Across the North Street, in front of us suddenly opened up, a majestic andgrand ancient architectural complex showed in front of us, this is the largestpalace style ancient architectural complex in southern China Nanyue temple.
Stepping into the Lingxing gate, there is a courtyard with towering pinesand cypresses and green grass. There are a fire pool and a stele Pavilion on theleft and right. The fire pool is used to store water to prevent the buildingfrom catching fire. It is also used by believers to release life, so it iscommonly known as the fire pool. On the east side of the pavilion is theinscription of rebuilding Nanyue Temple written by Shang Hu, the Minister ofstate of the Ming Dynasty during the Chenghua period. On the west side of thepavilion is the inscription of offering sacrifices to Hengyue written by fanChunren of the Song Dynasty.
Not far along the middle road is Kuixing Pavilion, the second building onthe central axis of Nanyue temple. Kuixing Pavilion, also known as PanlongPavilion, is a peak building with double eaves, covering an area of 139 squaremeters. In the pavilion, there used to be a statue of Kuixing, the head ofWenxing, to show respect for literature. Many parents who want to be successfuloften come here with their children to pray.
There are Bell Pavilion and drum Pavilion on both sides of KuixingPavilion. The Bell Pavilion on the left used to put a 4500kg bell, and the drumPavilion on the right used to put a 2m drum. The ancients believed that as longas the bells and drums were singing together, the Dragon King could be subdued,so that he would not dare to stir up trouble, so as to ensure the stability ofthe country and the people.
The second courtyard of the temple is not long in depth but wide in crosssection. On the east side of the courtyard is "Xuande Zun gate", which connectsthe eight Taoist temples on the east wing of the temple; on the west side is"six temples with one gate", which connects the Eight Buddhist temples on theWest Wing of the temple. In the center of the courtyard is the imperial stelepavilion with octagonal double eaves and sharp roof, which is the fourthbuilding on the central axis of the temple. The imperial stele pavilion wasbuilt in 1707, the 46th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty,in which stands the Qingshi stele "records of rebuilding Nanyue Temple" writtenby Emperor Kangxi. The stele is 6.6 meters high and weighs about 20__ kg. It has279 characters, which describes the process of rebuilding Nanyue temple underEmperor Kangxi's decree. The top of the monument is carved with a relief of twodragons holding the sun, and the base is a 20 ton blue stone turtle. The widestpart of the temple.
The third courtyard behind Jiaying gate is the main courtyard of Nanyuetemple, which is composed of Royal Library, main hall, bedroom and east-westcorridor, with a total of 58 buildings. In the middle of the main hall, thefront is the imperial library, and the back is the bedroom. The corridor issurrounded by more than 90 ancient and famous trees. The sixth building in thecentral axis of the temple, the Yushu building, is a double eaves Xieshan peak.It is seven rooms wide, 30 meters wide, 20 meters deep and 15 meters high. Itwas named after the seven plaques given by emperors in the past. Now it is acultural relics exhibition room.
Passing through the imperial library, the main hall in front of you, whichis similar to the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing, is the core ofthe whole temple, the main hall of the seventh entrance building on the centralaxis. The main hall is also called the emperor's hall because it worships ZhuRong, the "emperor Tianzhao of Nanyue". The existing building, with an area of1877 square meters, was rebuilt in 1880. The main hall stands on the2-meter-high 16 level Xumi pedestal, with a height of 31.11 meters. It is thehighest building of the whole temple. It is higher than all the buildings inNanyue ancient town, highlighting its supreme position. It has double eaves,nine ridges, seven rooms wide, 53.68 meters wide and 34.84 meters deep. It hashigh cornices, carved beams and painted buildings.
In front of the main hall, there is a square covering an area of more than1000 square meters, which is used for God performance and pilgrims' worship. Thetreasure houses on both sides are places for pilgrims to burn incense andcandles. The incense of Nanyue temple is very prosperous, where the smoke curlsall day long and the fragrance fills the courtyard. Especially during the templefair and the Spring Festival, believers from all over the country and even allover the world gathered together. Monks and Taoists also came here to preach andpray. At that time, thousands of people gathered and there was a lot ofexcitement!
Walking up the steps, the first thing that attracts everyone's attentionmust be the huge stone pillars here. There are 72 stone pillars inside andoutside the main hall, representing the 72 peaks of Hengshan Mountain. Outside,there are window carvings of "the painting of twenty four filial piety" on thelattice windows, red seal painting between the pillars and beams, 144 whitemarble relief balustrades beside the platform and white marble dragon relief onthe steps. They are all fine works of art. They can really be called a treasurehouse of art! There are a large number and varieties of wood carvings, stonecarvings and clay sculptures here All of them are amazing, reflecting the superbwisdom of the ancient working people!
Passing through the main hall, the back yard is the fourth courtyard of thetemple, which is composed of the bedroom dedicated to the Holy Father and theVirgin Mary, the Zhusheng hall dedicated to the Taoist Zhusheng Zhenjun, thetemple dedicated to the Buddhist administrator and the North back door.
Shengli square
In the driving mountain, you can see all kinds of lush trees. The keyreason why Hengshan is unique among the five mountains is that it is only in theevergreen broad-leaved forest zone with dense trees and evergreen all the yearround. Nanyue is famous for its many trees. There are many ancient trees, famoustrees and exotic flowers here. There is a ginkgo tree in Fuyan temple, which issaid to have been taught by Zen master Huisi in the northern and SouthernDynasties. It has been more than 1400 years old and needs three people toembrace it. There is a magnolia behind the Sutra hall, which has a history ofmore than 500 years. In addition, yunchunting's money tree is also veryrare.
Along the way, I wonder if you have noticed those people wearing soaptowels, black clothes and red pockets on their chests? These are Nanyuepilgrims. Due to the common prosperity of Buddhism and Taoism in Hengshan,Nanyue temple has a large audience, and many monks and Taoists have emerged inlarge numbers. Therefore, it has attracted many religious believers to come topay homage, which is called "Nanyue pilgrims". Every year, pilgrims come fromHunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei and other places from March of thelunar calendar. After August of the lunar calendar, pilgrims reach the peak,with more than 10000 people per day. With all kinds of good wishes, they comeall the way to seek spiritual consolation, and even express their piety by"burning hungry incense" or "burning worshiping incense". The so-called "burnhungry incense" means that you don't eat any food after you leave home. You onlyeat by drinking water until you finish burning incense in Hengshan Mountain. Theso-called "burn worshipping incense" means holding incense, kneeling in fivesteps and worshiping in ten steps, from the foot of the mountain to zhurongpeak. There are also pilgrims who like to worship and sing along the way,singing pilgrimage songs as if no one else. This kind of ancient Buddhist songhas attracted some teachers and students from Conservatory of music to study. Anendless stream of pilgrims has made great contributions to Nanyue's economy.Just as the local people say, "Nanyue people, who don't farm, eat in August forthree years." But what is intriguing is that the local people in Nanyue seldomburn incense,
In their words, "Nanyue Bodhisattva is far away, not near."
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