengshenzhou.
On the right hand rock of Xiniu Hezhou is the White Pagoda at the right rear.
The lower layer of the White Pagoda is a covered bowl, the upper layer is a sphere, and the glazed decoration on the body of the tower is a Falun. Some people say that the White Pagoda represents Amitabha Buddha in the West, that is, the Tathagata of Infinite Light. In front of it is the Diaofang on Yizhou on Baxiaobuzhou near Hezhou in Xiniu.
On the left hand side of Luzhou in Beiju is the Diaofang of Julapozhou in Baxiaozhou.
On the right hand side of Beiju Luzhou is the Diaofang of Baxiaobuzhou Lapozhou.
The wall on both sides of Beiju Luzhou connecting Julapozhou and Labozhou watchtowers is the back wall of the four continents, but it is not the back wall of the Houshan Temple. The back wall of the Houshan Temple is still going forward. post position. The outer walls of the four continents symbolize the Tiewei Mountain in the Xianhai Sea, the boundary of the Buddhist universe. Beiju Luzhou is the southern end of the central axis of the Houshan Temple, and the northern end is of course the Cifu Archway. Climb up along the stone cracks behind the wall, and there is the northern end of the central axis of Qianshan, the Glazed Hall of the Sea of Wisdom. The central axes of the front and back mountains are not aligned, and the central axis of the front mountains is misaligned to the west.
It is said that the large temple complex on the back mountain of Wanshou Mountain is a copy and paste of Puning Temple in Chengde. I have visited that Puning Temple before, and it is indeed such a temple building of two parts of Han and Tibetan. But the configuration of the Han Temple in front of it is very complete, there are as many mountain gates, bell and drum towers, mani poles and Tianwang hall. Due to the limited space, the Han-style temple in the first half of the back mountain temple in Qingyi Garden has no mountain gate, bell and drum tower, mani pole and Tianwang hall after passing the three archways. The Xumi Lingjing Hall is equivalent to the Daxiong Hall; the Fazang Tower and the Baohua Tower are its left and right side halls; the Xiangyan Zongyin Pavilion is the back hall. The temple is still relatively complete.
The second half of the Houshan Temple is a Tibetan-style building with a combination of Tibetan and Chinese, which is consistent with the second half of the Puning Temple in Chengde. Puning Temple was built in the 20th year of Qianlong (AD 1755), and Qingyi Garden was built in the 15th year of Qianlong. If it is said that this temple on the back mountain was borrowed from Puning Temple, and considering the two phases of the Qingyi Garden project, then this temple on the back mountain should have been built in the second phase of the project from the 20th to the 24th year of Qianlong. The Tibetan-style architectural layout of the Puning Temple in Chengde and the temple on the back mountain of Qingyi Garden comes from the Sangyuan Temple (Nian Sangyuan Temple) in Tibet. Sangyuan Temple was built during the period of Chisong Dezan of the Tubo Dynasty. He was the fourth Tubo king after Songtsan Gampo. This period in the mainland was the Zhenyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, when the emperor was Tang Dezong Li Shi, the great-grandson of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji. When Chisong Dezan became king of Tubo, he was greatly assisted by Buddhists, so after he became king, he tried his best to promote Buddhism and stipulated that all people in Tubo believed in Buddhism. He built the Sangyuan Temple to promote the Buddhism learned from India, and fought with the Mahayana Buddhism in the Central Plains, and finally gradually formed Tibetan Buddhism. Sangyuan Temple is the layout of the great world described in the "Agama Sutra", and it was called Samaya Temple in the Qing Dynasty.
The four continental buildings in Qingyi Garden borrowed the architectural layout of Sangyuan Temple in Tibet. The Tibetan-style hall Xiangyan Zongyinzhi Pavilion is its center. It was the tallest building in the Houshan Temple at that time. flush. The tall Xiangyan Zongyin Pavilion is equivalent to the center of the universe, and in front of it is Nanfangbuzhou where we live. There are two halls of the sun and the moon on both sides of the pavilion of Xiangyan Zongyin, which symbolize the two wheels of the sun and the moon in the universe. The surrounding four halls and eight small halls symbolize the four continents and eight small continents in the Aral Sea, and the four towers at the four corners represent the four heavenly kings. Some people say that Sunlight Bodhisattva and Moonlight Bodhisattva are enshrined in the Second Temple of the Sun and Moon. These are the two assistant Bodhisattvas among the three holy men of the East. In which hall are the corresponding Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and Mahasthama Bodhisattva among the three holy men of the West? So this statement is definitely not true. Some people say that the four pagodas represent the four wise Tathagatas, but in the pavilion of Xiangyan Zongyin is the Avalokitesvara, where is the hidden deity Dainichi Tathagata? It is Vairocana Buddha. We know that Tibetan Buddhism belongs to Esoteric Buddhism and respects the Five Wisdom Buddhas. It is impossible to build four pagodas and only worship four of them. Therefore, this statement is not correct.
