The Yinshan area, a place where religion and culture have blended in history

The Yinshan Mountains are the natural dividing line between farming and nomadic areas on the mainland. Historically, the Yinshan region was an area of multi-ethnic exchanges and integration, and nomadic peoples such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran, Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongolian were active here, and the Han people also continued to penetrate into the Yinshan region through migration and migration. Religious culture has become an important part of promoting the integration of various ethnic groups.

▲Mei Daizhao, located in the territory of Tumut Right Banner, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is a Tibetan Buddhist temple of "city-temple unity", built in the Ming Dynasty. Photo by Zhang Qian

The history of coexistence of different religions in the Yinshan area

Buddhism flourished during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the poets of the Tang Dynasty had the feeling of "480 temples in the Southern Dynasty, how many buildings are in the smoke and rain". The flourishing of Buddhism in the Central Plains affected the Yin Mountain region. The Xianbei people of Shengle, the former capital of Yinshan Shengle (present-day Hohhot City and Linger County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region), took the initiative to embrace the culture of the Central Plains, actively promoted Buddhism, and built Buddhist affairs, Buddhist temples, and pagodas. The ruins of the temple in ancient Huaishuo Town show the prevalence of Buddhism in the Yinshan area, and also indicate that the Xianbei people in the Yinshan area began to gradually accept Buddhism outside shamanism. In the ruins of the Northern Dynasty Temple in the ancient city of Yunzhong in Toketo County, Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, archaeologists found a Wadang in the shape of a bodhisattva in relief from Northern Wei, with a round face, a high nose and deep eyes, and two earlobes and shoulders, which has the artistic style of early Buddhist statues. In addition, the large area of the Buddhist temple ruins found in Baotou and the richness of the relics excavated fully illustrate the prosperity of Buddhism in the Yin Mountain area of Western Xia.

Mongolians embrace different religions. Genghis Khan not only accepted the Taoist priest Qiu's words of "respecting heaven and loving the people" and "keeping the heart pure and unwanted", but also used the yurt form as a Han historian Sima Qianli Shrine to sacrifice - in the most valued way in his own culture, he established a yurt-type shrine to express respect. Although the Yuan Dynasty had a tendency to advocate Tibetan Buddhism, it was still able to uphold Genghis Khan's mind and strategy of "treating all religions equally, regardless of each other". The ruins of the ancient city of Ao Lun Sumu in the Yin Mountain Damao Yuan Dynasty reflect the coexistence of Nestorianism, Catholicism, Islam and Buddhism, highlight the concept of diversity and inclusiveness, reflect an open cultural mentality, and also reflect the mutual understanding and coexistence of different ethnic groups and different faiths.

During the Ming Dynasty, Mongolian belief in Tibetan Buddhism gradually became a common practice. After Tibetan Buddhism entered Yin Mountain, it also absorbed shamanistic elements, such as fire sacrifices, heaven sacrifices, sacrifices to Ao Bao, and Genghis Khan worship. The Suiyuan Tong Manuscript records that "whenever the Great Worship of Ebo (Ao Bao) is held, the lama recites the scriptures in advance... The Mongolian governor led the people to kneel in front of Obo, listen to the lama chanting, pray in unison, and then go for a long time. "This is the result of the integration of Mongolian and Tibetan cultures. The large monasteries in the Yinshan area set up schools modeled on Tibetan monasteries to study Buddhist classics, philosophy and medicine, astronomy, calendar, divination, etc., and Mongolian and Tibetan cultures were further integrated, and a group of scholars who were also familiar with Mongolian and Tibetan culture appeared, translating Tibetan classics.

The Qing Dynasty believed that "building a temple is better than raising 100,000 soldiers", and gave Tibetan Buddhist monks preferential treatment politically, rewarded economically, wooed ideologically, and approached emotionally. As a result, there are many temples in the Yinshan area. According to the statistics of the "History of Inner Mongolian Lamaism", in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 1,800 temples in Inner Mongolia. Many villages in Ordos are named after temples, such as Zhandan Zhao, Tar Zhao, and Gaizhao. Hohhot is even called "Summoning City", with "seven major summons, eight small summons, and seventy-two nameless summons".

