Ruins of the Lingzhen Temple

Ruins of the Lingzhen Temple

The ruins of the Lingzhen Temple are a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Hebei Province.

The ruins of the Lingzhen Temple are located west of Guankoumen Village in Yunzhou Township, Chicheng County. They were built by Qi Zhicheng, the fourth disciple of Qiu Chuji, the great master of the Quanzhen School of Taoism. In the tenth year of the Chunyou era during the Southern Song Dynasty (1250), the imperial court bestowed upon it the name Chongzhen Temple, and later during the Zhengtong era, it was renamed “Lingzhen Temple.”

The Lingzhen Temple faces east and sits on a westward orientation. It originally had buildings such as a mountain gate, front hall, middle hall, and rear hall, but now only the foundations remain. The Changchun Cave was carved into the rock face on both sides of the temple. It is 4 meters wide and 6 meters deep, constructed in the early Yuan Dynasty. Inside, there used to be a stone statue of Qiu Chuji, next to which was carved a plaque displaying the lineage of the Quanzhen School. Above the cave entrance, six large characters—"Changchun Cave" and "Liao Zhen Chu"—are inscribed in relief side by side. Qi Zhicheng’s tomb is located northeast of the mountain gate, facing west, opposite the Changchun Cave. In front of the tomb stands the “Tombstone of the Taoist Master Qi,” which is 3.8 meters high and 1.3 meters wide. It documents Qi Zhicheng’s life story and provides insight into the activities of the Quanzhen School during the transition between the Jin and Yuan dynasties, making it an important Taoist relic. In addition, there are stone inscriptions such as the reconstruction stele by Yang Hong and cliff inscriptions from the Kangxi era.

In July 1993, it was designated as a provincial-level cultural heritage site by the People's Government of Hebei Province.

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Heritage Sites in Hebei Province