Temple of Meng Jiangnu

Temple of Meng Jiangnu

The Temple of Meng Jiangnu is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Temple of Meng Jiangnu is located on Jiashan Mountain in Xinzhou, also known as the Temple of Chastity and Righteousness. It consists of two courtyards and six rooms. The main hall is named the Hundred Trials Hall and houses a statue of the goddess Meng Jiangnu. According to the "Record of the Temple of Chastity and Righteousness" by Li Rugui of the Ming Dynasty: “After I returned home, I discussed building a temple with Wang Zhuo, the magistrate of Lixian. When the construction was nearly completed, the Governor-General of Huguang, Fu Tian Lin Dalu, visited Lixian and further instructed Wang Zhuo to expand the temple and place a statue inside. The front part serves as the gate, the middle as the hall, where seasonal sacrifices are held. The temple was named 'Chastity and Righteousness,' the hall 'Hundred Trials,' and a dedicated guardian was appointed. This took place in the summer of the Jiawu year during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty,” which should be the summer of the Jiawu year of the Jiajing Emperor in the Ming Dynasty. The legend of Meng Jiangnu had already been documented earlier in the compiled "Liu Zhi": “During the Qin Dynasty, there was a woman named Meng Jiangnu in the state who married a man named Fan. When the First Emperor of Qin built the Great Wall, Fan was conscripted for labor. Meng Jiangnu built a platform atop Jiashan Mountain in the state to look out for him. When he did not return for a long time, she braved the dangers and traveled a great distance to the Great Wall to search for him.” Today, the Husband-Watching Platform still exists, with a bamboo grove beside it called “Embroidered Bamboo.” At the foot of the mountain lies a square stone about one foot in size, bright and reflective, said to be Meng Jiangnu’s mirror stone. On one of the mountain’s rocks are dense fingerprints, said to have been made by Meng Jiangnu in her resentment at the First Emperor of Qin for forcibly taking her husband away, scratching the stone with her fingernails — this rock is called the “Rock of Resentment.” Below the mountain are sites such as the “Washing Stone.”