The numerous temples convey Tibetan Buddhist culture. The plaques of Zhaomiao in the Yinshan area are mostly written in Mongolian, Chinese, Manchu and Tibetan scripts, which wordlessly tell the history of the coexistence and integration of multi-ethnic religious beliefs in the area.

During the Qing Dynasty, immigrants taking the west exit entered the Yinshan area on a large scale. The Suiyuan Tongzhi Manuscript recorded: "All the scriptures belong to the land of the near banners, and have become the land of agriculture and animal husbandry, and Mongolia and Han live together. "The mixed residence of Monghan shortens the spatial and psychological distance between the two sides, deepens the understanding of the two sides, and interacts frequently. Immigrants are the carriers of cultural transmission, and with the influx of immigrants, Chinese Buddhism and Han folk beliefs also come. Lüzu Temple and Guanyin Temple are increasingly popular in the Yinshan area, and beliefs such as the dragon king, the land, the god of wealth, and the Guan Emperor have also come to the Yinshan area, and gradually become the object of common worship.

Mongol and Han religious beliefs gradually approached, and the people even worshiped each other's gods. The Han people of Hangjin Banner built Baode Ao Bao, and the Han people in Qingshuihe County worshiped Ao Bao together with the Mongolian people.

The 23rd day of the lunar month is the fire festival of the Mongols, and it is also the day of the Taoist sacrifice of the stove, and some Mongols in the Ordos agricultural area have changed the sacrifice of fire to the sacrificial stove. The local Mongols also built the Temple of the Dragon King and the Temple of Guandi. The abbot is also Mongolian, indicating that it has become a custom to worship Emperor Guan. Tumut also has an official Guandi Temple, where officials prepare sacrifices and hold official festivals three times a year. The Mongols in the Tumut region of Yinshan also performed dramas and held sacrifices for spring and autumn newspapers, just like the people of Shanxi and Shaanxi. Among them, spring singing is held in Granny Temple, Guandi Temple or Dragon King Temple, singing peace play; The autumn god play is held in the Dragon King Temple, and the singing is a stubble play.

A common culture of faith forms the psychological basis for national integration. Jumping Chamma was originally a religious activity for Tibetan Buddhist believers, but in the Yin Mountain area, it became a grand gathering for Mongolian and Han celebrations. The Suiyuan Tong Manuscript records that the King Banner of Yinshan County "holds temple festivals every year on the 8th day of October at the Taoli Temple on the border with Dongsheng County, where Han people perform plays, lamas dance to the gods, entertain them, and serve as a market for skin, hair, salt, alkali, cloth, tea, and livestock." From religious communion to economic trade, promote the strengthening of ethnic ties. In the Qing Dynasty, folk religious beliefs showed a trend of diversification, and the Tumut area has formed a new characteristic of the integration of Mongolian and Han.

The fusion of religious architecture and culture in the Yinshan area

Different cultures converge in the Yinshan area, making the religious buildings in this area also show the characteristics of multicultural interweaving. There are Lüzu Temple, which does not distinguish between Buddhism and Taoism, but also a mosque with a distinctive style, and a Tibetan Buddhist temple that integrates Tibetan and Chinese culture.

Located in Baotou City, the Lüzu Temple Mountain Gate is lined with brick carved couplets: "The Three Voids Wonderful Truth only seeks nurturing and straightening, and a piece of mother-in-law wishes to purify all sentient beings." The couplet carved on the brick on the back of the mountain gate reads: "Xianlai Kexian admires the green snake Pengying in the area of horizontal autumn colors, and Confucian master laughs and rides the yellow crane Yueyang several times drunk in the spring breeze." The temple not only enshrines Shakyamuni Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva, etc., but also enshrines Lv Dongbin and various immortals, and also hangs plaques such as Zhao Cai Jinbao and Kuixing Gaozhao, and the wind of Buddhism blows in the face.

