Brief introduction of Nanyue Temple

Nanyue Temple is located in the north of Nanyue Town at the foot of Hengshan Mountain in Hengyang City, Hunan Province. Also known as Dai Temple in Tai 'an, Shandong and Zhongyue Temple in Dengfeng, Henan. It is the largest and most well-preserved ancient architectural complex in the "wuyue" temple. The temple is 22 meters high, with eight temples in the east, belonging to Taoism and west eight Temple, belonging to Buddhism. Hengshan Nanyue Temple is a temple dedicated to Nanyue the Great, the God of Hengshan Mountain. Now it is one of the Taoist temples in Hunan Province and a key cultural relic protection unit. According to Zhao's Records of Nanyue in Tang Dynasty, the original Zhu Rong Temple in Hengshan Mountain was at the top of Zhurong Peak, and it was moved to the foot of the mountain in Sui Dynasty. According to Nanyue, in the early Tang Dynasty, there was a Fire King Temple in the temple. In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (72 1), Xuanzong was named the God of South Vietnam and the "King of Si". In the 13th year (725), Zhenjun Hall was built in the temple. In the fifth year of the Song Dynasty (10 12), the Houdian was rebuilt and expanded many times, and its scale gradually increased. The existing buildings in Nanyue were rebuilt in the eighth year of Guangxu reign (1882), with nine halls in the north and south.

The first entrance is Lingxingmen, which is an imitation wooden stone archway with four columns and three floors.

The second entrance is Kuixing Pavilion, commonly known as Panlong Pavilion, which is named after a wooden carving Panlong in the caisson on the second floor of the stage.

The third entrance is the south gate, which is composed of three semicircular arches. It is shaped like "Chuan", so it is also called Zhengchuan Gate. On both sides of Zhengchuan Gate are Dongchuan Gate and Xichuan Gate.

The fourth step is the Imperial Monument Pavilion, where Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty made a biography of "Rebuilding Nanyue Temple Monument".

The fifth entrance is Jiayingmen, which is a seven-bay, single-eave mountain-resting style. It is an instrument door for welcoming guests in history.

The sixth entrance is the Imperial Bookstore. In this building, there are seven royal plaques, commemorative and congratulatory messages from past dynasties, and a memorial tablet for Zen. Regrettably, these precious cultural relics were destroyed in the catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution. Yushu building is now a cultural relics exhibition place, mainly displaying more than 200 precious cultural relics unearthed and collected near Nanyue.

The seventh entrance is the main hall of the Great Temple-the Holy Emperor Hall. There are 72 stone pillars inside and outside the temple, symbolizing the 72 peaks of Hengshan Mountain. The center of the hall is dedicated to "Zhao Tian, the king of South Vietnam", that is, Zhu Rong, the god of fire. More than 100 double-sided white marble reliefs are inlaid on the stone railings around the main hall.

The eighth entrance is the bedroom, also called the backyard. There is a statue of the King of Nanyue and his wife, Empress Jingming, in the temple.

The last entrance is the north back door, and there are three bays on the hard mountain with single eaves. To the east of the gate is Zhu Sheng Hall, and to the west is Jurisdiction Temple.

There are eight Taoist temples and eight Buddhist temples on the east and west sides of the temple. It is very rare for Buddhism and Taoism to coexist in a temple.

Chinese Taoist Association: A Dictionary of Taoism, Huaxia Publishing House, 1994 edition, article "Hengshan Nanyue Temple" on page 998. China Taoist Dictionary (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1995), p. 1675.