Study Of The Literature And Remains Of The Yaowang Temple In Henan

The Medicine King Temple is a material entity that carries a tangible architectural space and an intangible spiritual space,and belongs to the immovable cultural relics of the tangible cultural heritage.It was an important place for people to pray for the blessing of the medicine sage to keep them safe and free from diseases in the era of low productivity and limited medical and health conditions,and has a high research value and historical and cultural value.During the 39th collective study of the Central Political Bureau,General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need to actively promote the conservation and utilisation of cultural relics and the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage,to explore the multiple values of cultural relics and cultural heritage,and to disseminate more value symbols and cultural products that carry Chinese culture and the Chinese spirit.As a cultural heritage of Chinese medicine,the Yaowang Temple building is a witness to the history of Chinese medicine and the embodiment of excellent Chinese medicine culture,and must be well protected,utilized and developed.Henan is a major province of TCM culture and possesses a deep cultural heritage of TCM.This study selects the Yaowang Temple in Henan as the research object,and intends to explore the historical state and current development of the Yaowang Temple in Henan through the use of literature excavation,cultural relics examination and field research,with a view to providing some reference for the conservation and development of the Yaowang Temple in Henan today,and helping to promote the revival of Chinese medicine culture.This paper takes the Yaowang Temple in the Henan region as the object of study and divides the thesis into three main parts.In the first part,the bibliographical research method is used to collect and read extensively historical documents such as the local chronicles of Henan,and to collate the contents related to the Yaowang Temple in the historical documents.At present,although the study of the Yaowang Temple in Henan’s local chronicles is a less-visited area of research,there is a wealth of content that can be explored in depth.After reading more than 500 local chronicles in Henan,the author has found that they mainly record the historical situation of the sites,construction time,construction personnel,building layout and worship of the temples in various regions of Henan.In addition,the author also concluded that temples were built in the following areas:Xiangfu County(now Xiangfu District,Kaifeng),Luoning County(formerly known as Yongning County),Song County,Mengjin County(now Mengjin District),Shanzhou Prefecture(now Shanzhou District,Sanmenxia City),Wenxiang County(now abolished and merged with Lingbao County),Lushi County,Mianchi County,Tongbai County,Zhengyang County,Queshan County,Xinyang Prefecture(now Xinyang City),Guangzhou County(now Huangchuan County),Ji County(now Weihui City),Hui County(now Huixian City),Fengqiu County,Wuzhi County,Mi County(now Xinmi City),Changge County(now Changge City)and Ruzhou(now Ruzhou City).However,only Hui County(now Huixian City)and Mi County(now Xinmi City)still have Yaowang temples in existence.Furthermore,by combing through the contents of the Yaowang temples in the Fangzhi,it was found that the Yaowang temples in different places were dedicated to different Yaowang.For example,the Medicine King Temple in Songxian is dedicated to Qibo and the Lu doctor Bianque,while the Medicine King Temple in Mengjin is dedicated to Sun Simiao and Wei Cizang,and the Medicine King Temple in Huixian is dedicated to Hua Tuo,Sun Simiao and Wei Cizang.In addition to this,the people who organise the construction of the temples vary from region to region.Some were built by government officials,such as those in Queshan County,Xinyang Prefecture,Guang Prefecture,Ji County and Changge County.Some temples were built by donations from medicine merchants,such as Hui County.Others were created by the medical profession through donations and fund-raising,such as in Fengqiu County.The rest,however,are known to have been built in some counties,such as Ruzhou,where seven temples were built,and Mianchi and Wenxiang counties,where three temples were built.The second part of the study is to use the method of inter-evidence and complementarity of cultural relics and documents to examine the inscriptional material of the Yaowang Temple.This will not only complement and cross-check the documentary sources,but also provide a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the historical status of the Yaowang Temple in various regions of Henan.The author has collected a wide range of