Guanlin is located in Guanlin Town, 7 kilometers south of Luoyang Old Town, Linbei sui and Tang ancient city, south of Longmen Grottoes, west of Luolong Avenue, east of Yishui Qingliu, one of the three major Guanmiao temples at home and abroad. It is also the only ancient classic building in China where the tomb, temple and forest are integrated.
Guan Yu is the only historical figure in China who is respected by the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and is a major general of the Shu State during the Three Kingdoms period, also known as Guan Yunchang (160-219 AD). Legend has it that after Sun Quan killed Guan Yu, he dedicated his first rank to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao buried his first rank in Guan Lin. Throughout his life, Guan Yu was known for his loyalty and bravery. From ancient times to the present, people regard him as a hero of the world and worship him as a god.
Guan Lin is famous for burying Guan Yu's first rank. In the 20th year of the Ming Dynasty (1592), on the original site of the Han Dynasty Guanmiao Temple, it will be expanded into a Guanlin Temple covering an area of more than 180 acres, four courtyards, more than 150 temples, and more than a thousand Cypress Trees. There are more than 70 inscriptions, 4 stone squares, more than 110 large and small stone lions, more than 110 iron lions, more than 800 ancient cypress trees, more than 10 statues, and 1 tomb. Takatsuka monument, magnificent, ancient cypress lush, elegant and magnificent. The "Qianqiu Jian" standing on the square is where the "rise and fall of the lights and shadow bells and drums" in the old times; the Ming Dynasty stone lions and zhao zhao standing on both sides of the gate have an awe-inspiring and inviolable majesty, and the gate with great feudal meaning is inlaid with 81 golden door nails, reflecting Guan Lin's lofty status and the glory behind Guan Yu; the iron lion that weighs more than 3,000 pounds around the Yimen Gate is a relic of the Ming Dynasty's good men and women who worship Guan Gong, and although it has gone through more than 400 years of ups and downs, it is still solemn and majestic; the Yimen "Weiyang Liuhe" plaque is written by Empress Dowager Cixi The stone lion passage connecting the Yimen gate and the worship hall is unique to the Guanmiao Temple at home and abroad, and there are 104 stone lions carved on the top of the pillar, with hundreds of lions, round and vivid, without any sense of hardness of stone carvings, representing the highest achievements of the Central Plains stone carving art in the Qianlong period.
The layout of Guanlin shows the typical characteristics of ancient Chinese architecture, and its main buildings are distributed on the central axis, in order of dance tower, gate, Yimen, Yongdao, worship hall, main hall, second hall, three halls, stone square, octagonal pavilion, and finally Guanzuka. The buildings in the whole park are towering, with carved beams and paintings, flying cornices and flowing dan, and the momentum is magnificent. Monumental high tombs, smoke smoke, ancient cypress thousand chapters. In the hall, there is a seated statue of Guan Yu dressed in a dragon robe and wearing a crown of twelve crowns, and next to it is a statue of Guan Ping, the son of the Great Seal, and Zhou Cang, holding a sword. Behind it are Zhang Fei Hall and Five Tiger Hall. Here, people can not only hear many legends about the magic of Guan Yu, but also feel the unique traditional virtues of Guan Gong, and if you are lucky, you can also catch a glimpse of the annual "Oriental Culture Root-Seeking Tour and China Luoyang Guanlin International Pilgrimage Ceremony".
The main buildings include the high-rise building dance building outside the door, the gate and the Yi gate with the hard mountain roof of the three-door road, the scroll-shed worship hall, the main hall, the second hall, the three halls, the stele pavilion, the stone arch, the bell tower drum, etc.; between the Yi Gate and the main hall, there are stone railing boards Yongdao, and the pillars between the railings are carved into lion heads, counting 104, with different postures and vivid images; after the three halls, a stone square is built, and the forehead is inscribed with the five characters of "Han Shouting Marquis Tomb"; the long corridor is built on the east and west sides of the temple, and the stone carvings and epitaphs excavated from Luoyang are displayed inside, It is a valuable material for the study of the art of stone carving.
Opposite the Guanlin Gate, the Dance Tower was built in the fifty-sixth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1791), which is a high-platform building with a flat surface as a convex shape, and its top is a combination of Xieshan and Hard Mountain, and the design is ingenious, like a heavy eaves pavilion, which is spectacular, and can be called a typical stage architecture in China.
There is a pair of stone lions in front of the Guanlin Gate, 2.7 meters high, which is a Ming Dynasty work. In front of the yi gate, there is a pair of iron lions, weighing more than 3,000 pounds, which were cast in the Ming Dynasty; at the eastern end of the worship hall hangs a large iron bell of the Ming Dynasty, and at both ends are erected large knives related to feathers; in the middle there are plaques of Qianlong and Cixi's relatives; on the platform in front of the worship hall, a pair of iron vases of the Ming Dynasty are placed.
