Nanjing Taishan Temple

Nanjing Taishan Temple

Nanjing Taishan Temple is a cultural heritage site protected by Nanjing Municipality.

Address: Xuanhua Mountain, Taishan Temple, Taixi Road, Taishan Subdistrict, Pukou District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province

Taishan Temple was first built in the early Ming Dynasty and was originally named “Dongyue Temple.” It is commonly referred to as Taishan Temple. Initially, it enshrined the “Dongyue Great Emperor,” namely the Taoist deity of Mount Tai, Huang Feihu. Legend has it that Huang was originally a minister of King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty but later defected to King Wu of Zhou after being wronged, and he made outstanding military contributions during the campaign against King Zhou, ultimately sacrificing his life. He was later appointed by Jiang Ziya as the Dongyue Great Emperor, in charge of human fortune and misfortune. Legend also says Huang had a daughter known as Bixia Yuanjun of Mount Tai, who could bring many blessings to the human world. Later, her statue was also enshrined in Taishan Temple. Influenced by Buddhism, Taishan Temple gradually transitioned from a purely Taoist site to one that primarily enshrines Buddhist statues while still retaining some Taoist deities, thus becoming a fusion of Buddhism and Taoism. The original Taishan Temple built in the early Ming Dynasty was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion in the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty. In the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign (1855), a monk named Deyuan raised funds to rebuild the temple, but only the middle hall and rear hall were reconstructed. In the fifth year of the Guangxu reign, Huang Shilin built 132 bluestone steps from the mountain foot to the entrance of the middle hall. The temple was renovated again in the 25th year of the Republic of China (1936). In 1952, all the statues in Taishan Temple were removed by farmers from the nearby area, leaving only empty halls. Later, the summit of Xuanhua Mountain, where the temple is located, served as a military barracks until the mid-1980s. In 1986, Shi Nongyue from Nanjing’s Jiming Temple came here and presided over the restoration of the Ming and Qing architectural structures of Taishan Temple. She successively constructed a simple 5-meter-high mountain gate, storefront buildings beside the gate, and a section of courtyard wall along Taixi Road, formally resuming Buddhist activities. Starting in 1999, the original structures of Taishan Temple were gradually demolished, and most of the current buildings are newly constructed. Although Taishan Temple has undergone many vicissitudes, the Taishan Temple Fair has remained continuously popular. The main day of worship at Taishan Temple is the 28th day of the third lunar month each year, which is the birthday of Huang Feihu and also the highlight of the three-day temple fair period. During the traditional temple fair, people from the surrounding towns and villages gather here to offer incense, pray for blessings, trade agricultural and sideline products, and enjoy performances. The temple and the streets around Dongmen become extremely crowded during the fair. When the statues of the Dongyue Great Emperor and Bixia Yuanjun are paraded through the streets in a procession, activities such as dragon dances, lion dances, flower boat processions, and stilt walking follow closely behind. The sounds of firecrackers and gongs fill the air, with crowds cheering and celebrating, marking the climax of the fair. Sometimes, the city god from the nearby Chenghuang Temple in the west and the bodhisattva from the Dutian Temple in the north are also paraded together. During the Cultural Revolution, the temple fair continued annually, although worship and incense offerings were not permitted. In recent years, for public safety, the government has regulated and managed the scale of the fair, and it no longer reaches the grandeur of its historical peak.

Taishan Subdistrict: Located at the northern end of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, Taishan Subdistrict faces the main urban area of Nanjing across the river and is connected by the bridge. It serves as the bridgehead of the northern bank of the Yangtze and covers an area of 45 square kilometers, with a permanent population of over 100,000 and a floating population of over 50,000. It governs 14 communities.

Since the establishment of the new Pukou District, Taishan Subdistrict has actively integrated into the development strategies of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Nanjing’s cross-river development. Focusing on urbanization, it has carried out large-scale demolition projects. Since 2003, over six years, it has demolished 20,000 households, covering an area of 2.6 million square meters, and resettled all 50,000 agricultural residents as urban dwellers. Economic development… More detailed information about Taishan Subdistrict++