Chapter 35 Section 14 Yongle Palace, a treasure house of art that has been completely relocated

Yongle Palace, formerly known as Dachunyang Longevity Palace, was originally located in Yongle Town, near the north bank of the Yellow River in Ruicheng, Shanxi. Today it is located on the east side of Longquan Village, Ruicheng County. This is a treasure house of art that has been completely relocated. According to legend, Yongle Town is the birthplace of Lu Dongbin.Lu Dongbin was a very influential figure in folklore who appeared in historical records and was later called a famous Taoist immortal.After Lu Dongbin's death, his villagers built Lu Gong Temple in his former residence.Later, with the spread of Lu Dongbin's myths and stories, the number of worshipers increased day by day, and he was also respected by the imperial court, and Lu Gong Temple was also expanded into a Taoist temple.Unexpectedly, a wildfire in 1244 AD completely burned down the Taoist temple.Fortunately, Quanzhen Sect gained power at that time, and it began to rebuild in the third year.It took 15 years to complete the main building in the third year of Zhongtong (AD 1262).At this time, Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty ordered that it be changed into a palace.Because the palace site is in Yongle Town, Ruicheng, it is called Yongle Palace.At this time, Lu Dongbin was also revered as the "Tianzun" of Taoism.After the completion of the main building, interior decoration is still in progress.In the second year of Yuan Taiding (AD 1325), the murals of Sanqing Hall were completed, and in the eighteenth year of Yuan Zhizheng (AD 1358), the murals of Chunyang Hall were completed.The construction of Yongle Palace lasted for more than 110 years, almost the same as the Yuan Dynasty.

The main buildings in the palace are the palace gate, the Dragon and Tiger Hall (Wuji Gate), the Sanqing Hall (Wuji Hall), the Chunyang Hall (Huncheng Hall or Lu Zu Hall), and the Chongyang Cave (Qizhen Hall or Ximing Hall) from south to north. On the central axis, except for the palace gate, which was built in the Qing Dynasty, the rest were built in the Yuan Dynasty. The Sanqing Hall is the most important, and its location is different from that of the main hall of ordinary temples at the back. It is in the front of Yongle Palace.The Sanqing Hall is a seven-bay verandah-style building. It inherits the style of the Song Dynasty. The eaves and ridges are curved. It also adopts the bold and simple structure of the Liao and Jin Dynasties, reducing the number of pillars in the hall to eight, making the space spacious and practical.In addition, its roof slope is large, the eaves are short, the beam frame is reduced, the proportion of bucket arches is small, and the number of columns is large, which is the first of its kind in Ming and Qing Dynasties.The hall of Sanqing has a tall platform, a wide platform, no windows on the four walls, and finely carved algae wells in the hall. It can be regarded as an important example in the history of my country's architectural technology development, inheriting Song, Liao, and Jin, and enlightening Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The world-famous Yuan Dynasty mural "Chaoyuan Picture" in the Sanqing Hall adds a lot to the building.Nearly 300 statues of gods on duty are tall in shape and have different expressions. The lines are smooth and elegant.The whole picture is 94.68 meters long. In addition, other halls also have exquisite murals.In the Chunyang Palace, there are 52 paintings in the "Chunyang Emperor Xianyou Manifestation Picture" based on the myth of Lu Dongbin, with a total of 52 pieces.There are 49 pictures of Wang Chongyang, the leader of Quanzhen School of Taoism, and his six disciples preaching immortality and preaching in Chongyang Hall, each of which has a title.There are portraits of Shentu, Yulei, and generals painted in the Dragon and Tiger Hall, all of whom are powerful and powerful, like experts in subduing monsters and catching monsters, with superb skills.The exquisite murals in the halls of Yongle Palace took more than 110 years to draw, with a total area of ​​960 square meters. They are rich in themes and mostly use heavy-color hook-filling brushwork. They are masterpieces in the history of Chinese painting and important materials for studying the development history of ancient Chinese painting art and Taoism. .

In 1959, due to the construction of the Sanmenxia water conservancy project, all the buildings and murals were moved to Longquan Village, 45 miles away, as they were.Now, there is a cultural management office in Yongle Palace to carry out daily maintenance and repair of Yongle Palace.