Travel Guide - Dai Temple in Taishan

Posted by ugfanfan on October 29th, 2014

Dai Temple sits at the south foot of Mt. Taishan, northeast of Tai’an City, Shandong Province. It is also called as “East Mountain Temple”, which preserves well and is the largest building group in Mt. Taishan. As a Taoism temple, Dai Temple was the place for Emperor to hold grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to Heaven and to sacrifice the God Mt. Taishan in past dynasties.

Origination and Development

Dai Temple originates from the worship to Mt. Taishan firstly, and it becomes a belief that influences the whole nation with dissemination of years. Dai Temple was built in Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) and flourished in Tang Dynasty (618-907), later on it was extended when the Emperor Zhao Heng (968-1022, the third emperor of Northern Song Dynasty) held grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to Heaven.

With an architecture style of imperial palace, Dai Temple is called as one of the four ancient building groups in China.

Dai Temple Archway

Dai Temple Archway built in 1672 is a memorial archway that features saddle roof, upturned eaves with embossment for the whole building. It is 9.8 meters high and 11.3 meters wide. There are stone bases at the bottom of Dai Temple Archway, and two pairs of crouching lions in its front and back each. Dai Temple Archway keeps the precious engraved stone artwork in Qing Dynasty.

Yaocan Pavilion

It is the front courtyard of Dai Temple and links to Zhengyang Gate of Dai Temple. When emperor accompanied by civil and military officials made the official ceremony, they had made a simple ritual in Yaocan Pavilion. Yaocan Pavilion has two courtyards, and there are buildings like South Mountain Gate, Ritual Gate, main hall, Square Pavilion and North Mountain Gate distributed in central axis. The main hall was built in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and it featured saddle roof with yellow tiles and five-purlin beam. The hall shrines the stature of Bixiayuanjun (she blesses all beings and is one of important Goddesses in Taoism). Yaocan Hall built in 1770 is in front of South Mountain Gate, and there is a pair of imposing iron lions squatting on the both sides of this stone hall. Going straight to the south, there is a pool under a locust tree that was planted in Tang Dynasty.

Zhengyang Gate

Going out of Dai Temple Archway, Zhengyang Gate is in sight. It was built in Song Dynasty (960-1279) and destroyed in the 1950s, and the gate that we see was reconstructed in 1985. Zhengyang Gate was on behalf of the dignity of Dai Temple, and only the emperor could go through in ancient times. Zhengyang Gate is 11 meters high, and has nine ridges with single eave and saddle roof.
Han Cypress Courtyard

It is in the southeast of Dai Temple. It has the name because there are five ancient cypresses planted in the courtyard. It was said that they were planted in Han Dynasty. Besides, there are about 90 steles in the courtyard, and among them, 70 steles are embedded into east wall.

East Emperor Seat

It is in the north of Han Cypress Courtyard, which was the place for emperors in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to stay temporarily. Now it works as precious relics showcase room. The main hall is arranged according to imperial palace of Qing Dynasty, and the side halls display the sacrificial utensils. There are two stone steles standing in the east and west. In the west is the famous stone carving stele in Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), and the inscriptions were inscribed by Li Si (a famous Prime Minister in Qin Dynasty) in 219 B.C.

Tiankuang Hall

Tiankuang Hall is the main building of Dai Temple. It was built in 1009. With an area of 970 square meters, the hall is 22 meters high, and it features multilayer eave and hiproof covered by yellow glazed tiles. Tiankuang Hall shrines the statue of God Mt. Taishan. There is a huge mural painted on the north, east and west walls, which describes a spectacular scene for God Mt. Taishan taking a tour of inspection. It is named as one of the three ancient palaces in China.

Bronze Pavilion and Iron Tower

On the east and west sides of the back courtyard of Dai Temple are two outstanding ancient relics. In the east is Bronze Pavilion. It was built in 1613 with 4.4 meters long and 3.4 meters wide. The pavilion is made of bronze and is gold-decorated, and it shrines the bronze statue of Bixiayuanjun.

In the west is Iron Tower. It was built in Ming Dynasty and has thirteen layers originally, but it was ruined in the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945). Now it only has three layers.

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