The temple was founded by Jiao Xiyun, a retired scholar, on the site of an earlier temple called Xianxi. A monk named Qinghui supervised the construction. Over the centuries, the temple accumulated names as dynasties changed: the Seven Buddhas Temple under the Liao, Dafengguo Temple under the Jin. Historical records are sparse; most of what scholars know about Fengguo's history comes from the twenty or so stone steles on the temple grounds. In 1107, a monk called Yizhuo began a decades-long project to repair and complete the religious images, finishing in 1140 at a cost of 10 million cash -- a staggering sum that speaks to the temple's importance within the Liao Buddhist world.

The temple's history is a catalog of near-destruction. An earthquake in 1290 severely damaged the complex; a son-in-law of a Mongolian Khan donated funds for repairs. Between 1487 and 1888, the hall was repaired at least seventeen times. By the mid-14th century, records describe an enormous complex featuring pavilions, a dharma hall, an abstinence hall, three kitchens, monks' quarters, a bathing chamber, and a Ten Thousand Buddha hall. Most of those buildings are gone. The temple was bombed in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War and was not restored until the 1980s. Today, only the Daxiongbao Hall survives from the founding era, along with Qing dynasty gates and a decorative archway. That the main hall endured all of this -- earthquake, war, neglect, and aerial bombardment -- is a testament to the skill of its original builders.

The Daxiongbao Hall is enormous by the standards of Chinese timber architecture: nine bays wide, five bays deep, measuring 55.8 by 25.9 meters on a 3-meter-high stone platform. A stone terrace extends before the three central bays. Inside, seven large Buddha sculptures from past ages stand on an 87-centimeter platform, one in each inner bay -- a rare arrangement in Buddhist temples. The hall is architecturally significant as the earliest known Chinese building to use bracket sets between columns rather than simple struts, employing more than 30 types of timber pieces between the column tops and the roof. It is a masterwork of Liao-dynasty engineering, the kind of building that architectural historians travel across the world to study.

In 2013, Fengguo Temple was placed on China's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Site consideration, alongside the more famous Pagoda of Fogong Temple. The temple also carries a quieter literary connection: Jung Chang's bestselling memoir Wild Swans describes how her grandparents first met in a temple in Yixian in 1924 -- a "casual" encounter arranged by her great-grandfather. Though Chang does not name the temple explicitly, scholars have identified it as Fengguo. The image is striking: a matchmaking meeting in the shadow of thousand-year-old Buddhas, personal history unfolding in a place where deep time is the permanent backdrop.