The Origin of Donghai Temple in Laizhou

Speaking of the origin of the predecessor of Donghai Temple, the old man enjoying the cool at the head of the village told reporters that Donghai Temple can be traced back to the Haishui Temple in the Western Han Dynasty. In ancient times, people worshipped the sea very much, and Qin Shihuang traveled to the east several times to find the immortal elixir at sea. The address of Donghai Temple was carefully calculated and selected by Arab scholars and latitude and longitude scholars in the Western Han Dynasty according to astronomical geography (the location of Donghai Temple corresponds to dangerous stars and virtual stars). After calculation, the "Donghai Temple" in the northwest of Laizhou is the best place to worship the sea, so later generations built the seawater temple.

According to Quan Zhi of Yexian County, Donghai Temple is eighteen miles northwest of the city. Han Zhi's Notes: Linqu (Linqu City, in Beizhuwang Village, Laizhou City) has a seawater shrine, which was rebuilt in six years by Song Kaibao and has begun to take shape. A stone workshop was erected in front of it, which read "Chao Zong". The restoration of past dynasties has different names. In the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1370), it was renamed Yuedu, and it was knighted, renamed Donghai God, chartered state affairs, and sent officials to inform it.

On the basis of Haishui Temple, the earliest "Donghai Temple" was built in the Northern Song Dynasty (around 973 AD). According to legend, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was killed in Laizhou, and was chased by enemy soldiers all the way. He was left riding and hiding in the seawater temple in a hurry, which was already exhausted. So I made a grand wish: if I can avoid this difficulty, I will definitely rebuild this temple. Sure enough, the gods blessed him, but the enemy soldiers broke into the temple without seeing anything, and Mao escaped safely. After Zhao Kuangyin acceded to the throne, he sent general Zheng Ziming to Laizhou to build the "Donghai Temple", and sent officials to worship the sea every spring and autumn or in case of state affairs.

As a special place for offering sacrifices to the gods of the East China Sea in past dynasties, the ritual of offering sacrifices to the gods of the sea has existed since Shun times. Three generations later, the kings worshipped the heavens and the earth and the sea god. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, emperors of all dynasties have held large-scale sacrificial ceremonies in the East China Sea. Its scale and specifications are comparable to those of Mount Tai and Qufu, and it is considered as one of the three major sacrifices in China.

Since then, the Yuan and Ming Dynasties have successively built additional buildings, which have reached a considerable scale. However, the seventh year of Zheng De in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 15 12) was unfortunately destroyed by war. Jiajing and Wanli dynasties expanded their armies again. The last large-scale construction of Donghai Temple was in the Qing Dynasty. The Qing emperor attached importance to the sacrificial activities in Donghai Hall. Kangxi and Qianlong both presented imperial books and allocated funds to repair temples. Especially in July of the 20th year of Daoguang (A.D. 1840), the British warships moored at Miaodao (now Long Island) invaded Laizhou, trying to land, but were repelled by the waves again and again, and the waves continued unabated for five consecutive days, and the British army was forced to leave. Later, when the emperor heard about it, he allocated funds from the military to rebuild the East China Sea Hall, which was quite fair.

Born and raised here, the 70-year-old man told reporters, "When I was a child, I heard the old man say that the statue of Poseidon could be 10 meters high, and I could see it from a distance. It's many times better than Penglai Pavilion to say that those things have remained until now. Now there are only two broken walls left here. "

After several generations' careful repair and expansion, Donghai Temple has become a group of ancient buildings in the coastal areas of China with vast area, grand scale, orderly layout and magnificent momentum, integrating ancient architectural art, sculpture art, painting art and folk customs. It was one of the three ancient buildings in Shandong, comparable to Daimiao in Taishan and Confucius Temple in Qufu.

Sitting in the Donghai Temple facing south, it is said to cover an area of more than 40 acres. It has three courtyards, with the main hall in the middle, the temple gate in front and the bedroom hall in the back. There is a tall flagpole in front of the gate, and the word "Chaozong" is written horizontally on the white stone square with three doors and four columns. The scarlet door covered with doornails is carved from huge white marble?

Shishi crouched on both sides. According to folklore, Donghai Temple expanded with the large-scale expansion of Laizhou Fucheng in the Ming Dynasty. The rules of the main hall are modeled after the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is said that it is only three stories shorter than the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and it has been used by successive governments as a place to worship Poseidon, the sea god. Every expansion has been designated by the court.

According to reports, the imperial tablet pavilion in the temple contains more than 30 inscriptions on the imperial book "Hai Tian Yu" by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. In front of the pavilion in northern Henan, there is a bell tower in the southeast and a drum tower in the southwest. There are nine corridors on both sides, and the walls are painted with murals of "the image of the sea mountain and Yunlong". Behind the Royal Monument Pavilion is the main hall, with five rooms wide and three rooms deep, covered with yellow glazed tiles and inlaid with blue, green and purple edges. There is a huge plaque hanging horizontally under the eaves, which reads the four characters of "Wanpai Chaozong" written by Emperor Qianlong. In the center of the hall is the statue of the East China Sea God-the East China Sea Dragon King. On the four walls of the main hall, there is a painting of the dragon king of the sea "leaving the palace and entering a mirage", depicting the dragon king of the sea giving orders and leaving the palace for rain by imperial edict. Feng Nv, Rain Master, Lei Gong and the gods of Dian Mu showed their great power together. After the rain, the gods will stop and return home with Poseidon's Dragon King in triumph. This is the famous "Poseidon mural". Murals are grand in scene, magnificent in spirit, different in shape, magnificent in momentum and vivid in shape. It is said that it was painted by Wu Daozi, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, and it is also known as "one of the eight scenic spots in Yexian County".

There is a "Dragon King" sleeping hall in the backyard of the main hall, also called "Mother Temple". There is a "Fengyun Thunderstorm Temple" in the southeast of the Sleeping Hall, which contains images of the four gods of wind, cloud, thunder and rain. In the southwest is the grandmother temple, which is built with a grandmother leaning on a cane and a white dog squatting beside her, commonly known as the "dog-beating woman". According to legend, it was built by Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Taizu, to repay the delicious meal of Sun Mama and to commemorate Sun Mama. There is a "Shaolige" in the northeast of the temple, commonly known as "Wanghailou", which is the highest point of the Temple of the Sea. You can enjoy the scenery of the East China Sea when you climb it. There are other small temples in the temple. There are more than a thousand trees around the temple, such as poplar, willow, Chinese toon, elm, pine and cypress. Since the reconstruction of Donghai Temple in the Northern Song Dynasty, the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, the third day of April, the thirteenth day of June and the third day of October are the days of offering sacrifices to the sea gods.