The gate is a symbol of a building’s momentum. The three brass-paved vermilion lacquer gates of the City God's Temple fully demonstrate the dignity and majesty of the City God's Temple. The entire gate is not only solemn and solemn, but also very exquisite. Three layers of Ruyi brackets hold up the eaves of the door, which is nearly two meters high in the air. The appearance of the brackets outside the gate is different from the interlaced and overlapping styles we usually see. Instead, it is a beautiful pattern composed of intersecting grids. According to Mr. Yang Gucheng, a social and cultural scholar, this form of brackets is called "flower arch". Flower arches are a different type of brackets. They are very precious and rare. They are a unique architectural craftsmanship in eastern Zhejiang in ancient times. However, even in eastern Zhejiang, , and very few have been seen so far. Only some ancient buildings in Ningbo, Ninghai and Fenghua have remains along their middle edges. The flower arch outside the gate of Chenghuang Temple has been in place for more than a hundred years, and it still fits as well as ever. It is a masterpiece of ancient architecture with dense seams. The flower arch has a wishful cloud head, and the horns are covered with gold. A hundred years of wind and rain, the vermillion has fallen and the gold pins have fallen. It was overhauled in 1983. The originally gilded horns were painted maroon. Today, only the remaining gold foil can be found in the corners on both sides, allowing future generations to imagine the magnificent grandeur of the entire gate.
In the middle of the gate is a large gold plaque with "Ningbo City God Temple" 3 meters wide and 1.7 meters high. The six gilded characters were written by Qian Han, a master of modern calligraphy. During the "Cultural Revolution", the staff of Tianyi Pavilion secretly hid this plaque in the pavilion and covered it with large characters in order to escape the disaster. The City God's Temple was restored and the plaque and objects returned to their original owners. Because of its preciousness, the construction team of the county temple at that time went through complicated procedures and specially approved the three-line gold foil from the head office of the People's Bank of China in Beijing. They also asked famous teachers to install it, thus making this cultural relic look new and shine again. There used to be a pair of huge stone lions in front of the gate of the Chenghuang Temple, but they disappeared during the Cultural Revolution. When the Chenghuang Temple was renovated in 1983, with the help of the Municipal Cultural Protection Office, a pair of abandoned stone lions were found from the scrap metal pile at the hacksaw factory outside the south gate. Although the stone lions we see outside the gate are small and skinny, they look up and stare with great grace. The hacksaw factory was originally the site of the "General Kang Temple", and the pair of lions were considered "well-born" and had extraordinary qualifications. Although the left lion's forelimbs are disabled, its power remains intact, and there are still large rust stains on its abdomen, giving people a sense of the vicissitudes of history.
Many exquisite wood carvings, brick carvings and stone carvings are still preserved on the lintel and walls on both sides of the gate. There are two exquisite wood carvings of a cloud dragon and a pair of lions playing with beads on each of the left and right gates. Among them, the cloud dragon has always been regarded as a fine wood carving, but now it is covered by a hanging plaque, with only a corner exposed. On the brick walls on both sides, there are brick carvings such as magpie plum branches, which means "joyful brows", and "butterflies in love with flowers", which means wealth and auspiciousness, as well as other works of flowers, birds, landscapes, figures and other works. These brick carvings have smooth lines, fine carvings and different shapes. They are all masterpieces left by predecessors. Unfortunately, during the renovation in recent years, the builders only pursued the form, which was self-defeating. They used soot to slurry the exquisite brick carvings. It was defaced beyond recognition, making it difficult for people to see the original simple and exquisite style of the work.
On both sides of the left and right gates, there is a small stone tablet. On the right is a sign indicating that the Jun Temple has been designated as a key cultural relic protection unit in Ningbo City. The inscription is "Ningbo City Revolutionary Committee, announced and established on December 5, 1981." On the left is a monument commemorating the reconstruction of the Jun Temple: "The reconstruction of the Jun Temple started in November 1982 and was completed in November 1983. More than 26,000 pieces of work were invested, totaling RMB 550,000." The signature is "Ningbo City Zhenming District People's Government, 1985. "Although these two stone tablets receive little attention, they are actually very important and worthy of attention. They bear witness to and express the end of a history and the beginning of a new era.