The original Xumi Lingjing Hall of the Houshan Great Temple is dedicated to the Mahayana III Buddha, with Sakyamuni Buddha in the middle, Medicine Buddha in its left hand and Amitabha Buddha in its right hand. In the east and west side halls, there should be the Dharma Tower for Manjusri Bodhisattva and the Baohua Tower for Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. I have never heard of the legend, so I don’t know if it is true. The Pavilion of Xiangyan Zongyin offers Avalokitesvara of Thousand Hands, which is one of the six Avalokitesvara of Tantric Buddhism. Are Buddhas worshiped in the halls and fortresses of the four major continents? I haven't seen what's inside. I guess those blockhouses should be used to store scriptures. The four pagodas are not the pagodas of the Great Monk, but they should also be used for Tibetan scriptures. Xumi Lingjing Hall is the place where Houda Temple daily chant scriptures, and the chant scriptures are all Manchu lamas sent by the imperial court. The site of these lamas' daily activities should be the Xumi Lingjing Hall, the East and West Side Halls and the Xiangyan Zongyin Pavilion. Those bungalows in the above four continents are not often visited, maybe only once or twice a month.
The architectural layout of the four continents is based on the Buddhist mandala, that is, the mandala. Although the layout of the mandala is called east, west, north, south, it is strictly up, down, left, and right. No matter where the main hall faces, the front, back, left, and right layouts remain the same. The main hall of Sangyuan Temple in Tibet faces east from west, but the front, back, left, and right positions of all other halls are not repositioned according to southeast, northwest, but directly rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. Therefore, even though the four continents of the Summer Palace face north and south, its front, back, left, and right buildings still follow the layout of the mandala. Therefore, you don't need to consider the directions of east, west, north and south in the four major continents, you just need to look at the front, back, left, and right.
The Houshan Temple is still very spectacular now, which shows how magnificent it was back then.
In the winter, enjoy the setting sun in the afternoon and walk around the four major continents.
There is a small door on the temple wall on the east side of the platform under the White Pagoda, which shows that there are still some buildings there.
During the period of Qingyi Garden, there were attached temple buildings on both sides of the Dabaoen Yanshou Temple in the front mountain of Wanshou Mountain. The east side was the Cifu Building where the scriptures were stored; There are also two courtyards on both sides of the Houshan Temple on Wanshou Mountain, but they are not ancillary buildings of the Houshan Temple, but two independent small temples. Go out from the small gate on the east wall of the Houshan Temple in the picture above, and walk along a mountain path to a small temple on the east side of the Houshan Temple.
The gate of the temple faces north, and you have to climb a series of stacked stone rockeries to get there.
This is Shanxian Temple, the temple gate is very small, there is only one stone arch gate. On the top are yellow glazed bricks, gray tiles and green glazed edges with single eaves on the top of the mountain. Why is it astringent? Because there is no girder. Why no girders? Because there are stone arches in the gate hall, it is the so-called beamless hall, which is a standard mountain gate. When Indian monks first came to China, they lived in no fixed place, and they often searched for caves to live and practice. Later, the gates of regular Buddhist temples were still made of bricks and stones, and the arched gates also had arched roofs inside. No beams and beams were used, which was to simulate caves, so that the monks would not forget the roots. The most famous cave-dwelling monk is Bodhidharma, the first ancestor of Chinese Zen Buddhism. He once faced the wall in the cave behind Shaolin Temple for ten years. That cave is called Bodhidharma Cave, and there is also a stone arch gate. The most formal Buddhist temple gate in Beijing is the gate of Tanzhe Temple. The gate with gray walls, gray tiles and stone arches is a replica of Bodhidharma Cave.
Inside the gate of this Shanhua Temple is a horoscope ladder, and the main hall should be on the upper floor. In Xianfeng's ten-year catastrophe, only the mountain gate remained, and it was not rebuilt during the Guangxu period. In recent years, the mountain gate and a side hall have been rebuilt, and it has been used as a room for the guards and a place for employees to rest and eat boxed lunches. Although there is only a locked fence at the mountain gate, I still can't get over it. I walked to the hillside outside the temple, stepped on my feet and stretched my neck to look inward. I could see the inside of the mountain gate and a corner of the side hall.
From an unblocked courtyard gate on the west side, you can see the front yard inside the mountain gate.
