The Lu Yigu Temple in Hantun

The Lu Yigu Temple in Hantun

The Lu Yigu Temple in Hantun is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Lu Yigu Temple is located directly north of Danili Village in Hantun Town and in Luotun Village. Lu Yigu, referred to as “Sister Lu Yigu” in Liu Xiang’s Biographies of Exemplary Women, is one of the traditional Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars. Records about Lu Yigu can also be found in The Garden of Stories and Xie Jin’s Biographies of Exemplary Women Through the Ages, among others, with largely similar accounts. In western Shandong, Lu Yigu is a rather well-known figure. Her legendary act of righteousness in repelling the enemy has been widely passed down.

Guan Hanqing’s The Butterfly Dream once wrote: “If I were to be as jealous as the resentful bride, I’d be ashamed to face Sister Lu Yigu.” Here, “ashamed to face” actually means “too ashamed to face.” The language of the characters in Yuan opera basically reflects such a phenomenon: when someone does something immoral, they feel too ashamed to even worship Sister Lu Yigu enshrined at home. This shows the influence Lu Yigu had in western Shandong. According to the stone inscription outside the Lu Yigu Temple, more than two thousand years ago during the Warring States period, the various feudal states often engaged in warfare.

It is said that one year, the State of Qi raised troops to invade the State of Lu. The invading Qi soldiers approached Ezitun (now Luotun Village, Hantun Town, Chiping District), and the villagers fled in all directions. On the open space west of the village, a young village woman was running at the back and was caught by the Qi soldiers. This woman was seen carrying a boy of five or six years old in her right arm and dragging a boy of three or four years old in her left hand, running breathlessly.

The Qi soldiers found this very strange, so they asked the woman: “Everyone else is carrying the younger child and leading the older one. Why are you carrying the older child and leading the younger one?”

The woman replied: “The older child is my nephew. His parents have both died. The younger one is my son. Now that disaster is upon us, I would rather give up my own child than abandon my nephew.”

The Qi soldiers sighed after hearing this: “Even a village woman is willing to sacrifice her own child to save her nephew. Why should we attack our brother state?” So they threw their weapons into the well in the open space, shook the dirt off their shoes, and scattered in a rush back to the State of Qi.

Later generations built a temple for this righteous and magnanimous village woman, created a clay statue of her, and named the temple the Lu Yigu Temple. Every year during the three days from the fifth to the seventh day of the second lunar month, villagers from the surrounding areas hold incense festivals to commemorate her.

Later, the temple was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but the people in the area did not stop commemorating Lu Yigu. Every year from the fifth to the seventh day of the second lunar month, large numbers of people still come to the ruins to pay their respects. In 1996, local devotees of the Lu Yigu Temple spontaneously pooled funds to rebuild the temple.

There is a recorded story titled “Sister Lu Yigu Gives Up Her Own Son to Save Her Nephew.” Sister Lu Yigu, a woman from the State of Lu during the Spring and Autumn period, is referred to in historical records as “a woman from the countryside.” Both Volume Five of Liu Xiang’s Biographies of Exemplary Women from the Han Dynasty and Volume Five of Xie Jin’s Biographies of Exemplary Women Through the Ages from the Ming Dynasty record: the State of Qi attacked the State of Lu, and Sister Lu Yigu saved her brother’s son while disregarding her own son. When the Qi general asked her why, she explained her sense of righteousness, which moved the Qi army into withdrawing and ceasing the attack on the State of Lu. “The Duke of Lu heard of this and rewarded the woman with a hundred bolts of silk, and honored her as ‘Righteous Sister.’”

She not only saved her own family through her righteous act, but also ensured the safety of the State of Lu. Her righteousness was truly great.

During the Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty, Fu Yuncheng, the magistrate of Boxian County, wrote “Inscription on the Wall of the Lu Yigu Temple”

The temple of the righteous aunt veiled in wild clouds,

A respectful bow in this desolate pass.

Saving her nephew through eternity, her nature unyielding,

Here the returning army recognizes her traces.

The inscribed tablet lies horizontal, its ancient script unreadable,

The ancient platform echoes only bells of ages past.

Only the Ming legacy stands as ever before,

As farmers still make their yearly pilgrimages.

Source: Chiping Historical Records Office

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