Zezhou Jade Emperor Temple

　　   Jade Emperor Temple (Third Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units)

　　   Era: Song to Qing Dynasties

　　   Address: Fucheng Village, 13 kilometers southeast of Zezhou County

　　   The founding date of the temple is unknown. According to a Ming Dynasty stele preserved in the temple: “During the Sui Dynasty, residents gathered on the northern hill and built a three-bay temple, inside which were painted statues of the Three Pure Ones.” In the ninth year of the Xining era of the Northern Song Dynasty (1076), the temple was rebuilt on the original site and named the “Jade Emperor’s Traveling Palace.” In the seventh year of the Taihe era of the Jin Dynasty (1207), most of the temple buildings collapsed, but local residents raised funds to repair them. During the Zhenzong years of the Jin Dynasty (1214–1216), part of the temple was destroyed in warfare. In the first year of the Yuán era (1335), it was rebuilt again. It underwent multiple renovations during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, eventually taking its present form. The existing main hall, the Jade Emperor Hall, was built in the Song Dynasty; the Tangdi Hall was built in the Jin Dynasty; the rear courtyard’s left and right wing halls and east and west side halls date from the Yuan Dynasty, while the rest were constructed during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

　　   The temple faces south and has a layout consisting of three courtyards, with over 100 halls, pavilions, towers, and side rooms, covering an area of more than 4,000 square meters. Along the central axis from south to north are the First Mountain Gate, the Ceremonial Gate, the Tangdi Hall, the Offering Pavilion, the Jade Emperor Hall, and the east and west side halls; on both sides are the Twenty-Eight Mansions Halls, the Twelve Earthly Branches Halls, the Thirteen Luminaries Halls, the Guan Di Hall, the Silkworm Goddess Hall, as well as side rooms and the Bell and Drum Towers. The buildings are densely arranged yet well proportioned.

　　   The front courtyard is the first courtyard of the Jade Emperor Temple, featuring two layers of gate halls. The first mountain gate was built during the Ming Chenghua era (1465–1487), and the second ceremonial gate is a remnant structure from the Yuan Dynasty. On both sides of the gates are the Wenchang Hall, the Throat Shrine, the Six Plague Hall, the Kṣitigarbha Hall, and the Bell and Drum Towers. The central courtyard’s main hall is the Tangdi Hall, with three bays in both width and depth, a single-eave hanging gable roof. Its architectural features date from the Song and Jin periods. The rear courtyard’s main hall is the Haotian Jade Emperor Hall, built in the ninth year of the Xining era of the Northern Song Dynasty (1076), with three bays in both width and depth, square in plan, and a single-eave hanging gable roof. Both the architecture and the polychrome sculptures, as well as the carved brick reliefs on the deity platform, retain the style of the Northern Song Dynasty.

　　   The various halls house over 300 statues from the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties, among which the Yuan Dynasty’s Twenty-Eight Mansions Deity statues are the finest in the entire temple.

　　   Outside the temple, the stele corridor houses over ten steles from the Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, serving as valuable historical materials for the study of Taoist history and Taoist art.