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Chapter 27 Miscellaneous Notes on Pingjiao Architecture (2)
The façade (appearance) and section (internal structure) of the temples of the Reclining Buddha Temple are all very regular structures in the Qing style, so there is no need to go into detail.As for the complex feeling given to you by the magnificent Sala tree in front of the temple and the young people spending summer under the tree, it is a matter of each person's outlook on life, and the architect does not need to participate in the opinion.The facts are very obvious, for example, the entrances of the east courtyard are suitable for spending summer and enjoying the cool, and the Guanyin hall in the west courtyard is always rented; Add any comments.

The pool water of "concentration and reflection" is used for physical exercise. Under the moral concept of the YMCA, it is self-contained-how can there be a healthy spirit without a healthy body? --perhaps!perhaps!But I am afraid that the microorganisms in the pool are not very sensible.

The original exquisite white stone railings around the pool have been removed and stacked to form steps, which are used as the way for tourists to go down the pool.The architect, who is not interested and easily sentimental, felt sad again after watching it.In fact, this is not uncommon. Didn’t the popes in the Middle Ages use the temples of ancient Rome as quarries and use the stones to build the “House of God”?The steps—the balustrade—may be nothing more than taking the superstitious waste of the deviant "idolators" to serve God humanely. "Preservation of antiquities" sounds like a pedantic nonsense to many people. "This year! This year!" Some people in every era shouted these words to vent their anger when they were helpless.

Fahai Temple Gate and the original Juyongguan

Fahai Temple is in the south of Xiangshan Mountain, not far from the west of Xiangshan Tong Badachu Road.A very small mountain temple, no one would visit there.The temple itself is on the hillside, but the gate of the temple is at the bottom of the hillside more than one mile away in front of the temple.Those who drive through that area will never see such insignificant things as the gate of Fahai Temple.People who ride donkeys or walk rarely notice the small buildings amidst the mountain rubble.Especially from a distance, its color is very similar to the background.Therefore, I believe that there are not many people who have seen the gate of Fahai Temple.

There must be people who pay special attention to this temple gate.Because the form of the gate of this temple is very different from the usual ones; it looks like a tower with a round arched opening, but on top of it is a Lama-style pagoda—a shrunken Beihai White Pagoda.This peculiar form is not common in Chinese architecture.

The arched opening is made of stone.On the forehead of the east gate is the inscription "Edict to Fahai Zen Temple", accompanied by a line of small characters "Auspicious summer and moon in the 17th year of Shunzhi".There are three kinds of characters inscribed on the west face, among which the understandable Chinese is "Badmo Ushi Niq Bi Maledeng Zha", and the other two or Man and Mongolia each occupy one of them.Walking under this door, when I am tired, I feel much more relaxed after reading this line of inscriptions!
There is still a vaguely painted wall in the door opening, and there is still a little color left on the top part.Looking west from the door opening, not far away is a stone bridge, slightly arched across a ravine, and then a mountain road leads directly to the temple itself on the hillside.

The plane of the tower above the gate is slightly cross-shaped and complex.The façade is divided into multiple layers, and the middle girdle is whiter in color, with fierce relief lions engraved on it.Above the upper beam of the tunic, there are layers of overlapping statues, and each level has three Buddha statues on each side.Each Buddha statue is backlit, forming a relief sheet, surrounded by a very delicate glass frame.It looks like the face has no color glaze, the eyebrows, mouth and nose are bright and beautiful, and the whole face is not as big as an inch.On the seat is the round belly of the tower. There are four shallow niches on all sides of the tower belly, and there are relief statues sitting in the middle, which are very handsome.There are also fine carvings on the edge of the niche.On the top is the phase wheel (or brake), the brake seat is carved as lotus petals, the outer outline is slightly pot-shaped, and there is a small square cross seat at the bottom.On the top there is the teaching emblem of Yangyue.The Yangyue emblem was still intact last summer, but it has fallen off this autumn.

According to the villagers, it was blown away by a strong wind and rain in August, and the destruction of the tower went one step further.

The gate of this small temple with a pagoda is entirely made of stone except for a brick railing above the gate opening.This is another rare case in China.Now there is an ancient cypress growing obliquely on the base of the tower, which adds a lot of greenness to the tower gate, more like a guarantee of his age.For the preservation of the tower gate, this kind of ancient tree seems to be removed.People who sympathize with ancient buildings are at a loss when they come here; fortunately, in China, where antiquities are so poorly preserved, such worries are neurotic!
The characteristics of the Fahai Temple gate are not in the above points, such as the stone construction and its age, etc., but the main thing is that its style is similar to the original Juyongguan.There used to be a pagoda in Juyongguan, but it has been collapsed for a long time, so it is impossible to test its shape.I didn't want to find such a discovery in Pingjiao.Although Fahai Temple only takes up two unimportant positions in the "Examination of Old News under the Sun", the simple sentence "there is a small pagoda on the gate" is an important material from the standpoint of studying the original state of Juyongguan up.

