Fanshi Secret Temple

Fanshi Secret Temple

The Secret Temple in Fanshi is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Secret Temple

Secret Temple (Sixth Batch of National Heritage Protection)

Era: Qing Dynasty

Address: Yantou Village, Yantou Township, Fanshi County

Founded in the Northern Qi Dynasty, it became a renowned Zen Buddhist site during the Tang Dynasty under Empress Wu Zetian. Before the Jin Dynasty, it was one of the Ten Great Temples of Mount Wutai, and in the Ming Dynasty, it belonged to the Nine Outer Temples of the West Platform.

The Secret Temple is also called Mystery Devil Rock. Its main body consists of three courtyards, with the central axis sequentially featuring the Heavenly King Hall, Mahavira Hall, Manjusri Hall, and the ruins of the Scripture Depository. About 1 kilometer east of the temple lies Zhong’an, where the original buildings have been destroyed, but 17 stone statues remain on the cliff face. About 2 kilometers northeast from Zhong’an is the temple’s most famous Dragon Cave.

The Mahavira Hall is the main hall of the temple, five bays wide and three bays deep, with a single-eave hanging hip roof and a front porch. Both the Mahavira Hall and the Manjusri Hall house Buddha statues.

The Secret Temple is located in Yantou Village, Yantou Township, Fanshi County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, also known as “Mystery Devil Temple.” During the Tang Dynasty, Monk Mochā built the temple here, originally consisting of 32 thatched huts on a large scale. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the front, middle, and rear courtyards, as well as the Middle and West Hermitages, were constructed. Currently, only the Heavenly King Hall, Main Hall, Scripture Depository, Meditation Hall, Three Saints Hermitage, Guanyin Cave, and Golden Buddha Tower remain.

The front courtyard includes the Heavenly King Hall, side halls on the east and west, and a five-bay main hall, along with northern and southern scripture depositories, each five bays long. The middle courtyard contains side halls and a five-bay main hall. The rear courtyard has partially damaged halls, with only a five-bay northern pavilion remaining. The Zhong’an area includes the Three Saints Hermitage, Guanyin Cave, and Golden Buddha Tower. The Three Saints Hermitage originally housed statues of Sakyamuni, Laozi, and Confucius; the Guanyin Cave has three levels dedicated to Maitreya, the Three Great Bodhisattvas, and Guan Yu, among others, including 18 cliff carvings about 1.5 meters tall. The Golden Buddha Tower has three levels and eight rooms, enshrining a seven-meter-tall gilded stone statue of the Guiding Buddha, crafted in the 14th year of the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty (1535).

Outside the temple lies the Dragon Cave, where an exterior niche features a carved statue of Manjusri, with two attendant statues beside it, all dating to the Ming Dynasty. Nearby is the Sweet Dew Spring, with a continuous flow of clear water. In front of the spring is the Seven Buddhas Cliff, featuring two tiers of Buddha carvings—seven small Buddhas about 50 cm tall on the upper tier, and seven larger ones about 1.5 meters tall on the lower tier, likely created during the Yuan Dynasty. In front of the temple, there are also a Jin Dynasty stone stele and two brick pagodas: one is the Mochā Patriarch Pagoda, originally built in the Tang Dynasty and renovated in the Ming Dynasty, hexagonal with four levels, about 10 meters high; the other is the Xuanjue Master Pagoda, built in the 7th year of the Tianhui era of the Northern Han Dynasty during the Five Dynasties (963 AD), hexagonal with two levels, adorned with lotus petals and door-window carvings. It is not very large but well-built.

In May 2006, the Secret Temple, as an ancient Qing Dynasty architectural site, was approved by the State Council to be included in the Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

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