Under the west wall of the gate, there is also a small granite stele "Song Jing Fulu Temple Site Stele", inscribed by Japanese friend Hiroyuki Murakami. Murakami is a Japanese eminent monk and scholar, and an envoy of Japan-China friendship. From 1979 to 2005, he visited China a hundred times and visited Ningbo as many as 60 times. He did a lot of practical work for Japan-China friendship, and successively promoted held many major cultural exchange activities. He has profound knowledge of the history and culture of Ningbo, especially the study of Buddhist culture in eastern Zhejiang. According to his research, Ningbo has always been one of the most important passages for Japan-China exchanges from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. Especially after the capital was moved to Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, Ningbo became the only gateway for Japan to go to China. The Fulv Temple in Song Jing, which was built on the current site of the City God's Temple, was a must-see for Japanese in Ningbo. The temple played a very important and special role in promoting and promoting exchanges between Japan and China at that time.
In the front door of the gate, there is an ancient stele on the east and west side. The west side was erected in the second year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty. The inscription is seriously damaged and the writing is unclear. To the east is the "Inscription of the Ningbo City God Temple" erected for the 11th day of the Ming Dynasty. This is the oldest and richest stone tablet in the City God Temple. The inscription details the historical evolution of Ningbo City and the reasons for the construction of the temple. It is an extremely precious cultural relic. .
The foyer of the main entrance has a four-column and three-lane structure. The roof is not big, but it is divided into north and south, with the south platform beam and the north rolling shed. There is a herringbone slope roof on the platform beam, and a beautiful crabapple roof on the rolling shed. The south is red and the north is green, and the south is straight and the north is curved. It is extremely beautiful. This form is called "Yuanyang making" in ancient architecture. An ordinary roof, through this combination of mandarin ducks, suddenly appears to be changing in the sky, beautiful and vivid. The beams in the foyer are decorated with deep carvings and shallow carvings, which are extremely exaggerated.
Although it was just a small entrance hall and a small space, the ancestors ingeniously conceived and created it with precision, which shows the superb level of architectural craftsmanship at that time and the spirit of excellence of the ancestors.
Spanning three centuries, the gate of the City God’s Temple welcomes the spring, summer, autumn and winter, watches the vicissitudes of time, and observes the changes of the times. Today, it not only opens up our lives for you and me, but also records the rich history of Ningbo for us. .
Zhaobi is a large wall outside the gate of Ningbo City God's Temple. This wall is called Yingbi by northerners. It was also called "Xiao Wall" in ancient times. Therefore, there was a saying in the past that "Misfortune caused Xiao Qiang". The screen wall of the City God's Temple is a unique architectural form influenced by Feng Shui consciousness. Its function is to block the wind and block the sight, to avoid evil spirits, and to enhance the atmosphere and increase the momentum of the residence. It reflects the folk psychology of ancient people praying for good luck, avoiding evil and seeking peace.
The screen wall of Ningbo City God Temple is very distinctive. It is 18 meters wide and 9 meters high, which is almost the same as the overall width of the temple. The largest one among the Shizhi Temple (Zhaobi). There is a round hole-shaped arch wall on both sides of the screen wall that is closely connected with the temple and integrated into one, becoming a unique street scene on County School Street, which is also very rare in our country. It is said that when the great director Shi Hui was filming the film "Night Voyage in the Fog Sea" based on the shipwreck of the "Democracy No. 3" in 1958, there were two important scenes of Ningbo in the film, one was Lingqiao and the other was The screen wall and arch wall in front of the Chenghuang Temple. In the old days, the stage of the Town God's Temple was the center of folk activities in the Temple, with various theater troupes vying to perform on the stage. Some of the performances are purely literary and artistic activities, some are performed in accordance with old customs at various traditional festivals to thank the gods, and more are performed by theater troupes invited by various industrial and commercial guilds to hold festive activities. No tickets are sold, and anyone can Feel free to go in and watch, in order to expand the influence of the industry. Whenever there is a performance, the temple is decorated with lights, gongs and drums, and it is very lively. In the early years of the Republic of China, a Peking Opera troupe known as the "Da Si Xi" was invited from Tianjin to perform the opera "Hongbi Yuan" in the Chenghuang Temple. On the first day the gong started, the audience packed the stage of the Chenghuang Temple. That night, the red martial arts students Wang Mazi and Xiao Qilin played the protagonist and villain respectively. The two were writhing and thrashing on the stage, which was so exciting that the audience kept cheering and cheering in unison. They couldn't help but stand on tiptoes and rush to the stage to watch. It was so lively that in the end, an iron incense burner weighing more than a thousand kilograms placed in front of the main hall was overturned. This incident later became a joke among people in Yongcheng after dinner.
