The best-preserved memorial building of Mi Fu.

Mi Gong Temple, located in Fancheng District, Xiangyang City, formerly known as Mijia Temple, is a temple commemorating Mi Fu, an outstanding calligrapher and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty of my country. It is also the best-preserved Mi Fu memorial building in the country.

The Mi Gong Temple was first built during the Dadu period of the Yuan Dynasty. It was expanded during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and later renamed the Mi Gong Temple. Ginkgo and other trees were planted. Later, Mi Wanzhong, the 16th generation grandson of the Beiwan clan, the Jiangxi Censor and calligrapher, came to Xiangyang to pay homage to his ancestors and wrote the "Preface to the Mi Family Genealogy" and "Preface to the Temple" for them. In the 32nd year of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the 18th generation grandson Mi Zan and his son raised funds for repairs, established clan rules, and appointed special personnel to manage it. Every year on the 15th day of the fifth lunar month, the ethnic group gathers together to worship, a tradition that has been passed down for hundreds of years. By the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty, the ancestral hall was severely damaged. The clan members and the government raised funds to repair the gatehouse, worship hall, Baojinzhai, etc. In the first year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, Shan Maoqian, the Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion, inscribed the plaque "Mi Gong Temple", which is still in use today.

Mi Gong Temple covers an area of ​​about 16,000 square meters and consists of three building groups. The central axis is the main building pavilion, the worship hall, the stele corridor, the Jinzhai, and the Yanggaotang. The hall displays a large number of calligraphy and stone carvings by the Four Great Masters of Song Dynasty. On both sides of the central axis are the East Garden and the West Garden. There are many plaques and couplets hanging in the worship hall and Baojinzhai, all of which are inscriptions by later generations. On the walls of the corridors are more than one hundred stone carvings of calligraphy by Mi Fu, Huang Tingjian, Zhao Mengfu, Cai Xiang and others. The temple still preserves Yuan Dynasty bricks, ancient trees from the Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty buildings, stone carvings, 45 steles built during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, and 145 other steles.

Mi Gong Temple is an important database for studying Mi's calligraphy and painting art and the history of Chinese calligraphy. It is known as "a thousand-year-old holy land for calligraphers and a model of the Southern School of Calligraphy"!

[House]Address: No. 2 Yanjiang Avenue, Fancheng District, Xiangyang City
[Metro]Transportation: Take bus No. 38/67 and get off at the No. 1 Municipal Hospital
[Compass]Time: 8:00-18:00 in summer, 8:00-17:30 in winter
[Purse]Per capita: 25 yuan

Post by Levi123~Wright | Sep 21, 2024