National Parks of ChinaOverview
| Province | Shandong |
| Location | Wande, Changqing District, Jinan, Shandong, northwest of Mount Tai |
| Latitude, longitude | 36.36, 116.98 Google Maps |
| Highlights | Song-dynasty painted clay arhats, a Song pagoda, a stupa forest |
| Top sights | Thousand Buddha Hall, Bizhi Pagoda, stupa forest |
| Nearby cities | Jinan |
| Nearby sites | Mount Tai (Taishan) |
| Themes | Temple, Buddha, Statue, Tower, Ancient Building, Culture |
About
Lingyan Temple is in Wande, Changqing District of Jinan, Shandong, northwest of Mount Tai. It is close to the mountain and has long been mentioned together with it — the Ming writer Wang Shizhen said a trip to Mount Tai is not complete without Lingyan — but it lies in Jinan, not in Tai'an. With Guoqing Temple in Tiantai, Yuquan Temple in Dangyang and Qixia Temple in Nanjing it is counted among the Four Great Temples of China.
The temple was founded in the Eastern Jin, rebuilt in 520 under the Northern Wei and flourished most under the Tang. The monk Xuanzang translated scriptures here, and emperors who performed the rites at Mount Tai often visited.
The Thousand Buddha Hall, rebuilt in the Ming, holds 40 clay arhats: 32 original Song figures and 8 added in the Ming; Liang Qichao called them the finest sculptures in the land. The Bizhi Pagoda, an octagonal nine-storey brick pagoda 55.7 m high, was begun in 994 and finished in 1057. The stupa forest, the burial ground of abbots since the Tang, has 167 stupas and 81 inscribed tablets. The temple became a national key cultural relic in 1982.