White Cloud Temple, Shanghai上海白云观
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Shanghai · Shanghai · No. 239 Dajing Road, Huangpu district (relocated from Xilin Back Road in 2004).
- Coordinates
- 31.226, 121.485 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Qing, eighth year of Guangxu (1882) · Founded by the Quanzhen priest Xu Zhicheng with the building of the Leizu Hall; granted the name 'White Cloud Temple by the Sea' in the fourteenth year of the Guangxu era, becoming a Quanzhen public monastery in Shanghai; today the seat of the Shanghai Taoist Association.
- Heritage status
- Shanghai Municipal heritage protection
Overview
White Cloud Temple in Shanghai is the city's only Quanzhen public monastery (shifang conglin). In the eighth year of the Guangxu era of the Qing (1882), the Longmen-lineage Quanzhen priest Xu Zhicheng built the Leizu Hall on Xilin Back Road; in the fourteenth year of the Guangxu era (1888) a set of the Ming-edition Daoist Canon was obtained from the White Cloud Temple in Beijing and the temple was granted the name 'White Cloud Temple by the Sea' (Haishang Baiyun Guan), after which it became a major center for Quanzhen precept-transmission in the Jiangnan region. The temple holds a set of the Zhengtong Daozang of the Ming (now held at the Shanghai Library) and Ming-dynasty bronze-cast images of deities. Activity ceased after the 1950s and resumed in the 1980s; in 2004, owing to urban redevelopment, the temple relocated to its present site on Dajing Road, adjacent to the Dajing Pavilion. It is today the seat of the Shanghai Taoist Association and the Shanghai Taoist College, where Quanzhen morning and evening liturgy and ritual assemblies are held throughout the year.
Highlights
- The Ming-edition Daoist Canon
- Ming-dynasty bronze images
- The Shanghai Taoist Association
- The Shanghai Taoist College