Xiedieshan Memorial Temple

Xiedieshan Memorial Temple

The Xiedieshan Memorial Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Xiedieshan Memorial Temple is located at No. 3 and No. 5, Fayuansi Back Street, Beijing. The Southern Song poet Xie Bangde, courtesy name Junzhi, also known as Dieshan...

Xie Bangde’s unyielding national spirit and unwavering moral integrity in the face of poverty made him a model patriotic figure in Chinese history. In September of the seventh year of the Jingtai era in the Ming Dynasty, Han Yong, the right vice censor-in-chief and regional inspector of Jiangxi, petitioned to establish a memorial temple for Xie Bangde. The Jingtai Emperor ordered local officials to hold annual commemorative ceremonies for him and posthumously honored him with the same title as Wen Tianxiang: “An imperial edict conferred the posthumous title of Zhonglie (Loyal and Heroic) upon Wen Tianxiang and Wenjie (Literary Integrity) upon Xie Bangde” (from History of Ming, Biographies 66, Han Yong), and “a temple was built at the place of his martyrdom” to enshrine statues of both Xie Bangde and Wen Tianxiang.

Key Cultural Relic Under Protection

A memorial temple was built on Fayuansi Back Street at the site where Xie Bangde sacrificed his life, within the Jiangxi Guild Hall. The compound still houses a two-story building that once displayed statues of Xiedieshan and Wen Tianxiang. It is a key cultural relic under protection in Xuanwu District.

Xie Gong Memorial Temple

The surviving structures include the main hall, the small building, several northern-style rooms, a waterside pavilion, and a theater stage. These are almost seamlessly connected to the Fayuansi Temple, with no clear boundary. The total area of Courtyards 3, 5, and 7 on Fayuansi Back Street, as well as Courtyards 12, 12-adjacent, and 14 on Peiyu Hutong, is approximately 2,859.5 square meters. Beyond commemorating this national hero, the Jiangnan-style architecture of the memorial temple holds significant academic value for the study of Ming Dynasty buildings.

Xie Dieshan (1226–1289), named Bangde, courtesy name Junzhi, also known as Dieshan, was from Zhoutan Township, Yiyang County, Jiangxi Province. He passed the imperial examination in the same year as Wen Tianxiang. In Chinese history, he is celebrated alongside the national hero Wen Tianxiang as one of the “Two Mountains” of patriotism. Throughout his life, he remained steadfast in his principles, unshaken by poverty, and resolutely unyielding. In the final years of the Southern Song Dynasty, he exhausted his family fortune to rally volunteer militias to resist foreign invasion. After the fall of the Southern Song, he upheld his ideals, firmly refusing the high-ranking positions and wealth offered by the Yuan Dynasty. In April 1289, Xie Dieshan died a martyr’s death at the Fayuansi Temple in the Yuan capital where he was imprisoned.

Biography

Xie Dieshan...  Detailed information about Xie Bangde++