The famous temple in the northwest of Mount Tai - Changqing Lingyan Temple Courtyard

1 Lingyan Temple in Changqing, Jinan, Shandong. This is the last attraction of this holiday trip to Jinan, and it is relatively the most famous and the most crowded attraction. 2 Lingyan Temple, the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units, is very early in the batch. At the same time, Lingyan Temple is close to Mount Tai and is also part of the World Heritage Mount Tai. So, in fact, I can also say that I visited Mount Tai this time. 3 Lingyan Temple, also known as "Great Lingyan Temple", was built in the Jin Dynasty and has a history of more than 1600 years. Lingyan Temple was the most famous in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Lingyan Temple in Shandong, Guoqing Temple in Zhejiang, Qixia Temple in Nanjing, and Yuquan Temple in Hubei were collectively known as the "Four Famous Temples in the Country", with Lingyan Temple being the first. During the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, it remained a very influential temple. 4 When we walked to the square in front of Lingyan Temple, a conspicuous stone stele with the words "Great Lingyan Temple" already appeared. The four large characters are neat and powerful, attracting many tourists to stop and take photos. This stone stele is also an ancient relic. If you look closely at the small characters on the stele, it clearly states the year of Zhizheng in the Yuan Dynasty, which is already hundreds of years old. 5 The courtyard of Lingyan Temple is very large, with many highlights. Everyone knows that the Song Dynasty colored sculptures in the Thousand Buddha Hall, the Song Dynasty Pizhi Pagoda, and the Pagoda Forest are the three major highlights of Lingyan Temple. In addition to these, there are many other ancient buildings in the courtyard, including the Vajra Hall, the Heavenly King Hall, the Bell and Drum Tower, the Mahavira Hall, the Imperial Library Pavilion, the Abbot's Courtyard, the Zhengmeng Hall, and many other ancient buildings; as well as the ruins of many halls such as the Banzhou Hall, the Five Flower Hall, the Peacock King Hall, the Reclining Buddha Hall, the Ten Kings Hall, and the Wheel Hall. 6 I will definitely write separately about the Thousand Buddha Hall, so I will leave it for now. Most of the other ancient buildings are neatly and simply built. What impressed me more were those building ruins. For example, the Five Flower Hall, located next to the Mahavira Hall, was built in the Song Dynasty and destroyed by fire at the end of the Qing Dynasty, leaving only an arch-like structure, but you can still see its former exquisiteness. The ruins of the Banzhou Hall are even older. According to research, its base dates back to the early Tang Dynasty, with relics from the Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties on top. The few pagoda pillars in front of the Banzhou Hall should not be missed, including a dense eaves stone pagoda with dragon and tiger patterns built in the 23rd year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty, and two extremely exquisitely carved octagonal stone pagoda pillars from the Tang Dynasty, which are masterpieces of Tang Dynasty architectural art. This dragon and tiger pagoda is the third dragon and tiger pagoda I have seen on this trip to Shandong. Its shape is different from the large and small dragon and tiger pagodas in Shentong Temple, which was a real surprise. 7 Of course, Lingyan Temple's reputation as a "famous temple in the country" means that there are definitely more highlights than these. The ancient steles and stone carvings scattered throughout the courtyard are dazzling.