On the south side of Guandi Temple is the majestic and beautiful Zhongtiao Mountain, and on the north side is the vast natural salt lake. The layout of the whole temple adopts the system of "front harem" and the palace architecture with symmetrical axis.
Although there are many Guandi temples in China, the Guan Sheng Temple is unique. Guan Sheng Family Temple, also known as Guandi Ancestral Temple, is located in Changping Village, Yuncheng, Guan Gong's hometown. Echoing the Guandi Temple in Jiezhou from a distance, it began as an ancestral temple and became a temple in the Jin Dynasty.
According to the Inscription on Rebuilding the Sacred Family Temple in Changping written by Wei, Wang Xingyu of Jin Dynasty built three main halls, 40 corridors, three sleeping halls and three instrument doors at 1 177.
Later, Hooke, a native of Changping Village, partially repaired and expanded the temple. After the sage temple was completed, it was not repaired again.
Changping Guan Sheng Family Temple, also known as Changping Guandi Temple and Guandi Temple, is nearly 10,000 meters away from Jiezhou Guandi Temple, with Zhongtiao Mountain in the south and ancient salt ponds in the north. It is a rare land of geomantic omen with beautiful scenery and elegant scenery.
According to legend, the place where this temple is located is Guan Yu's former residence. Guan Yu lived here from birth until he killed the bully. Later, Guan Yu killed Lu Xiong, a bully who harmed his neighbor, and had to flee. The descendants of the bully colluded with the government to capture Guan Yu, and they planned to uproot Guan Jia and destroy the nine families.
As a result, people surnamed Guan in Changping Village fled to the ancient village to take refuge. Only Guan Yu's parents, who were old and inconvenient to walk, finally threw themselves into the well. In memory of Guan Yu's parents, people built a tower on the well.
After Guan Yu's death, the villagers admired his loyalty and virtue, so they built a ancestral temple on the basis of the tower and worshipped it at four o'clock. In the Jin Dynasty, a building of a certain scale was built and named "Guan Sheng Family Temple".
These buildings are well preserved, especially the exquisite statues of the Sai-jo Palace, the Queen's Hall, the Prince's Hall and the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, which are not found in other Guandi temples.
According to historical records, after the Sui Dynasty, with the emperors' pursuit of Guan Yu, temples were constantly being built and expanded. Only after the renovation of Emperor Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the Guandi Temple was repaired or added as many as 16 times, so most of the buildings were left before the Qing Dynasty.
Changping Guandi Temple covers an area of10.5 million square meters, mostly with brick-wood structure and glazed tile roof. There are three archways in front of the temple, with wooden structures on the left and right and stone carvings in the middle.
Inside the temple, there are six halls from front to back on the central axis, such as Shanmen, Wumen, Xiangdian, Chongning, Niangniang and Shengzu. There are rooms, halls and corridors on both sides. , master-slave order.
The temple, facing south, is large in scale, rigorous in layout and magnificent in halls and pavilions. There are three archways in front of the temple, with wooden structures on the east and west sides and three doors and four pillars on the top, which are called "Zhong Ling Mihai" and "Xiuyu Tiao Mountain" respectively. The center is a stone structure, with a pair of iron lions in front, and the Ming Dynasty gatehouse book "Hometown of Wang Guan" is written in four characters.
In the overall layout, Changping Guandi Temple and Jiezhou Guandi Temple also followed the shape of "front facing and rear sleeping". The mountain gate, the meridian gate and the sacrificial hall are all three rooms wide, with a single eaves hanging from the top of the mountain, covered with gray tiles and inlaid with green glazed tiles.
Guandi Hall is five rooms wide, surrounded by verandahs, all with double eaves and nine ridges. The woodcarving shrines in the temple are luxuriantly decorated.
Chongning Hall is the main building in the temple. Built on a brick abutment, it is 5 rooms wide and 4 rooms deep. The surrounding cloisters are all 1 in depth, with a total width of 7 and a total depth of 6. It rests on the top of the mountain, with double eaves, covered with green glass and decorated with colorful glass ridges.
