In the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization, ancient buildings tell the changes of the times and the inheritance of culture with their unique charm. Among them, the wooden structure building has become a bright pearl in ancient architecture with its natural, simple and exquisite characteristics. Located in Guangrao County, the national key cultural relics protection unit - Guangrao Guandi Temple Hall, is the oldest and most well-preserved wooden structure building found in Shandong Province so far.
The main hall of Guangrao Guandi Temple was built in the second year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty (1128 AD), located in the northwest corner of Guangrao County, has been 896 years so far, is an important representative of Shandong ancestral temple architecture, and is also the earliest and only existing Song Dynasty wooden structure building in Shandong Province. Yan Qingshan, a citizen who came to play, was full of praise when he talked about the main hall.
"This is the treasure left by the ancestors, the skeleton of the whole hall does not need a nail, it is all connected with wood and mortise and tenon, which really makes people sigh the wisdom of the ancients." Yan Qingshan said.
The main hall of Guangrao Guandi Temple is 10.38 meters high, 12.63 meters wide from east to west, 10.7 meters deep, and 0.73 meters high platform. The main hall is green tiles, the eaves are warped, and the top of the mountain hall. A statue of Guan Yu in the hall, one hand on the knee and one hand on the beard, the expression is dignified and majestic, the right side of Guan Ping holds the big seal, the left side of Zhou Cang holds the treasure knife, all look dignified, majestic.
"From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the most significant changes in architecture are reflected in the evolution and development of Dou Bao. The form of the main hall of Guangrao Guandi Temple is five shops to make heavy double down, and the materials are used according to the Song Dynasty for the sixth grade materials. The overall component scale and material proportion of the main hall have obvious architectural characteristics of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Jin, head of the cultural relics management section of the Dongying History Museum, said.
In the past 896 years, although the main hall has undergone repairs, the main structure still preserves the basic form of the wooden buildings of the Song Dynasty. Among them, the rest of the mountain is one of the forms of ancient Chinese roofs, and the roof of the main hall of Guangrao Guandi Temple is a single-eaves rest mountain, which roughly represents the usual form of the northern rest of the mountain after the Song Dynasty.
"Ancient craftsmen discovered early on that buildings could achieve an artistic effect through the form of roofs, and made full use of the characteristics of wooden structures to create roof folds and roof warping and warping, forming eaves that stretch like bird's wings, as well as graceful curves of various parts of the roof." Zhao Jin, head of the cultural relics management section of the Dongying History Museum, said.
The main hall of Guandi Temple has gone through nearly a thousand years of time, standing there quietly, telling the past to tourists who come and go. In fact, the location of the main hall when it was first built was not here.
"In the 24th year of the Republic of China, the Guangrao County Chronicle was renewed, and there was a record of the four words of 'the temple moved with the city', according to which we speculated that the original location of the Guangrao Guandi Temple was not in this place, and it should be in the current location of the north of the city two or three miles. At that time, the large wooden components of the main hall of Guangrao Guandi Temple came to the current position after disassembly, reassembled and rebuilt, and then repaired through successive dynasties, and the large wooden frame basically maintained the original characteristics. Zhao Jin, head of the cultural relics management section of the Dongying History Museum, said.
In the past 896 years, the supporting buildings around the main hall of Guangrao Guandi Temple have been added and rebuilt, and gradually formed the architectural pattern of five courtyards from south to north on the central axis, and both sides are correspondingly matched, becoming one of the top ten ancient buildings in Shandong Province, and also becoming an important tourist attraction in Guangrao County and even Dongying City.
"Nowadays, a large number of tourists come to visit the Guangrao Guandi Temple every day, including some experts and scholars inside and outside the province, and even some foreign experts and scholars also come to pay homage to this Guandi Temple Hall, after they visit, they have inscriptions, giving the Guandi Temple Hall the historical value, the artistic value is fully affirmed." Zhao Jin, head of the cultural relics management section of the Dongying History Museum, said.
The green bamboo path, the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers, and the quiet Guangrao Guandi Temple hall tell the story of a thousand-year-old civilization and witness the changes of history and the progress of the times. And the stories of tradition and modernity, protection and inheritance, will continue to be told.