Dayi Sanyi Temple

Dayi Sanyi Temple

Dayi Sanyi Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Dayi Sanyi Temple is located at Yuechiba on Wenchang Street. The Tongzhi-era county annals of Dayi record: "Since the Xianfeng era, local residents such as Chen Mingli and Zhang Ruiwen managed its reconstruction." But when was Sanyi Temple built before its reconstruction? History does not tell us, nor can we investigate. This shows the long history of Sanyi Temple.

Historically, Sanyi Temple was not small in scale. According to the recollections of many elderly people, it had three courtyards and three halls. The main hall enshrined life-sized painted statues of the three brothers Liu, Guan, and Zhang, with dozens of warrior figurines standing on both sides, all life-sized. The middle hall housed statues of the descendants of Liu, Guan, and Zhang, while the front hall displayed standing figures depicting classic battle scenes where the three fought bravely on the battlefield. In front was a tall screen wall, and in front of that was the main gate. Sanyi Temple faced Danan Street and backed onto an extension of Donghaogou, covering an area of about two mu. Elders say that there was a regular temple fair at Sanyi Temple every month, during which operas were performed, "jiudouwan" meals were served, and liquor was consumed, breaking the vegetarian traditions typically observed at Buddhist and Taoist temples.

Today, only the over twenty-meter-high screen wall in front of the temple remains. The side wall on the left of the screen wall collapsed during the 5·12 Wenchuan Earthquake, and the three main halls have long since vanished during various political movements. Having interviewed many people, no one could confirm the exact time of their disappearance. The three large characters “三义庙” (Sanyi Temple), each the size of a bowl, remain intact at the top of the screen wall, bearing witness to the stories told to me by the elders.

This screen wall, standing out distinctly among the surrounding high-rises, has become the only remaining cultural heritage site in downtown Dayi today. The Sanyi Temple screen wall preserves a vivid memory of this history for the local people.