City God Temple I-shaped Hall

City God Temple I-shaped Hall

The City God Temple I-shaped Hall is a Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

City God Temple I-shaped Hall

Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit First and Second Batches Announced in March 1982 after adjustment City God Temple I-shaped Hall Built in the third year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1370) Located on Jingde Road, Suzhou Includes the “Map and Explanation of the Three Horizontal and Four Vertical Canals of Suzhou Prefecture” stele, erected in the second year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1797)

Located at No. 94, Jingde Road, it was listed as a Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 1956 (including the “Three Horizontal and Four Vertical Map” stele). During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Suzhou City God Temple was located in the southwest corner of the inner city but was destroyed during the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In the third year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1370), a new Suzhou Prefecture City God Temple was built on the site of the ancient Yongxi Temple (traditionally believed to be the former residence of Zhou Yu of the Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period), at the current location on Jingde Road. It underwent multiple renovations during the Hongzhi, Jiajing eras of the Ming Dynasty, and the Shunzhi, Kangxi, and Qianlong eras of the Qing Dynasty. In the tenth year of the Xianfeng era (1860), the ceremonial gate was destroyed, and it was rebuilt in the twelfth year of the Tongzhi era (1873). The east and west wings of the City God Temple were respectively established in the twenty-third year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1595) as the Changzhou County City God Temple and the Wuxian County City God Temple, forming a symmetrical layout that together created a large architectural complex. Both county temples also underwent numerous renovations, with the last one taking place in the sixth year of the Tongzhi era.

After 1958, the City God Temple was used as a factory. Several auxiliary halls and annexes of the Prefecture Temple, as well as the western Wuxian County Temple, were gradually demolished and rebuilt. The rear bedroom palace was destroyed by fire in May 1983. Currently, only the Prefecture Temple’s ceremonial gate, main hall, and parts of the eastern Changzhou County Temple remain.

The ceremonial gate is three bays wide (12.7 meters), seven bays deep (7.4 meters), with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. Each side wall has a Qing Dynasty stele. The main hall consists of front and rear sections connected by a through-hall, creating an overall I-shaped floor plan, commonly referred to as the I-shaped Hall. The front hall is five bays wide (26.23 meters), seven bays deep (11.58 meters), with a ridge height of about 8 meters, featuring a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. The central three bays have their platform extended southward as a terrace, on which a three-bay rolled-awning porch is built, forming a continuous roof with the front hall. The front hall's surrounding columns are equipped with architraves and flat beams, supported by one-twig six-riser bracket sets, bearing purlins and eave rafters. The surrounding columns and step columns are connected via corridor beams and base beams. The main step columns and rear step columns are connected by base beams, on which two one-twig three-riser bracket sets bear the main beam. On top of the main beam sit another two one-twig three-riser brackets supporting the purlin and golden rafter. Between the front and rear golden rafters is a ridge beam, topped with a one-twig three-riser bracket supporting the purlin and ridge rafter, decorated with cloud motifs. The hall’s columns are sturdy, with the surrounding and rear columns resting on inverted-bowl bases with drum embellishments. The central golden columns’ stone slabs are carved with entwined mugwort leaf scroll patterns. The front eave column stone slabs are shaped like drumheads, with rows of drum studs carved around the top and bottom, and taotie heads biting rings on the front and back, and floral-bird motifs on the sides. The front section of the hall still preserves Suzhou-style paintings between the beams of the porch. The front and rear halls are connected via a two-step, five-rafter, rolled-awning corridor that transitions smoothly into a unified structure. The width of the corridor matches that of the central bay of the rear hall. The rear hall is five bays wide (22.24 meters), seven bays deep (10.3 meters), with a ridge height of about 7.92 meters, and also features a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. Its wooden structure is similar to that of the front hall but slightly smaller in scale. The surrounding column bases are inverted-bowl stone pedestals, while the golden and central columns rest on plain drum-shaped stone bases atop the inverted bowls.

The I-shaped Hall and ceremonial gate, having long been used as factory and warehouse spaces, suffered from lack of maintenance. Although their structural framework remained largely intact, the original doors and windows were completely lost, and the roof was damaged and leaking. After the factory vacated the premises, protective restoration work was carried out between 1984 and 1985, largely restoring the original appearance of the halls. In 1995, the main hall of the original Baolian Temple outside Changmen Gate was relocated and reconstructed on the ruins of the bedroom palace behind the I-shaped Hall.

The original head gate of the City God Temple (now demolished) originally had a Ming Dynasty memorial archway facing the street—four pillars, three stories, stone columns with wooden construction, and a refined reticulated decorative system. The Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee oversaw major repairs in August 1963, but unfortunately, it was demolished in 1964 by relevant departments on the grounds of “hindering traffic.”

The Changzhou County Temple still retains its ceremonial gate, main hall, and two-story tower. The main hall was rebuilt in the twentieth year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty (1815), renovated in the sixth year of the Tongzhi era (1867), and features a flush gable roof. It is three bays wide (12.7 meters), 10.85 meters deep, and includes a mezzanine area and painted decorations. A stele inscribed with the “City God Temple Stele Inscription” from the twentieth year of the Jiaqing era is embedded in the wall.

The City God Temple I-shaped Hall is one of the few well-preserved early Ming Dynasty city god temple structures in China. It is also the only relatively intact early Ming Dynasty hall building existing in Suzhou today. Its I-shaped layout is also quite distinctive.

The “Three Horizontal and Four Vertical Map” stele is located on the front eave wall of the west side chamber of the rear hall in the City God Temple I-shaped Hall. The stele body is 1.6 meters tall and 0.8 meters wide, with a base that is 0.3 meters tall and 0.9 meters wide. It was erected in the second year of the Jiaqing era (1797). The front side bears the “Record of the Re-Dredging of Suzhou City Canals,” documenting the process of comprehensive dredging of the canals within Suzhou from August of the first year of the Jiaqing era to May of the following year. The project was funded through donations raised by officials, gentry, merchants, and citizens of Wu District. The text was composed by Jiangsu Governor Fei Chun, calligraphy by Wang Wenjiao, and carving by Liu Hengqing. The reverse side features an engraved map of Suzhou’s canal system, showing the distribution centered around the seven main waterways known as the “Three Horizontals and Four Verticals” that run through the entire city. Using traditional elevation drawing techniques, it also marks the locations of the city walls, important bridges, temples, and government offices on what is otherwise a planar map. This provides a fairly accurate and vivid representation of Suzhou’s mid-Qing Dynasty appearance as a city crisscrossed with waterways and densely packed with bridges. The upper part of the map is inscribed with the “Explanation of the Three Horizontal and Four Vertical Canals of Suzhou Prefecture,” authored and calligraphed by Sheng Linji, spanning over 1,200 characters. It details the start, end, and connections of the “Three Horizontals and Four Verticals,” correcting certain errors found in local chronicles and supplementing omissions in historical records. In the lower left corner of the map, additional annotations describe the total length of the dredged canals, the volume of earth excavated, and the total expenditure in silver. This map stele holds significant documentary value for the study of urban construction history.

Further Reading:

· First and Second Batches of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units