Fuqing Temple 2

Bridge Tower Hall

Bridge Tower Hall, 17 meters east from Heavenly King Hall, is 89 meters high, and its span exceeds that of Small Stone Bridge. The bridge here, 15 meters long and 7.8 meters wide, was developed into open-shoulder arch by imitating Zhaozhou Stone Bridge, with its 22 arches vertically juxtaposed. The arch is made of different bluestone in size. Six dragons and beasts are carved on each side of the arch in the same way with that of Small Stone Bridge, except for two water suction beasts on the arch roof. The beast on the west is not positioned right in the middle of arch, with carved ornaments beside the beast being asymmetric. It is evident that this west beast was patched in the later dynasty. The beast on the east has two limbs, which are perfectly matched with carved ornaments beside it. The east beast is embedded in the arch by using double-sycee iron block to lock two adjacent arch stones, followed by filling the stone joints with plaster. Bridge Tower Hall is covered with yellow and green glazed tiles with gable and hip roof and nine ridges, and mainly contains multiple-eave wooden pavilions. The hall occupies a building area of 135 square meters, with the length equivalent to that of five rooms. In addition, there is a room standing out at one end of the building, and an alley surrounding the building.

With the structure similar to that of Heavenly King Hall, the roof here is covered with yellow and green glazed tiles, and decorated with high wing-shaped quoins, four face-to-face statues of man riding dragons on the glaze-ornamented ridge between main ridges, minor towers on the back of lion, and two paradise birds. Moreover, the hall is mounted with the statue of man riding phoenix on the four diagonal ridges for gable and hip roof with beast statue attached on the front and back diagonal ridge. On the vertical ridge for gable roof are the statues of beast, lion and horse, and each wing-shaped quoin is mounted with beast heads. The lower eave is fixed with four angular ridges and four marginal ridges for gable roof respectively. The former is decorated with a lion, and the latter is covered with glazed ornaments in the shape of flower and plant.

Both the upper and lower eaves of the hall have brackets, which are made in different ways like Heavenly King Hall. In the upper eave, central bay, side bay, column head and corner each have one bracket; central bay, and central bay of two gable walls each have one oblique arch; the bracket is a five-tread multi-lever arch; using one straight timber and cutting its two ends into arches, lever mouth is in the shape of instrument surface, and the arch is straight. In the lower eave, central bay, side bay, tip bay, capital and corner each have one dragon, phoenix and elephant head arch. Both the upper and lower eaves use architrave and tie-beam between columns; beam frames are seven-purlin beams with short columns in between. The lower eave has both inner and outer coulisses, whose column base is undecorated multi-basin style. Both inner and outer eave columns are connected by crescent beams; upper eave columns and lower inner eave columns are made hollow. Outer eave column is decorated with openwork carving sparrow brace; central bay is decorated openwork carving dragon and phoenix; and side bay and tip bay are decorated with pointed pin. The lower eave has four pillars at four corners, carrying the upper eave and supporting four wing angles of the upper eave. Front and rear decoration of the hall: Lower eave has 6-partition board on the central bay, four-sash window on the sill wall of the side bay, brickwork on the tip bay and two gable walls; the upper eave has six-partition board between columns, rafter and purlin below the eave, Suzhou style color painting on the tie-beam, with painting contents of characters, drama scenes, flowers and grass. Inside the hall there ceiling decoration: foursquare grids are formed by many lattice framings; grids are covered by wood boards, which are painted colorful dragons and phoenixes. Between two tip bays there are stairs leading to the upper story. Fresco in both north and south walls inside the hall tells the story of Sakyamuni and his disciples, and Xuan Zang (a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty) and his disciples’ journey to the west.

Columns inside the hall are painted with Suzhou style color paintings. Between the gable walls is a Chinese character “Xi” (happiness) at the top of the eave column. In 1980, Sakyamuni, Virupa and Medicine Buddha’s statues were built inside the hall; as well as Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva at the back of the Sakyamuni statue, and Eighteen Arhats around.

Bridge Tower Hall has been well preserved except that its interior fresco and Suzhou style color painting are partially washed out by years of wind and rain. The sparrow brace is incomplete, and 80% ceiling tabulas are missing.

