Haizhou Guandi Temple Travel Guide
Haizhou Guandi Temple is the largest and most important temple enshrining and worshiping Guan Yu in ancient China. And now is the best place to sacrifice this god of wealth and business.
Guan Yu, a famous general in three kingdoms period (220-280 AD). After his death, emperors of all dynasties took him as the embodiment of loyalty and patriotism. Until Yongzheng Emperor of Qing Dynasty (1725 AD), repair the Guandi Temple in Haizhou where is the hometown of Guan Yu, and sacrifice this enshrining and worshiping temple, and give the temple the same sacrifice etiquette level as the Confucius Temple. from the time, Guandi Temple has the same position as Confucius Temple, and Guanyu was called Kwan Kung, honored to be the worship god. Till now, Chinese people believe that the awe-inspiring righteousness of Guan Yu could bring good luck and remove the infelicity, so this general is not only the god of worship now, but also the god of wealth and business. You might see a Guan Yu's statue is consecrated on the financial position of Feng Shui in a company.
Haizhou Guandi Temple is also called Kwan Kung Temple in Haizhou, it was first built in Sui Dynasty (589 AD), and it was expanded and reconstructed in Song and Ming Dynasties, until Yongzheng Emperor of Qing Dynasty, he made a decision to sacrifice Guan Yu as Confucius as a role model to military people and officer, he instructed to use 10 year to reconstruct the Guandi Temple. And now all the main buildings in the temple were built at that time. Now the Guandi Temple cover an area of 220000 square meters and has more than 200 rooms, except the buildings, there is a garden in the temple called Jieyi garden.
The main buildings in the temple include:
Zhi Gate
It is the gate only for emperor who came here to host the sacrifice. His officers and princes could not enter the Guandi Temple through this gate.
Wu Gate
It is almost the same position as the Wu Gate in Forbidden City in Beijing. Here is a five rooms hall with stone corridor. The reliefs in the hall are all about Guan Yu's subordinates and his life story.
Congning Hall
It is the main hall of the Guandi Temple, dedicated the sitting statue of Guan Yu and his weapon -- Green Dragon Crescent Blade. The horizontal inscribed board above the niche was write by the Emperor Kangxi, and other horizontal boards in the hall also were also write by Emperor Qianlong and Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty.
Qisu Qianqiu Memorial Archway
The largest archway in the Temple for the memory of Guan Yu.