Beijing weather: sunny

With whom: friends

Accommodation: Unnamed Courtyard Hotel

Comments: The room is very clean and the beauties at the front desk are also very enthusiastic. This time I went to Beijing for 5 days and 4 nights and stayed here. The courtyard house is very good for the elderly and children. The breakfast is rich and I check it every day. There is also milk before going to bed anyway. Good, good, just a little suggestion. The small window in the toilet should be fitted with screens. The room is a bit stuffy, but there are mosquitoes when the window is open, so I hope the store can improve it, it will be better, and I will stay here again next time I come to Beijing.





Zhihua Temple is located at No. 5 Lumicang Hutong, southwest of the Chaoyangmen subway on the second ring road. It is the family temple of Wang Zhen, the eunuch and eunuch of the Ming Yingzong period (the initiator of the Tumubao change, see Baidu Encyclopedia for details), and it is called Chici Baoen Zhihua Temple. "Chici" means the name of the temple bestowed by the emperor, and "Zhihua" means to save all living beings with the wisdom of the Buddha. In the 1960s, it was named as the first batch of national security units of Ming Dynasty architectural relics.

Treasures of Zhihua Temple:
1 Beijing Music Ancient Music Living Fossil
2 Bright colored murals in the Temple of the Reclining Buddha
3 The algae well in the Zangdian, the Zhuanlunzang, and the Liuna (sound na) of the coupon door with wood carvings
The colored sculpture of Ananda Kasyapa in the pavilion of 40,000 Buddhas with powder and gold and gold dialing techniques.

As a building of the Ming Dynasty, Zhihua Temple can be preserved in Beijing for hundreds of years. According to the volunteer commentator, I was lucky to avoid a few bad luck. The first time was a civil official in the Qing Dynasty who was annoyed because Zhihua Temple was the notorious eunuch Wang Zhen of the Ming Dynasty. It has not been repaired again, but it also avoids the possibility of being cleared by the buildings after the repairs of the Ming Dynasty buildings in the Qing Dynasty, thus completely retaining the complete temples of the Ming Dynasty. The second time is because Zhihua Temple was not destroyed during the period as the warehouse of the cultural relics management department. Today we are fortunate to see the original appearance of Zhihua Temple in the Ming Dynasty, with brightly painted caissons and golden nanmu. The scriptures can be circulated. However, in the 1930s, two huge carved dragon caissons in Zhihua Temple were sold to the United States, and they have not been able to return home.

Sequence of tour: Mountain Gate - Bell and Drum Tower - Stone Carvings - Main Hall Zhihua Hall - Xibei Hall Tibetan Hall - Wanfo Pavilion - Guanyin Pavilion

1 mountain gate

Zhihua Temple had more than 20,000 square meters in its heyday, and now it remains 10,000 square meters, with three courtyards. Shanmen is the Zhici Zhihua Temple inscribed by Yingzong. Chici means the name given by the royal family, which is different from Chijian (that is, royal construction), and has a different meaning. It means that such a large-scale temple was built by the eunuch Wang Zhen with his own money.

Zhihua Temple

Wang Zhen (please refer to Baidu Encyclopedia) is a eunuch who is a ceremonial supervisor (please refer to Baidu Encyclopedia). The double eaves and the roof of the hall, the window lattice with three crosses and six bowls, as well as the plaques and inscriptions in Zhihua Temple are from the inscriptions of Yingzong and his son Xianzong in the Ming Dynasty, all of which mark his weight in the emperor's heart. The world believes that he is the chief culprit for the change of the civil castle, but Yingzong and his son did not attribute the change of the civil castle to Wang Zhen's demagogy as the world thought, but regarded Wang Zhen's death as a loyalty to the imperial power and praised Wang Zhen. Plus.
The Bell and Drum Tower inside the mountain gate is also a relic of the Ming Dynasty. In the bell tower here, you can hear the recording of the powerful and distant bells of the ancient bells of the Ming Dynasty, and look up at the hanging bronze bell. The drums in the Drum Tower are displayed in the Zhihua Hall, preserving the colors and patterns of half a century ago.

2 Zhihua Hall: Beijing music, Buddha statues, Ming drums, murals

One of the treasures of Zhihua Temple is Beijing music. The performance method and score of this kind of music have been passed down from word to mouth. It has been 27 generations so far, and it has more than 500 years of living fossils of ancient music. It is a specimen for studying ancient court music and Buddhist music. There are two performances here every day, and there are videos of the musicians on Douyin, interested friends can watch and listen. I don't know much about music. From the music played today, I feel that this kind of ancient music is not the Buddhist music we imagined should be low, long, and the rhythm is slow and repetitive. tune. The musical instruments of Beijing music are different from folk musical instruments, and are unique to temples. For example, the sheng and flute were handed down following the practice of the Song Dynasty, and the nine-tone cloud gong has a unique shape and is specially made for temples.

Zhihua Temple

The Zhihua Hall where Beijing music is played is the main hall of Zhihua Temple, which is equivalent to the Daxiong Hall of other temples. Here are enshrined the three Buddhas of the past, that is, the ancient Buddha who burned the lamp in the past, the current Sakyamuni, and the future Amitabha. Among them, Sakyamuni Buddha's left hand is the meditation seal and the right hand is the magic seal. These three ancient Buddhas are slightly smaller in size, and they are not the original Buddha statues in this hall. The Buddha statues in Zhihua Temple were placed in Dajue Temple in Xishan, and the statues sitting here are Qing Dynasty statues. It is the rebuilt Buddha statue of the Great Compassion Hall behind the original Wanfo Pavilion. The roof of this temple is empty, because the panlong caisson here is huge and exquisite. It was sold to cultural relics smugglers by the temple as early as the 1930s, and it is now collected by American museums.

