Hometown of Zhang Zhongjing

Hometown of Zhang Zhongjing

The hometown of Zhang Zhongjing is a cultural relic protection unit of Nanyang City.

The hometown of Zhang Zhongjing is located in the southeast of Zhangzhai Village, Rangdong Town, Dengzhou City.

In the southeast of Zhangzhai Village, Rangdong Town, where Zhang Zhongjing was born, stands a 3-meter-high, 0.65-meter-wide stele inscribed with “Hometown of the Medical Sage Zhang Zhongjing.” In 1993, the Rangdong Town government designated 6,600 square meters at the eastern end of Zhongjing Road as a memorial site for Zhang Zhongjing. A 1.5-meter-high scenic fence wall was built around the perimeter. Within the memorial area, the Zhang Zhongjing Memorial Tower and the Medical Sage Palace were constructed. The tower features a toothed, four-pillared design that gradually converges toward the top. At the top of the tower are two rotating layers of colored lights, bringing the total height of the tower to 30 meters. Inside the tower stands a 10-meter-high jade and gold statue of the Medical Sage, with his right hand holding the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases and his left hand clutching the traditional Chinese medicinal herb ganoderma. A worship platform for the Medical Sage is set up in front of the statue. Beneath the Medical Sage Memorial Tower lies the two-story Medical Sage Palace. The first floor is an underground chamber covering 300 square meters, housing 20 statues depicting scenes from the Sage’s life such as his childhood aspirations, seeking teachings on Maoshan Mountain, researching herbal medicine, practicing acupuncture and the Eight Trigrams for traditional healing, inventing artificial enemas, and developing artificial respiration techniques. The walls of the palace are adorned with Han Dynasty murals. The second floor of the Medical Sage Palace covers a construction area of 80 square meters and features five statues portraying the Sage treating patients in his Changsha hall, as well as two statues showing him in his later years writing the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. One of the palace walls displays an introduction to the hometown of the Medical Sage and the Medical Sage Palace. Around the exterior of the palace, single-story buildings modeled after traditional Chinese architecture were constructed to resemble the Zhongjing Hospital on three sides. On one side of the front of the Medical Sage statue, there are left and right stone staircases that lead up to the tower atop the palace. These staircases are made up of stone pillars, stone lions, and stone railings. At the center of the base of both staircases stands a stele inscribed with “Hometown of the Medical Sage,” which is 2.5 meters high, with an incense burner platform built behind it.

Zhangzhai Village, the hometown of Zhang Zhongjing, is located 1.5 kilometers west of Rangdong Town, Dengzhou City. It is adjacent to Henan Provincial Highway 53, offering convenient transportation. It is 30 kilometers east of Nanyang’s Wulonggang, 30 kilometers west of Dengzhou’s Huazhou Academy and Lei Feng Exhibition Hall, 70 kilometers from Neixiang County Yamen, and 100 kilometers from Xiangyang’s Longzhong.

The Zhang Zhongjing Memorial Site is a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit. Pavilion structures, arched bridges, rockeries, and a medicinal gourd pond are currently under planning and construction.

Rangdong Town: Known as China’s Famous Clothing Town, Rangdong Town, historically called Nieyang, is the birthplace of the Medical Sage Zhang Zhongjing. It is situated at the junction of Henan, Hubei, and Shaanxi provinces and lies within the central area of the “Shuangyang Project” implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Covering a total area of 92.5 square kilometers with a population of 80,000, the town administers 26 administrative villages and 3 neighborhood committees. The town proper spans 6.2 square kilometers and has a resident population of 30,000.

The town boasts a long history and rich cultural heritage. Since its establishment during the Jin Dynasty, it has been a bustling commercial hub. According to historical records from Dengzhou, by the Ming and Qing dynasties, it had become “a convergence point for merchants, with over a thousand shops, making it the leading town in Dengzhou.” This gave rise to... [More detailed information about Rangdong Town] ++