Yuhuang Pavilion
Yuhuang Pavilion
Yuhuang Pavilion 1 , in Nuodeng village, Yunlong (“Cloud Dragon”) county, Dali prefecture.
Ceiling painting of the 28 Lunar Mansions 2
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“When I was a lad, there were over a hundred monks here.” “That’s hard to imagine now…” “Oh, yeah, it was busy.”
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 Stone lion
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“Just by that first pillar, right in front of you, there was this huge gong to call people to services. Over a meter across it was. It got melted down.” “In the Great Leap Forward?” “That’s right.” |
 Yuhuang pavilion - site where gong used to be
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“You see these? They’re stupas, they keep monk’s ashes in them. I remember when they smashed them.” “So who broke all this up? Did they send Red Guards down from Kunming?” “Ha! No… It was us in the village, the kids in school and the teachers. Times were different then. We were sweeping away the Four Olds 3 .”
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 Long live Chairman Mao |
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The old man points inside the main room of the pavilion, empty except for a makeshift ping pong table. “Those pillars used to have four dragons wrapped around them – you can still see the marks. And look out here on the door…” On the chipped blue paint you can just make out the characters “Long Live Chairman Mao.”
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“The main building here used to be a single room, its sixteen metres up to the ceiling there. Amazing when you think about it – they didn’t use a single nail. Not many around who can build like that any more. They wanted to turn the place into classrooms, so they divided it up into three floors.” |
 Yuhuang pavilion - girls dormitory
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 Old school house |
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“Just opposite is the old school house. They built a nice new one now, next to the Confucian Temple over there. “
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Lingxing gate
A Lingxing gate 4 , as is traditional, the first gate of the Confucian Temple.
- Yuhuang Pavilion 玉皇阁 yù huáng gé First built in the 16th century (the mid Ming dynasty), burnt down in the first half of the 19th century and then rebuilt in the twilight years of the Qing. You can get there by walking up through Nuodeng village, it’s at the top of the hill.
- Twenty Eight Lunar Mansions 二十八星宿 èr shí bā xīng xiù As shown in the ceiling mural in the first photo. The system of twenty eight lunar mansions is common to India, Arabia and China, dividing the night sky into twenty eight segments, each segment marking the moon’s position as it completes its twenty eight day cycle. In China, each of the segments and constellations within are represented by an animal or mythical creature.
- The Four Olds 四旧 sì jiù The Sweeping away the Four Olds campaign came in 1967 at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, targeting Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Essentially, it meant the destruction of any object or building of cultural, historical or religious significance. In Kunming the political fervour of the time was so intense that sites were razed to the ground, with not a brick left behind. However, in the countryside it was difficult to muster the manpower or the same intensity of feeling, and the structures of old buildings still remain.
- Lingxing gate 棂星门 líng xīng mén These free-standing portals are common as the first gateway in Confucian temples. Across the top are the characters for Soaring Dragon, Ascending Phoenix (腾蛟起凤 téng jiāo – qǐ fèng), said of one who has exceptional literary talents and is going places.
