Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple

Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple, also known as Fujian Guild Hall, is located on Xinzhong Street, Xinyang Town, Zhenyuan County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. It was built in the Qing Dynasty, covers an area of ​​2,372 square meters and has a construction area of ​​1,200 square meters.

Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple faces south, with its back to the mountain and the water in front. The gate faces the street and is located at a high altitude. There are 88 wide stone steps in front of the gate. Its main buildings include: mountain gate, stage, main hall, east and west wing rooms, ear rooms, back wing rooms, etc. The buildings are all through-beam wooden structures, and the roofs are covered with green tiles. The "sea god" Mazu is enshrined in the temple. It was built to commemorate Mazu and as a Fujian hometown association. Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple, as a place for worshiping Mazu and gathering of Fujian merchants, reflects the grand occasion of Zhenyuan merchants gathering and developed shipping in the Qing Dynasty. It also shows the cultural exchange between the Yangtze River Basin and the southeast coast. It is of great value to the study of economic and cultural exchanges between Guizhou and coastal areas.

On October 16, 2019, Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple was announced as the eighth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Main buildings:

Mountain Gate

The gate of Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple is a stone archway with a hip roof. The gate is three rooms wide, with a door leaf in the middle and brick walls on both sides. The width of the middle door leaf is about 3.6 meters and the height is 9 meters. There are still some stone carvings in the gate. For example, there is a "double phoenix" under the central top bracket, and "Tianhou Temple" on the door lintel below, and a double dragon playing in the water relief Souvenir it. There are inscriptions on both sides of the pillars, and a horizontal couplet in the middle. There are brick carvings of panoramic views of ancient buildings on the left and right sides. Across the gate is a wooden gatehouse that serves as a transitional space. The crossbeam between the gatehouse eaves column and the gate extends out of the eaves column step frame, supporting the hanging melon column and the eaves purlin under the cantilevered eaves.

main hall

The main hall of Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple is located on the 9 steps of the courtyard. It is 11 meters high, 3 rooms wide and 7 rooms deep, and is located behind the stage. The building includes the front hall, the back hall, and the east and west courtyards of the front hall. The walls are connected to the walls on both sides of the front hall, thus enclosing the entire building. The front hall is 5 rooms wide and has a double-eaved hip roof. There is a caisson roof in the hall, and the eaves are supported by Ruyi brackets. The back hall is the main body of the main hall, where the statue of Mazu is enshrined. The roof is a fire-proof gable-style hard mountain top, and the main ridge is decorated with "Double Dragons Grabbing Treasures". There is a patio in each of the east and west courtyards.

East and West Wings

Zhenyuan Tianhou Temple has a west wing and an east wing. The two wing rooms are 8.6 meters high and 3.5 meters deep, divided into two floors. The difference is that the west wing is built on a 1.5-meter-high stone foundation. The east wing is mainly made of wood, with a through-beam roof frame. There are four rooms on the front. The fence and handrails on the second floor are staggered with double rows of wood. The west wing is a Qing-style brick and wood structure with round-top windows, which is extremely simple.

penthouse

The ear room is located at the back of the west side of the Tianhou Palace, built against the mountain, and connected to the west wing by a corridor. Because it is small, cool and dry, it is mainly used to stack sundries and store objects. The entire building is built with a wooden structure. It is divided into two floors, the first floor is an aisle and storage room, and the second floor adopts a beam frame structure combined with the Miao stilt style.

Stage

The stage is 8 meters high, 13.5 meters wide, and has a 15-meter overhanging eaves. It is a through-beam structure with a double-eaved roof. The stage has two floors, the first floor is used for Dining, and the second floor is a performance space. The scale of the stage is larger than that of other Fujian Guild Halls, and there are independent dressing rooms and lounges on both sides of the second floor. The stage is in the form of a Miao stilt house. Due to its special geographical location, the external column base falls on the stone foundation of the city wall, which is about 5 meters high.