Kaiyuan Temple

In the 26th year of the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty (738 AD), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang ordered the construction of a large temple named "Kaiyuan" at every site across the country where major wars had broken out. This marks the origin of Kaiyuan Temple. The imperial edict was issued to build temples for the salvation of the souls of soldiers killed in land and water battles.

Generally speaking, a Kaiyuan Temple was erected wherever brutal large-scale wars had taken place. The major Buddhist ritual held here is the Water-Land Ritual, which prays for the departed souls to be reborn in the Western Paradise and blesses the living with peace. The temple stands on the north side of the road inside the East Gate of Runan County.

According to the Records of Runing Prefecture, the temple was first built in the 2nd year of the Kaiyuan reign of Emperor Xuanzong (714 AD). It was reconstructed in the 18th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1365 AD) and renovated again in the 5th year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1648 AD). Five bays of the rear hall were added in the 14th year of the Shunzhi reign (1657 AD), together with the second and third gatehouses of the temple compound.

In the early years of the Republic of China, many buildings of the temple were destroyed by warfare. Only the front hall and the rear hall survive today. The front hall is built on a platform about two chi high. The front edge of the platform curves like a crescent moon. Five stone steps lead straight up to the main hall. It adopts the gable roof style, with five bays in width and three bays in depth.

The hall measures 15.6 metres long, 9.8 metres wide and 12 metres high. Its roof is covered with green glazed tiles, supported by a seven-purlin beam frame. There is a front porch in the central bay and the intermediate bays, with side chambers at both ends. Wooden carvings decorate the horizontal beams above the front facade, while no bracket sets (dougong) are installed.

The rear hall shares some architectural features with the front hall while differing in others. It is built directly on the ground without a raised platform. It also has five bays across the width with a gable roof and three bays in depth. The building is 17 metres long, 10 metres wide and 11 metres high, roofed with small grey flat tiles. The beam structure consists of seven purlins with single stepped beams on the front and rear sides. The two middle bays form a front porch, and the two end bays serve as side chambers.

The roof has no ridge ornaments or bracket sets, yet the horizontal beams are decorated with openwork wood carvings. Originally, the temple enshrined statues of the Four Heavenly Kings, the Eighteen Arhats, Sakyamuni Buddha and other deities. Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty, the government of Runing Prefecture converted Kaiyuan Temple into the City God Temple of Runing Prefecture, and a clay statue of the City God was placed in the rear hall.

The temple then enjoyed tremendous prosperity with endless streams of worshippers and burning incense. Murals painted with meticulous fine brushwork cover the four walls of both halls, vivid and lifelike. Tall ancient cypresses once grew thickly in the courtyard, alongside ten stone steles. Devout men and women came in an endless stream.

The temple reached its heyday in the late Qing Dynasty. After the founding of the Republic of China, it was turned into a school. Later, the front hall became a venue for acrobatics and ballad singing, and the rear hall was rebuilt into an opera stage, thriving as famously as the Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng.

After centuries of vicissitudes and repeated wars, the ancient cypresses and stone tablets were all ruined. Only the front and rear halls still stand majestically, ranking among the finest ancient architectural works in southern Henan. In 1984, the People’s Government of Runan County designated Kaiyuan Temple as a county-level cultural relic protection unit.