Three stone Buddhist niches in Xingzikou

Walking from Badachu to Xiangshan, after only three or four miles, the road passes through a mountain pass.At the place where Shankou Road turns the first big bend and goes straight down, next to the road, on the hillside of Huilong, there are two small stone pavilions.In fact, there is no such thing as a stone pavilion, it is simply two small stone Buddhist niches.The sizes of the two stone niches are slightly different, but their backs are both facing the road unceremoniously.Because their fronts are all facing south, toward another mountain pass—the original Xingzikou.

In the era when there were no roads, this place deserves to be called a mountain pass.In a ravine that is thirty or forty feet deep, there is the only winding and narrow way out; two piles of mountains face each other on both sides, and when you exit, you will suddenly see a piece of plain land, spread flat like a sea, and an isolated island emerges in the distance Ordinary Yuquan Mountain supports the mountain tower.This Xingzikou does have a small-scale peculiar situation of "one man guards the gate, ten thousand men are invincible".Two stone shrines occupy the top of the north slope, and a similar stone shrine facing north faces the mountain pass on the opposite south slope.Looking up from Xingzikou at the bottom of the stone gorge, the three stone niches stand on two cliffs. Although they are small, they bear a kind of transcendent solemnity. pleasure and beauty.

The current road goes around behind the two niches on the north slope and goes straight down the hill.Because it is close to the two niches, people who drive by here must definitely see these two special stone pavilions.But at the same time, because of the dangerous situation of the mountain road, no one would take the risk of stopping the fast-moving car to take a closer look at these few stone Buddha niches, no matter whether they were going west from Xiangshan Mountain or going east from Badachu.As a result, most of the passing passengers restrained their curiosity and love for ancient times, and just rushed over.

If the author is a person who has looked carefully at this shrine, it is because he is an exception, unable to restrain his curiosity and love for ancient times, and vowed to stop and take a look after passing by it countless times.At that time, it was not counted as crossing the road, but I went to pay a sincere visit with a camera; I drove the car through the dangerous mountain road and stopped, and then walked to the front and back of the shrine to pay homage to Fengcai.

In front of the altar, looking down at the Xingzikou stone road carved with hundreds of years of ruts, I saw a farmer the size of a small clay figurine carrying a load, and another old woman wearing a temple flower, carrying a yellow bundle. , Bend back and walk slowly over, in order to understand the original mission of these three stone niches.If this stone niche could speak, they might not be able to tell all the pictures they had seen passing under Xingzikou—at that time, a string of camels were passing through Xingzikou and turning down a slope.

These two shrines stand side by side on a small platform on the north slope, and their structures are composed of several pieces of bluestone—each wall is a whole piece, there is a door opening on the south side, and each floor eaves of the roof is one piece.The niche on the west side is larger, about one meter square in plane and about two meters high.Double eaves, the four corners of the upper eaves are slightly raised, which is worth noting.On the east wall, there are inscriptions from past dynasties, running horses, the front of human faces and so on.Among them, there are several names of people, the older ones are "Cheng'an five years, April 700rd" and "Zhiyuan nine years, June [-]th, Jia Zhiji".Cheng'an is the reign title of Jin Zhangzong, and the fifth year is [-] AD.The ninth year of Zhiyuan was the year name of Yuan Shizu, and Emperor Yuan Shun's Zhiyuan was changed to Yuan in the sixth year, so it is AD [-].This small Buddhist altar is at least a relic of the Jin Dynasty. It has survived more than [-] years of wind and rain in Xingzikou, and it still exists.At that time, the air of standing majestically on the North Cliff of Xingzikou is now relegated to the humility of sitting cross-legged on the side of the road by the unsightly road, but their old qualifications are not detracted from it.On the west wall there are primitive paintings - Buddha statues and horses - the appearance of the Buddha statues, at first glance, looks like the Totain-Pole (totem pole) of the native Americans.

There is a headless sitting Buddha statue in the niche. Although the body of the statue has been cracked, the folds of clothes are flowing and beautiful, and there is a remnant of the "Southern Song Dynasty".

The one on the east side of the platform is smaller, with only a single eaves and no calligraphy or painting on the wall.There is a small body without a head in the niche, which was probably made up in the Qing Dynasty.Both towers have a pale green color.

In front of the base, there is a platform with a width of [-] meters and a length of more than [-] meters. The area on it is barely enough to worship Buddha statues.

There is only one Buddhist niche on the South Cliff, which is the same size as the smaller one on the North Cliff.The stone flakes that make up the walls on three sides have turned a thick deep yellow, like pure tobacco leaves.The word "South" with double hooks is engraved on the west side, the word "Wu" on the south side, and the word "Buddha" on the east side, all of which are about eight decimeters in diameter.Open the door to the north, and the Buddha statue inside has been lost.

Although these three small niches cannot be said to be real architectural relics, they can also be said to be sketches related to architecture.Not only the poetic and picturesque are abundant, but also the "architectural" is rich, it is really worth parking to see.As for walking down the hillside to the original Xingzikou, it is worthwhile to really admire the solemn and solemn situation of these three niches.

In the books about Beiping's anecdotes, no records about these three stone shrines have been found.Fortunately, there is no difficulty in determining their age because of the inscriptions on the wall.It is a pity that there is no way to refer to their vague history, which will add some interest to our research.

published in
November 1932, Issue 11 of Volume 3 of "China Construction Society", this article is signed by: Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin
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