Temple of the River God

　　The Temple of the River God is located northwest of Balimiao Village, Jiahe Township, about 30 li east of Taiqian County, on the eastern bank of the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It was first built during the Jingtai era of the Ming Dynasty. Legend has it that during the Jiajing era, a fourth-rank official surnamed Zhou, who was escorting grain barges, drowned in the Shawan section of the canal (near Balimiao) when the lock gates were opened. He was posthumously honored as the “Great King” and enshrined in the temple, which is why locals also refer to the Temple of the River God as the Great King Temple.

　　Originally, there were two iron oxen in front of the temple, used to suppress the river (see “Iron Oxen”). Later, the temple was destroyed by floods. In the ninth year of the Shunzhi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1652), it was rebuilt. Upon completion of the Temple of the River God, a stele was erected in its honor. In 1937, the side rooms on the east and west sides were demolished.

　　What remained

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　　shrine halls were destroyed by the Yellow River flood in the summer of 1949. The Temple of the River God Stele (also known as the Rebuilt Balimiao Stele) was buried underground at the same time and was excavated in 1984 during a cultural relics survey. The stele head is semicircular, and the base has not been unearthed. The stele itself is 1.53 meters tall, 0.7 meters wide, and 0.15 meters thick. Its front side bears 18 lines of inscriptions in regular imitation Song typeface, with 24 characters per line. It was composed by Huo Shujin, an official from the Ministry of Works' Construction Department, serving as an imperial envoy at the Linqing Brick Kiln, and was erected by the presiding Taoist priest Zhang Jiren.

　　In March 1990, the Stele Commemorating the Completion of the Imperial Canal Repair Project was unearthed by villagers of Balimiao while digging soil. The stele is made of bluestone, standing 4.11 meters tall in total. Its dragon-headed top is 0.91 meters high, 1 meter wide, and 0.3 meters thick, intricately carved with a design of two dragons playing with a pearl, and in the center is the raised seal script “Stele Commemorating the Completion of the Imperial Canal Repair Project.” The body of the stele is 2.2 meters tall, 0.95

　　meters wide, and 0.28 meters thick, with cloud patterns carved in relief along all four sides. The inscription consists of 31 lines of running regular script, with 25 characters per line. The base is a carved stone turtle, 1 meter tall. It was erected in the sixth year of the Jingtai reign of the Ming Dynasty (1455).

　　Both the inscription and the calligraphy were done by Xu Youzhen, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Ming Dynasty. The calligraphy is upright and elegant, with excellent artistic charm. The inscription documents Xu Youzhen’s process of river management, including the types of soil and materials used, and the number of locks constructed, serving as a valuable summary of experience in disaster prevention and water conservancy. The unearthing of this stele is a major discovery in the history of Yellow River management and provides precious material for the study of integrated Yellow River and canal governance. This group of cultural relics has been designated as a key cultural relic protection unit by the Taiqian County People’s Government.

　　In 1993, the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau allocated 20,000 yuan

　　to build a 1.2-meter-high, 20-meter-long, and 15-meter-wide earthen platform on the site of the Temple of the River God.

　　The platform was enclosed with bricks and topped with cement. The stele was placed in the center, with a Ming Dynasty sacrificial stele on the left and a Qing Dynasty “Rebuilt Temple of the River God” stele on the right. At the front and center is a protective marker erected by the Taiqian County Government, flanked by two iron oxen on either side. The iron oxen are of equal size, similar shape, plump in form,

　　and lifelike in appearance. Each iron ox is 0.5 meters tall, 1 meter long, and cast in pig iron, weighing about 500

　　kilograms each. The oxen lie on their sides with heads raised on iron pedestals, which are partially buried underground. During the Great Leap Forward’s steel-smelting campaign in 1958, the horns of the iron oxen were damaged.