In 670, Zuo Lang, inspired by Tang Gaozong Li Zhi, led Zheng Chen and General Chen Yuanguang to develop Minnan, and the soldiers who followed them brought Guan Yu's incense, which was a statue dedicated to the hometown of the Central Plains and the source of Guandi's belief in Dongshan, Fujian.
According to relevant research, Dongshan Guandi Temple is also the ancestral temple of incense among many Guandi temples in Taiwan Province Province. It was in the Ming Dynasty that the imperial court built a city in Dongshan to prevent Japanese invasion. Because Guandi is a symbol of loyalty and courage, the officers and men guarding the city began to build Guandi Temple to protect themselves.
Dongshan Guandi Temple was built in 1387 and expanded in 1508. The stone pillars in the main hall of the temple are engraved with the words "Daming Zheng Dewu made an appointment to send".
Dongshan Guandi Temple is surrounded by mountains and seas, facing the misty Dongshan Bay. It rises step by step according to the terrain, layer by layer, and it is magnificent. The wooden structure of the whole Guandi Temple is partly Ming Dynasty, partly Qing Dynasty, and there are modern buildings.
The temple is a wooden frame building with hanging beams, with three rooms wide and six rooms deep. The total length is 40m, the width is 17m, and the area is over 680m2. Hanging on the top of the mountain, blue tile. Most of them are stone shuttle columns, and the column base is drum-shaped.
There is a big square in front of the temple, with stone railings stacked in the middle. The lotus pond lives in the center of the square, and the green water is full of waves against the ancient temple. There are four pairs of stone lions carved in Ming and Qing dynasties in front of the temple, holding their heads high and looking different.
The temple gate is supported by six stone pillars, with hundreds of wooden arch beams criss-crossing and bearing evenly. There is a palace pavilion on the arch beam, which is called "Prince Pavilion".
It is particularly worth mentioning that the stone pillars supporting the Prince's Pavilion are inclined from the outside to the inside, which is very rare in other buildings. From the architectural structure, this is more conducive to maintaining the stability of the Prince's Pavilion. The Prince's Pavilion is not only exquisite in architectural art, but also of high architectural scientific value.
Dongshan is near the sea, and typhoons hit it every year. At the same time, there have been many major earthquakes in history. However, more than 600 years later, although the center of gravity is very high, it is still well preserved, which has a lot to do with this kind of diagonal pillar.
On the Prince's Pavilion, there are various patterns composed of Minnan porcelain carvings. There are "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" and "Animal Map" on the front, including Kirin, elephant, lion, tiger, deer, sheep, mule, jackal and so on.
On the roof, 120 heroes were carved with porcelain scissors, such as: Li Shimin ascended the throne, Fan Lihua made the Western Expedition, his mother-in-law was tattooed, and Mu Guiying was in town. The shapes are vivid and diverse.
These are the porcelain sculptures with the most local artistic features in southern Fujian. Its production method is to use clay tires to make shapes according to different characters, and then cut and paste colored porcelain pieces according to the needs of the characters.
This traditional art and craft is very complicated and needs exquisite craftsmanship. Porcelain carving has two characteristics: first, it will not fade and can maintain bright colors for a long time; Second, under the sunshine, the color is full and there is a feeling of resplendence.
The central axis of Guandi Temple faces Wenfeng Pagoda across the sea, and the central axis is in a straight line with the spire. In the absence of any precision instruments in ancient times, it is really rare to build it so accurately. It is really wonderful.
Porcelain sculptures of "Double Dragons Catch Beads" and "Phoenix Flying" are molded on the roofs of the main hall and the front hall. The golden wood carvings and stone carvings in the temple are unique and magnificent. His royal highness carved a rare dragon on the big terrazzo blue stone, soaring clouds and spitting pearls.
It is said that there are only two stones this big in the world, and the other one was carved by the same pair of masters and apprentices in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The gold-plated woodcarving and stone carving in Guandi Temple are all made by famous artists in past dynasties, and they are absolutely excellent treasures.
Hanging on the pillars of the hall are couplets inscribed by Huang Daozhou, a great scholar of Wudian in Ming Dynasty:
Counting three points of profit, helping, flattening Wu and cutting Wei, working hard and complaining, is not a lifelong career;
United as one, left, subdue the devil and subdue Lu, and Wei Ling rallied to complete the day of loyalty and righteousness.
This couplet summarizes Guan Gong's great achievements in his life, and also expresses Huang Daozhou's admiration for Guan Gong.
There are three doors in the main hall and stone drums on both sides of the middle door. There are gold-plated wooden sticks engraved with dragons on the stone drums, which are called "dragon files" or "imperial files". As the name implies, the dragon stall is to prevent people from entering Guandi Temple through the middle gate. Only when the emperor comes can they enter through the middle gate, which is also a tribute to Guandi.
