Danxia Temple

Danxia Temple

Danxia Temple

Danxia Temple, also known as Tianshi Temple, is situated at the foot of Baiyun Mountain in Tangbei Village, Gong’an Town. It was initially built in the first year of the Yongshou era of the Han Dynasty (155 AD) and is said to have been the site where Zhang Daoling practiced alchemy. Throughout history, it was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. In the 25th year of the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, the temple was reconstructed, and later, the “Yigong Ancestral Hall” and a theater stage were successively built beside and in front of the temple. All were destroyed in 1958. In 1986, local residents raised funds to rebuild Danxia Temple and the theater stage on the original site. Danxia Temple is nestled against a mountain and near water, facing east with its back to the west. The two-courtyard, three-room structure is 11.7 meters wide, 23.3 meters deep, and 12 meters high, built with a combination of brick, wood, and stone. The temple complex includes halls for enshrining deities, altars for Taoist rituals, and rooms for scripture lectures. On both sides of the central courtyard are watchtowers and pavilions. The halls house eleven statues of the Heavenly Master Zhang. Surrounded by peaks and embraced by mountains and water, shaded by lush trees, the temple enjoys beautiful scenery and a tranquil environment.

The “Fuchuan County Annals” revised in the 16th year of the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty records: Zhang Daoling, styled Fuhan, was the great-grandson of the Marquis of Liu from the Han Dynasty. He was born in Tianyue Mountain, Kuaiji, and was skilled in healing with talisman water. He lived in seclusion in Baixia (in Fuchuan). In the first year of the Yongshou era of Emperor Huan of Han, he moved to Yuntaifeng, where he ascended to heaven in broad daylight. The locals named the site “Danxia Temple” and “Dan Stove,” with the medicine mortar still preserved there. During the Song Dynasty, Fan Chunren was exiled to Hezhou. Su Shi wrote to him saying, “Are the legendary medicinal herbs and miraculous substances really found at the relics of Zhang Daoling in Danxia Temple?” — “It has been passed down since ancient times.” This shows that as early as the Song Dynasty, Su Shi had inquired about Zhang Daoling’s alchemical practices here. Moreover, inscribed poems on the cliff at Biyun Rock include verses from poets of the Song and Ming dynasties, such as “The immortal of the Han era has already ridden the wind away, leaving only the old cave in these mountains.” These suggest that such historical accounts may indeed have some basis.