What is Central Temple Records?

To the north of the red wall of the Dazheng Hall of the Forbidden City and to the south of the Xinglong Family (formerly East Asia Commercial Plaza, Hongqiangzi Hutong in Chunmingli, Shenhe District), there is a "far away in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a hub for the whole city, with a long history" "The ancient temple. This ancient temple is not big, with only one room. It is a hard-mounted style building with blue bricks and small tiles and a single eaves. It has doors and windows, strong gables, pressed bricks, corner pillars and other places with carved flowers, birds, pine, etc. Patterns such as deer are clearly visible. This temple was the central temple of the ancient city of Shenyang during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The central temple was built in the 21st year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1388) by Min Zhong, the commander of Shenyang Zhongwei City, when he was building the Shenyang Zhongwei Brick City on the old site of Tucheng on Shenyang Road in the Yuan Dynasty. It is more than 600 years old, and was built 237 years earlier than the Shenyang Forbidden City.

The Shenyang Zhongwei City at that time was nine miles and thirty steps in circumference. The city wall was two feet and five feet high. The outer wall of the city wall was built with large green bricks, and the inner wall was a stone-based earth wall. In the middle of the four walls, there are four gates, east, west, north and south, with towers and urns respectively. The east gate is called Yongchang Gate, the west gate is called Yongning Gate, the south gate is called Baoan Gate, and the north gate is called Anding Gate (when the city was rebuilt during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Anding Gate was renamed Zhenbian Gate. At that time, there were east-west, north-south cross streets in Shenyang Zhongwei City. , leading to four city gates. In the center of the cross street, there is a temple covering an area of ​​nearly half an acre, surrounded by green brick walls. There is a temple facing south in the courtyard, with a red door and tile roof, and a bell tower in front of the temple. Because the temple was built in the middle of the ancient city, it was called the central temple.

The ancients built the central temple for the purpose of city defense and for the sake of "feng shui" and good luck. The temple was the hub of the entire city in Shenyang Zhongwei City in the Ming Dynasty. It shielded the four facing gates from east to west and south to each other, forming a "T"-shaped entrance and a "bag-shaped road", which played a defensive role in the ancients. In the mind, the central temple is a place where gods hope to protect the city and the lives of the people. The ancients believed that the central temple can "protect the whole city and ward off bad luck." In the Taoist temple, the temple body is made of tiles and double eaves. The green bricks on the top of the gate are engraved with the words "central temple" with willow bones and ribs. There are more than ten square plaques on the strong heads and pressed bricks and corner pillars of the east and west gables. Carved with exquisite craftsmanship and lifelike auspicious paintings such as "Phoenix Playing with Peonies", "Auspicious Deer" and "Songs and Cranes Prolonging the Year", among the red lacquer doors and windows, on the sacred table from east to west, is the statue of Emperor Guan Yu. , on both sides are the statues of the city god, the god of wealth, the mountain god and the land god.

In the tenth year of Tianming (1625) of the Later Jin Dynasty (Qing Dynasty), after Nurhaci moved the capital to Shenyang, he also planned the city construction around this temple. . To the south of the central temple, he built Dugong Hall (also known as Dayamen, Dazheng Hall) and Shiwang Pavilion for handling government affairs. At the north end of the temple, he built the North Gate (Mingzhen Side Gate, commonly known as Jiumen). Not far from here in the southwest, the Khan Palace where he and his concubines lived was built. Nurhaci had to pass through the central temple every day when he went to court to govern. After Huang Taiji came to the throne, he expanded the city of Shenyang and changed the cross street into Qingzi Street. He designed the capital city according to the "Book of Changes" with a temple as the center. He used this "central temple as Tai Chi, the bell and drum tower as the two instruments, the four towers as the four elephants, the eight gates as the Bagua, the Guo Yuan as the sky, and the city as the square. The ground, the turrets and watchtowers each have three floors, each with thirty-six symbols of Tiangang, the inner pool has seventy-two symbols of earth evil spirits, the turrets and watchtowers of ***12 represent the four seasons, and the gates and barbicans have three floors each of twenty-four qi." (Qing Miao Run Fu's "Miscellaneous Notes on Beijing"). This shows the important position and role of the Central Temple in the ancient city of Shenyang during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Central Temple was built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Later, it was repaired and renovated in the 22nd year of Jiajing (1543) and the 26th year of Wanli (1598) during the Tiancong and Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty, and in 1938 during the Republic of China. The Fengtian Provincial and Municipal Chamber of Commerce saw that the temple was in disrepair and its appearance was in a state of disrepair. They mobilized more than 60 businesses in the middle street to raise funds for repairs. Construction started in July 1938 and lasted two months. The temple had a new look and a stone inscription was erected. It records the time of temple construction, sacrifices and repairs, etc., which is of great value for studying the orientation, construction, scale of Shenyang City, and Shenyang's history, culture, commerce, architecture, folk customs, etc.

In 1966, the temple was once used as a private residence.

In 1995, the East Asia Commercial Plaza was built, and all the Ming Dynasty cross streets around the central temple were turned into a square. Later, before the construction of the East Asia Mall adjacent to the Central Temple started, the Municipal Cultural Relics Management Office reached an agreement with the construction unit, and East Asia Plaza would fund the renovation of the Central Temple, so that this Shenyang treasure and precious historical cultural relics could be restored to their former glory. Heroic.