Nanyan Palace南岩宫
- Type
- Temples and Abbeys (Gongguan)
- Location
- China · Hubei · Danjiangkou, Shiyan · On the cliff below Duyang Rock, Wudang Mountains.
- Coordinates
- 32.411, 111.01 Map ↗
- School
- Wudang Xuanwu Lineage, Wudang Daoism
- First built
- the seventh year of the Dade era of the Yuan (1303) · Zhang Shouqing built the Tianyi Zhenqing Gong during the Yuan; it was expanded in the eleventh year of the Yongle reign of the Ming.
- Heritage status
- Ancient Building Complex of the Wudang Mountains, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National LevelComponent of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1994)
Overview
Nanyan Palace, also known as Tianyi Zhenqing Gong, had its stone hall built under the direction of the eminent Wudang Daoist Zhang Shouqing in the seventh year of the Dade era of the Yuan (1303) and was expanded in the eleventh year of the Yongle reign of the Ming (1413). It occupies the most scenic spot among the Thirty-six Cliffs of Wudang Mountains. Built against a sheer cliff face, the surviving Yuan-dynasty stone hall, the ‘Tianyi Zhenqing Gong,’ is carved from a single mass of stone in imitation of timber-frame construction; outside the hall a stone-carved ‘Dragon-Head Incense Burner’ about three meters long projects from the cliff face and is one of the emblems of Wudang. The palace also contains Ming-dynasty structures such as the Liangyi Hall, the Hall of Imperial Scriptures, and the Southern Heavenly Gate, with nearby scenic sites including Taizi Rock and Feisheng Cliff. Nanyan Palace embodies, within the Wudang complex, the building principle of ‘siting the sacred precinct amid precipitous terrain,’ and is an important example for the study of Yuan- and Ming-dynasty Daoist stone architecture.
Highlights
- Tianyi Zhenqing Gong Stone Hall
- Dragon-Head Incense Burner
- Southern Heavenly Gate
- Feisheng Cliff