Huazu Temple

Huazu Temple

Huazu Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

The 1915 edition of the Revised Mengcheng County Annals records that the Huazu Temple in the county town was located on the west side of North Street (now diagonally opposite the Chengguan Hospital).

Huazu refers to Hua Tuo (c. 145–208), a renowned physician of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, also known as Fu and styled Yuanhua. He was a native of Qiao in Pei Commandery (present-day Bozhou City). Hua Tuo was highly skilled in various medical fields including internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, and acupuncture, and was especially adept at surgery. He pioneered the use of "Mafeisan," an anesthetic, which allowed him to perform surgeries such as abdominal operations on patients. He also created the "Five Animal Exercises" to teach people how to exercise and improve their physical health. It is said that Cao Cao often suffered from "migraine headaches," and after Hua Tuo performed a craniotomy to treat him, his condition improved significantly. When Cao Cao summoned Hua Tuo to serve as his personal physician, Hua Tuo refused. Enraged, Cao Cao had him executed.

To commemorate Hua Tuo, Huazu Temples were built in various locations. In Mengcheng, there were not only temples within the county town but also in some larger market towns. It can be inferred that the scale of the temple in the county town was roughly the same as that of the Hua Tuo Temple in Xiaojian, and it was likely first built in the early Tang Dynasty.

Before the liberation, the Huazu Temple in the county town had been almost completely destroyed, leaving only three dilapidated temple rooms. After the liberation, restoration and preservation efforts were carried out. In the early years of the Cultural Revolution, the statue of Hua Tuo was destroyed, and later the temple rooms were converted into residential housing. In 1996, during the renovation of North Street to give it an antique appearance, a new Huazu Temple was built on the original site. It still consists of three rooms, faces south, is about ten meters long from east to west, and less than five meters wide from north to south. The lower part features a colonnade style, with the porch being about one meter wide and supported by two large red pillars. The walls are dark gray, with white outlines along the brick joints, creating a neat and uniform appearance. The upper part is designed like a sedan roof, with upturned eaves on all four corners. Overall, the structure is quite small but rather aesthetically pleasing. There are no statues inside, leaving the interior completely empty.