Xuanmiao Temple, Suzhou苏州玄妙观

Type

Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)

Location

China · Jiangsu · Suzhou · No. 94 Guanqian Street, Gusu district.

Coordinates

31.313, 120.627 Map ↗

School

Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism

First built

Western Jin, second year of Xianning (276) · Originally named Zhenqing Daoyuan; renamed Kaiyuan Palace in the Tang Kaiyuan era, and Tianqing Temple in the Song Dazhong Xiangfu era; took its present name in the first year of the Yuanzhen era of the Yuan (1295); the Three Pure Ones Hall was built in the sixth year of the Chunxi era of the Southern Song (1179).

Heritage status

Sanqing Hall, Xuanmiao Temple, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (1982)National Key Daoist Temple (1983)

Overview

Xuanmiao Temple in Suzhou was founded in the second year of the Xianning era of the Western Jin (276), and was known successively as the Zhenqing Daoyuan, the Kaiyuan Palace, and the Tianqing Temple, before taking its present name, Xuanmiao Guan, in the first year of the Yuanzhen era of the Yuan (1295); it is a celebrated Zhengyi temple of the Jiangnan region. Its main hall, the Three Pure Ones Hall, was rebuilt in the sixth year of the Chunxi era of the Southern Song (1179); nine bays wide and six bays deep, with a double-eaved xieshan roof, it is one of the largest and most complete surviving Song-dynasty timber-frame halls in the Jiangnan region, and one of only a handful of large Song-dynasty halls nationwide. The statues of the Three Pure Ones within the hall are original Song-dynasty sculptures (re-gilded in the Qing), and the stone carvings of the moon terrace and its balustrades before the hall date from the Five Dynasties and Song. The temple also preserves a stone carving of Laozi based on a painting by the Tang artist Wu Daozi (a Song-dynasty tracing-copy, with an encomium inscribed by Yan Zhenqing and an imperial encomium by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang), and the Song-dynasty stele 'Record of the Reconstruction of the Three Gates of Xuanmiao Guan' (inscribed by Zhao Mengfu), among other stele inscriptions. In 1982 the Three Pure Ones Hall was designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, and Guanqian Street, named for the temple, is Suzhou's central commercial thoroughfare.

Highlights

• The Southern Song Three Pure Ones Hall
• The Song-dynasty statues of the Three Pure Ones
• The stele carving of Laozi (after Wu Daozi)
• The stele of the Record of the Three Gates, inscribed by Zhao Mengfu
• Guanqian Street