Three Imperial Palaces

Three Imperial Palaces

The Three Imperial Palaces are a national AA-level tourist attraction.

The Three Imperial Palaces are located 12 meters west of Bianjie Street in Zhangshu City, Jiangxi Province, China. Covering an area of 3,600 square meters with a built-up area of 889.83 square meters, they are a palace-style brick-and-wood structure built in the 13th year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1887).

The Three Imperial Palaces are composed of a main hall, shrine hall, left and right wing rooms, inner courtyard, stage, suites, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and other sections. They are laid out in a quadrangle formation with symmetrical axis and an orderly hierarchy.

The main gate is an eight-character shaped gatehouse built with flat blue bricks, inlaid with bluestone and bean-green stone in the center, featuring relief carvings of figures, beasts, birds, flowers, and pavilions on the stones. At the top of the gatehouse are vertically embedded stone plaques inscribed with “Three Imperial Palaces” and horizontally embedded ones reading “As if Traveling to Ancient Times.” The couplet on the gate reads: “Through trials, the true masters worship at the sacred palace; for eternity, plants and trees carry imperial benevolence.” The ceiling above the entrance passage is a wooden stage, 2 meters high with a 60-square-meter stage surface. The stage ceiling features a caisson carved with diamond-shaped wooden spirals, with a raised relief of a coiled dragon in the center. The ceiling panels are made of strip wood forming geometric patterns, with a vermilion base and gold-patterned decals, offering bright colors and beautiful designs. The stage faces the main hall, with a square stone-paved area in between, and rectangular shrine halls on both sides enshrining the God of Literature and the God of War. The main hall has a hip-and-gable roof, with uniform upright pillars arranged neatly, a relatively high-raised framework, and an exposed roof structure. The main beam of the hall bears the inscription: “In the auspicious fourth month of the year of Dinghai, the 13th year of the Guangxu reign of the Great Qing, this was jointly built by the medicinal herb shops of Zhangshu.” The main hall enshrines statues of ancient medicine kings and medical scientists such as Fuxi, Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, Bian Que, Hua Tuo, Zhang Zhongjing, Wang Shuhe, Wang Weiyi, Li Shizhen, Ye Tianshi, Huangfu Mi, Ge Xuan, and Sun Simiao.

Purpose

The Three Imperial Palaces were funded and built by the medicinal herb shops of Zhangshu. They serve not only as a hall for worshipping the ancestors of Chinese medicine and successive medicine kings but also as a national venue for the exchange of medicinal materials. In the past, every year on the 28th day of the fourth lunar month, a grand temple fair was held here, attracting medicine merchants from all over the country. Outside the palace was a bustling traditional Chinese medicine trading market, while inside, theatrical troupes were invited to perform for half a month. On New Year’s Eve, members of the medicinal community would pay their respects to the medicine gods to bid farewell to the old year, and on the first day of the new year, they would gather again at the Three Imperial Palaces for a collective New Year greeting. As such, the Three Imperial Palaces became a multifunctional pharmaceutical venue integrating Taoism, medicine markets, guildhalls, merchant associations, theaters, and clan associations. Throughout Zhangshu’s long history in the pharmaceutical industry, it shone brilliantly and made immortal contributions to the formation of Zhangshu as the “Medicine Capital.” The Three Imperial Palaces are the only existing, largest, and most complete pharmaceutical heritage site among Zhangshu’s medicinal cultural legacies. On May 20, 1984, it was listed as a municipal-level key cultural relics protection unit.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units