inscriptions related to the Yaowang Temple in Henan,and has collected a total of 17 inscriptions.According to this analysis,there are six inscriptions on the Yaowang Temple in the western part of Henan,mainly in the Luoyang area.In the south of Henan,there is one stone inscription related to the Medicine King Temple,in Jingziguan Town,Xichuan County,Nanyang City.In northern Henan,there are six inscriptions related to the Medicine King Temple,located in Bo’ai and Wuzhi counties of Jiaozuo City,Qinyang City under the administration of Jiaozuo City,Hui County of Xinxiang City,and Linzhou of Anyang City.In central Henan,there are four inscriptions on the Yaowang Temple,mainly in Xinmi City.It is also known from the inscriptions that there were temples built in Songxian,Yanshi,Xin’an,Yichuan,Jingziguan,Bo’ai,Wuzhi,Qinyang,Huixian,Linzhou and Xinmi,but only Yanshi,Huixian(now Huixian),Linzhou and Mi County(now Xinmi)still have temples,Only the wooden pagoda building remains of the Medicine King Temple in Qingyang.In the third part,field research was used to investigate the remains of the Yaowang temples in Henan,while collecting relevant pictures and texts,and interviewing relevant people in the process of research to understand the research subjects from multiple perspectives.The author conducted in-depth research on the Yaowang temples in Jiyuan City,Li Guizuo Village in Shanyang District,Jiaozuo City,and Guancheng Huizu District,Zhengzhou City.It is not possible to ascertain the date of construction of the Yaowang Temple in Jiyuan City.In March 1990,the temple was moved to the east of the village under the leadership of the head of the association,and in 2010 the temple was demolished due to the planning of a building,leaving only a monument and a stone.However,in March 2011,the temple was rebuilt and located in the west of the village.The restored Yaowang Temple is magnificent,simple and elegant,and now has a mountain gate,a Yaowang Hall and six stone tablets.The Yaowang Temple in Jiaozuo is a key cultural relic protection unit in Henan Province.Inside the temple,there are a mountain gate,the Hall of the Medicine King,the Hall of the Spiritual Heavenly Treasures,the Hall of the Old Mother,the Hall of Huai Cao,the Hall of the Three Old Ancestors,the Hall of Chinese Medicine Culture,the Palace of Mercy,the Hall of the Ancestors,the National Medical Hall and the Henan Huai Cao Medicine Health Management Co.In front of the Medicine King Hall,there is a side cypress and a Tang Dynasty Turbine Spirit Tablet,as well as an incense burner,and a Medicine King Temple Grand Hall Tablet,with a statue of Sun Simiao in the hall.In front of the Hall of Heavenly Presence is a collection of the Eight Trigrams of the First Heaven,and on either side of the Hall are two stone tablets,one of which is a record of the renovation of the Temple and the other is a tablet of Sun Simiao.A number of branded paintings of famous doctors survive in the Hall of the Three Old Masters.Apart from this,the greenery in the Medicine King Temple is basically covered with Chinese herbs.The Yaowang Temple in Guancheng Hui District of Zhengzhou City has a history of several hundred years.In the autumn of 1946,the Nationalist army demolished the Yaowang Temple.However,in the spring of 2013,the villagers of Zhanmatun rebuilt the Medicine King Temple behind the original temple site.Later,as the temple was being built in the courtyard of the villagers’resettlement area,it was moved westwards to the current temple site in the summer of 2014.The temple is dedicated to Sun Simiao,the King of Medicine,and has a gate,three halls and three east rooms.There are incense burners and incense burners in the courtyard of the temple for people to burn incense and bow down.The innovation of this thesis lies in the fact that it is the first systematic and thematic study of the Yaowang temples in various regions of Henan.Through a comprehensive search of databases such as the National Library,Wanfang Database and CNKI,it is noted that no systematic thematic study has been conducted on the"Yaowang temples in Henan",and the only research results available only superficially study a particular Yaowang temple in Henan,while a systematic study of the Yaowang temples in the whole Henan region is not yet available.It has practical significance.As a medical and health relic and a cultural heritage of Chinese medicine,it is a witness to the history of Chinese medicine and is of great significance to the inheritance and development of Chinese medicine culture.It can also provide a reference for the protection,development and utilisation of Medicine King temples in Henan,and lay the foundation for the establishment of a cultural tourism platform for Chinese medicine in Henan.