The Historical Evolution of Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace

Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace, formerly known as Eight Immortals Temple, was built in an unknown era.

Beneath the first sign of Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace, there is a stone tablet of "Chang 'an Restaurant" engraved with "Where Mr. Lv Chunyang and Mr. Zhong Liquan met". This stone tablet refers to the legend that the Eight Immortals Lv Chunyang (Lv Dongbin) met Zhong Liquan. According to fairy tales, Lu Zuchu met Zhong Liquan in the Chief Restaurant, was enlightened by Zhong Liquan and enlightened by Lv Zu, praying for the world. After breaking up, Zhong Liquan tried his heart ten times. Later generations set up a shrine here as a memorial. This is a statement about the origin of the Eight Immortals Palace. Another way of saying this is according to the records in Xi An Zhou Zhi by Qianlong and Xianning County Zhi by Jiaqing: "In Song Dynasty, Zheng Sheng saw the Eight Immortals appear here and worshipped them for building a temple."

Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace is the seat of Xingqing Palace in Tang Dynasty. A Mirror of True Fairy Wind and Taoism in Past Dynasties shows that Yan Lu met Zhong Liquan in Huichang, Tang Wuzong, and became a Taoist because of Huang Liang's dream. This is the origin of the story of the Eight Immortals. The Eight Immortals are the legendary Eight Immortals in Taoism, namely, Han Zhongli, Zhang, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Han Xiangzi and Cao Guojiu.

During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Quanzhen Taoism built a large-scale project here and named it the Eight Immortals Temple. At this time, the building of the Eight Immortals Temple was already quite large. In the first year of Yuan Dynasty to Zhengzheng, King Anxi was busy with his brother's worship, and because of "praying for his heirs, he ordered the general manager to play the role of Mi Guifei to repair the temple.

During the Chenghua period in Ming Xianzong, the immortal King of Qin and Zhu Shang dreamed of the Eight Immortals at night, so they carried out a comprehensive maintenance of the Eight Immortals Temple and wrote the "Penglai" plaque. During Zheng De's reign in the Ming Dynasty, thunder rose from the buddhist nun, and a magical image appeared in the clouds. Taoist custom built the Eight Immortals Hall here and added the Lei Zu Hall. The Taoist Ten-Square Jungle Temple was formed in the Ming Dynasty, which is the main place for believers in several provincial roads in northwest China to impart and learn Taoist knowledge. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Immortals Temple was destroyed by war.

In the early years of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty, local scholars raised funds to revive the Eight Immortals Temple, invited famous Taoist priests as abbots, rebuilt the corridor of the main hall, expanded the east lateral courtyard, and opened an altar in the Eight Immortals Temple, making the Eight Immortals Temple a jungle of Quanzhen religion. At its peak, it covered an area of nearly 100 acres, with overlapping palaces, terraced fields and endless incense. At that time, Mrs. Shaanxi Governor prayed for God's recovery and donated money to build the Doum and Dragon and Tiger Hall. Taoist priests bought more than 200 mu of land with the raised funds, and later planted hundreds of pines and cypresses under the auspices of Li. In the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Taoist Gao and Dong Qingqi carried out large-scale maintenance. In the 11th year of Jiaqing (1806), Dong Qingqi, the "barefoot Dong Zhenren" of the Eight Immortals Temple, reorganized the ten-square system and built a new west courtyard. During the Daoguang period (1821-1850), the Palace of the Eight Immortals was rebuilt. According to Ten Faces of the Jungle in the 12th year of Daoguang (1832), "After Dong Qingqi, Han and Liu Helun opened the altar to release the precepts, and Zhu Jiao started the West Garden." In the early years of Tongzhi, the war destroyed nave and all Cooper. After ten years of tongzhi (187 1), the Taoist Liu Yong town was restored.

In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), during the Gengzi Incident, Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi took refuge in Chang 'an and lived in saionji, the Eight Immortals Temple abbot Li Zongyang was named "a real person with a purple robe and a jade crown", and he gave 1,200 silver to expand the palace view. Empress dowager cixi gave the title of "Jade Qing is the way to the top", and Guangxu imperial book "Biography of Bao Xian" was inscribed. Empress Dowager Cixi named it "xi Dongguan Qingmen Eight Immortals Longevity Palace". Since then, the name of the Eight Immortals Palace has continued, and Cixi also gave Taoist priests two imperial staffs.

During the Revolution of 1911, Ding Qian, deputy commander of the Qin and Han military government, died in Weinan, and the military government held a public sacrifice in the temple.

