Linggu Temple and Beamless Hall

Linggu Temple and the Beamless Hall stand in the Zhongshan Scenic Area on Purple Mountain, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, near the Sun Yat-sen and Ming Xiaoling mausoleums. A Buddhist temple existed on this mountain from the Southern Dynasties, but when the Hongwu Emperor chose the area for his tomb in 1381, the temple was moved to its present site and renamed Linggu. It became one of the leading temples of Ming Nanjing.

The Beamless Hall (Wuliang Dian) is the temple's outstanding building. Completed in the early Ming, it is a large hall built entirely of brick and stone in vaulted form, with no timber beams or pillars supporting the roof. It stands about 22 metres tall, and its massive arched masonry is an early example of the technique in Chinese architecture. The name Wuliang also plays on the Sanskrit for Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. The hall's interior was left open and empty of the usual timber framing, giving the structure a monumental, cave-like character.

In the twentieth century the hall took on a new role: the Nationalist government converted it into a memorial to soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army who died in the Northern Expedition and later campaigns, and plaques and inscriptions commemorate them. Nearby, the nine-storey Linggu Pagoda, built between 1931 and 1933 and designed by the American architect Henry Murphy, rises to around 60 metres and can be climbed for views of Purple Mountain. The temple has been restored several times, particularly after Taiping and wartime damage, and the Ming vaulted structure itself survived largely intact. The scenic-area ticket of about ¥70 gives access, and a walk through the surrounding pine and maple forest, especially the Sacred Way of the Songfeng Pavilion, adds atmosphere. Many visitors reach it by shuttle from the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.