Live Your Best Lives
It turns out that the mountain in Langlang Mountain is a mountain in Shanxi!
I've been binging on the movie "Little Monsters of Langlang Mountain" lately, and it suddenly occurred to me that this animation is a beautiful promotional video for Shanxi's ancient architecture! Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the film's director and screenwriter, Yu Shui, is also from Taiyuan, Shanxi.
Many filming locations were chosen in Shanxi, and traces of Shanxi can be found in countless slices.
These little demons, manipulated by fate, laugh, curse, or gaze upward in bewilderment. Behind them, the backdrop is the mountains of Shanxi, where they have stood silently for millennia, the temples on cliffs, and the Buddha statues in caves. Wandering through the mountains of Shanxi, the ancient villages dotted in the valleys seem like miniature "Wandering Mountain Demon Villages."
When the little pig demon burned paper clothes in front of the Patriarch Pagoda of Foguang Temple, and when the Water Mirror Platform in the Jin Temple, where Sun Wukong transformed, shone with golden light, it turned out that the Chinese cartoons we followed together had already integrated Shanxi's thousand-year-old civilization into the pictures.
"See Shanxi through its cultural relics on the ground"
As sunlight filters through the thousand-year-old brackets of Foguang Temple's East Hall, and as the wind chimes of the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda tinkle in the northern wind, every brick you step on carries a memory of civilization richer than history books. This isn't an open-air museum, but a living epic of wood and stone.
The East Hall of Foguang Temple has seven rooms and is an outstanding representative of Tang Dynasty architecture, while the Manjusri Hall also has seven rooms and is an architectural relic from the Jin Dynasty.
The East Hall of Foguang Temple is the third oldest existing wooden structure in China, showcasing the extraordinary skills of ancient craftsmen and the brilliant achievements of Tang Dynasty architecture.
The Tang Dynasty brackets, resembling a lotus flower in the sunlight, were hailed by Liang Sicheng as "China's first national treasure." Standing before the temple, one could almost see little demons bowing reverently, a moment where history and animation intertwined.
The word "solemn" on the Yuan Dynasty Chuanfa Zhengzong Hall is still vigorous and powerful. The temple occupied by the mouse demon in the movie is actually an art treasure house where Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism coexist.
No one could have imagined that this place actually housed the most complete and ardent murals of the Yuan Dynasty Water and Land Dharma Assembly in China. It was not until a rainstorm in 2004 that the roof was blown off, and the Buddhist kingdom of 600 years ago was finally revealed.
The total area of the Water and Land Dharma Assembly murals is over 180 square meters, and all 882 gods, Buddhas, ghosts and monsters are lifelike and colorful.
Inside the mountain gate, rebuilt during the Jin Dynasty, the painted statues of the Four Heavenly Kings are majestic yet lively. I suddenly understand why the little demons are so afraid of these guardian deities of good weather and good harvests, because even their eyelashes reveal their spirit!
Jin Temple is definitely a must-visit place when you come to Shanxi.
Entering the Jin Temple is like stepping into a moving epic. This is not only a temple dedicated to Tang Shuyu, but also a piece of amber condensed in the architecture, sculptures, and gardens of Chinese civilization.
The Qing Dynasty stage embodies ancient technology: eight large vats allow singing to linger for three days. When Sun Wukong transforms into a land temple here, I feel as if I'm hearing a play from a thousand years ago, traveling through time.
💡Holding the map of ancient buildings in Shanxi, walking among the ancient buildings in Shanxi, there is always a wonderful sense of time travel.
Brick pagodas from the Northern Wei Dynasty hold up the flames of animation, wooden structures from the Tang Dynasty bear witness to the growth of young monsters, and murals from the Yuan Dynasty hold unfinished stories. These silent buildings, it turns out, are all veteran storytellers.
Retracing Lianglin Road and the Light of Ancient Architecture (7 days)
→ Nanchan Temple → Foguang Temple → Yingxian Wooden Pagoda → Yungang Grottoes, experiencing the pinnacle of Chinese wooden architecture
Retracing the Lianglin Road: Clouds and Mists on the Wall (7 days):
Shuanglin Temple → Xiaoxitian Temple in Xi County → Guangsheng Temple → Yongle Palace murals, unlocking the ultimate aesthetics of hanging sculptures and colored glaze
Retracing Lianglin Road: Colorful Sculpture (7th)
Changzhi-Gaoping-Jincheng-Xinjiang-Jiexiu: An Underrated Treasure Town, Continue Your Unfinished Journey to Lianglin, Shanxi with the Big Names
From last year's "Black Myth: Wukong" to this year's "Langlang Mountain Little Monster", Shanxi has finally become popular.
This summer, why not follow the footsteps of the little monsters, understand China through the flying eaves and encounter romance in the murals and sculptures. After all, the best way to preserve cultural relics is to keep them alive in the present.
