Qualla: Guangji Temple (Tianjin) https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:39 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/x/5/6/guangji-temple-tianjin-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Guangji Temple (Tianjin) https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin Guangji Temple (Tianjin): Introduction https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin/ Photo credit Nianhuoshao, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1932, an architect named Liang Sicheng traveled to Baodi District in Tianjin to survey a Buddhist temple that was already more than nine centuries old. He measured its beams, photographed its halls, and recorded the details of Liao dynasty construction techniques in what would become one of China's foundational texts on architectural history. The temple he documented so carefully would later be destroyed. But because Liang Sicheng wrote it all down, Guangji Temple was rebuilt in 2007 -- almost exactly 1,002 years after the monk Hongyan first laid its foundations.

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/x/5/6/guangji-temple-tianjin-wp/wx56-guangji-temple-tianjin-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Guangji Temple (Tianjin): Foundations Laid by a Monk https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin/ Photo credit Nianhuoshao, CC BY-SA 4.0. According to a tablet inscription preserved within the temple grounds, Guangji Temple was first built in 1005, during the Tonghe era of Emperor Shengzong's reign over the Liao dynasty. The project was the vision of a Buddhist master named Hongyan. After his death, his disciples D...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/x/5/6/guangji-temple-tianjin-wp/wx56-guangji-temple-tianjin-foundations-laid-by-a-monk.mp3 0:06 2 full Guangji Temple (Tianjin): The Man Who Saved It on Paper https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin/ Photo credit Nianhuoshao, CC BY-SA 4.0. Liang Sicheng is often called the father of modern Chinese architectural history. When he arrived at Guangji Temple in the early 1930s, he was on a mission to document China's surviving ancient buildings before war, modernization, or neglect claimed them. His detailed measurement...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/x/5/6/guangji-temple-tianjin-wp/wx56-guangji-temple-tianjin-the-man-who-saved-it-on-paper.mp3 0:06 3 full Guangji Temple (Tianjin): A Thousand-Year Resurrection https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin/ Photo credit Nianhuoshao, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2005, the local government launched a reconstruction project that aimed to replicate the original Liao dynasty architectural style as faithfully as possible. The effort drew on Liang Sicheng's documentation as its primary blueprint. Three years of work produced a temple comple...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/x/5/6/guangji-temple-tianjin-wp/wx56-guangji-temple-tianjin-a-thousand-year-resurrection.mp3 0:06 4 full Guangji Temple (Tianjin): Between Destruction and Memory https://qualla.com/guangji-temple-tianjin/ Photo credit Nianhuoshao, CC BY-SA 4.0. Guangji Temple today is a place where history loops back on itself. The original building techniques of the Liao dynasty -- a civilization that peaked nearly a thousand years ago -- survive because a twentieth-century scholar had the foresight to record them, and because twenty-f...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/x/5/6/guangji-temple-tianjin-wp/wx56-guangji-temple-tianjin-between-destruction-and-memory.mp3 0:06 5 full