When Bridge Tower Hall and the stone bridge were built is not known to us. The earliest record available about the construction is seen in Tablet Inscription of Reconstruction of Mount Cangyan Bridge House in the 6th Year of the Reign of Emperor Kang Xi (1667 AD), which writes “the bridge was built between two cliffs sometime”, and “recently it was on fire and burnt into ashes”. The existing Bridge Tower Hall was reconstructed after the fire in the early years of the Reign of Emperor Kang Xi.

Flying Passage

Located at the east side of Bridge Tower Hall, 17.60 meters long and 4.40 meters wide, Flying Passage is an open-shoulder arch bridge with one single arch bestriding the two cliffs. On the arch stone at its east side are painted two water suction beasts with horns, lotus, and soldiers raising flags, as well as the words “Flying Passage of Fuqing Temple of Mount Cangyan, built in October of 25th Reign Year of the Republic of China”. Guard fence of Flying Passage was bricked up by grey bricks in the past, and changed to undecorated bluestone carved sideboards in 1989. “Feihong Bingjia” (Two Flying Rainbows) is carved on the stone at the east side. As a result of China’s War of Resistance against Japan, at least two arches are missing.

Yuanjue Hall

Yuanjue Hall, also known as “Great Buddha Hall”, is one of the main halls of Fuqing Temple. Located in the east of Bridge Tower Hall, it faces the north and covers an area of 137 square meters, with the length equivalent to that of five rooms. In addition, there are three rooms standing out at one end of the building. Yuanjue Hall has a single eave with olivine glazed tiles on the roof. Its main ridge adopts the structure of big yellow and green decorated pagoda with high dragon relief and colored glaze; Herakles pagoda seat of the main ridge has the inscription of Emperor Kangxi. Vertical and diagonal ridge for gable and hip roof are decorated with inner flowers and outer rolled grass. Pediment is also the member of the colored glaze sculpture in the form of dragon, flower and figure. Each ridge has beast statues.

In the hall body, the bracket adopts the six-extend three-lever structure, with the column-head brackets totaling 22 at the corner, central bay, side bay, and supplementary bay; the central bay has two brackets; the hall has two golden columns with different diameters; beam frame adopts seven-purlin wooden structure, including three-purlin beam, five-purlin beam and seven-purlin beam; the east and west beam frame of the central bay use three-purlin beams and five-purlin beams; the column goes straight through the lower place of three-purlin beams; beam frame of two side bays use seven-purlin beams, with short columns between beams; the beams are followed below by tie-beams; the central bay at the front of the hall is decorated with floor six-partition board; two side bays have four-sash sill wall window at the sill wall; the tip bay has half eave wall and half sill wall window; central bay has drooping belt stone formed steps. In front of the hall are a pair of stone sculpture of lions, each of them is about 1chi3 (3 chi=1 meter) big. The sculpture technique is ancient and rarely seen in the country. One wooden inscribed tablet hangs between eaves of the hall, writing “Fuyuan Shanqing” (blessings and kindness). According to the epigraph, Yuanjue Hall was built in the Yuan Dynasty, and repaired in Ming and Qing Dynasty.

Dressing House

Dressing House is at the south cliff of the middle section of Zhongshan Cliff Path. It is a small two-storey building with flush gable roof. The roof is covered with black tiles. The hall length is equivalent to that of three rooms. Besides, there is a room standing out at one end of the building. There are five beams without color painting. According to Construction of Dressing House written during the Emperor Yongzheng reign of Qing Dynasty, “Monk Yilai of the mountain collected alms to build this building. It started construction from July, the second year of the Emperor Yongzheng reign of Qing Dynasty, and had been completed in March, the seventh year of the Emperor Yongzheng reign of Qing Dynasty.”

The Script-tire Storehouse

Perching on the cliff of the Fenghui Loft, the Script-tire Storehouse (the Scriptorium) is a double-floor wooden building built in the Ming Dynasty and renewed in the Qing Dynasty. With five rooms in width and one in depth on one floor, the Scriptorium covers an area of 51.2 square meters. Its roof is made of clay tile and encaustic tile, while the post on the first floor is walled by bricks, and the stylobate masoned up by stone stripes.