There are also many stone carvings, woodcuts, couplets and plaques from Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times in the temple. In the center of the main hall hangs the treasure of the town hall of Guandi Temple, which is a "eternal" plaque inscribed by Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty. This is the highest evaluation of Guan Yu, which means Guan Yu's character, an example for future generations to learn and a criterion for being a man.
There are two statues of Guan Di under this plaque. A statue named "God of Town Temple" was carved according to the image of Guan Yu in The Romance of Three Kingdoms.
The statue of Guandi in the back sits in a sedan chair and can move. On Guan Yu's birthday, people in Dongshan will carry this statue of Guan Yu in the streets to show their goodwill to the people.
There are four clay sculptures on both sides of the statue of Guan Di, namely, the four generals of Guan Yu before his death: Zhou Cang, Guan Ping, Wang Fu and Zhao Lei. These four generals followed Guan Yu in the battlefield, repeatedly made outstanding achievements, and loyally guarded Guan Yu after his death.
On the east side of the main hall hangs a bronze bell cast in Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty, which has a loud voice and resounds through the sky. The layout of Guandi Temple is neat and orderly, which is simply extraordinary.
It is worth mentioning that there are only two attendants in front of Guandi Temple in the world, one is Zhou Cang with a knife and the other is Guan Ping with a seal. Only the Guandi Temple in Dongshan is different.
Besides Zhou Cang with a knife, there is another Zhou Cang sitting in the shrine behind him, and his appearance is different from that of Zhou Cang standing, with a white face and five beards. Why is this?
There is also a fairy tale. According to legend, Lu Xiufu, a loyal minister in the late Song Dynasty, once attached a god to the statue of Guandi in Dongshan and enjoyed folk incense. Later, Zhao Min, the young master of the Song Dynasty, also possessed Zhou Cang.
Gal, Lu Xiufu is a big headache. According to the shrine in the temple, Guan Di is the main, and Zhou Cang is the servant. However, Zhao Min is a king after all, and he is a minister after all. You can't ask your master to stand by you every day! What should I do? Lu Xiufu had to dream of Guandi Temple.
Later, Dongshan people came up with a way to kill two birds with one stone. They arranged a seat for Zhou Cang, the god of Zhao Min, Song Taizu, and set up a shrine next to him, relieving him of his knife-wielding duties. When Guandi went to patrol, he prepared a white horse to let him go instead of walking.
But people always feel that Guan Ping is the only one standing in front of Guan Di, which is not pleasing to the eye. Therefore, Zhou Cang stands with a knife, which is why there are two Zhou Cang in Dongshan Guandi Temple.
In fact, this tradition is just that the soldiers guarding the border express their thoughts of remembering their hometown by Guan Yu's loyalty.
Taiwan Province's Guandi belief is the second largest folk belief after Mazu belief. Hundreds of Guandi temples on the island all pass through Dongshan Guandi Temple.
It is said that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a ship from Quanzhou docked at Tongshan Port. The owner's surname is Chen. He heard that Guandi was a powerful god, so he went to the Guandi Temple to worship and asked a god to worship on the boat.
Later, the ship owner sent the Guandi on board to Fengshan, Taiwan Province Province, China, which was later Kaohsiung, Taiwan Province Province, China, and built Wenheng Temple, which became the earlier Guandi Temple in the south of Taiwan Province Province, China.
Dongshan Guandi Temple is full of many mysterious colors. The Guandi Temple in Tongling, Dongshan, was not built by officials, gentry and Taoist priests, but by eminent monks from South Shaolin Temple. It is the most peculiar sacred place of folk belief that integrates Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Believers * * * this deity, for thousands of years.
According to the records in the genealogy of Guandi Temple in Tongling, the temple has been managed by Xianghua monk, a senior monk in South Shaolin, for hundreds of years since the early Qing Dynasty. It is rare for the whole world to observe both Buddhism and vulgarity at the same time, which is a very peculiar cultural phenomenon in the history of religious folk culture in China.
Dongshan Guandi Temple has a strong incense, which lasted for hundreds of years. The worship of Guandi by Dongshan people is the most sincere and can be said to be the highest in the world.
Dongshan people, almost every household has a portrait of the emperor, and couplets are hung in the middle of the lobby. From generation to generation, it has become a folk custom, and its popularity is unparalleled in the world.
On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, many Dongshan people will come to Guandi Temple to worship Guandi. No matter what big or small things you encounter, you will come to Guandi Temple for a visa and ask Guandi for advice.
Legend has it that Zheng Chenggong, a general in the late Ming Dynasty, went to Dongshan Guandi Temple for good omen before sending troops to recover Taiwan Province Province in China. He really won and regained Taiwan Province Province.
In a word, Dongshan Guandi Temple is a masterpiece of China ancient culture and an extremely important historical monument of Guandi culture.