Site of the Jade Emperor Temple

Site of the Jade Emperor Temple

The Site of the Jade Emperor Temple is a cultural relic protection unit of Heze City.

The Site of the Jade Emperor Temple in Yuhuangmiao Village is located to the north of Yuhuangmiao Village, Boleji Town, Chengwu County. It is generally shaped like an inverted pot, with grayish-brown soil. The site stretches 50 meters from north to south, 50 meters from east to west, and is about 3 meters high. Artifacts collected from the site include Shang Dynasty sandy-textured cord-marked li vessel rims and legs, Han Dynasty roof tiles, and fragments of gray pottery jars, indicating that it was a settlement site dating from the Shang to the Han Dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli era, the Jade Emperor Temple was built on top of the site and was later renovated multiple times before being destroyed in the 1970s. Remaining relics include a stele from the sixth year of the Qing Dynasty’s Jiaqing reign commemorating the renovation of the Jade Emperor Hall, the Queen Mother’s Shrine, and the mountain gate path, as well as a stele inscribed with names of donors, and a pair of Qing Dynasty column bases. These provide detailed physical evidence for the study of the Gudui culture in southwestern Shandong and the development and distribution of Taoism in the region. In 1989, it was designated as a county-level cultural relic protection unit by the People’s Government of Chengwu County. In December 2014, it was listed as part of the second batch of municipal-level cultural relic protection units by the People’s Government of Heze City.

Source: Heze Municipal Office of Local Chronicles