When I arrived in ankokuji, I was very disappointed to see the door locked. After all, I ran hundreds of miles just to see the temple. But seeing the environment around the mountain gate, I quickly adjusted my mind, because the stone carvings on the mountain gate were enough to excite me for a while.
The "national treasure" monument erected in front of the temple has lost all its colors and handwriting in just a few years. I don't know if I did this on purpose to add a sense of simplicity.
There is a pair of stone lions in front of the mountain gate. The lion in the east is rolling hydrangeas, and at first glance it is a male lion. Lions in the west are feeding their cubs. At first glance, it looks like a mother with a lot of hardships. The colors of the two lions are also very different. The male lion in the east is blue-gray and well preserved. On the other hand, the lioness in the west is reddish brown and has trauma on her face.
The mountain gate is a hard-topped building with single eaves, with the main entrance in the middle and the ear doors on both sides. There are obvious renovation marks on the roof above the main entrance. In terms of color, the plaque of "ankokuji" has been hung again in recent years.
After the new plaque, there is a stone plaque embedded in a stone brick above the cornice, which reads "Xiangyun Jiecai", which means auspiciousness and was engraved in Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty.
The door in the middle is the main entrance, also called "empty door". People who have unfinished business generally try not to go. The gate is made of wood, and the top of the shop is in the shape of an animal. The knocker goes right through the middle of the animal's nose.
There are two brick carvings on both sides of the main entrance, which are carved with unicorn, deer, phoenix and crane respectively. They are beautifully carved and fascinating.
There are two drum-hugging stones in front of the west gate, which are the only pair of drum-hugging stones I have ever seen in ankokuji. It seems that it has been several years. Maybe I have a "Buddhist destiny". Just as I was leaving, my aunt from the temporary nursing home came slowly from the village and opened a "Buddhist door" for me, so that I could continue to appreciate the vicissitudes of ankokuji.
My aunt opened the East Ear Gate, so the first thing I saw when I went in was this ancient building. My aunt said it was "Bell and Drum Tower", and I really didn't know until she said it. After she finished speaking, I immediately judged that it was the bell tower, because the morning bell was ringing at dusk and the building was in the place where the sun rose in the east, so it was undoubtedly the bell tower.
There are a pair of stone lions in front of the bell tower. Although they are small and weather-beaten, they still exist in form and spirit, as if they can gain insight into historical vicissitudes.
There are many stone tablets scattered in the temple. My aunt said that it used to be everywhere, and it occupied too much land, so it was cleared out. This makes those places that treasure stone tablets feel embarrassed.
The whole ankokuji starts from the entrance along the central axis, and there are four courtyards in total. This first hall is the Heavenly King Hall in the east of the Bell Tower. The main Buddha enshrined in it is Maitreya Buddha. The roof above is hard-topped and has been renovated. There is a stone tablet embedded in the back wall of Tianwang Temple. Although it is broken, the word "Daming Jiajing" is clearly identifiable to record the merits of donation and repair.
Ankokuji, also known as "Liuli Temple", gets its name from the main hall of the second courtyard "Daxiong Hall". Green glazed tiles cover the top, flying eaves and walking on the wall, and the beasts suit is quite exquisite. Unfortunately, without the telephoto, the effect cannot be achieved. This temple is a single-eaves resting building on the top of the mountain, with the highest architectural level in the whole temple.
There are wood carvings above the Zhumen Gate in the Hall of Ursa Major, and brick carvings are all over the Hall. Exquisite carving symbolizes beauty.
The main building of the Third Hospital is the "Tong Yuan Treasure Hall", and the "master" in the hall is Guanyin Bodhisattva. There are high reliefs on the left and right sides in front of the hall, which are nailed with glass covers.
The fourth courtyard is separated by a fire wall, which is the best part of ankokuji. There are a pair of big brick carvings on the southeast, southwest, northeast and northwest walls, and there is a Jinglou in the middle.
Carved in the southeast is a picture of a dragon covered with moire. What puzzles me is why this dragon was carved in the middle of the wall at that time, instead of covering the whole wall like the other three sides.
The southwest is carved with a picture of a unicorn. I saw it flying and turned its head back. Maybe it's the lack of sunlight. This brick carving is the best preserved.
In the middle is the temple gatehouse. I heard that it can go up. It used to be used to collect scriptures, which is equivalent to the "Tibetan Scripture Building". From top to bottom, there is no place that is not carved. The gatehouse in the south is carved with the dragon, tiger and five ruitu, which is exquisite and impressive.
There is also a stone tablet embedded in the corridor leading through the temple building to the courtyard, which was written by Qin Long in the Ming Dynasty for four years about rebuilding the fire wall of ankokuji in Ruiyun Mountain. Only from this stone tablet did people know that this wall was called a fire wall.
The temple passes through the north of the gatehouse and is full of complex beauty. The double eaves at the top are shaded by trees, the stone cornices below are hung high, and the wooden arches are arranged in an orderly manner. The brick carving part is even more patchwork and lifelike.
The fire wall sculpture in the northwest is very similar to that in the southwest, and it is also the back of Kirin. The difference is that it presents a kneeling position.
The fire wall carving in the northeast is the most seriously damaged, and many details are missing, but it is not easy to guess whether the carved beast is Kirin or something else.
The fourth building in the courtyard is the "Pilu Hall", which is dedicated to the Dharma Buddha "Pilu Jinna Buddha". The roof of the hard-topped building looks almost the same as the "Tianwang Hall" and "Tongyuan Hall" in front of it, which is the pain point of the repair of modern ancient buildings. The ancients cultivated the mind, so the more pious the practice, the better. Now as long as it is built like an ancient building, it is all the same.
The most commendable thing about the Pilu Temple is its wood carving, which blooms on wood from the arch to the sparrow replacement and then to the Zhumen Gate, showing a high degree of carving.
Of course, there are also many things to see on the stone pillars of Pilu Temple, especially on the column base of Xumi Mountain, where the "small thoughts" are carved on the corner of the burden, which is very pleasing to the eye.
Aunt's family had something to do, and she stayed in ankokuji for less than an hour, so she couldn't bear to leave. There is a question in the middle, that is, I didn't see the monk who presided over the temple work in the temple, and I also asked the aunt in the hospital. She said there was one, but I'm not sure where to go. Suddenly, I feel that this ancient temple in the deep mountains is unspeakable. If there is no good traffic conditions, it is destined to be bustling, but isn't six clean schools what Buddhism should pursue?
Sanmenxia museum, looking for the lost Shaanxi state, how many Sanmenxia people still remember?
Sanmenxia Guo Museum, one of the most worthwhile museums in Henan.