Gongxi Palace

Gongxi Palace

Gongxi Palace is a cultural relic protection unit of Fujian Province.

Gongxi Palace

Gongxi Palace is located at the foot of Luoyang Mountain in Guanggong Village, Xin County Town, Hanjiang District. It was first built in the fourth year of the Jianyan era during the Southern Song Dynasty (1130), initiated by the scholar Huang Che, and has been renovated in successive dynasties. The main hall retains typical Song Dynasty architectural elements such as spindle-shaped melon-patterned columns, basin-lipped inverted lotus column bases, and drum-shaped stone blocks. The beam structure is largely the same as that of Fuzhou’s Hualin Temple. These stone components feature simple yet elegant carvings with smooth lines. In particular, the large diameter of the spindle-shaped melon-patterned columns and the early craftsmanship characteristics of the lotus column bases—with their four-cornered persimmon calyx engravings—exude a strong sense of antiquity, making them rare treasures of cultural relics and art. In 1997, it was listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Putian County, and in 2005, it was further designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Fujian Province.

Gongxi Palace faces east and is oriented westward. It consists of a front hall, an inner courtyard, and the main hall, spanning five bays in width (18 meters north-south), three bays in depth (26.5 meters east-west), with a total construction area of 477 square meters. The temple structure follows a post-and-lintel style with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof. There are twin gate towers in front of the entrance. The brick-paved courtyard in front of the hall is 18 meters wide and 9 meters deep, covering an area of 162 square meters. It is paved with dark blue thin square bricks, each 20 cm on each side, featuring carvings of horses, cranes, and fans—designs rarely seen in ancient architecture.

Whether in terms of architectural style or the preserved relics, Gongxi Palace is one of the few temples in Fujian Province that maintains the aesthetics and structure of the Song and Yuan dynasties, retaining a large number of original components from those periods. It holds high historical, artistic, and scientific value, serving as a valuable physical resource for the study of Song and Yuan architecture.

It is understood that since its establishment, Gongxi Palace has enshrined a statue of Mazu, which is extremely rare for a mountainous region. Therefore, Gongxi Palace also serves as a rare physical reference for the study of Mazu culture in mountainous areas.