Guandi Temple Communist Youth League Street Jinan entrance

The Guandi Temple on Communist Youth League Street () is a historical temple dedicated to

Guan Yu Guan Yu (; ), courtesy name Yunchang, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on ...

in the Tianqiao district of

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

, Shandong Province, China. It is one of the three best-preserved Guanyu temples in the area of Jinan, the other two are Guandi Temple in the Water Lily Street and in Xianxi Alley ().

Layout

The Ximizhi Spring (), the 35th spring in the list of Jinan's "seventy-two famous springs" and a member of the Five Dragon Pool spring group is located in the courtyard of the temple. The building complex consists of two structures, the Mizhi Hall in the north and the Guandi Temple proper in the south.

History

According to the tradition, the grand eunuch

An Dehai An Dehai (, 1844 – 12 September 1869) was a palace eunuch at the imperial court of the Qing dynasty. In the 1860s, he became the confidant and favourite of Empress Dowager Cixi and was subsequently executed as part of a power struggle betwe ...

, a confidant of the

Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu people, Manchu Nara (clan)#Yehe Nara, Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese nob ...

, was beheaded near the Ximizhi Spring on 12 September 1869 on orders of the governor

Ding Baozhen Ding Baozhen () (1820–1886), courtesy name Weihuang (), was a Chinese official who lived in the late Qing dynasty and served as the governor of Sichuan Province. The Sichuan dish Kung Pao chicken (or Gongbao chicken) was named after his nickn ...

, who followed an edict of the

Empress Dowager Ci'an Empress Xiaozhenxian (12 August 1837 – 8 April 1881), of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Niohuru clan, was a posthumous name bestowed to the wife and empress consort of Yizhu, the Xianfeng Emperor. She was Empress consort of Qing from 1 ...

. The execution for falsely claiming to be on an imperial mission was likely part of a power struggle between the Empress Dowager Cixi and

Prince Gong Yixin (11January 1833– 29May 1898), better known in English as PrinceKung or Gong, was an imperial prince of the Aisin Gioro clan and an important statesman of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in China. He was a regent of the empire from 1861 to 18 ...

.Evelyn S. Rawski, The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, University of California Press, Feb 5, 2001
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Location

The temple is located on Communist Youth League Street, to the west of the

Five Dragon Pool The Five Dragon Pool () is a culturally significant pond fed by artesian karst springs in the city of Jinan, Shandong Province, China. It is one of the best known springs among the 72 famous springs of Jinan. The spring that supplies the ...

References

Guandi temples Buildings and structures in Shandong Tourist attractions in Jinan {{china-stub

Layout

History

Location

See also

References