Renshou Gannian Temple

Renshou Gannian Temple

Renshou Gannian Temple is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Gannian Temple

According to the Renshou County Annals, “Gannian Temple is located east of the county seat and is a temple from the early Ming Dynasty. The upper parts of the Buddha hall above the shield are all built with stacked wood, without any mortise and tenon joints.” Based on the Inscription for Donations to Repair the Road, dated the 53rd year of the Qianlong reign in the Qing Dynasty (1788), preserved in the temple, which states, “The Gannian Temple in this county has been built and maintained since the Xuande era of the Ming Dynasty,” it can be determined that Gannian Temple was first built in the 9th year of the Ming Xuande era (1434), and has a history of nearly 580 years.

When Gannian Temple was first built, it was grand in scale, covering an area of 134 mu, with several layers of halls built from high to low according to the terrain. However, “when the bandit Zhang Xianzhong ravaged Sichuan, he burned the temple almost entirely, but the flames in the Buddha hall would go out as soon as they touched it. The bandit, furious, hacked at the door with his sword and left. To this day, the scorched areas are as black as a broomstick, and there are four knife marks on the door sill, each more than two inches deep into the wood.” (as recorded in the Renshou County Annals) By the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, only the two main halls and their side rooms, totaling two courtyards, remained. After the founding of the PRC, the temple was repurposed as a school and the local township government office. During the Cultural Revolution, the township government offices and one hall along with the side rooms were completely destroyed and replaced with new buildings. Currently, only the Mahavira Hall remains, along with some side rooms, stone carvings, and sections of stone walls, all of which are largely well-preserved.

The Mahavira Hall of Gannian Temple is located right next to the right side of the Nanlin Village Committee. This Mahavira Hall, the only relatively well-preserved structure in Gannian Temple, faces northwest and is situated to the southeast. It covers a construction area of 265.69 square meters. The hall is a wooden structure with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof featuring nine ridges, using a raised-beam framework with front and rear breast rafters, and eight bays of rafters supported by four pillars. There are a total of 24 brackets between the surrounding columns, all of the six-purlin type with double-layered curved-angle ang, while the indoor secondary raised beams and auxiliary beams feature a total of 28 bracket sets closely supporting the ceiling. The depth is three bays (12.5 meters), and the width is also three bays (12.5 meters), with a 1.9-meter-wide corridor connecting all sides. The overall height is 9.3 meters, the eave height is 5.2 meters, and there are two stepped stairways under the front eaves.

The entire hall uses 18 pillars, with the smaller ones ranging from 25–30 cm in diameter, and the larger ones (the four central pillars) being 50 cm in diameter. Director Zhong Jianming explained to us that the bases of these central pillars supporting the roof in the Mahavira Hall are all made from locally sourced large nanmu wood, which has special material properties and excellent moisture resistance. For hundreds of years, there have been no signs of deformation or decay. The pillar bases are often examined and admired; their diameter does not exceed 0.65 meters, and their height is no more than 0.2 meters. They appear wooden yet not quite, can be scraped with fingernails, can be crushed into powder under pressure while revealing wood fibers, have no noticeable smell, and water on the ground stops at the base without wetting the pillars—making it a moisture-proof material worthy of study.

The inner walls of the hall were originally adorned with over 20 Ming Dynasty painted murals depicting Buddhist stories, covering a total area of more than 100 square meters. Unfortunately, during the Cultural Revolution, in an effort to eradicate the “Four Olds,” people covered these murals entirely with lime plaster. However, the good news is that these lime coatings have now begun to peel off, and in some peeled areas, the original murals can still be clearly seen underneath.

Protected area: 20 meters eastward from the drip line of the main hall, 20 meters southward; westward based on the line connecting the stone lion and stone elephant statues, extending 50 meters; 10 meters outward from the drip line behind the right-side side room.

Construction control zone: 50 meters beyond the protected area.

Further reading:

· Seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units