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Huge achievement gained from excavation of Taoist Temple ruins in Jiangxi Province

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Date: 2018.01.23 Author: Phyllis Wang
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From June 2014, the excavation of Taoist Temple ruins at Great Shangqing Palace of Longhu Mountain in Jiangxi Province has been going on. On Jan. 21 2018, the excavation area has reached 5,000 square meters. A researcher from National Museum of China said that so far Great Shangqing Palace is the largest Taoist Temple with the highest grade, the clearest time sequence and the richest relics in China.

The Great Shangqing Palace – the largest Taoist Temple was built in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and has always been used until it was destroyed by a fire in 1930. Authorities said that based on current findings the palace covers an area of more than 300,000 square meters and they have already ascertained 180,000 square meters.

The ruins reflect the distribution and development of Taoism centers on the Great Shangqing Palace from the Song Dynasty, which demonstrates the huge influence of Taoism culture. The royal splendor from this palace was imitated from the Imperial Palace with yellow and green colored glaze, dragon pattern eaves tiles, bronze bell that weighs 9,999 jin (one jin less than the bronze bell in the Imperial Palace; 1 jin = 0.5 kg), exquisite censers and the like.

Authorities said that protecting these relics is very important for people to study and revive the history. Therefore researchers and archaeologists are going to protect the over 5,000 square meters excavation area by building a shed. It also lays a good foundation to build the Great Shangqing Palace Relic Park.