Ancient Xian Shen Temple

Ancient Xian Shen Temple

Ancient Xian Shen Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Ancient Xian Shen Temple is located next to the Zizheng Dafu Ancestral Hall in Sanhua Village, Xinhua Street, Huadu District, Guangzhou. This ancient temple features a three-courtyard, two-corridor layout, and is not very large in scale. It was built during the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1844). The temple enshrines a wooden carved statue of the deity He Shi "Imperial Censor King," gilded with real gold. This Imperial Censor King is He Shaogui, an imperial censor from the Song Dynasty and a native of Shawan, Panyu. Legend has it that one year, when floods hit the Sanhua Village area, a wooden box floated upstream against the current and was found by Xu Zhen, a fisherman from Dahuzhuang in Sanhua Village, while fishing. Upon opening the box, he found a divine tablet inscribed with the name “Imperial Censor King” and his birth date, along with tea seeds wrapped in red cloth. After the box was found, the floods receded. The villagers believed this was divine protection, so they pooled money to build this temple and planted the tea seeds beside it. The resulting tea trees produced fragrant and delicious tea, which was said to cure all diseases. Since the divine tablet came from the water, the tea was called “Xian Shen Tea,” and the temple was named “Xian Shen.”

The central section of the building consists of three bays and four courtyards. The mountain gate is three bays wide (10.6 meters) and two bays deep (5.1 meters), totaling nine rafters. The front corridor’s beams and eave boards are intricately carved with motifs such as stages, opera characters, mythical fish, auspicious beasts, and flowers and birds. The shrimp-dragon beam is adorned with stone lions and uniquely shaped bracket arms. The stone gate lintel is inscribed in relief with “Ancient Xian Shen Temple,” with the upper inscription reading “Reconstructed in the first month of autumn, Daoguang 23rd Year (1843)” and the lower inscription reading “Written by Wang Jianxin of Nanhai.” The stone couplet is also inscribed in relief: “The frost of the cypress hall leaves behind the historian’s pen; the spring waters of the fairy isle carry the immortal’s trace.” The right secondary bay contains five stone steles recording the 1919 (8th year of the Republic of China) restoration of the Ancient Xian Shen Temple, detailing the reasons for the restoration and the names of donors.

The middle hall is three bays wide (10.6 meters) and three bays deep (6.4 meters), totaling eleven rafters. There are two stone eave pillars at the front and back. The middle hall is flanked by two corridors with a six-rafter coffered ceiling. The courtyard is paved with granite slabs, measuring 4.1 meters wide and 3 meters deep.

The worship pavilion has an eight-rafter coffered ceiling and forms a continuous roof structure with the middle and rear halls. It is flanked by two corridors with a six-rafter coffered ceiling. The courtyard is paved with granite slabs, measuring 4.1 meters wide and 3.7 meters deep.

The rear hall is three bays wide (10.6 meters) and two bays deep (7.5 meters), totaling eleven rafters. The central bay houses the shrine of the Imperial Censor King.

The left and right sections of the building are each 4.4 meters wide, separated by a Qingyun Lane that is 1.7 meters wide. The stone lintels of the lane gates are inscribed on the left with “Lai Yong” and on the right with “Zhi Su.”

During the restoration, the mountain gate was fitted with green glazed tiles, and the main ridge was remodeled with carvings of opera characters, qilin, and dragons playing with a pearl, among other designs. The upper inscription reads “Restored in the Year of Yi Hai (1995),” and the lower inscription reads “Made by Tao Wu of Zhongshan.” The main ridges of the left and right sections were replaced with concrete decorative ridges.

Ancient Xian Shen Temple worships He Shiyushi, the General of the Jinwu Upper Army. Legend says that He Zhaogui, an imperial censor from Panyu, Guangdong, was born on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. He was an upright and incorruptible official, resolute in punishing evil and deeply compassionate toward the people. Throughout his life, he remained clean and honest, but was eventually harmed by treacherous individuals. Before his death, he instructed that his spirit tablet and tea seeds be placed in a wooden box and thrown into the sea. The box floated up the Pearl River system, against the current, and arrived at Sanhua Village via the Tianma River—where it was retrieved by Xu Zhen, a descendant of Xu, his sworn brother from earlier years. Upon hearing the news, the villagers of Sanhua gathered to build a temple in his honor, fulfilling his wish to be worshipped. The temple became very popular, and every year on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, the birthday of the Imperial Censor King, the village would set up stages and perform operas for three joyous days.

There is a stone bridge over the river in front of Ancient Xian Shen Temple, given the imposing name “Dragon-Locking Bridge.” After circling the ancient stone bridge, no old inscriptions were found, only a stone tablet erected in October 2008, which was designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Huadu District in May of the same year. After searching for information for two days at home, the only record found was on the website of the “Huadu District Culture, Radio, Television, News and Publication Bureau,” under the “List of Registered Protected Cultural Relic Units in Huadu District”: Dragon-Locking Bridge, Qing Dynasty, in front of Ancient Xian Shen Temple, Sanhua Village, Xinhua Street, Huadu District. It is estimated that Dragon-Locking Bridge was built sometime between the Daoguang reign (1844) and the Tongzhi reign (1863) of the Qing Dynasty.

Sanhua Village still has several large ponds today. In the past, the Sanhua Village area was a water town with low-lying terrain. Every year during the “Xi Shui Da” (Great Western Floods) in the seventh lunar month, the area would be flooded. To pray for safety, the Xian Shen Temple was built, the Imperial Censor King was invited to serve as the water deity, and the bridge in front of the temple was named Dragon-Locking. Continuous worship was offered to reduce the risk of flooding.

Sanhua Village: Located north of Xinhua Street in Huadu District, Guangzhou, Sanhua Village is about 2 kilometers from the city center, covering an area of approximately 4.5 square kilometers. The village has four economic cooperatives and 18 villager groups, with a total population of 4,910, making it one of the larger urban villages in Xinhua Street. The village economy mainly relies on shop and factory rentals. The Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway pass through the village.

Sanhua Village has a history of over 900 years, and most villagers have the surname Xu. The ancestor of the Xu family in Sanhua Village was Xu Zongyuan. According to the Xu family genealogy, prior to this, the Xu clan lived in Baochang County, Nanxiong. Xu Zongyuan, during the eighth year of the Yuanfeng reign of the Northern Song Dynasty... More details about Sanhua Village ++