Stele of Jingju Temple in Boping Town

Stele of Jingju Temple in Boping Town

The Stele of Jingju Temple in Boping Town is a cultural tourism attraction.

The stele of Jingju Temple is located in Beimeng Village, Zhangying Township. According to local villagers, there used to be the ruins of an ancient temple to the south of the village. During the Cultural Revolution, villagers took several stones from the ruins to build a drainage channel, one of which was the stele of Jingju Temple.

Jingju Temple, as recorded in the *Boping County Annals*, states: “Jingju Temple, twenty-five li northwest of the county seat.” The top of the stele is inscribed with six regular script characters reading “Stele for the Reconstruction of the Buddhist Hall Record.” The main body of the inscription is written in small regular script, detailing the geographical location of Jingju Temple, its Buddhist heritage, and the reconstruction of the temple hall. Importantly, the stele also documents the distance between Jingju Temple and Jintai, stating: “...twenty li north of Jintai lies a temple called Jingju Temple...” This means that twenty li south of Jingju Temple is the former site of Jintai.

The inscription was authored by “Qi Yihong, a local scholar (from the former Boping County) who passed the imperial examination at the prefectural level,” and was erected on “the first day of the auspicious bright morning of the mid-June, the year Bingxu of the Wanli reign of the Great Ming,” which corresponds to June of the 14th year of the Wanli era in the Ming Dynasty (1586 AD).

Zhonglv (仲侣), the sixth of the twelve traditional musical pitches, refers to the month of June. “Dawn” (旦) means daybreak or morning; thus, “吉旦” (jidian) signifies an auspicious morning.

Source: Chiping County Chronicles Office