Erxian Temples, Jincheng晋城二仙庙（小南村二仙庙 / 西溪二仙庙）
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Shanxi · Jincheng · Xiaonan village, Jincun township, Zezhou district; Xixi village, Chongwen township, Lingchuan county.
- Coordinates
- 35.52, 112.83 Map ↗
- First built
- Xiaonan Village Temple: Northern Song, fourth year of Shaosheng (1097); Xixi Temple: Qianning era of Tang (894–898) · Dedicated to the 'Two Immortals' (a Shangdang popular legend of two daughters of the Yue family attaining immortality); rebuilt in the Song and Jin.
- Heritage status
- Erxian Temple, Xiaonan Village, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (1996)Erxian Temple, Xixi, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2001)
Overview
The cult of the 'Two Immortals' (Erxian) is widespread in the Shangdang region of southeastern Shanxi; tradition holds that the two daughters of the Yue family attained the Dao during the Tang, and in the Song they were canonized as the Perfected Chonghui and Chongshu, with temples built to them across the dynasties. The Erxian Temple at Xiaonan village, Zezhou, was built in the fourth year of the Shaosheng era of the Northern Song (1097); its main hall preserves an intact Song-dynasty timber structure, and inside it a Song-dynasty carved wooden shrine — the 'Celestial Palace Pavilion' — together with painted sculptures of the two immortals and their attendants, exquisitely crafted, forms a treasure of Song-dynasty small woodwork and painted sculpture. The Erxian Temple at Xixi, Lingchuan, was founded at the end of the Tang and rebuilt in the Jin, its main hall a Jin-dynasty structure, with several Jin- and Yuan-dynasty steles preserved within. The Erxian temples together illustrate the process by which a local popular cult was absorbed into the Daoist pantheon, and are also important examples of Song–Jin timber-frame architecture.
Highlights
- The Song-dynasty 'Celestial Palace Pavilion' shrine at the Xiaonan village temple
- Song-dynasty painted sculptures
- The Jin-dynasty main hall of the Xixi temple
- Jin- and Yuan-dynasty steles