Zhihua Temple

There is also a Ming Dynasty drum in the hall. Originally stored in the Drum Tower, twelve golden dragons are painted on the surface of the drum, implying good weather and good weather in twelve months of the year.

Zhihua Temple


There is also a painted mural on the back of the Buddha statue. This is where the original Temple of the Reclining Buddha in Beicheng was cut and placed here. The original Temple of the Reclining Buddha has been demolished. This pair of murals is a typical Ming Dynasty lek powder paste gold color painting. The picture is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and ten kings of Hades. The mount of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is a white divine dog, so it is unimaginable to be called a dog. Because this is a divine dog called Di Ting. It is an auspicious animal with a tiger head, a single horn, dog ears, a dragon body, a lion tail, and unicorn feet. Not a unicorn, like a dog but not a dog, and the one-corner represents arbitrariness. For example, in "The Analects of Confucius", Confucius believed that Zilu said the same thing, "a single word can break the prison." The body of a dragon represents auspiciousness, the head of a tiger represents wisdom and bravery, the ears of a dog represent good hearing, the tail of a lion represents patience, and the feet of a unicorn represent stability and goodness is a treasure in people's imagination. excerpt). In addition to the Bodhisattva and the mount, there are also the Bodhisattva, Elder Min, his son, and the ten Hades who look like ancient civil servants. The characters are dignified and majestic, the lines are elegant and smooth, and the colors are bright and gorgeous after hundreds of years. This mural fully demonstrates the integration of Buddhism as a deep-rooted folk belief and traditional Chinese culture. The Taoist Yama and the Buddhist Ksitigarbha appeared together, and the Ksitigarbha was formed by the Silla people of the Tang Dynasty. Just like Wu Zetian, the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha, is this Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva considered a domestic Bodhisattva?

3 The scripture-turning storage and the algae well in the Tibetan Hall

The plain-looking West Side Hall of Zhihua Temple is called the Tibetan Hall. Inside the Tibetan hall is the treasure of Zhihua Temple. The only Zhuanjing Tibetan in the Ming Dynasty in Beijing. There are three Buddhist scriptures in Beijing, respectively in the Summer Palace, Lama Temple and Zhihua Temple. The other two are from the Qing Dynasty. Zhuanjingzang is made of golden nanmu. This kind of wood is durable and long-lasting. It is extremely rare and is used by the royal family.

Zhihua Temple

The scripture collection is an octagonal prism, each side has nine rows and five columns of drawers, and the surface of the drawers is carved with a statue of Buddha sitting on a lotus. The drawers are arranged in the order of thousands of characters, so that monks can search for scriptures. The top of the Sutra drawer and the octagonal prisms are engraved with woodcarvings of six figures. On the top are Garuda and Dragon Girl, and on both sides are Capricorns holding Baoxiang flowers. From top to bottom on the prism, there are boys, sheep, lions and elephants. The craftsmanship is complicated and exquisite, and the image is beautiful.

On the top of the sutra collection is the Vairocana Buddha (the dharmakaya Buddha of the three-body Buddha) sitting upright on multiple lotus petals. The algae well in the Tibetan Hall is the only preserved algae well in Zhihua Temple. Layers of bucket arches are progressive, with a circle at the center and bottom. The feature is the use of painted symbols to imply the name of the Buddha. The symbol in the center corresponds to Vairocana Buddha. I can’t remember the others. The knowledge of cultural relics in Zhihua Temple is special. Well, there are detailed illustrations in the temple for the specific content.

Zhihua Temple

caisson

4 Ten Thousand Buddhas Pavilion Lek Fen Pile Gold Painted Sculptures and Buddha Statues

In the appearance of Wanfo Pavilion (that is, Tathagata Hall), the roof of the hall with double eaves and the second floor have ribbed windows with three intersections and six bowls, which are all palace specifications. The four columns on the first floor are all slightly inclined inward. The Xuanzi painting under the eaves is a design feature of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the Xuanzi painting of the Qing Dynasty, it has more diverse forms and is lively and natural.

Shakyamuni Buddha in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pavilion sits on a lotus with multiple layers of lotus petals, which is a feature of Buddha statues in the Ming Dynasty.

The statue of Venerable Ananda Kasyapa is dressed in brightly colored Song style costumes, graceful and luxurious, elegant and elegant.

Dragon-patterned sleeves with powder and gold

Golden cloud pattern on red background

This is also the Buddhist scripture building of Zhihua Temple. There are a total of 9,999 Buddha statues decorated on the surface of the Buddhist scripture drawers, plus one Buddha that implies one Buddha in people's hearts, and there are ten thousand Buddhas in total.
There are scripture drawers and three Buddha statues on the second floor of Wanfo Pavilion, which are not open to the public now.

In the courtyard of Zhihua Temple, the original pines and cypresses have been sold away, while the white pears, crabapple, and lilacs of ordinary people bloomed here decades ago, and they are red and coveted when they bloom in early winter.

Thanks to the staff of Zhihua Temple for protecting and displaying the exquisite cultural relics here, the performances of the twenty-seventh generation of ancient music artists, and thanks to the volunteer teachers for their wonderful explanations, so that culture can spread and history can be passed on. In order not to forget the knowledge learned during this tour, record it with travel notes to enhance your memory, and relay the wonderful explanations given by the volunteer guides. The description is far less than that of Zhihua Temple. If you have the opportunity, you still have to listen to it, watch it, and feel the wonderful charm of Zhihua Temple.