★Tourist location: Temple of God of Wealth, Zhijin County, Bijie, Guizhou
As for the God of Wealth, no matter it is Buddhism or Taoism, it seems that this statue will be enshrined. However, there are not many people who built temples for them alone. Even if it is enshrined in the Zhongli Temple in the ancient town, the scale is generally not too large, with only a small lintel. However, the Zhijin Temple of the God of Wealth is known as the No. 1 Temple of the God of Wealth in China. Naturally, it is not comparable to the general Temple of the God of Wealth. It is known as a unique ancient architectural wonder in the Shuixi area of Northwest Guizhou. Of course, if you compare it with a temple, it is incomparable, after all, the Temple of the God of Wealth is just a building.
The God of Wealth Temple is located in the center of Zhijin County. Although it is called a temple, it does not belong to Buddhism or Taoism, and may be classified as folk culture. But now there is a Taoist priest presiding over it, maybe it can barely be classified as Taoism, right? This temple is dedicated to the God of Wealth, Zhao Gongming. The original statue has been destroyed, and the statue of the God of Wealth enshrined is reshaped later.
Zhao Gongming was conferred the title of Marshal of Xuantan by the Jade Emperor, and he was a god full of joy. He can drive away thunder and lightning, call the wind and rain, and he is also a god with extraordinary strength. However, people like him and worship him. The most important thing is that he can bless the pious and good people to get rich. In the fifth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Zhijin built Pingyuan Fucheng. At that time, the magistrate Liu Yong hired Huang Yinyang, a gentleman of folk geography, to design the layout of the city. At that time, there were many springs inside and outside Zhijin City, coupled with the confluence of two rivers, from the perspective of Feng Shui, there was a trend of Yin prosperity and Yang decline, which was not conducive to the development of Fucheng. In addition, there is the Black Dragon Pool. It is said that there is an evil dragon in the pool, which may overturn the earth's crust and come out to do evil at any time. Therefore, Huang Yinyang asked people to cast eighteen cauldrons to cover the Black Dragon Pool tightly, and then built the Temple of the God of Wealth on it. It can be seen that the original design was to use this powerful deity to guard Pingyuan Fucheng. However, the God of Wealth has always been loved by the people, and over time, the incense has naturally become more and more prosperous.
It is said that the architect of the God of Wealth Temple at that time was a Yi nationality, and the project had not yet been completed, and the architect died of illness due to overwork. Fortunately, he has a daughter, and his architectural skills are quite good. After the efforts of the father and daughter for two generations, it was finally accomplished, and this typical building with the highest level among the Yi nationality buildings in the Shuixi area was built.
Compared with the common Han buildings, the structure style of this Temple of the God of Wealth is unique. Its temple base is in the shape of a character, the front is flat, seven rooms long, and the middle part of the north side protrudes, five rooms long and six rooms deep. The whole building covers an area of more than 300 square meters. It has four ridges and eaves. Viewed from the side, three "herringbone" shaped mountains are built up layer by layer. The middle part of the tile surface of the second floor on the back is elongated, and it is connected with the tile surface of the first floor to form a piece. Seen from the front, it has four floors, but seen from the back, it has three floors. Not to mention unique, this architectural style is probably quite rare, at least I have never seen it in the classical buildings I have seen, of course it is also because of my shallow knowledge.
The decoration of the Temple of the God of Wealth is also different from our common Temple of the God of Wealth and the Temple of the God of Wealth. It does not use bright yellow or vermilion, but mainly black, which is the most cherished color of the Yi people. And some flower windows and wooden walls are painted with earthy red, which makes the dull black a little brighter. Red and black are also the colors commonly used by the Yi people. After reading the introduction, we stood a little further to look at the temple, and we saw the shape of a tiger. In fact, the wood carvings and gray sculpture patterns of this temple are all inseparable from the presentation of tiger heads. In the Yi nationality, the black tiger is the treasure of Zhenshan, the general who defends the place, and the symbol of the eternity of Shuixi Jiangshan. And the mount of Zhao Gongming, the god of wealth, happened to be a black tiger. Perhaps Zhao Gongming, as the God of Wealth of the Yi people, has some credit for this mount!
The Yi nationality respects nine and believes that nine is the most auspicious number. The famous singing group Phoenix Legend in our country once had a song "Madame Shexiang". The local government of the Yi nationality implements an official system of nine divisions and nine verticals, which shows that nine is the number most sought after by the Yi people. The structure of this God of Wealth Temple shows nine everywhere, for example, there are thirty-six roof ridges, eighteen wing corners, and eighteen copper bells...all of which are multiples of nine.
It is said that the architectural achievement of this God of Wealth Temple is a unique peak. The only foreign similar building of this kind is the Tenshou Pavilion in Nagoya, Japan. The God of Wealth Temple is on par.
Reminder: It is said that the night view of Caishen Temple is also very beautiful. Unfortunately, although we stayed overnight in Zhijin, we added this attraction to the itinerary at the end, so that we could not enjoy its night view.
