【Introduction】

Yuanching Guan, a Daoist temple, is dedicated to worship of the Jade Emperor. It was built in 1763 with donations by immigrants from seven counties, such as Jinjiang, and among others, in the area of Quanzhou (called Wenling in the old days). Damaged by an earthquake in 1848, it was renovated during the reigns of emperors Tongzhi and Guangxu, and the reconstruction provided a foundation for its present-day arrangement featuring five bays, three halls and two corridors. The front hall is a five-bay structure. The central room is adjoined to the side and outermost rooms. The decorative cylinders over the door of each room are highlighted by dragons, lions, and toads respectively. On the door of the central room, colored portraits of the Heavenly Lords Zhao and Wang appear. This is a unique deviation from the door gods usually seen at other temples. Two bluestone lions with vivacious expressions and distinctive postures stand over the front door. The three bays in the middle of the front hall are topped by a slightly elevated gable-on-hip roof. Lower split eaves were used for the outermost rooms on the two sides of the hall. In the rear, a performance stage connecting to a hall was built with a round-ridge gable-on-hip roof complete with corner pillars. This design is also quite unique. The main hall accompanied with an obeisance hall is a gable-on-hip structure with layered eaves. The space inside is well organized and show dexterous use of brackets under the eaves. In the Japanese colonial period, because Tiangongtan Lane (today's Chenling Road) was under expansion, part of the right side of the main and rear halls was demolished. This caused the outer wall to be retracted and the main wood structure was exposed. Despite some renovations afterwards, unfortunately, a fire occurred in 2006 again and damaged the main hall and its wall corridors. In 2011, further repairs and restorations were completed.

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