Statue Stele of Liubei Temple

Statue Stele of Liubei Temple

The Statue Stele of Liubei Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Statue Stele of Liubei Temple is located in Liubei Village, about 20 kilometers southeast of Dengfeng City, Henan Province. It was erected in the eighth year of the Tianbao era (557 AD) during the Northern Qi Dynasty by Liu Bei, the governor of Yuzhou, along with others. Later generations built a Buddhist temple around the stele, naming it “Liubei Temple,” and constructed a stele pavilion to protect the stele, commonly referred to as “Pavilion Temple.” The *Jinshi Cuibian* states: “The Pavilion Temple is located forty li east of the county on the eastern source of Shicong, housing the stele of Governor Liu of Yuzhou, erected in the eighth year of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty (557 AD). It features carved Buddha images with inscriptions positioned above, the characters of which are rather crude. The governor’s name is inscribed on the stele, and in areas without Buddha images, the names of various individuals—mostly from the Liu family—are engraved. The text records how Liu Bei initiated the creation of the stele, and the village took its name from the stele, hence called Liubei.”

The original stele pavilion and temple buildings have long been damaged and bear no resemblance to their original form. Most of the structures within the temple were rebuilt in the late Qing Dynasty. During the Republican era, the temple complex remained relatively intact, covering an area of over 1,000 square meters. It featured a mountain gate at the front, with a guest hall and Guan Yu Temple on the left, and another guest hall and the Sixth Patriarch Hall on the right. At the back, the central hall was the Buddha Hall, flanked by a Fire God Temple on the left and a Laozi Temple on the right, all consisting of three-bay structures. Judging by the layout, apart from the Buddha Hall and Sixth Patriarch Hall—which are Buddhist structures—the other halls such as the Guan Yu Temple, Fire God Temple, and Laozi Temple were all Daoist shrines. It is evident that by the late Qing and early Republican period, the site had become a place where Buddhism and Daoism coexisted, functioning as a combined temple-shrine complex.

The statue stele itself stands inside the Buddha Hall. Carved from limestone, the stele stands 398 cm tall, making it the largest and tallest existing dragon-headed flat-bodied statue stele in Henan. It consists of three parts: the stele head, the main body, and the base. The stele head and main body are integrated and carved from a single piece of stone. The stele head is 115 cm high, 158 cm wide, and 45 cm thick; the main body is 203 cm high, 144 cm wide, and 45 cm thick; the base is 80 cm high, 198 cm wide, and 126 cm thick. Due to the stele’s large size, its top reached the roof, making it difficult to view. In the 29th year of the Republic of China (1940), during a renovation, the roof was raised, and a staircase was added to allow viewing from the second-floor loft. In the second half of the 20th century, the local government converted the site into Liubei Temple Primary School, and the Buddha Hall was used as teacher dormitories. Years of exposure to coal smoke turned the stele’s surface pitch black, and due to human damage, many of the carvings have been damaged.

In June 1963, the Statue Stele of Liubei Temple was designated as a Provincial Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Henan Provincial People’s Government. In recent years, the local government relocated the school, and the cultural relics department reinforced and restored the Buddha Hall to ensure its proper protection. In May 2006, the stele was listed by the State Council as part of the sixth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units