Dezhou Chenghuang Temple

Dezhou Chenghuang Temple

The Dezhou Chenghuang Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Chenghuang Temple is located in the southern part of the jurisdiction, southwest of the old state city, aligned parallel to the old state government office across the street (now at the northwest corner where West Sanba Road intersects North Jiefang Avenue, at the construction site of the International Trade Building). It covers an area of one hectare and was built in 1411 (the ninth year of the Yongle reign in the Ming Dynasty). The 1935 "Dezhou Annals" recorded: “The Chenghuang Temple is west of Xuannahu Corner, built in the ninth year of the Yongle reign by Magistrate He Yuan of the Ming Dynasty.”

Along the central axis of the Chenghuang Temple from south to north are: a three-bay mountain gate with a black plaque bearing the golden characters “Chenghuang Temple” hanging above. Inside the gate, on either side, stand two painted clay statues about two meters tall, wearing felt hats, uniforms, holding black or red sticks, resembling yamen runners. Opposite the mountain gate is a brick screen wall. Entering through the gate is a two-story wooden and brick theater building facing south, ten meters wide and seven meters deep. The upper level features carved eaves boards on the pillars, while the lower level has a central passageway flanked by painted clay statues of horse attendants and tall horses. Passing through the theater passageway leads to an octagonal stele pavilion. On either side of the pavilion are five-bay side rooms containing statues resembling the “Three Shifts and Six Offices.” Beside these rooms are east and west corridors housing statues of the Ten Kings of Hell from the underworld, with walls painted with scenes of underworld punishments and reincarnation. Further north lies the main hall, built on a raised brick-and-stone platform one meter high, consisting of a front porch and the main chamber. The front porch is twelve meters wide (three bays) and nine meters deep (two bays), with a plaque hanging in the center inscribed “Unavoidable by Human Calculation.” Below the plaque is a large wooden abacus, and the right pillar bears the inscription: “You are truly ingenious, adding here, subtracting there, yet unaware the whole board is wrong,” while the left pillar reads: “But I can’t be fooled, I note down every item, so when the debts come due, none will be amiss.” The main hall has a single-eave, five-ridged roof covered with gray tubular tiles, measuring eighteen meters wide (five bays) and ten meters deep (three bays), with a height of over nine meters. The front eaves have doors four meters wide, and the rear ones 1.6 meters wide. The structure is supported by beams, pillars, purlins, rafters, brackets, arches, and columns, with eight gold pillars and twenty-two auxiliary pillars. The outer brackets all have double extensions. The walls are built with blue bricks and white lime. The doors and pillars are red, with carved beams and painted rafters. At the center of the hall is a shrine draped with yellow silk drapes, inside which sits a gold-laminated clay statue of the City God, over two meters tall. On the right outside the shrine stands a judge holding the Book of Life and Death, and on the left a ghost holding chains to claim souls. Flanking the main hall are two side halls: the left dedicated to the Earth God and the right to the God of Wealth. On either side of the mountain gate are east and west wing courtyards. The west courtyard has a three-bay hall facing south, known as the Three Sovereigns Hall, enshrining Fuxi, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor. The east courtyard is a quadrangle serving as the living quarters for the temple’s Taoist priests. Behind the main hall are three-bay side halls on each side, with the rear pavilion at the front, fifteen meters wide (five bays) and seven meters both in depth and height, featuring a front porch and rear veranda. In the center is another gold-laminated clay statue of the City God. The east side room contains wooden statues of the City God and his wife seated together, with a mechanism beneath that makes them stand up when stepped on—an exceptional feature.

In 1928, the Dezhou County government removed the statues and converted the Chenghuang Temple into Zhongshan Market, opening shops in the east corridor and turning the Three Sovereigns Hall in the west courtyard into a storytelling venue. To the east of the main hall, an 800-seat National Theater was built, transforming the site into a commercial and entertainment hub for the state city. After the liberation of Dezhou in 1946, the municipal government successively established the Education Museum, Youth Club, and Dezhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Education here. Today, this area remains a commercial center of Decheng.