Dongyue Temple

Beijing Folklore Museum. Dongyue Temple. The Beijing Folklore Museum is located on Chaoyangmen Outer Street in Chaoyang District, Beijing. It was built in the sixth year of Yuan Yanyou (1319) and mainly worships the Dongyue Great Emperor of Mount Tai. It covers an area of 60,000 square meters, with 376 ancient buildings. It is the largest palace and temple of the Zhengyi sect of Taoism in North China and is a national key cultural relics protection unit. Historically, the Dongyue Temple was a place for national sacrificial ceremonies, and folk sacrificial activities were even more grand, becoming a center of folk cultural activities with a rich heritage. Therefore, it was opened as the Beijing Folklore Museum after restoration. Dongyue Temple is famous for its 'three many', namely many statues, many inscriptions, and many couplets and plaques. Many statues: At most, there were more than 3,000 statues, and now more than 1,000 have been restored. Many inscriptions: There were originally more than 160 inscriptions, and nearly a hundred are still in existence. Most of them are inscriptions of folk benevolent societies, which narrate the folk customs of old Beijing. Many couplets and plaques: There are couplets and plaques hanging in front of each hall. The representative work is 'The villains of the world, all who violate the heavens and harm the reason are from themselves; the retribution in the underworld, who has been let go from the past to the present.' These thought-provoking sentences reflect the essence of the Dongyue faith in punishing evil and promoting good. There are two stele buildings in the Dongyue Temple, the Kangxi Imperial Stele is in the east stele building, and the Qianlong Imperial Stele is in the west stele building. There is an exceptionally tall stele in the Dongyue Temple Stele Forest, which was written by Zhao Mengfu, a great calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty, commonly known as the Taoist Stele, with 1656 characters. It is a national first-class cultural relic and the treasure of the Dongyue Temple.