Main Hall of the Hanfang Yaowang Temple

Main Hall of the Hanfang Yaowang Temple

The Main Hall of the Hanfang Yaowang Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Hanfang Yaowang Temple is located in Hanfang Village, Dabutou Town, Zhangzi County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, about eight kilometers south of the county seat. Only the main hall remains today, which is a structure from the Jin Dynasty.

The main hall of the Yaowang Temple has a three-bay width, a depth of six rafters, and a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. All exterior and interior columns are square chamfered stone pillars. The pu-pai fang extends beyond the columns where they intersect. There are no intercolumnar bracket sets. The front eaves column-top bracket set is a five-tiered set with double false ang, with the second jump using an inserted ang. The rear eaves and gable-end column-top bracket sets are five-tiered with single tier and single false ang. The corner bracket set on the front eaves uses an ang-style end block.

Inside the hall, the four-rafter beams rest on the inner and outer columns... [Truncated due to apparent formatting/structural description complexity; please provide a cleaner source segment if full translation is needed.]

The current state of preservation of the main hall of the Hanfang Yaowang Temple is concerning. The roof over the front eaves has largely collapsed, the front trough rufa beams have been severely damaged and are mostly missing, and there are also large areas of missing plaster on the surrounding walls. Multiple cracks have appeared, and the wooden structure inside is in very poor condition. The decorative carvings on the beams and brackets have been seriously eroded, and the overall structural integrity is at great risk.

In May 2013, the main hall of the Hanfang Yaowang Temple was designated as part of the seventh group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units