Emperor Taizong founded the temple to commemorate his soldiers who died in his campaign against Goguryeo.

The temple also contains a large number of cultural relics, including sculptures of ancient bronzes, stone lions, as well as gilded figures of the three Buddhas.

The temple also features large number of Buddhist texts from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Main Hall, which is magnificent and sacred, houses Statues of Flower Adornment School's three saints: Vairocana, Manjusri, and Samantabhadra.

Taiwanese writer Li Ao, who published a novel Martyrs' Shrine: The Story of the Reform Movement of 1898 in China (another name is called "Fayuan Temple"), is about the beginning and the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform in the late Qing dynasty.