Huangtengyan Scenic Area

Huangtengyan Scenic Area

Huangtengyan is located in Huxi Town, Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province. Huangtengyan rises abruptly from the landscape, with large and small stone pillars standing tall. A Song Dynasty poet, Liu Guo, once composed a poem about it. The mountaintop is covered with lush bamboo forests, while the mid-slope features deep caves that remain warm in winter and cool in summer. It is connected to the Nanjiang Reservoir and the Nanjiang Forest Farm scenic area. Huangtengyan is one of the scenic spots in Dongyang City. Since ancient times, there has been a folk legend that “Huangtengyan rivals Fangyan.” The Five Saints Ancestral Temple and the True Martial Emperor Temple built on it have long been known, but no relevant textual records could be found. This time, when Xidui Natural Village of Nanjiang Village was revising the genealogy of the Lü family, they borrowed the Qing Dynasty and Republican-era genealogies from the Lü family branch in Xuzhai Village, Majia Town, Huangtantou, and discovered written records about Huangtengyan within them. Lü Jinren, a retired teacher who was specifically in charge of the genealogy revision, told the author that Xidui was formerly called Shidai. According to the records, from the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty to the last revision in the fourth year of the Republic of China, the Lü family genealogy underwent five revisions. The earliest records about the Huangtengyan scenic area were likely documented in the genealogy from the Qianlong period. There used to be a Taoist temple on the mountaintop of Huangtengyan, but no one knows exactly when it was built. Now that the definite written records of its construction have been found, the villagers are very pleased.

By flipping through the revised "Shidai Lü Family Genealogy" from the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty and the fourth year of the Republic of China, one can find an article titled "Record of the Actual Traces of Huangtengyan," which details the construction of the ancient temple on Huangtengyan. According to the "Record of the Actual Traces of Huangtengyan," the construction of Huangtengyan began on the fourth day of the eighth month in the 21st year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1593 AD) and was completed on the second day of the ninth month in the 30th year of the Wanli era, when statues of one figure each from the five surnames—Lü, Zhang, Li, Wu, and Guo—were erected and referred to as the Five Saints Ancestors. It is estimated that the location of the temple was on the shaded side of the mountaintop of Huangtengyan. Later, in the fifth year of the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty, local residents, dissatisfied with its shaded location, “cut down trees to build a temple in the sunny part of the mountaintop, installed and adorned the divine statues, dismantled the old temple to make it the rear hall, and placed the True Martial Emperor there to guard the North Pole, naming it the Ancient Temple of Tengyan. A new front hall with three rooms was constructed, housing the Five Saints Ancestors together, named the Five Clouds Hall.”

The "Shidai Lü Family Genealogy" also contains poems about the Eight Scenic Spots of Huangtengyan, with the poetic content being very elegant. One of them is "Exploring the Moon at Tengyan," which reads: “Vines entwine along the rocky slope, an eternal name never to fade. Lofty it stands, resembling Huashan nearby, secluded and remote, like many isles of Penglai. Exquisite stone caves shelter deities, towering peaks pierce the Milky Way. When the full moon graces the night on the fifteenth, it reflects in the mirror-like dressing stand, facing Chang’e.”