Jingzhou Feishan Temple

Jingzhou Feishan Temple

Jingzhou Feishan Temple is a cultural heritage site protected by Hunan Province.

Feishan Temple, also known as Weiyuanhou Temple, is a shrine dedicated to Yang Zaisi, a leader of an ethnic minority group. The temple was originally located at the summit of Feishan Mountain. In the year 1185 (during the Chunxi reign of the Song Dynasty), Sun Xianzu, the magistrate of Jingzhou, relocated it to the left side of the former Zuoxing Academy, about one li outside the west gate of the city. In 1445 (the tenth year of the Zhengtong reign in the Ming Dynasty), Magistrate Su Wen renovated the temple.

The renovated Feishan Temple measures 72.5 meters from east to west and 24.5 meters from north to south, covering a total area of 1,775.25 square meters. The temple complex has three courtyards: the first includes a theater stage and a central courtyard. The stage, which featured carved beams and painted rafters (now destroyed), once stood here, and two cypress trees were planted in the center of the courtyard. The second courtyard consists of a passageway hall and the main hall. The passageway hall is supported by 19 wooden pillars and has statues of Wei Liaoweng (a vice minister of public works in the Song Dynasty) and Dang Zhe (a magistrate of Jingzhou in the Ming Dynasty) on either side. The main hall covers an area of 218.5 square meters, with ten golden pillars supporting the central roof and eighteen perimeter columns arranged around it, all closely fitted together. Both the passageway hall and the main hall are traditional single-story, single-eave wooden structures with flush-gable roofs. The third courtyard is the Hall of the Goddess, which is said to have been dedicated to the parents of Yang Zaisi. It has since been converted into classrooms for a school. In 1508 (the third year of the Zhengde reign in the Ming Dynasty), General Huang Tao built a stone memorial archway about one hundred meters in front of the temple. The archway bore two large stone inscriptions: "Benefiting the Southern Land" and "Mightily Guarding Quyang," but these have now been destroyed.

Source: Jingzhou Chronicles Office