The Beijing Dongyue Temple is a
Daoist (Taoist) temple in the Chaowai

Chaowai

Chaowai is a part of the city of Beijing. It refers to the area to the east Chaoyangmen Bridge.The Chaowai area is extremely vibrant. Four massive buildings -- the Fulllink Tower, Union Plaza, China Life Tower and Prime Tower -- sit along the southwestern part of the area...

 area, Chaoyang District

Chaoyang District, Beijing

Chaoyang District is a district of Beijing, China.Chaoyang is home to the majority of Beijing's many foreign embassies, the well-known Sanlitun bar street, as well as Beijing's growing CBD. The Olympic Park, built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, is also in Chaoyang...

, Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The temple is dedicated to the God of Mount Tai

Mount Tai

Mount Tai is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an, in Shandong province, People's Republic of China. The tallest peak is the Jade Emperor Peak , which is commonly reported as tall, but is described by the PRC government as .Mount Tai is one of the...

 . "Dongyue" is a synonym for Mount Tai, the easternmost and holiest of the five sacred mountains of Taoism

Sacred Mountains of China

The Sacred Mountains of China are divided into two groups, one associated with Taoism and the other with Buddhism. The group associated with Taoism is known as the Five Great Mountains , whereas the group associated with Buddhism is referred to as the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism .The sacred...

. Founded during the
Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

, the Dongyue Temple is the largest temple of the Zhengyi school

Zhengyi Dao

Zhenyi Dao or the Way of Complete Orthodoxy is a Chinese Daoist movement that emerged during the Tang Dynasty as a transformation of the earlier Tianshi Dao movement...

 of Taoism in northern China and protected as a
National Key Cultural Relict. The temple also serves as the Beijing
Folk Customs Museum.

History

Dongyue Temple was founded in 1319. Zhang Liusun (1248-1321), a Yuan
official and descendant of the daoist founder Zhang Daoling

Zhang Daoling

Zhang Ling , style name Fuhan , was an Eastern Han Dynasty Taoist hermit who founded the Way of the Celestial Masters sect of Taoism, which is also known as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice....

,
raised money and acquired the land for the temple, who died shortly
afterwards. His disciple, the daoist master Wu Quanjie (1269-1346)
continued the construction. In 1322, the main halls and the main gate
was completed. The temple was repaired and given its present name in
1447 during the reign of the Ming

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 emperor
Yingzong

Yingzong

Yingzong is the Chinese temple name of the following rulers:*Emperor Yingzong of the Song Dynasty *Shidibala Gegeen Khan of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty...

. During the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

, the temple was rebuilt
twice, in 1698 during the reign of Emperor Kangxi

Kangxi Emperor

The Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...

 and again in
1761 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong. The temple also
underwent expansion during the Qing Dynasty. The temple was damaged
during the 20th century. It served as a school, government offices,
and housing for hundreds of people until 1996, when it was declared a
national treasure (State Council

State Council of the People's Republic of China

The State Council of the People's Republic of China , which is largely synonymous with the Central People's Government after 1954, is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the Premier and includes the heads of each governmental department and agency...

 resolution number 4-113 of November 20th, 1996). The temple was restored in 2002 at a total cost of
5.8 million yuan

Chinese yuan

The yuan is the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The yuan is the primary unit of account of the Renminbi.A yuán is also known colloquially as a kuài . One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo or colloquially máo...

.

Layout

The temple is organized around 3 main courtyards, it has 376 rooms and
covers 4.7 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s. The courtyards hold a collection of stone
tablets. About 140 stone tablets dating from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing
Dynasties as well as from the Republican Era of China are thought to have
once stood in the temple, 90 tablets remain today. Among the remaining
tablets is a Yuan-Dynasty tablet with calligraphy by Zhao Mengfu

Zhao Mengfu

Zhao Mengfu courtesy name Ziang , pseudonyms Songxue , Oubo , and Shuijing-gong Dao-ren , was a prince and descendant of the Song Dynasty, and a Chinese scholar, painter and calligrapher during the Yuan Dynasty.He was recommended by the Censor-in-chief Cheng Jufu to pay an audience...

. This tablet is the only remaining piece in a set of four,
its inscription give an account of the life of the temple founder
Zhang Liusun and consists of 2786 characters in total.

The three main halls of the temple are Yude Hall, Daizongbao Hall, and
Yuhaung Hall. Yude Hall displays statues made from Jinsi Nanmu

Nanmu

Nanmu is a type of wood that was frequently used for boat building, architectural woodworking and wood art in China. Ming Dynasty era writings indicate this wood as superior durable softwood...

wood, among them statues of the gods of heaven, earth, and water. The
temple once contained more than 3000 steles in total of which about
1000 have been preserved. Surrounding the central courtyard is a succession of small
rooms that open to the courtyard and each display an ensemble of plaster statues depicting one
of the "76 departments" of the Daoist supernatural world.

An archway with three gates and a cover of green and yellow glazed
tiles that also belongs to the temple complex has been separated by
the public road.

Location

The address of the temple is Dongyue Miao, 141 Chaowai Dajie, Chaoyang District, Beijing . It is located about 500 meters east of the Chaoyangmen subway

Beijing Subway

The Beijing Subway is a rapid transit rail network that serves the urban and suburban districts of Beijing municipality. It is owned by the city of Beijing and has two operators, the wholly state owned Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp., which operates 12 lines, and the Beijing MTR...

station.

External links

• Dongyue Temple photos and notes AsiaObscura.com
• article by Roy Kesey
• photos by Marc Wan