White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan), Beijing北京白云观
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Beijing · Beijing · 9 Baiyunguan Street, Xicheng District, outside Xibianmen
- Coordinates
- 39.9, 116.34 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage of Quanzhen
- First built
- Tang, twenty-ninth year of Kaiyuan (741, tradition: the Tianchang Temple) · Rebuilt as Taiji Palace in the Dading era of the Jin; Genghis Khan, Founding Emperor of the Yuan, bestowed the site on Qiu Chuji to reside in and renamed it Changchun Palace; after Qiu Chuji's Feathered Transformation his disciples built White Cloud Temple; rebuilt in the Zhengtong era of the Ming; Wang Changyue transmitted the precepts here during the Kangxi era of the Qing; ancestral court of Longmen Quanzhen
- Heritage status
- Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2001)National Key Daoist Temple (1983)
Overview
White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan) is one of the Three Great Ancestral Courts of Quanzhen Daoism and the ancestral court of the Longmen Lineage, and is also the seat of the Chinese Taoist Association. Tradition holds that Tianchang Temple was built in the 29th year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang (741); it was rebuilt in the seventh year of the Dading era of the Jin (1167) and renamed Taiji Palace. After Genghis Khan, Founding Emperor of the Yuan, summoned Qiu Chuji for an audience, he bestowed this site on him to reside in and renamed it Changchun Palace. When Qiu Chuji underwent Feathered Transformation (yuhua) in 1227, his disciple Yin Zhiping built White Cloud Temple to its east and interred Qiu Chuji's remains in the Chushun Hall (today's Qiuzu Hall). It was rebuilt during the Zhengtong reign of the Ming and formally took the name White Cloud Temple; during the Kangxi reign of the Qing, Wang Changyue, seventh-generation Vinaya Master of the Longmen Lineage, opened an ordination platform here by imperial decree to transmit the precepts — the "Longmen Revival" — after which White Cloud Temple became the national center for the transmission of precepts in Quanzhen Daoism. Along its central axis stand the mountain gate, Lingguan Hall, Yuhuang Hall, Laolü Hall (Seven Perfected Hall), Qiuzu Hall, and the Hall of the Three Pure Ones and Four Sovereigns; the eastern and western wings hold the Yuanjun Hall, Wenchang Hall, Yunji Garden, and others. The temple preserves a copy of the Ming Zhengtong Daozang (now held at the National Library) and Qing-dynasty ordination-platform artifacts. The Chinese Taoist Association was founded here in 1957; the temple was listed as a National Key Daoist Temple in 1983 and as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2001. Its annual Spring Festival temple fair is a well-known folk custom of the capital.
Highlights
- Qiuzu Hall
- Laolü Hall
- Hall of the Three Pure Ones and Four Sovereigns
- Yuan-Dynasty Stone Carving of the Perfected Changchun
- Spring Festival Temple Fair
- Chinese Taoist Association
- Chinese Taoist Academy