Bixu Palace on Mount Jinjing, Ningdu

Bixu Palace on Mount Jinjing, Ningdu

Bixu Palace on Mount Jinjing, Ningdu, is located in Ganzhou, Jiangxi. In the early Western Han Dynasty, a woodcutter girl named Zhang Liying went up the mountain to chop wood and encountered the Southern Pole Immortal Elder. She was gifted two immortal peaches. After eating one, she instantly forgot hunger and thirst, her form became ethereal, and from then on, she neither ate nor slept. She moved to Mount Jinjing and later attained immortality. She provided medical care and remedies, relieving the people’s pain and curing their illnesses, bringing great benefits to the populace. After the ascension of the immortal Zhang Liying, the Lingquan Temple was built on Mount Jinjing to enshrine her statue. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, having learned of the long history of the Lingquan Temple on Mount Jinjing and that prayers for rain were always answered during drought years, bestowed upon Zhang Liying the title “Immortal of Lingquan, Responding to All” and personally inscribed a plaque that was hung inside the cave. From then on, Mount Jinjing became famous throughout the land, attracting numerous seekers of Taoism and pilgrims, and the incense offerings flourished. Originally, Mount Jinjing in Ningdu had Taoist temples such as the Lingquan Temple, the Three Pure Ones Palace, and the Yangling Temple. Today, there are three existing Taoist temples: Bixu Palace, Yuntai Palace, and Qingwei Palace.

The early Taoist cultivation years of the immortal Liu Yuanran in southern Jiangxi laid a solid foundation for him to later become the head of the Taoist sect. Later, when the immortal was exiled to southern Yunnan, he was able to cure the illnesses of the local people, relying on the Taoist arts he had learned in his youth. After Liu Yuanran left, his disciple, the immortal Baoguang, took charge of the temple affairs, helping the Taoist site to flourish increasingly. According to the "Record of Mount Jinjing," at that time, Mount Jinjing had structures such as the Yangling Temple, the Immortal Cave, the Imperial Book Pavilion, the Baoguang Pavilion, and the Lingyan Pavilion, with worshippers coming up the mountain in an endless stream. During the late Ming Dynasty’s Transition of the Jia-Shen Year, while other Taoist temples suffered devastating destruction, although Mount Jinjing also endured hardships, Taoist activities there never ceased. In the Qing Dynasty, Li Zicheng, the thirteenth-generation successor of the immortal Liu Yuanran, succeeded as the head of the Taoist site. He revitalized the Taoist practices on Mount Jinjing, devoted himself to qigong, healed the sick, and saved lives, becoming renowned far and wide.

Source: Daoism Voice