Wànshòu Sì 万寿寺
西三环北路苏州街
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Northwest Beyond the Zoo
The Wànshòu Sì (Longevity Temple) was built in 1577 during the reign of the Míng Wànlì emperor by a rich eunuch who shortly afterwards became a victim of court intrigues and was stripped of his powers for his arrogance. The temple was restored by Qiánlóng, and part of it was used as a ‘temporary palace’ on trips to and from the Summer Palace when a change of boat was necessary at a sluice nearby. The temple was a favourite with the Dowager Empress Cíxǐ, whose generous donations kept it in good order a century ago; one two-storey building at the rear, whose upper floor is reached by a sloping corridor, is referred to as her ‘dressing tower’. She was said to have sat and admired the view, which until about 50 years ago would still have been largely of green fields.
The temple complex has a long sequence of courtyards and would today give Cíxǐ views of the Third Ring Road. The giant bell from the Great Bell Temple once hung here, but today the temple is one of those which is attractive for doubling as a small art museum with a modest but interesting collection of antiquities.
The ceiling of the gate as you enter is painted with an image of 100 red bats in a blue sky, which forms a visual pun. The expression hóng fú mǎn tiān (红腹满天), meaning ‘the sky is full of red bats’, sounds the same as ‘days full of great luck’ (洪福满天).
The temple is also the Běijīng Art Museum (北京艺术博物馆, Běijīng Yìshù Bówùguǎn), whose collections include Míng and Qīng calligraphy and painting; early ceramics including many fine official kiln porcelains; Buddhist artworks; costumes, textiles, and embroidery; and carved jade, stone, wood, lacquer, ivory, and horn.
The first courtyard has exquisite statues in gold plated bronze of Buddhist entities, including exoteric ones in mid-coitus (see also Lama Temple), and a Qīng statue of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the currently predominant Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
The main Mahavira Hall’s statuary includes the Medicine Buddha (pray here for a pain-free death), surrounded by expressionless but delicately executed arhats (罗汉, luóhàn), and there’s a Guānyīn (观音, Goddess of Mercy). Dust lies in the folds of their drapery, and the interior is dim. Two tablets inscribed with a couplet by Qiánlóng are immediately to right and left as you enter.
Further in, a hall on the right has a modern interior full of carved ivory (including a complex knotted dragon) and buffalo and rhinoceros horn figurines, lacquerware, carved jade and agate seals, and other exquisite items, labelled in English.
On the west side are ceramics from Neolithic to Táng, early iron and copperware, some gold plate, including a gold plated silver mask from the Liáo dynasty, and Qīng embroidery.
At the slightly modernised rear there’s a modern seating area and formal garden, a big meditation hall, and a large rock garden behind, reportedly beloved of Cíxǐ, which represents famous Buddhist mountains, including Wǔtái Shān. Three halls on top, reached by stone bridges across gullies in the rock, represent famous places where Buddhist preaching took place. An octagonal pavilion behind the rock garden houses a Qiánlóng stele from 1761 detailing repairs to the temple. The Hall of the Buddha of Infinite Life, a Qīng extension, once housed a 5m-high statue of brass lacquered in gold, but now there’s an ornate Míng pagoda for storing scriptures made of gold alloy, and a few pieces of ancient furniture.
The bizarre rearmost courtyard is built in mixed Sino-Western style, influenced by the work of the Jesuits at the ‘Old’ Summer Palace for Qiánlóng — probably not in any way the Jesuits would recognise, yet as un-Chinese as you can get.
▶ Wànshòu Sì, Sūzhōu Jiē off North Third Ring Road West, t 6845 6997, 9am–4pm, Tue–Sun. ¥20; Wed first 200 visitors free. m National Library (Lines 4 & 9, and eventually Line 16). b to 万寿寺: 特5, 特8外环, 特8内环, 特10, 74, 运通103线, 运通109线, 运通110线, 运通201线, 300코뻔, 300外环, 323, 362, 434, 617, 620, 658, 699, 944, 968.
From here you can return east via the Purple Bamboo Park, or cross under the Third Ring Road alongside the river and turn south (left) to find at the overpass the stop for bus 300快车外环 north around to the Great Bell Temple (大钟寺), two stops. This bus, and its anti-clockwise companion, will take you round the Third Ring Road to numerous other sites.
Turn left (east) out of the gate of Wànshòu Sì to find almost immediately the decrepit remains of the Yánqìng Sì (延庆寺), just east, an example of how most surviving temples in Beijing actually look (there were a great many more twenty years ago than there are today, and many more now than there will be in a few years). Overgrown, and with odd pillar bases scattered around, it’s now a mini shanty town of brick lean-tos against cracked and crumbling original walls, hung with washing and topped with corrugated iron. Fork left up Sūzhōu Jiē (苏州街), which bends left at large military compounds invisible to maps, and continue up to the T-junction with Fǎhuá Sì Lù. Turn right to find the gate of the temple for which the street is named (法华寺) just before the next major junction. It’s in much better condition, but locked, and with current or future usage unknown. This is another that could easily slip out of sight if it catches the interest of the usual unholy alliance of developers and greedy officials (all too often the same thing, or related or married to each other).
Next in Northwest Beyond the Zoo: Great Bell Temple
Previously: Purple Bamboo Park
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
