Qiyun Taoist Temple

Qiyun Taoist Temple

Located in Maowu Group, Wanjian Village, Longtan Township, Qiyun Taoist Temple is a Quanzhen Taoist temple. According to an inscription embedded in the front screen wall of the temple, it was initially built by the Ming Dynasty Taoist priest Chen Dazhong, with local land and mountain areas donated by the Zhu family. However, the 1781 "Qianshan County Annals" from the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era states: “Qiyun Hermitage is located fifty li north of the county at the foot of Mount Wanguan, where the Quanzhen Taoist priest known as Gongzi cultivated here, and the Jinshang of Xiuyi built this place.” It is unclear whether this “Gongzi” refers to the courtesy or Taoist name of “Chen Dazhong,” as there is no way to verify it now.

The surrounding environment of the structure is beautiful, surrounded by mountains on all sides. To the north lies the main peak of the eastern range of Tianzhu Mountain, with secondary peaks to the left and right, and verdant peaks standing majestically in front. In February 1929, the Qianshan County Committee of the Communist Party of China held a county-wide party congress here to reorganize the county committee. During the Liberation War, underground party workers and guerrilla fighters stayed here multiple times for rest and recuperation. Former officials such as Zhang Guoping from the Anhui Provincial Department of Transportation and Wang Shihao, former magistrate of Yuexi County, raised supplies for the guerrillas here in 1947. The abbot Yang Hengli at the time provided strong support to the revolutionary figures in the area.

The building is constructed with brick and wood, featuring a rectangular floor plan with an area of approximately 320 square meters. It faces southeast and is situated northwest, with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. The front hall has five bays in width and uses a post-and-lintel construction style; the rear hall adopts a three-beam raised-beam structure with four internal columns, half of which have round bases and the other half square. The front and rear halls house statues of Sakyamuni, the Jade Emperor, Guanyin, the Queen Mother, and the Earth-Protecting King (Liu Yuan), respectively. The western part of the building includes a “Scripture Storage Room” and two kitchen rooms, while the rest are living quarters.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the Quanzhen sect gradually declined in the region, and Qiyun Taoist Temple came to be used by Buddhists, and was renamed “Qiyun Temple.” The name “Qiyun Temple” has two meanings: one refers to the high altitude of the site, and the other signifies the profound breadth of both Buddhism and Taoism. Hence, both traditions use the name “Qiyun.”

Wanjian Village: Located near the northern part of the national scenic area “Tianzhu Mountain,” Wanjian Village in Longtan Township borders Dubu Village to the east, adjoins Tianzhu Mountain to the south, neighbors the “Tianzhu Forest Farm” to the west, and is adjacent to Longtan Village to the north. It spans a maximum width of 4.5 km from east to west and 5 km from north to south, covering a total area of 20 square kilometers. Surrounded by communities, the village features flat terrain in the center with an average elevation of 450 meters, representing a typical mountainous landscape.

Two rivers run through the village. One originates from the Datianmen area of Tianzhu Mountain, flowing through Ganhe, Shangjian, and Zhongjian before reaching Xiajian. The other originates from... More details about Wanjian Village++