Chunyang Palace, Taiyuan太原纯阳宫
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Shanxi · Taiyuan · Qifeng Street, Yingze District, northwest of Wuyi Square.
- Coordinates
- 37.862, 112.562 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Yuan dynasty (alternatively Song) · Rebuilt in the 25th year of the Wanli era of the Ming (1597), further expanded under the Qianlong reign of the Qing; today the Shanxi Museum of Art.
- Heritage status
- Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2013)
Overview
Chunyang Palace in Taiyuan, popularly known as the Lüzu Temple, is dedicated to Lü Dongbin. It was first built in the Yuan dynasty (some say the Song), rebuilt in the 25th year of the Wanli era of the Ming (1597) by the Jin princely clan, and further expanded during the Qianlong reign of the Qing with the addition of the Bagua Pavilion and the Weige Pavilion, forming a five-courtyard complex with a deep longitudinal layout — one of the best-preserved Ming–Qing Daoist temples in Shanxi. The buildings are arranged according to the Eight Trigrams (bagua): the square pavilion in the central courtyard is oriented according to the trigrams Qian, Kun, Kan and Li, a rare instance among Ming-dynasty Daoist temple architecture. Since the 1950s the site has served as a branch of the Shanxi Provincial Museum, and it is today the Shanxi Museum of Art, holding a collection of stone carvings and Buddhist and Daoist images.
Highlights
- The Bagua Courtyard
- The Weige Pavilion
- Ming-dynasty timber-frame construction
- The Shanxi Museum of Art