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Address : Qiaotou Village, Pingyao City, Shanxi Province, China |
Open Hours : Daily ( 8:00am- 5:30pm ) |
Time for Visit: 1.5 Hours |
Ticket Price : RMB 25/p.p |
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| Introduction of The Zhenguo Temple: |
As one of the famous temple in Pingyao of Shanxi Province, Zhenguo Temple original name was Jingcheng Temple, got its present name in the 19th year of emperor Jiajing in the Ming dynasty. Facing south, the Temple is made up of two-row courtyard, covering an area of 10,892 square meters with the area of architectures occupying more than 5,000 square meters.
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Early in the year 1965 Zhenguo Temple was ratified as cultural relic protection unit at provincial level. In Jan 13th 1988 it was ratified by the State Council of China as one of major site to be protected for the historical and cultural value under state protection, in February the same year it was opened to tourists. In December 3, 1997, the Ancient City of Pingyao was listed into the World Heritage List, including the Pingyao ancient city itself and two temples. Of the two temples, one is Shuanglin Temple, which is famous for its painted sculptures, and the other is Zhenguosi Temple, which is famous for its architecture. |
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| This temple enjoys a very long history of more than one thousand years, which can be dated back to the period of the Five Dynasties. From the epigraphs in the temple, we can learn that in Yuan and Ming dynasties, by making use of the left over area, the governments built the mountain gate¡ªthe Grand Lord Hall in the front, and the Bell and Drum Towers were built on its left and right respectively , and in the back they built three Buddha towers and east and west wing rooms, Guanyin Hall and Dicang Hall. In Yongzheng Year and Qianlong Year of Qing the east and west corridors were repaired. The temples were built on the mountain or other remote areas so that the monks and Taoists may better cultivate themselves. |
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Generally speaking, the main architectural feature of the Buddhism-temple is that it has ridge gates, which usually have three gates, a big gate in the center, which is usually built in the form of hall, and two small gates on each side. For this reason, it is also called Three Gates, in order to symbolize the three gates for extrication, namely, the Kongmen Gate, Wuxiangmen Gate, and Wuzuomen Gate, symbolizing the relief from earthly troubles. According to Buddhist doctrine, when enter three Gates for extrication, it will get extricated. The ridge gate of the temple is the demarcation point of the Buddhist world and the earthly world. |
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The coexistence of the three gates indicates the sanctity of the Buddha, which is also revealed in the epigraphs of ¡°Chongxu¡± and ¡°Chuixu¡± engraved on the two small side gates. According to Buddhist doctrine, the epigraph¡ªadvocating the nihility and loneness, means that the noumenon of the truth exists everywhere, although it has no visual form. The nihility means that existence is nonexistence. As for the loneness, on one hand it means the sequestered natural environment, on the other hand means the sincerity of one to devote himself to the Buddha.
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