The Temple of the Emperor?s Safety, popularly known as?Willow Lake Temple,?is situated at the west end of Nanheng Street near the former Xuanwumen Gate (the Gate of Universal Prowess). It is said that eh temple was originally built in the early 12th century for the monks Fo Jue and Hui Tang by order of Emperor Taizong of the Jin Dynasty. The temple site was originally inside the city walls in Willow Lake Village, from which it took its name.
Following a major repair operation in 1446, the name of the temple was changed to the Temple of Universal Salvation. But after another repair in1776 during the Qianlong period, its former name was restored.
In the center of the front courtyard stands the Mahavira Hall (Daxiongbaodian), which is the main structure in the temple. The remaining buildings are the Rear Hall (Houdian), the Auspicious Pavilion (Ruixiangting), the Hall of the heavenly Kings (Tianwangdian), and a pair of auxiliary halls on the east and west.
Many of the buildings and their decorations date from the Ming Dynasty. The statues of the Buddhas of the Three Worlds, which stand on a large pedestal in the center of the Mahavira Hall, were made by a sculptural technique developed in the Ming Dynasty. The procedure is as follows: the?Skeleton?of the statue is formed with sticks of rattan and wrapped with several layers of cloth. Plaster and gold dust are then molded onto the surface of the cloth in the required shapes and patterns. These statues are the only extant examples of this type in Beijing. They are varnished in purplish-red, and their large aureoles decorated with an outer circle of writhing flames carved in relief, which surrounds an inner ring of three small Buddhas, each seated on a lotus throne.
The murals in the main hall are attributed to the Ming painter Shang Xi. The eight paintings on the eastern, western and northern walls depict a number of episodes from Buddhist legends. Perhaps the most impressive is the group portrait of three serene and chubby-faced Bodhisattvas on the wall behind the aureoles.
The temple grounds are planted with cypresses, willows and a great variety of flowering shrubs, including lilacs and peonies.
