The temple is a rare early survival in the Dingzhou area, located 20 km to the north ofthe county seat of Yuanshi in Hebei. There are two main caves. Cave 3 has a square planand a quadrilateral pyramidal ceiling. Three walls are each provided with a niche. It is datedto somewhere between the Northern Qi and the Sui dynasties, judging by its inner struc-ture. Cave 2 of a rectangular plan is provided with an altar in the center, a structure typicalof the Tang and Five Dynasties. The statues of Cave 3 include the three Buddhas(past, pre-sent and future) and thirty-five Buddhas. Such combination is paralleled only by theDazhusheng Cave at Baoshan, Anyang in Henan. The grotto must have something to dowith the famous monk Lingyu who built the Dazhusheng Cave on the one hand and beganhis life as a monk at the Yingjue Temple of the Longyingshan on the other.
