Jiāochéng

Jiaocheng's wooded mountain country contained Xuanzhong Temple, set among the rock walls of Shibi Mountain northwest of the county seat. The monastery's earlier association with Tanluan, Daochuo and Shandao gave it a distinguished place in the history of Pure Land Buddhism. Its buildings and inscriptions preserved successive layers of religious patronage rather than the work of a single period.

During the Ming dynasty, county officials took part in the renewal of the sanctuary. In 1605 the Jiaocheng magistrate Yin Run rebuilt the Hall of Heavenly Kings, which also served as the monastery's entrance. Its three-bay timber structure, tiled roof and carefully worked ridge ornaments represented this later phase of construction. Older inscribed stones remained within the precinct, connecting the renewed buildings to the temple's long institutional memory. Xuanzhong thus placed a Buddhist establishment of wider renown within Jiaocheng's mountain landscape, while the magistrate's intervention shows local administration participating in the maintenance of a religious site.