The first day of the self-driving treasure hunting tour in Shanxi was quite difficult. I drove more than 700 kilometers and got off the road in Weinan, Shaanxi (there was a traffic jam for two hours due to a serious car accident with a large truck, otherwise I would have rushed to Ruicheng to stay. ), the rest of the trip was much easier. I traveled to one county every day and looked for the historical sites hidden in the countryside.
It takes more than an hour to drive from Ruicheng to Wanrong County. For accommodation here, we recommend Wanrong Hotel, the best hotel in the area, which was once a government guest house. The location is good, just opposite Feiyun Tower where we are going.
After arriving in the evening, I couldn't help but go see Feiyun Tower. The moonlight was like water at night, and I could feel the extraordinary momentum of Feiyun Tower through the wall. The residents danced in the small square separated by a wall, and Feiyun Tower silently looked down on all living beings, and time intersected.
In the early morning, when we eagerly arrived at Feiyun Tower, we had not yet gone to work, so we decided to go to the Jiwang Temple a few kilometers away first. This is an ancient temple that I didn’t know about in advance. The big data analysis of the travel platform pushed it to me. Unexpectedly, it became the biggest surprise today!
I didn’t like to see temples before and didn’t understand the various gods worshiped. This time I learned while traveling and benefited a lot. King Ji is the great-great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor. He liked planting since he was a child. When he grew up, he taught the people agricultural planting techniques. Therefore, he was the ancestor of farming and the god of grains. Jiwang Temple is a religious place where people pray for a good harvest and is a key national cultural relic protection unit.
The temple is in Taizhao Village. The road becomes narrower and narrower, and cars cannot cross in the alley at the entrance. The villagers we met on the road were very friendly and gave us way. They greeted us with a smile, "Are you going to see the temple?"
The temple door was open. After entering, an uncle came over to ask us to register our information and then told us No votes required!! Seeing that we really liked it, the uncle turned into a volunteer commentator to explain it to us. He said that there were many experts here, and he listened to the experts' lectures a lot, and he even remembered them.
The first thing I saw was a stage built in 1271 in the Yuan Dynasty. Drama activities were common in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, and ancient stages are common monuments. The existing building was rebuilt in 1921. The old man said that because there were too many people watching the theater and the dam was not big enough, the original stage was dismantled and moved back a certain distance, and then rebuilt with the original components as it was.
On the base in front of the stage, there is a small stele "in the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty" embedded in the central plains. It records that "a dance hall was built" in the temple. It is now moved and embedded on the east wall of the main hall. It seems that the stage was built in the Song and Jin Dynasties. It's called "Dance Hall".
The stage is square, with a verandah roof in front and a hilltop in the back. It is relatively rare to have two roofs in one room.
The stage is small and exquisite, and it is still in use, and plays are performed here every year.
The complex wood carving decoration is from the Qing Dynasty.
The main hall opposite the stage is unique in the Jiwang Temple! It is the only verandah roof building among the remaining Song Dynasty wooden buildings in the country. It was the highest-standard building at that time. It is said that the Forbidden City Taihe was built in the Ming Dynasty. When I was in the temple, I still took Buddhist scriptures here.
Appreciate it from the front, calm and elegant, graceful and generous, and magnificent.
The gray roof is low-key and elegant, with exquisite carvings.
The wooden components of the roof are ingenious.
The eaves at the corner look like a big umbrella.
There are six pillars, five of which are wooden pillars and one is a stone pillar carved with a dragon. The shape of the dragon is rough and majestic, with obvious protrusions. According to legend, it may have been established in the Tang Dynasty.
There is also a large bell in the corridor of the palace, dated to the fourth year of Song Xuanhe's reign. The uncle said that there used to be two big bells in the village. If one was struck, the other would also ring, and they were called sister bells. Unfortunately, the other bell has been destroyed now.
A hump-like beam.
This hall also has a major feature, because the corridors around the main hall are all supported by brackets. The brackets in the hall are staggered, but there are no beams to support them. A room was built in the middle to worship King Ji (now a new statue) , bear the weight of the roof, and the whole is a rare "beamless hall" and "house within a house".
At that time, Liang Sicheng went to Shanxi three times to look for this only Song Dynasty building with a verandah roof, but he failed to find it. Today we can see it. How lucky!
Such a beautiful ancient building is free! Touched!
Light up incense and bow down, praying for peace and prosperity for the country and the people! I offered some incense to show my sincerity.