Zi Long loves photography.

Positive definite, many people think it is very strange. But if I say a positive historical name, you may feel familiar with it. The classic opening remarks of Zhao Yun, the famous star of the Three Kingdoms-"I am Zhao Zilong of Changshan." Yes, Changshan is now Zhengding.

Zhengding, together with Beijing and Baoding, is called "the three major towns in the north", which shows its historical importance. But what attracts me about this county town not far from Beijing is that it is known as the "treasure house of ancient architecture art".

Speaking of Zhengding ancient buildings, we have to mention Mr. Liang Sicheng, who is known as the father of modern architecture in China. Mr. Liang devoted his life to the investigation and protection of ancient buildings in China. Zhengding, he has been here four times. 1April, 933, he and Mo, a drawing student, came to Zhengding to inspect ancient buildings in chaos. In June of the same year165438+1October, he and his wife Lin came to Zhengding again. 1952, Professor Liang Sicheng, then head of the Department of Civil Architecture in Tsinghua University, took his students to Zhengding to inspect and survey ancient buildings during the summer vacation. From 65438 to 0963, Mr. Liang visited Zhengding for the fourth time, which pointed out the direction for the protection of cultural relics in Zhengding. Mr. Liang recorded the real situation of Zhengding ancient buildings through a large number of photos, characters and structural drawings, and made a scientific evaluation of the construction age, structural shape and artistic value of Zhengding ancient buildings, which provided an authoritative basis for the protection and repair of Zhengding cultural relics.

Mr. Liang discovered many valuable ancient buildings and cultural relics in Zhengding. The ancient temple we are going to walk into today, Zhengding longxing temple, contains the top six in China.

"The lion Dingzhou Tower in Cangzhou is Zhao Zhouqiao, the Zhengding Bodhisattva." The Zhengding Bodhisattva mentioned in this ballad, together with the lion in Cangzhou, Dingzhou Tower and Dashiqiao in Zhaozhou, is also called "Four Treasures of Hebei", which is a bronze cast Guanyin with thousands of hands and eyes provided in the Great Compassion Pavilion in longxing temple. Zhengding locals often call longxing temple the "Big Buddha Temple", from which it comes. Of course, strictly speaking, Guanyin is a bodhisattva, not a Buddha, but China folks often call Guanyin a Buddha.

This bronze cast Guanyin with thousands of hands and eyes has a very legendary life experience. Longxing temple was built in the Sui Dynasty, but many classic buildings of the Song Dynasty were preserved, which led to the story of longxing temple and Zhao Kuangyin of Song Taizu. Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, visited Zhengding at an event to pay tribute to the famous bronze Buddha of Great Compassion, which is said to be 4 feet 9 feet tall. He was deeply saddened when he heard that the bronze statue was destroyed. Later, due to the appearance of some "good omen", Zhao Kuangyin was very happy and ordered to cast a new bronze statue. Construction began in the fourth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 97 1 year). Longxing temple (the name of the temple in the Song Dynasty was longxing temple, and Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty changed it to longxing temple) expanded the temple with the central axis as the layout when casting bronze statues, forming a large-scale and magnificent architectural complex in the Song Dynasty, which laid the current main structure.

This bronze statue of longxing temple is 2 1.3 meters high. Looking up, it is not only shocking, but also beneficial to the cervical spine. When you lower your head, you will also find many exquisite sculptures under the bronze statue, which are also from the hands of skilled craftsmen in the Song Dynasty.

People call the bronze statue "avalokitesvara with thousands of hands and eyes", but the bronze statue has only 42 hands. In addition to the hands stacked on the chest, there are 20 radially distributed hands on both sides, holding the sun, the moon, the clean bottle, the king kong, the sword and other instruments respectively. Each hand adorns an eye, and 40 hands and 40 eyes match 25 kinds of karma in the three realms of Buddhism, that is, thousands of hands and thousands of eyes. A thousand hands mean protecting all beings, and a thousand eyes mean observing the world. In the book "To Beauty's Fool: Liang Sicheng's Most Beautiful Writing Architecture" published by Zhu Lin after sorting out Mr. Liang Sicheng's manuscript, Mr. Liang wrote: "The bronze Guanyin statue originally built a three-story pavilion, but now it has collapsed, and the Bodhisattva statue standing in the open air lacks forty' extra arms'." So the hand we see now folded on the chest is the original, and the other 40 hands are "artificial limbs".