The gate is a 5-bay, 3-way hard mountain-style building, and the pair of white marble lions in front of the gate is the largest of the existing Ming Dynasty stone lions in Luoyang. Yimen was originally the gate of the Guanmiao Temple in the Ming Dynasty, and was changed to Yimen when it was expanded in the Qing Dynasty, and the iron lion erected before it was rare in Luoyang. The stone balustrades and platforms were built according to the imperial palace system. There are a total of 104 small stone lions on the head of the pillar, with different postures and lifelike.
The worship hall is a 5-bay roll-roofed Ming Dynasty building, which is a place of worship during rituals. In the middle of the hall, there is a plaque of Qianlong and Cixi's personal letters, and at the western end stands a 35-meter-high Guan Yu large knife. The main hall is connected to the worship hall, with 7 wide rooms and 3 deep rooms, about 20 meters high and a total area of 700 square meters, which is the largest building in Guanlin. The roof of the temple, glazed tiles, the corners of the eaves are decorated with gods, and the iron horse golden bell is suspended. The bucket arch under the eaves is gorgeous, and the vermilion door is carved with windows. There are 13 story paintings on both sides of the main entrance, such as Taoyuan Sanjieyi and Sangu Maolu.
The main hall is the most majestic building in Guanlin, with seven rooms wide and three deep, about 20 meters high, and a total area of 760 square meters. On the top of the temple, the glazed tiles are covered, the five ridges are horizontal, the six beasts are yangwu, the cornices are arched, and the Zhu zhu is surrounded; the four eaves are decorated with the four gods of Pang Juan, Han Xin, Luo Cheng, and Zhou Yu, and the iron horse golden bell is suspended. There are three warm pavilions in the hall, and the carved dragons are carved through. On the main entrance of the main hall, there are woodcut reliefs of Guan Gong's story picture: Taoyuan Sanjieyi, Sanying Zhan Lübu, Flooded Seventh Army, Three Gu Maolu, Single Knife To the Meeting, Picking Brocade Robes, Chopping Face Liang, Jie Wen Ugly, etc. A total of twelve paintings, as well as Two Dragon Play Beads, Phoenix Play Peony, Dragon Play Phoenix and other patterns, fine carving, wonderful composition.
The second hall is a five-bay temple roof building. The front of the hall is painted with "Guan Yu angrily looking at the statue of Eastern Wu Rong", Guan Yu's long hair is flowing, dignified and majestic, Guan Ping presses the sword on the left, and Zhou Cang holds the sword on the right. Under the front eaves are painted with stories such as Chopping Yan Liang, Jie Kong Xiu, The Great War xiahou dun, and the ancient city meeting. Above the back door are painted the stories of "Huarong Daoyi Interpretation of Cao Cao", "Eastern Wu To the Banquet", and "Water Battle Pound", which vividly reflects the historical picture of Guan Yu's courage and good war.
The three halls are a five-bay hard mountain-style building, small in scale, also known as the "sleeping hall". Under the eaves of the temple there are three large story pictures of "Three Battles Lü Bu", "Weizhen Jingzhou" and "Battle Changsha". There are also nine small story drawings on the front fang. The arched capital is carved into a dragon head, and the color decoration is gorgeous.
The Guandi Tomb is octagonal in plan, 10 meters high, covers an area of 250 square meters, and is walled outside. The stone stele in front of the tomb is 4.8 meters high, with a turtle under it, a carved dragon stele head on it, and a nine-fold seal book "Records of the Seal Monument" inscribed on the forehead, which is a monument erected by the Kangxi Emperor to Guan Gong with an additional title. The monument pavilion is made of all wooden octagonal structure, which is an eight-sided slope and hilltop, and the bucket arches are interlaced with rafters, and the construction is strange and unique, which is a model of Pavilion architecture in the Qing Dynasty. In front of the stele pavilion, there are stone confessions and stone arches erected in the Ming Dynasty, the stone arch is 10 meters high, 6 meters wide, 3 doors, and the front inscription "Tomb of the Marquis of Hanshouting" is 5 characters.
Guanlin has been established as the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Art. The 90-meter-long corridor on both sides of the temple is divided into an exhibition room for inscriptions and epitaphs and a room for stone carved artworks. A total of nearly 2,000 pieces of inscriptions, epitaphs and stone carvings of various dynasties are collected and displayed, reflecting the style of ancient stone carving art in China. In particular, the Eastern Han Dynasty stone repelled evil spirits, the Northern Wei Shengxian portrait sarcophagus, the Sui Dynasty stone lion, etc., are even rare treasures. There are nearly 1,000 inscriptions and epitaphs, many of which involve major historical events and important historical figures in ancient times, all of which have the value of supplementing history and proving history, which can be described as a "stone history" and has high calligraphy artistic value.