There are two board doors in the main hall, and straight lattice windows in the left and right rooms; The wood carving shrine in the temple is richly decorated, with a built-in statue of Guan Yu. Guan Yu, wearing a crown and royal robes, sat majestically in the dragon chair. Inside and outside the niche, I also served four people humbly. The statue is plump and lifelike.
Niangniang Temple is 5 rooms wide and 5 rooms deep, with double eaves resting on the top of the mountain, corridors in front of the temple, hanging doors, and affiliated halls on the left and right, forming a courtyard; The shrine in the temple is dedicated to the statue of Mrs. Guan, and the handmaids on the left and right sides stand respectfully with handkerchiefs and water, standing upright, which is a masterpiece of the Qing Dynasty statue.
Xianzu Hall is located at the end of the hall, built in 1773, with three rooms wide, hanging from the top of the mountain with a single eaves and covered with gray tiles. It is placed on a brick platform, and the platform in front of the temple is spacious, with statues of Guan Yu's ancestors, great-grandfathers, grandfathers, fathers and their wives, which are rare in Wudao temples all over the world.
There is also an octagonal seven-story brick tower in Guandi Temple, about 15 meters high, which is said to be the tomb of Guan Yu's parents. The tower body is larger up and down, and the eaves overlap between layers to form a lower tower eaves and an upper base, and a disk is built on the top. Unfortunately, the tower brake on it no longer exists. The brick tower is heavy, dignified and steady, and has never been decorated. It survived the Hedong earthquake in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, but it is still intact.
At the foot of Zhongtiao Mountain in the south of the temple, there are lush cypresses and numerous stone tablets, which are the location of Guanjia ancestral graves. On the way from Guan Sheng Temple to Guanzu Tomb, there are temples and altars all the time.
There are dozens of stone tablets in the temple, which describe the story of Guan Yu, the titles given to Guan Yu in previous dynasties and the hereditary situation of Guan Yu, and are precious materials for studying the history of the Three Kingdoms.
The ancient trees in Guan Sheng Temple are towering, intertwined and lush, and almost every ancient tree has a meaningful magical legend.
There is a Shawn Ku in the courtyard of Niangniang Temple, which was planted in the Ming Dynasty. It is over 500 years old and has scaly skin, so it is called "Kirin skin".
Generally, the mulberry produced by mulberries ripens only once a year, but this kind of mulberry ripens five times a year and falls five times. There are five under the ancient mulberry trees, about the thickness of the bowl mouth, about 1 m above the ground.
Above the root is the trunk, and five thick branches meander about 5 meters from the ground, which not only echoes the five ancestral roots under the trunk, but also coincides with Guan Yu's great-grandfather, grandfather, father, Guan Yu himself and Guan Yu's son Guan Ping and Guan Xing, and is known as "five generations of mulberry under one roof".
There is also a bronze statue named "Bai Yun" in the northwest corner of Niangniang Temple in the courtyard of the temple. The trunk is split from the middle, protected by iron hoops, and the tree body is inclined at a 45-degree angle with the ground, pointing to the view of Xiezhou, which is 10,000 meters away.
Every winter, heavy snow covers everything, but this cypress will melt when it falls, and there is no snow at all, so it is also called "hot cypress", "snow-melting cypress" and "snow-free cypress". This tree species belongs to endangered plants and is extremely rare.
On the left and right sides of the front eaves of Chongning Temple, the main building in the temple, there are two ancient cypresses named "Dragon" and "Tiger". The trunk bark of two cypress trees is uneven about one meter from the ground, forming a dragon's body and tiger's head, which is natural and realistic and amazing.
There is a custom in the village to tie a red rope around the trunks of Longbai and Hu Bai, and then cut a piece of red rope wrapped around Longbai and Hu Bai into the collar of the younger son, which can be regarded as "michel platini", which can bless the healthy growth of children and make them happy.