Righteous Monks Pavilion

Righteous Monks Pavilion

Righteous Monks Pavilion

Ascending the steps from Sanyuan Palace, you’ll soon come to the Righteous Monks Pavilion. In the summer of 1938, after Sanyuan Palace was tragically bombed by Japanese aircraft, over 20 monks and local villagers banded together to defend themselves, successfully ambushing the Japanese troops searching the mountains on multiple occasions. On the morning of July 14th in the lunar calendar of 1939, the Japanese assembled more than 300 soldiers who divided into four routes to besiege Sanyuan Palace and its affiliated temples. They stabbed Monk Renfang to death, kidnapped four monks including Dexuan and six villagers, and apart from releasing one villager, buried the rest alive. A few days later, the Japanese returned twice to raid the mountain, setting fire to all 13 temples affiliated with Sanyuan Palace, including Yuhuang Palace, Jiulong Temple, and Pingzhu Shrine, reducing this once-renowned grand temple complex to rubble.

To commemorate the anti-Japanese monks of Mount Yuntai and educate future generations not to forget national humiliation, the Lianyungang Municipal People’s Government built the Righteous Monks Pavilion near Sanyuan Palace. The inscribed stone tablet in the pavilion bears the text of the “Monument Record of the Anti-Japanese Monks of Mount Yuntai,” written by Peng Yun and calligraphed by Zhou Gengru.

Source: Party History Work Office of the Lianyungang Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China