Jin Shrines, Futu Cloister  晉祠浮屠院

Site Information

This complex and the Shifang fengsheng chansi 十方奉聖禪寺 serve as the two primary Buddhist portions of the Jinci site. Likely founded with the pagoda at its center, according to Liu Dapeng's Jincizhi, the cloister (Futuyuan 浮屠院 or tayuan 塔院) was added in the thirteenth year of the Qianlong reign period 1748 (Liu 1986, 91). However, is unknown the extent to which that project replaced earlier buildings (Liu 2015). The present complex is oriented north-south with the pagoda in the center and a great hall framing the north end. The the overall site encloses 1,692 square meters, of which the buildings occupy a total of 538 square meters. The current great hall and east and west chambers were constructed at the beginning of the 1980s following the description in the Jincizhi 晉祠志. The great hall, presently an art gallery housing the works of Zhao Meisheng 趙梅生 (1926-2022) , is five bays wide with a 1.5 meter deep front verandah. Two-bay wide lobe halls frame either side of the great hall. There are also east and west chambers framing the sides of the cloister's back portion, each three-bays wide with a 1.1 meter-deep front verandah.

On the south side of the cloister is a small gate called “tongyou” 通幽 (passage to seclusion) which is linked to the back cloister of Fengsheng Monastery. There is a chuihuamen 垂花門 on the east side holding a stone plaque carved with the name 浮屠院. On either side of the door are openwork windows. A ”moon doorway” (yuedongmen 月洞門) is located on the southwest side of the cloister leading to the Baiyue mountain chamber.2