At that time, craftsmen divided the bronze statue into seven sections and then cast it. But because it is too high, it is more and more difficult to go up, especially to throw your head. According to legend, craftsmen used the method of digging up the soil to form a large slope around the bronze statue, which is convenient for the implementation of the project. As the crystallization of the wisdom of working people more than 1000 years ago, this bronze statue can be described as a great miracle in the ancient metallurgical history of China.

Mr. Liang also wrote in the book: "The pious and foolish abbot' renovated' the Guanyin statue. My beloved bronze rust was painted with a gorgeous primary color paint, and the Bodhisattva statue became an ugly giant doll. Seeing this, it's just self-cleaning, and the paint won't last for a century! ..... 1937 autumn, Zhengding was bombarded by Japanese heavy artillery, and then fell, and the fate of the statue was in doubt. " The abbot's behavior mentioned by Mr. Liang is still common today and deserves people's deep thought. But it is gratifying that this bronze statue was not destroyed by the war. Today, we can still witness its elegance, and the Great Compassion Pavilion covered with bronze statues has been rebuilt.

The Mani Palace in longxing temple, with the highest historical, artistic and scientific value, was built in the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1052). Its plane modeling and architectural form are unique among the ancient temple buildings in China. Mani means pearl and treasure in Sanskrit. The Buddhist scripture says, Manizu, as soon as you throw turbid water into it, the water will be clear. Mani Palace takes this name, which means to get rid of turbidity, dust and dirt, and get quiet.

What is the most special about the Mani Palace in longxing temple? Its fa? ade is a temple with two eaves resting on the top of the mountain, and there is a mansion resting on the top of the mountain in each of the four directions (mansion refers to the porch added in front of the house, and also refers to the small house adjacent to the back, here is the former). Due to this special architectural form, the whole Moni Palace looks like a cross from top to bottom. I can't take this angle, but we can feel it from Mr. Liang's hand-drawn architectural drawings. The Xieding Mountain mentioned here is one of the traditional roof forms in China. The uppermost horizontal ridge on the roof is a vertical ridge, which extends downward in a herringbone shape from left to right. The lower ends of the four vertical ridges respectively turn to form four ridges, so Xieding Mountain has nine ridges, also known as "Nine Ridges Top". The so-called double eaves resting on the top of the mountain means adding a layer of eaves below the basic resting top.

Mr. Liang wrote in "On Zhengding": "Cross-shaped plane, with both sides resting on the mountain forward, slightly like the turret of the Forbidden City in Beiping. This style is common in Song paintings, but it is not found in the legacy. " He described the feeling of seeing the structural layout of the Mani Palace as "picturesque elegance, ancient and solemn, which really gives people an unspeakable feeling, especially from the perspective of three-dimensional layout, this Mani Palace is magnificent, overlapping and strewn at random, which is the best art and unique in China architecture".

In addition to the exquisite construction skills of Mani Palace, the walls of the temple are covered with murals with the theme of Buddhist stories. These Ming and Qing murals are still so bright after so many years, and it is conceivable how beautiful they were when they were painted.

Behind the inner wall of Mani Palace, the colorful island Guanyin is hung on the whole wall. The rocks are abrupt and undulating, and auspicious clouds are lingering. Lohan and the mighty god in the mountain have their own charm. Sitting in the center, the Buddha statue is 3.4 meters high, with a quiet face and elegant posture. She stepped on the lotus with her left foot, stood cross-legged with her right leg and caressed her knees with her hands, just like a perfect woman in secular life. Her anthropomorphic appearance has broken through the artistic modeling of traditional Buddha statues, which is amazing.

It is said that 1923, Mr. Lu Xun bought this Guanyin statue in Beiping Yamamoto Photo Studio and called it "Oriental Beauty God". He has been putting it on his case. Some documents also say that Mr. Liang Sicheng gave the photos to Mr. Lu Xun. When you stand in front of her, it seems that you can look at her from any angle.

This wheel of longxing temple is a relic of the Northern Song Dynasty. Wheel storage can be understood as a rotating bookshelf for storing Buddhist scriptures. It is said that at that time, illiterate monks or pilgrims turned and hid in a wheel, even if they recited the scriptures once.

