Yougle Palace Travel Guide

Yuncheng Yongle Palace is the most magnificent Taoist mural in China. There are 1000 square meters of exquisite giant murals painted 700 years ago.

Yongle Palace was started construction in 1247 AD and was completed in 1358, the Yuan Dynasty; it took over 110 years to build. The existing main halls were moved to the site now due to the Sanmenxia Reservoir, they are Wuji Gate, Sanqing Hall, Chunyang Hall and Chongyang Hall. In Yongle Palace, the most valuable treasure is the exquisite murals on the walls of halls and gate. The characteristic of Yongle Palace Mural are huge size (more than 2 meters high), numerous images of Taoist god without similar, magnificent colors and smooth painting lines.

Sanqing Hall

Sanqing Hall is the main hall of Yongle Palace. It is for dedicating the three initial Taoist deities of Taiqing, Shangqing and Yuanqing. The murals on the wall of Sanqing Hall cover an area of 400 square meters. There are 289 deities in total; they are arranged according to the form of honor guard around the 28 main deities. The images of the whole mural are complex, the painting lines of clothing are smooth and beautiful, the males are unconstrained, the females are elegant. The whole mural scene shows "Pilgrimage to the Three Initial Deities" in Taoist etiquette. The mural in Sanqing Hall was the best of Yongle Palace Murals.

Chunyang Hall
Chunyang Hall was built to worship one of the most famous Taoist gods from normal people named Lv Dongbin. 52 murals narrate the story from his birth to becoming an immortal and taking across sentient beings universally. And the best murals of the 52 is on the back side wall, telling the story of "Zhong liquan guided Lv Dongbin to do Taoist practice".

Chongyang Hall
Chongyuang Hall was built to worship Wangchongyang who was the leader of Quanzhen sect Taoism and his disciples. 49 murals narrate the story of Wang's birth to becoming an immortal and taking across his disciples. In Chongyang Hall mural depicts a large number of scenes of daily life at the painting period, such as combing, dressing, drinking tea, cooking, farming, fishing, firewood cutting, teaching, medicine gathering, gossiping, etc. In addition, there are also scenes of worship and sacrifice. The images of ordinary people, aristocrats and emperors are from a huge contacts in the murals.

The Yongle Palace murals are not only the peak of Chinese mural art which are with high artistic value, but also let us have a choice to discover the folk life, culture and social level of the Yuan Dynasty. It is a "must see" for those who love painting arts.