The earliest and largest mosque in the Yinshan area, the Great Mosque of Qingha, is located outside the north gate of the old city of Hohhot, where Muslims lived earlier, and was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The temple is laid out in a courtyard building, integrating traditional Chinese architectural culture and Islamic culture. The eave-style mountain gate is lined with two short plaques: "Guotai" and "Minan". The main building temple is a traditional brick and wood structure, indicating that the wooden frame that the people of the Central Plains have a special love for was also loved by people after it was introduced to Yin Mountain. The hall is supported by 12 large red lacquered pillars, engraved with the Quran, and the inner wall of the hall is also decorated with scriptures, among which "right heart", "sincerity", "self-cultivation" and "clear heart" and other Chinese books reflecting the content of Confucian culture are powerful and powerful.

When Altan Khan ruled Yinshan, he clearly realized that the development of the Mongols could not be separated from the Han people, so he not only sent envoys to seek peace many times, but also treated the Han people who came to defect well, and made full use of the talented people among them. This move attracted Han Chinese to vote. At the end of the 16th century, there were 100,000 Han people in the area of Toyoshu Beach (also known as the Tumo River). The Mongols also admired the Central Plains culture and hoped that buildings similar to the Central Plains would stand on the grassland. Altan Khan once "sent envoys to the fort to build a city of woodworkers, painters, and ironworkers to Fengzhou." Since Han carpentry, painters and ironwork are used, the architectural style must have the color of Han culture.

The Mei Dai Zhao, which combines the city and the temple, is a typical representative of Han and Mongolian Tibetan architecture. The corner tower of Mei Dai Zhao City is the heavy eaves on the top of the mountain, which is the most common traditional roof form of Han architecture. The statues of the gods in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall on the west side of the glass hall have traces of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Confucianism and Taoism. Altan Khan once asked Ming to "beg Buddha statues, scriptures, python satin, etc., and beg for the name of the city in the temple he built." The gods living in the same room and enjoying each other is the embodiment of the integration of national cultures.

Like the Han-style temple, the treasure roof on the Mei Dai Zhao Daxiong Hall is also composed of lotus seats and treasure orbs. The golden pillars in the hall stand and are decorated with five-clawed coiled dragons painted with asphalt and gold, and the traditional Chinese architectural style is clear at a glance. The exterior wall of the Buddhist hall is a distinctive Tibetan-style white wall, with a horizontal ochre red rima wall, which is decorated with Tibetan decorations made of green bricks. The prayer hall is only used to chant sutras and not to worship the Buddha, which is different from Chinese Buddhism.

The murals in the Meidaizhao Octagonal Temple are Tibetan Buddhist Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other statues, but the Octagonal Temple is also commonly known as "Laojun Temple", which means that this temple is dedicated to Taishang Laojun, and Buddha and Tao are integrated in one place.

Meidai Zhao Naiqiong Temple is a Tibetan-style two-story small building, with Tibetan-style windows on the wall, rainproof tube tile eaves, and a double deer kneeling Falun logo in the middle of the roof. Wadang is a cultural building material of the Central Plains, reflecting the cultural information of the Central Plains, but used in Tibetan Buddhist temples built by the Mongols, quietly showing the three cultures of Han, Mongolia and Tibet. In addition, the round roof of the Baofeng Pagoda, where Altan Khan's ashes are placed, is modeled entirely after a yurt.

The Mei Dai Zhao Empress Dowager Temple is a two-story Ming Dynasty building with heavy eaves, but the items on display in the hall are Mongolian knives, shoes and accessories with a strong Mongolian style, and Mongolian women's accessories. The mural shows Han children wrestling in Mongolian style, and Budai monks playing with Han and Mongolian children. The murals in the main hall show the Buddha worship scenes of the Altan Khan family in a realistic way, and the costumes and hairstyles of the characters in the paintings have distinct Mongolian characteristics. (End)

Author/Shang Ye