Zhenxiang Temple in Nanbu County

Zhenxiang Temple in Nanbu County

Zhenxiang Temple in Nanbu County is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Sichuan Province.

Situated on a foothill terrace where Zhongzishan Mountain and Fenghuang Mountain in Sanqing Township meet, with Baimiao Mountain stretching across the front of the temple and a small stream winding around it from the northeast to the southwest.

Built in a traditional quadrangle-style architectural layout, the temple includes a mountain gate, side rooms, auxiliary halls, a courtyard, and a main hall. The mountain gate is 5.6 meters wide, with lateral secondary bays on each side measuring 5.1 meters and side sections at 2.8 meters, totaling a facade width of 21.4 meters and a depth of 6.8 meters. Behind the mountain gate lies the courtyard, flanked by auxiliary halls each 5.4 meters wide and 4.2 meters deep. The main hall has five bays with a total width of 21.4 meters and a depth of 10.6 meters, giving the entire temple complex a total built-up area of 549.36 square meters.

The mountain gate uses a raised-beam wooden frame, while the side rooms and auxiliary halls are built with a post-and-lintel structure. The main hall features an eight-rafter system with front and rear breast-rafters connected by four pillars and four purlins, using a five-tiered dougong (bracket set) design with centered intercolumnar brackets. The bracket arrangement includes four corner sets at the column heads and five intermediate sets. All ridge decorations on the roof were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The main hall originally had a plaque made of uniquely textured upright stripes; ingeniously crafted, it read “-Temple” when viewed from the front, transformed into “Penglai Heaven” when seen from the left, and appeared as “Dispel Delusion Pavilion” from the right. This unique plaque was also maliciously destroyed by ignorant individuals during the “unprecedented” turmoil.

There are no recorded construction dates in historical documents; only the beam above the mountain gate is inscribed with “The 60th Year of the Kangxi Reign in the Great Qing, in the cyclic year Xin Chou, second spring month.” The cyclical year Xin Chou corresponds to 1721, which means it has been nearly three hundred years to date. The main hall lacks any inscriptions, but based on comparisons of its wooden framework and overall structure, it is believed to predate the mountain gate. Among the debris accumulated in front of the temple, fragments of glazed roof tiles have been found. The secondary bays of the main hall do not have corner bracket sets, and both their lintels and architraves show signs of being sawn off. These clues suggest that the temple likely existed before the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.

The site currently serves as the campus of -Temple Primary School in Sanqing Township, and its state of preservation is far from optimistic.

Protected Area: The site’s boundary extends 10 meters outward to the northeast and southwest, and 20 meters outward to the southeast and northwest.

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of Provincial Cultural Heritage Protection Units in Sichuan Province