Opposite is the rebuilt East Side Hall. It is a two-story building with three rooms wide and one room deep, with verandahs on the upper and lower sides. Dougong lifts the beams, gray tiles and green glazed edges with single eaves and a hard mountain top. You can see the backyard above the horoscope ladder.
In the backyard is the main hall. The hall has been destroyed, but the seat is still there. It can be seen that the main hall is five rooms wide and one room deep, with a verandah in front. The top should be brackets and beams, with gray tiles and green glazed edges and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain.
Shanxian of Shanxian Temple is a concept in Buddhist scriptures. The "Surangama Sutra" says that above the fourth dhyana heaven of the form realm, there are five pure dwelling heavens, in which there are Arhats stationed, which cannot be seen by ordinary people. The fourth day of the five-purity dwelling day is called the good show because of the good and wonderful fruit retribution. It is the 21st floor of the 22nd floor of the Form Realm Heaven. Among the ten great disciples of the Buddha is Subhuti. This is a transliteration. But Laogan would not name a small temple after the name of the Buddha's disciples, but still named it after the Buddhist scriptures.
Going out from the gap in the temple wall of the Hongta platform of the Houshan Temple, there is also a small temple on the west half of the mountain corresponding to Shanxian Temple, which is Yunhui Temple. Like Shanxian Temple, you have to climb a series of stacked stone steps to reach the gate of Yunhui Temple.
In front of the gate of Yunhui Temple, there is a horoscope ladder with stacked stones.
This kind of tread stack built with rocks can be called Yunbu tread stack. Go up and see its temple gate.
The gate of this temple is a very common barbarian gate, with white stone pillows under the gateposts. You can see that there are no beams on the door, and it is also made of yellow glazed bricks. There is a gray tile and green glazed edge with a single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. This is the same Wuliang gate ticket as the mountain gate of Seonhyeonsa Temple.
Clouds in Buddhism represent infinity. There are various clouds in Buddhism, such as kindness cloud, wisdom cloud, five-color cloud, auspicious cloud, bright cloud, etc. Cloud meeting is the gathering of all clouds of Buddha.
The main hall of Yunhui Temple and the bronze statue of Vairocana Buddha survived the catastrophe of the British and French allied forces, as well as the East Side Hall. These are wooden buildings that have not been completely destroyed. Yunhui Temple has been rebuilt a few years ago. In addition to the main hall and the east side hall, the west side hall has also been restored. After the repair, it is now closed. The inside of Yunhui Temple is not a flat ground, but the foundations of the halls are piled up with stones according to the mountain, so there is no regular path to follow between the halls. Its halls are not orderly either. The main hall facing north is a square hall, with bucket arches and beams, gray tiles and green trimmed corners with pointed roofs, and a covered bowl ridge temple on a glazed dew plate. Under the eaves hangs a plaque of "Xianghai Zhenyuan". The Fragrant Sea is the salty sea around Mount Sumeru mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures, referring to Buddhism. The side halls on the left and right are two hexagonal pavilions, with bucket arches and beams, gray tiles and green trimmed hexagonal spires on top, and a covered bowl ridge temple on a glazed dew plate.
At first, the main hall was dedicated to Vairocana Buddha, the left side hall was dedicated to Manjusri Bodhisattva, and the right side hall was dedicated to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. It is said that the original complete set of 360 Tsa Tsa Buddhas in the main hall has been looted by the British and French allied forces. According to the three hundred and sixty Tsatsa Buddhas compiled by the third Zhangjia Living Buddha, Lao Gan once made a set of Tsatsa Buddha molds and many sets of Tsatsa Buddha statues. There are twelve sets of offerings in the Xianruo Pavilion in the Garden of Compassionate Palace of the Forbidden City. After so many years, a complete set of 360 statues can still be assembled. This set of molds made by Laogan has been lost, and there are Lama Temple and Shoubo, and some are lost abroad.
Like Shanxian Temple, Yunhui Temple also has small gates on the outer wall, and there is a wall gate on the east and west walls. The small door on the east wall is on the west side of the Sea of Wisdom, and it is a moon gate.
When it was open in the past, you could go in and visit through this door, but now it is locked and you are not allowed to enter. It is a pity that Yunhui Temple did not leave a peephole for the audience, and it is a pity that we cannot explore the inside of the temple like Shanxian Temple.
After seeing the big temple and the small temples on both sides of the Shanzhong Road behind Wanshou Mountain, we also need to look at the pavilions on the mountain. The next episode will continue.
(According to the old post "Four Major Continents - Tibetan Temple Complex in the Summer Palace")
(to be continued)
