The
original site of Yongle
Palace was in the town
of Yongle southwest of
Ruicheng County on the
banks of the Yellow
River (Haunghe). When
construction of the
Sanmen Gorge Reservoir
was begun in 1958, the
town of Yongle was
within the area to be
inundated. The
government organized
experts and workers to
move the palace to its
present site at Longquan
Village north of
Ruicheng city in the
southwestern part of
Shanxi Province. The
work of moving the
palace was completed in
seven years, and it was
reconstructed completely
according to the
original design.
Priceless murals of the
Yuan Dynasty were thus
preserved.
The palace, a Taoist
temple, was first built
in the fourteenth
century. Its main
buildings are Dragon and
Tiger Hall (Longhudian),
Taoist Trinity Hall
(Sanqingdian), Pure Sun
Hall (Zhongyangdian),
and Double Sun Hall
(Chongyangdian). On
display at Trinity Hall
are Yuan Dynasty murals
with more than three
hundred lively, brightly
painted figures. The
murals in Pure Sun and
Double Sun halls are
picture stories about
Taoism, rich in fairy
tales and full of life.
The number of murals in
Yongle Palace is second
only to Dunhuang in
China’s northwestern
province of Gansu. Rich
in content, superb in
execution, the murals
are not only artistic
treasures, but also
valuable resource
materials for the study
of the history of Taoism
and Yuan society. |