Hebei Travelogue: Beiyue Temple in Quyang
On the morning of April 14, 2023, after breakfast at the hotel, I stored my luggage at the front desk and went out to the intersection to wait for the shuttle bus to Quyang. Buses depart from the bus station in front of the train station, roughly every 20 minutes. The bus came at 8:40 am, fare 9 yuan per person. We arrived at Quyang Bus Station at 9:30 am, still about 3 kilometers from Beiyue Temple. I got off and hired a tricycle, 2 yuan per person, and reached Beiyue Temple at nearly 10 am.
I originally thought Beiyue Temple was at Mount Heng, the Northern Sacred Mountain. It was only after visiting Mount Heng that I learned Beiyue Temple isn't there, but in Quyang, Hebei. That's what brought me to Quyang—to fill this gap in my experience of the Northern Sacred Mountain.
China has five famous mountains known as the Five Sacred Mountains: Mount Tai in Shandong (Eastern Sacred Mountain), Mount Hua in Shaanxi (Western Sacred Mountain), Mount Heng in Hunan (Southern Sacred Mountain), Mount Heng in Shanxi (Northern Sacred Mountain), and Mount Song in Henan (Central Sacred Mountain). Each mountain has a temple dedicated to its deity. I had visited four of these temples, but not the Beiyue Temple. Yet why is there a Beiyue Temple in Quyang, Baoding, Hebei?
Beiyue Temple is located in the county seat of Quyang, Baoding, Hebei. It was first built during the Jingming and Zhengshi periods of Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty (500–508 AD), with a history of over 1,500 years. From the Han Dynasty to the 17th year of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty (1660 AD), feudal emperors would perform remote worship of the Northern Sacred Mountain here, hence the name 'Beiyue Temple' (Temple of the Northern Sacred Mountain). But the Northern Sacred Mountain, Mount Heng, is in Hunyuan County, Shanxi, while Beiyue Temple is in Quyang, Hebei—a fact not widely known. In ancient times, the Northern Sacred Mountain was not the current Mount Heng in Shanxi, but Damao Mountain in Hebei. It wasn't until the Qing Dynasty that the imperial court moved the designation to Shanxi. According to research, the system of the Five Sacred Mountains began with Emperor Wu of Han, and Emperor Xuan of Han designated: Mount Song in Henan as the Central Sacred Mountain, Mount Tai in Shandong as the Eastern, Mount Hua in Shaanxi as the Western, Mount Tianzhu in Anhui as the Southern, and Mount Heng in Hebei as the Northern. Later, the Southern Sacred Mountain was changed to Mount Heng in present-day Hunan, a custom established after the Sui Dynasty. Historically, the title of Northern Sacred Mountain long belonged to Damao Mountain, at the junction of Fuping, Tangxian, and Laiyuan counties in Hebei. Damao Mountain was anciently called Mount Heng, also known as Shenxian Mountain or Shenjian Mountain.
Worship of the Five Sacred Mountains dates back to antiquity; legend says that Emperors Yao and Shun performed fengshan sacrifices on them. In the first year of the Shenjue era under Emperor Xuan of Han (61 BC), regular rituals for worshipping the Five Sacred Mountains and Four Waterways were institutionalized, and the Beiyue Shrine was built in Quyang to worship the Northern Sacred Mountain.
Beiyue Temple is grand in scale, with clusters of ancient buildings. According to the 'Map of Beiyue Temple' carved in the 26th year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, preserved in the temple, the site originally covered 173,982 square meters, with a north-south axis over 500 meters long. Only the central portion remains today, covering 80,000 square meters. The main structures are arranged in a '田' shape, facing south along a central axis. From south to north, they are: Dengyue Bridge, Shenmen Gate, Paifang Archway, Chaoyue Gate, Yuxiang Pavilion, Lingxiao Gate, Sanshan Gate, Feishi Hall, Dening Hall, Houzhai Gate, and Wangyue Pavilion. Currently, Shenmen Gate, Houzhai Gate, and Wangyue Pavilion no longer exist; only ruins remain of Feishi Hall and the Paifang Archway. On either side of the axis, symmetrically arranged, are East and West Zhaofu Gates, stele corridors, stele towers, and stele pavilions.
The temple also houses the Quyang Museum. Established in 1998 and opened to the public in 2001, it is a courtyard-style building imitating Ming and Qing architecture, covering 1,800 square meters with a floor area of 730 square meters. To promote the Beiyue cultural brand and better leverage the museum's function, in 2011 the Quyang Museum was renovated and upgraded into the Beiyue Culture Exhibition Hall. The museum has three exhibition rooms, using fine pictures and lively displays to showcase the natural and cultural landscapes of ancient Beiyue Damao Mountain, as well as the architecture, murals, and steles of Beiyue Temple, offering visitors a more direct understanding of the origin, development, and profound essence of Beiyue culture.
Unfortunately, at the time of my visit, Beiyue Temple was undergoing renovations. Several major buildings were cordoned off, making it impossible to take photos. Fortunately, the murals and statues inside were still accessible for viewing, so the trip was not in vain.
At 11:30 am, I finished my tour of Beiyue Temple. I hired a tricycle for 5 yuan to the bus station, caught the 11:40 am bus back to Dingzhou Railway Station. From there, I took bus No. 1 and arrived at Wenbo Park at 1:10 pm, planning to explore the ancient city of Dingzhou.
