Fairy Temple

Fairy Temple

Fairy Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

The old name of Jiangdu urban area was Fairy Temple, which is related to two female Taoist nuns, Du and Kang, who wore their hair and practiced at Dongling Holy Mother Temple. It was originally called Caijiazhuang. Legend has it that in one year during the Eastern Han Dynasty, a great disaster struck when a black dragon from the East Sea came here to cause havoc. At that time, torrential rain poured down, and rivers swelled, flooding the crops and houses, bringing immense suffering to the people. To make matters worse, the plague god also arrived, and the entire village suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, barely clinging to life. At the critical moment, a white dragon flew down from the sky and charged at the black dragon. After several hours of fierce fighting, the black dragon was defeated and fled in disgrace. The clouds and fog in the sky dispersed, and the floodwaters receded toward the Yangtze River. Just then, a yellow crane flew in from the horizon, carrying medicinal herbs in its beak as it descended. Soon after, both the white dragon and the yellow crane disappeared, and in their place appeared two women dressed as Taoist nuns.

It turned out they were the female Taoist nuns Du Jiang and Kang Zixia from Dongling Holy Mother Temple (Dongling is the ancient name for Yiling in our district). The two young women boiled herbal medicine to make soup, which they delivered to every household, saving the entire village from peril. Later, the two women transformed into two white dragons, rose into the sky, and rode away on colorful clouds. To show their gratitude, the people built a temple by the river to worship the two fairies. From then on, Caijiazhuang was replaced by the name “Fairy Temple.”

There are many historical records about the origin of Fairy Temple. The Book of the Later Han · Chronicles of Commanderies and Kingdoms contains a passage about Dongling Pavilion in Guangling Commandery (now Yiling): “A woman named Du Jiang, skilled in heterodox arts and in communion with the divine, was regarded as a witch by the county, imprisoned in shackles, and eventually transformed, disappearing without a trace. Her case was reported, and thus a temple was established in that place, known as Dongling Holy Mother.” — Duan Chengshi’s Youyang Zazu also records: “The abbess of Yangzhou’s Dongling Holy Mother Temple, female Taoist nun Kang Zixia, served the Holy Mother for many years. One day, she ascended to heaven in broad daylight, transforming into a white dragon and departing.” According to this account, Kang Zixia, as the abbess of Dongling Holy Mother Temple, served the Holy Mother Du Jiang for many years, and it is not unlikely that tales of her “extraordinary spiritual powers” arose. It is entirely plausible that after her death, she was revered as a fairy and a temple was erected in her honor. Historical records indicate that Fairy Temple was located more than twenty li west of Dongling Holy Mother Temple, and its main hall indeed housed a memorial tablet inscribed with the names “Du and Kang, the Two Women.” Therefore, it is generally believed that the fairies worshipped at Fairy Temple were Du Jiang and Kang Zixia.

Fairy Temple was first built during the Song Dynasty, located on the north side of the Tongyang River section in Jiangdu Town. The most magnificent version of the temple was reconstructed during the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty, featuring a front hall, middle hall, and rear hall. The stone plaque above the main gate of the front hall was made of alum stone, approximately 2 meters high and 0.7 meters wide, engraved with the bold regular script “Imperially Bestowed Ancient Fairy Temple.” The characters “Imperially Bestowed” were in red, the rest in blue, surrounded by shallowly carved dragon motifs. The hanging basket in the middle hall contained an imperial decree. The rear hall was the Hall of the Fairy Goddess, containing an incense table, and on the water-ground blue brick altar stood an exquisitely carved wooden shrine, housing statues of the two fairies. The east wall featured a stone stele recording the history of the temple. However, by the late Qing Dynasty, the temple had been reduced to literary works where scholars expressed sentiments of nostalgia and sorrow.