Guishan Temple cover

Guishan Temple

Rating 3.8
Word count
207K words
Chapters
78
ISBN
9787572627361

Tags

Summary

The disciples of Xuanming Sect descend the mountain to repel the demon realm's invasion and protect the villagers, leaving behind only the genius girl Shangguan Luyao—now amnesiac and renamed Shuang Liuyu—to guard Guishan Temple.

As she watches her teachers and friends fall one after another, she can only rely on the magical Yinghuo Lantern to fulfill the regrets of the dead and send their souls onward.

Gradually, amid her pain, she faces her fate, finally makes peace with her past self, and gains the strength to keep living.

At the same time, she discovers that the mysterious boy Lan Ting, whom she has taken in, harbors a secret unknown to others...

Editor's review

Guishan Temple places a highly charged premise before the reader: the sect's main forces descend the mountain to face the enemy, leaving behind only the amnesiac girl Shuang Liuyu to guard the temple. She is not a hero charging into battle, but the one who stays behind, lighting the Yinghuo Lamp again and again to see off masters and friends. This "stayer" perspective turns the xianxia narrative from the battlefield inward, writing courage as endurance rather than killing. Tan Yimu uses the enclosed space of Guishan Temple to hold successive deaths and farewells; as Shuang Liuyu fulfills the regrets of the deceased, she gradually confronts her own amnesia and past, and finally reconciles with her old self. The emotional line is solid without being sentimental. The foreshadowing around the mysterious youth Lanting adds suspense and warmth, leaving room for hope amid the heaviness. It suits consecutive reading on quiet nights, to feel how one person rebuilds the order of life amid loss. The style is restrained and lyrical, weighted toward emotion and relationships, with relatively restrained action scenes; readers need some patience to enter the characters' inner world.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who like xianxia or fantasy settings but care more about character emotion
  • Readers who prefer restrained, lyrical prose and can accept a slow-burn narrative
  • Readers drawn to growth themes such as loss, farewell, and self-reconciliation
  • People looking in fiction for the strength to face partings

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer fast-paced fights and grand war scenes
  • Readers who prefer light, sweet romance and avoid death and grief
  • Readers with little interest in familiar setups like amnesia and guarding a temple

Reading tips

  1. Read the first few chapters without preconceptions, adjusting to the rhythm and emotional tone of the enclosed Guishan Temple.
  2. Pay attention to whom the Yinghuo Lamp sees off each time and how Shuang Liuyu changes, tracing the turns in her psychology.
  3. When you reach passages involving Lanting, jot down brief notes so you can compare them when the foreshadowing pays off later.
  4. After the ending, look back at Shuang Liuyu's amnesiac state at the beginning to appreciate the sense of reconciliation created by the echo between opening and close.

About the publisher

Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 第1章 观水1
  3. 第2章 观水2
  4. 第3章 观水3
  5. 第4章 观水4
  6. 第5章 观水5
  7. 第6章 观水6
  8. 第7章 观水7
  9. 第8章 观水8
  10. 第9章 观水9
  11. 第10章 观水10
  12. 第11章 观水11
  13. 第12章 观水12
  14. 第13章 观水13
  15. 第14章 观水14
  16. 第15章 观水15
  17. 第16章 观水16
  18. 第17章 观水17
  19. 第18章 翘瑶1
  20. 第19章 翘瑶2
  21. 第20章 翘瑶3
  22. 第21章 翘瑶4
  23. 第22章 翘瑶5
  24. 第23章 翘瑶6
  25. 第24章 翘瑶7
  26. 第25章 翘瑶8
  27. 第26章 翘瑶9
  28. 第27章 翘瑶10
  29. 第28章 翘瑶11
  30. 第29章 翘瑶12
  31. 第30章 翘瑶13
  32. 第31章 翘瑶14
  33. 第32章 翘瑶15
  34. 第33章 翘瑶16
  35. 第34章 朝朝1
  36. 第35章 朝朝2
  37. 第36章 朝朝3
  38. 第37章 朝朝4
  39. 第38章 朝朝5
  40. 第39章 朝朝6
  41. 第40章 朝朝7
  42. 第41章 朝朝8
  43. 第42章 朝朝9
  44. 第43章 朝朝10
  45. 第44章 朝朝11
  46. 第45章 朝朝12
  47. 第46章 朝朝13
  48. 第47章 照夜1
  49. 第48章 照夜2
  50. 第49章 照夜3
  51. 第50章 照夜4
  52. 第51章 照夜5
  53. 第52章 照夜6
  54. 第53章 照夜7
  55. 第54章 照夜8
  56. 第55章 照夜9
  57. 第56章 照夜10
  58. 第57章 照夜11
  59. 第58章 照夜12
  60. 第59章 兰汀1
  61. 第60章 兰汀2
  62. 第61章 兰汀3
  63. 第62章 兰汀4
  64. 第63章 兰汀5
  65. 第64章 兰汀6
  66. 第65章 兰汀7
  67. 第66章 兰汀8
  68. 第67章 兰汀9
  69. 第68章 兰汀10
  70. 第69章 兰汀11
  71. 第70章 兰汀12
  72. 第71章 兰汀13
  73. 第72章 兰汀14
  74. 第73章 兰汀15
  75. 第74章 兰汀16
  76. 第75章 兰汀17
  77. 第76章 兰汀18
  78. 第77章 兰汀19

FAQ

I haven't read the author's other works. Can I read this one directly?
Yes. This is a standalone story; starting from the situation of Guishan Temple and Shuang Liuyu is enough to understand the relationships and worldbuilding, with no dependence on prior works. Just pay attention to the opening explanation of the Xuanming Sect descending the mountain, since later events build on it.
Is the overall tone sad or warm?
Both. The first half feels heavy because masters and friends die in succession, and Shuang Liuyu's process of using the Yinghuo Lamp to make up for the dead's regrets carries clear sorrow; but as she faces her fate and reconciles with the past, the ending settles on gaining the strength to keep living. Overall it moves from grief toward warmth.
Will Lanting's secret be revealed in this book?
Lanting is the mysterious youth Shuang Liuyu takes in, and the secret of his origins is an important suspense thread running through the book. While reading, watch for details that echo between him, Guishan Temple, and Shuang Liuyu's past; the answer emerges gradually as the plot advances, and flipping to the ending early will weaken the reading experience.

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About the author

谭以牧 Author

Tan Yimu is a Chinese author known for historical-fantasy tales of the supernatural and for romance. Public information about the author is limited, and details of biography, nationality, and dates of birth and death are unknown. Nine works are held in the collection, including Return to the Mountain Temple, Pavilion of Demon Hunting, Startling Years, The Great Dream Apothecary, and The Carefree Teahouse, alongside a four-volume collected edition and two-volume editions of The Great Dream Apothecary and The Carefree Teahouse. These works draw on tales of spirits and strange beings set in ancient times, blending mystery and reasoning with everyday human feeling. Their categories span modern romance, time-travel and alternate worlds, mystery, wuxia, and social fiction, showing the author's flexibility across genres. Readers often regard the writing as representative of popular historical-fantasy supernatural fiction, with stories staged in teahouses, apothecaries, and temples, using ghosts and gods to portray human warmth and coldness in a style both lucid and grounded in ordinary life.

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