|
 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. |
