The monastery began life as Longcang Monastery, established during the Sui dynasty when Chinese Buddhism was consolidating its institutional power. One of the oldest stelas on the grounds, the Longcangsi Stele, dates from the year of the monastery's founding and serves as a stone witness to its origins. Much of what stands today, however, dates from the Song dynasty reconstruction between 960 and 1279, when the temple received sustained imperial patronage. Subsequent restorations are documented with unusual precision: the 37th year of the Wanli Period in the Ming dynasty (1609), the 34th year of the Kangxi Period in the Qing dynasty (1695), and the 41st year of Kangxi (1702). Each restoration added its own layer while respecting the fundamental Song-era plan.

Longxing Temple's architectural crown is the Mani Hall, whose structural system derives from the principles codified in the Yingzao Fashi, the twelfth-century Chinese building manual. The hall contains a group of statues and wall paintings that scholars continue to debate: some believe they date to the 42nd year of the Jiajing Period of the Ming dynasty, or 1563 AD, based on a tablet embedded in the wall, while others argue for a Song dynasty origin. Regardless of their date, the murals are considered among the finest pieces of temple painting in Chinese history. The Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings, built during the Yuanfeng Period of the Song dynasty between 1078 and 1085, features a hip roof, the highest rank of roof styles in traditional Chinese architecture, spanning 23.28 meters in length and 9.62 meters in width.

In 1933, the architectural historian Liang Sicheng surveyed Longxing Temple and produced detailed records that would prove invaluable for later restorations. Liang, one of the most important figures in the documentation of traditional Chinese architecture, noted the temple's paifang as a 'small but exquisite piece of architecture.' He also recorded a circle of cloister around the precept platform and the rotating sutra cabinet, an early-built large Zhuanlunzang that he recognized as exceptionally rare. When the paifang was reconstructed in 1986, builders worked from Liang's documentation. His 1933 survey effectively preserved features of the temple that time and conflict would otherwise have erased, giving the current restoration a scholarly foundation that most historic sites lack.

At the northern end of the main axis stands the Piluzhena Hall, constructed in 1959 to house a bronze statue of Vairocana Buddha that was relocated from the nearby Chongyin Temple. At 6.27 meters tall, the statue is designed in the form of a pagoda itself, with a thousand individual Vairocana figures distributed across three tiers. Near the northeast corner of the grounds, the Longquan Well Pavilion shelters an octagonal well whose name, 'Longquan,' means 'the spring of the Chinese dragon.' Built in 1463 during the Ming dynasty, this pavilion is the only building in the complex with a lu roof, a distinctive Chinese architectural style featuring a flat top surrounded by four sloped surfaces. From the precept platform where monks and worshippers take Buddhist vows to the dragon's well in the garden, every element of Longxing Temple serves a purpose, architectural and spiritual, within a plan that has been refined for nearly fifteen hundred years.