The stage of the Chenghuang Temple is extraordinary and is the most dazzling place in the entire Chenghuang Temple. The stage is on the top of a mountain with a single eaves. Although it is only 40 square meters, it has an exquisite structure and red and gold reliefs, which are Ningbo's unique traditional craftsmanship. The most eye-catching thing is the circular vault on the top of the stage, which is called the "caisson". Ningbo people commonly call it the "chicken coop top". It is composed of 988 pieces of banana-shaped inclined arch wood stacked together with hollow flower panels, gradually spiraling upward layer by layer, and finally assembled on a bronze mirror with a diameter of 50 cm. The entire structure of the caisson does not use a single iron nail, but is all connected with tenons, which makes people marvel at its conception and craftsmanship. Moreover, this round dome and square table structure and form cleverly show the realm of round sky and square place, and the tranquility of heaven and earth. The exquisite caisson can expand the space above the stage. Actors need a three-dimensional space to perform gracefully on stage. For example, when performing a Peking Opera, the actors doing somersaults up to a height of 3 meters on the stage with a caisson will not be in the way; secondly, it has sound effects. Since there was no modern audio equipment in the old days, the audience who was a little further away from the stage could not hear the sound on the stage clearly. With the caisson, when the actors sang on the stage, the dome and the caisson would naturally form a kind of atmosphere. The sound amplifies the actor's voice, and the audience suddenly has a lingering enjoyment when watching the performance, which makes people clap their hands and gasp in admiration.
This stage has attracted many cultural relics, culture and art experts to come and watch it. In 1955, when Deng Bai, a famous arts and crafts educator and professor at the China Academy of Art, visited the Chenghuang Temple, he also praised the stage caisson as " A masterpiece of uncanny workmanship." In the 1950s, an atlas was published in China that introduced the art of ancient architecture in my country, and photos of the stage at the Ningbo City God Temple were clearly included in it. According to relevant records, the stage of Ningbo City God Temple was built by Xu Xiaozhao, a famous Ningbo craftsman, in the 10th year of Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty. The City God's Temple is a gathering place for people inside and outside the city, with high mobility. Therefore, the government or non-governmental organizations often use this public place to carry out propaganda and disseminate information. For some temporary announcements, they were written on paper and posted in a conspicuous place in the temple; for things that needed people to know for a long time, the contents were engraved on stone tablets. In this way, a stone tablet culture gradually formed in the temple. In the old days, there were more than 30 large and small inscriptions in the Ningbo City God's Temple. In addition to the rise and fall of the City God's Temple itself, the records also involved Ningbo's economic and social development, customs, etc., and have certain research value. For example, the "Inscription of Ningbo City God's Temple" was inscribed in the 11th year of the Ming Dynasty. It records the establishment and evolution of Ningbo City God's Temple before the Ming Dynasty. It is an archive of Ningbo City God's Temple and is also a promotional slogan for the City God's Temple. It helps people understand the City God's Temple and its history. Belief in the City God played a role. Some stone tablets are announcements of local township rules and regulations. For example, a stone tablet engraved during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty records the establishment and implementation of the boat people's pension fund.
At that time, there was a "Tongshun Wupeng Boat Bureau" on the north bank of the Ningbo River. There were more than 60 boats under the jurisdiction of this bureau. When boat people were transporting to various places, when they encountered wind, waves and natural disasters, people often died due to slipping or capsizing. . After such tragic accidents, the families of the boat people often have no money to bury the dead people. Therefore, each boat owner negotiates and formulates a rescue charter for raising money and making it public. All relevant parties must abide by it. This is probably It is the earliest social security mechanism in Ningbo’s history.