In his book Architectural History of China in Images, Mr. Liang Sicheng mentioned longxing temple's Mani Palace and the Runner House. He wrote: "The runner's hidden hall is a temple built for the runner's hidden hall. The position of the pillars in the temple was changed to make room for the wheel to be hidden. In this way, many buildings are cleverly combined into a whole, just like a symphony with excellent performance, in which all parts appear accurately and timely, and truly achieve a perfect and harmonious situation. The wheel storage is an octagonal rotating bookshelf with a vertical shaft inside, which is a rare example of this structure. Its shape is like a pavilion with double eaves, and the processing of building components is extremely exquisite. The lower eaves are octagonal, the upper eaves are round, and both eaves adopt compound bucket arches. Because this Joinery Work strictly abides by the provisions in "Building French Style", it is a very valuable example of components in the Song Dynasty. Regrettably, the last time I saw it at 1933, the temple was being used as a barracks, and it was ruined under the brutal injury of soldiers. "

From the above passage, we can see that Mr. Liang spoke highly of longxing temple's Runwheel Tibetan Hall and Runwheel Tibetan Hall, and also felt Mr. Liang's love for ancient buildings and romantic feelings as a science and engineering student. Today, it is very gratifying that the temple of the runner has been repaired and the runner is well preserved.

The tablet of Longzang Temple was carved in the sixth year of Emperor Kai of Sui Dynasty (AD 586). The inscription records the situation that Wang Xiaoxian, the secretariat of Hengzhou, persuaded more than 10,000 people in the state to build the Longzang Temple by imperial edict. Why is this monument called "Longzang Temple Monument"? Remember what I said before, longxing temple was built in Sui Dynasty, formerly known as "Longzang Temple". This monument is called "the first monument in Sui Dynasty", and it is also the earliest existing regular script monument in China. The calligraphy of steles inherited the charm of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and started the early Tang Dynasty. It witnessed the transition of China's calligraphy from Han Li to Tang Kai, and played a connecting role in the development history of calligraphy art, providing valuable information for studying the development of China's calligraphy art.

Pilu Temple is not longxing temple's "original match". It was moved from Chongyin Temple in Zhengding City in 1959. Pilu is the abbreviation of the Sanskrit word "Pilu Zena", which means "the light shines everywhere".

The bronze Buddha statue of Pilu enshrined in the temple was cast by Zhu Yijun, Emperor Wanli of Ming Dynasty, for the birthday of his mother Empress Dowager Cixi, and it is also a national treasure of the royal family. The 6.42-meter-high Buddha statue consists of a seated Pilu Buddha with three floors and four bodies facing all directions and a drum-shaped lotus base with 1000 small buddhas carved on three floors, which decreases from bottom to top, forming a pattern of "thousands of buddhas around Pilu". The whole bronze statue of Pilu Buddha is unique in shape, ingenious in conception and exquisite in skill.

Besides these "the best in the country", there are many places in longxing temple that are also worth visiting.

You will see the ruins when you first get started. There used to be a hall of the Sixth Department of Daigakuji, which was built during the Yuanfeng period in Song Shenzong. This is the main hall of longxing temple, which is equivalent to the Ursa Major Hall. In the early years of the Republic of China, it collapsed because of disrepair. Judging from the left pedestal, the scale of the six halls in Daigakuji should be very large at that time.

In longxing temple Cishi Pavilion, there is a 7.4-meter-high wood carving statue of Maitreya Buddha, which is a single wood carving in the Northern Song Dynasty. The back of Maitreya Buddha and Bodhisattva is decorated with 8.8-meter-high flame pattern background lights to show the brilliance of Buddha. Cishi is a free translation of Maitreya in Sanskrit.

Mr. Liang Sicheng lived in longxing temple Abbot during Zhengding period. Today, Liang Sicheng's Cultural Relics Protection and Monument Exhibition Hall is located here. After reading this exhibition hall, I have a deeper admiration for Mr. Liang Sicheng.

20 16 China Post issues a full set of two special stamps of Zhengding longxing temple. It is rare to issue stamps with the theme of ancient buildings, which also reflects the important value of longxing temple in the history of ancient buildings.

Zhengding is far more wonderful than longxing temple. If you are interested in this ancient city carved for thousands of years,

Zhengding, longxing temple alone is the crown of the six countries.

All the pictures in this article were taken by the author.