In the early years of the Republic of China, in order to support local education, the Eight Immortals Temple of Heaven set up a voluntary school with temple property, with more than 65,438,000 students. When Yang Hucheng was in charge of Shaanxi government, he tried his best to protect the Taoist heritage because he respected the way of Huang Lao. In the 22nd year of the Republic of China (1933), with the support of General Yang Hucheng and others, the hospital superintendent Tang Xuan renovated the temple and erected a monument on it. In the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), General Yang Hucheng took the lead in donating money, and Yu Youren, Sun and Dai Chuanxian actively participated. , to promote the Xi industrial and commercial circles and * * * to raise more than 24,000 yuan to help Tang Xuan Hospital to carry out comprehensive maintenance of all temples. Later, Taoist Guo Hexi changed the wooden archway into a brick archway. At this point, the scale of Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace has been finalized, including four groups of buildings: the Central Hall, the East Courtyard, the West Courtyard and the West Garden. By the end of the Republic of China, Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace was still the largest Taoist temple in Xi 'an, covering an area of more than 730 mu, with a resident Taoist priest 108. Other small temples on the triangle slope of Chang 'an, such as Changchun Temple, Hui Zhen Andian Temple and Lantian Xiangzi Cave, were all included in the lower house.

In the early days of the founding of New China, the building of Wanshou Baxian Palace was protected and 1952 was repaired by the government. During the land reform movement, according to the actual number of Taoist priests, the people's government left 126 mu of land to Wanshou Baxian Palace, and the rest was distributed to nearby farmers. 1in the autumn of 955, an agricultural production cooperative was established with Wanshou Baxian Palace as the unit, and it was changed to a senior agricultural production cooperative the following year. 1958 changed to production brigade under Xingqing Palace People's Commune. Before the "Cultural Revolution", the Taoist in this palace not only engaged in normal religious activities, but also engaged in production and self-support activities. From 65438 to 0957, the grain output of the whole palace reached 28600 kilograms, and the per capita grain output was more than 260 kilograms. In addition to Taoist rations, it also completed the task of paying public grain to the state and selling surplus grain. At that time, the agricultural cooperative was rated as the red flag unit of agricultural production in Xi. By 1958, due to the death, dismissal and secularization of some Taoist priests (15), the number of Taoist priests in Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace had dropped to 63. In that year, the total economic income reached more than 26,000 yuan (including agricultural income 180 15 yuan, rent of 4,200 yuan and incense of 4,000 yuan), and the per capita income was more than 400 yuan, which basically reached the level of self-sufficiency. By 1962, the number of Taoist priests had dropped to 50, with a total income of nearly 22,000 yuan, and more than 8,000 yuan a year excluding various expenses. The average monthly income of Taoist priests is the lowest in 7 yuan and the highest in 0 yuan. At the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", the Eight Immortals Palace in Wanshou was beaten, most of the scriptures were burned, stone tablets and statues were also greatly damaged, and Taoist priests left one after another. Later, Guan Gong Building was occupied by Xi 'an Machine Tool Attachment No.2 Factory, Xincheng Agricultural and Sideline Bureau Comprehensive Factory and other units. All the 15 Taoist priests who stayed in the palace took part in the comprehensive factory, and their religious activities stopped. 198 1 year 1 1 month, Xi's religious affairs office reported to the superior that Wanshou Baxian Palace "is a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit and the only Taoist temple in Xi, which should be protected. The occupied units should be vacated and managed by Taoist priests under the leadership of the Xi Religious Affairs Office. "

1982, according to the religious policy, the Eight Immortals Palace was approved by the State Council as a national key open temple, listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Shaanxi Province, and the "Eight Immortals Palace Management Leading Group" was established. 1985 All the factories were moved out of the occupied houses and halls. 19 1 year, Master Min Zhiting was elected as a prison and taught wind.

1985, all occupied units moved out, and the losses were compensated for more than 654.38+10,000 yuan. Since then, under the leadership of the Taoist temple management team, the Taoist temple building has been fully maintained. After 6 years, it cost 1.6 million yuan (including 360,000 yuan from the State Council Municipal Bureau of Religious Affairs and Xi City, 200,000 yuan from bank loans, and 1 10,000 yuan from fund-raising), * * * completed more than 8,200 square meters of ancient building maintenance project and built a commercial street with a total area of 2,000 square meters. Except for the West Garden, which needs to be re-planned, the temples in the Middle Road and the East-West Courtyard have been renovated. 1May, 199216th, the restoration ceremony, the opening ceremony of the statue and the promotion ceremony of the prison were held in Wanshou Baxian Palace, which was a great event in the contemporary history of Wanshou Baxian Palace. Since then, the religious management system of the palace has been improved, with a prison and eight deacons, and more than 40 Taoist priests live there.