Tianjing Palace, Guoyang涡阳天静宫
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Anhui · Guoyang, Bozhou · Zhengdian village, Zhabei township, Guoyang County, on the north bank of the Guo River
- Coordinates
- 33.56, 116.22 Map ↗
- First built
- 165 CE, the 8th year of the Yanxi era, Eastern Han (traditional date) · Also called the Central Taiqing Palace or the Temple of Laozi; rebuilt on a large scale in the Yuan; rebuilt again after 1990s archaeological excavation of the Yuan-dynasty foundations; Guoyang regards itself as one possible birthplace of Laozi.
- Heritage status
- Anhui Provincial Cultural Heritage Site
Overview
Tianjing Palace, also called the Central Taiqing Palace, stands on the north bank of the Guo River in Guoyang; local scholars in Guoyang, citing the Commentary on the Water Classic and other texts, hold that this site is Xiang County, the reputed birthplace of Laozi, giving rise to a rival tradition to Luyi in Henan over Laozi's true birthplace. Tradition holds that a temple to Laozi was built here in the eighth year of the Yanxi reign of the Eastern Han (165); it flourished in the Tang and Song and was extensively rebuilt in the Yuan, then gradually fell into ruin through the Ming and Qing. Archaeological excavation in the 1990s uncovered the Yuan-dynasty foundations of Tianjing Palace, Song- and Yuan-dynasty steles, and remains such as the "Ancient Shooting-Star Garden" and the "Nine-Dragon Well"; the temple was subsequently rebuilt to Yuan-dynasty scale, comprising a mountain gate, the Hall of Lord Lao, the Hall of the Three Pure Ones, the Hall of the Numinous Official and other structures, making it one of the largest Daoist temples in Anhui. The temple preserves a fragment of the Yuan-dynasty "Stele of the Imperially Commissioned Construction of Tianjing Palace," an important physical record for the study of the sacrificial cult of Laozi and the dispute over his birthplace.
Highlights
- Hall of Lord Lao
- Yuan-dynasty site
- Nine-Dragon Well
- fragment of the Yuan stele