Tushan Temple

Tushan Temple

Tushan Temple is a Chongqing Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Tushan Temple is located at No. 15 Zhenwu Mountain, Huangjueya Town, Nan'an District. It dates back to the Qing Dynasty.

Tushan Temple is situated on Tushan in Nan'an District, Chongqing, and is the oldest surviving temple in the area. Anciently, it enshrined the deity Zunwu, hence it is also known as Zunwu Temple.

Tushan Temple has a long and untraceable history. Research shows that during the Western Han Dynasty, it served as the Temple of Yu the Great and the Temple of Empress Tushan, housing statues of Yu and his wife. During the Tang Dynasty, the great poet Bai Juyi, who served as Prefect of Zhongzhou, wrote a poem titled “A Solitary Visit to Tushan Temple,” indicating that the temple had already been renamed by that time.

Tushan Temple currently has eight halls and around 100 rooms, covering an area of over 10,000 square meters. The main hall houses a statue of Sakyamuni and also features the “Yu the Great Taming the Floods Stele,” making it a rare example of harmony between Buddhism and Taoism. The local people of the Ba Kingdom seem to hold this “son-in-law” in particularly high esteem—during the first to fifteenth days of the Lunar New Year, the temple sees bustling crowds of pilgrims, creating a lively atmosphere. The Qing Dynasty scholar Wang Shizhen once described it with the verse, “Waterfalls cascade like rainbows; climbing up, one beholds Yu’s achievements.” The site features towering mountains, ancient trees, deep forests, and misty verdant hues. There are eight halls in total, all with upturned eaves and majestic grandeur, and the incense offerings here are abundant. Historical records state that Yu the Great married Tushan-shi on Tushan while controlling the floods, and in honor of his achievements, ancient people built the “Temple of Yu the Great” on the mountain. Later, the Yu the Great Temple and Zhenwu Temple were constructed. In the ninth year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1581), after a land swap with Laojun Cave, it officially became a Buddhist temple. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the temple was expanded. As Zhenwu Temple merged with the former site of the Yu the Great Temple, it came to be called “Tushan Temple.”

In 2000, Tushan Temple was listed as part of the first group of Chongqing Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Units by the Chongqing Municipal People's Government.