Miaofeng Mountain Bixia Temple, Beijing (appendix)北京妙峰山与碧霞元君祠（附）

Type

Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)

Location

China · Beijing · Mentougou, Beijing · Miaofeng Mountain Town, Mentougou District

Coordinates

40.06, 116.03 Map ↗

First built

Ming Dynasty · The Bixia Yuanjun Temple, known as the "Golden Summit Miaofeng Mountain Empress Temple," was the site of the most flourishing incense societies in Qing-dynasty Beijing

Heritage status

Miaofeng Mountain Temple Fair, National Intangible Cultural Heritage (2008)

Overview

The Bixia Yuanjun Temple on Miaofeng Mountain was the most heavily worshipped Bixia Yuanjun temple in the Beijing region during the Ming and Qing, popularly known as the "Golden Summit Empress Temple"; it enshrines the same Lady of Mount Tai as Bixia Temple on Mount Tai. In the Qing, the pilgrimage temple fair held in the capital from the first to the fifteenth of the fourth lunar month was on a grand scale, drawing together numerous "incense societies" (spontaneously organized folk groups); in 1925 scholars including Gu Jiegang traveled to Miaofeng Mountain to conduct fieldwork, opening the way for modern folklore fieldwork in China. The temple was destroyed in wartime and rebuilt in the 1980s, when the temple fair also resumed. The Miaofeng Mountain Temple Fair was listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage item in 2008. This entry is an appendix illustrating the popular development of Daoist goddess worship.

Highlights

• Golden Summit Empress Temple
• Miaofeng Mountain Temple Fair
• Gu Jiegang's Folklore Fieldwork