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Yongle Gong
Yongle Gong is a historic Taoist temple complex (Despite misleadingly referred to as Yongle Palace due to literal translation) in Ruicheng, Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ... Province, notable for its Yuan dynasty murals. Built over a period of 128 years between 1240 and 1358 and dedicated to the Taoist saint of Lü Dongbin, the temple was originally located in Yongle Town some 15 miles west of its current site. It was dismantled and relocated piece-by-piece to the current location between 1958 and 1966 since construction of the Sanmenxia Dam flooded its original site. It was one of 180 sites listed as the first batch of Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level. References {{coord missing, Shanxi AAAA-rated tourist attrac ...
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Taoist
Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', 'path', or 'technique', generally understood in the Taoist sense as an enigmatic process of transformation ultimately underlying reality. Taoist thought has informed the development of various practices within the Taoist tradition and beyond, including forms of meditation, astrology, qigong, feng shui, and internal alchemy. A common goal of Taoist practice is self-cultivation, a deeper appreciation of the Tao, and more harmonious existence. Taoist ethics vary, but generally emphasize such virtues as '' effortless action'', ''naturalness'', ''simplicity'', and the three treasures of compassion, frugality, and humility. The core of Taoist thought crystallized during the early Warring States period (), during which the epigrammatic an ...
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Ruicheng County
Ruicheng County () is under the administration of the Yuncheng City, in the southwest of Shanxi province, China. It is the southernmost county-level division of Shanxi, with the Yellow River demarcating its border with the provinces of Henan to the south and Shaanxi to the west. The population as of the 2020 census is around 350,000. Ruicheng is home to Yongle Gong (), a Taoist temple complex noted for the wall paintings inside its three main halls. It was moved to Ruicheng in 1959 to preserve it when the Sanmenxia Dam was built, which was expected to put the town of Yongle, the previous location of the temple, under water. The temple is 4 km north of the town centre. The city is also known for its City God Temple and Guangrenwang Temple, the latter of which is the second oldest extant building in China. The Yellow River lies just south of Ruicheng, and Dayudu ( Yu the Great's Crossing) along the river bank is a notable scenic spot. A pumping station on the river doubles as ...
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Shanxi
Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi and Datong. Its one-character abbreviation is (), after the Jin (Chinese state), state of Jin that existed there during the Spring and Autumn period (). The name ''Shanxi'' means 'west of the mountains', a reference to its location west of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi borders Hebei to the east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west and Inner Mongolia to the north. Shanxi's terrain is characterised by a plateau bounded partly by mountain ranges. Shanxi's culture is largely dominated by the ethnic Han Chinese, Han majority, who make up over 99% of its population. Jin Chinese is considered by some linguists to be a distinct language from Mandarin and its geographical range covers most of Shanxi. Both Jin and Mandarin are spoken in Shanxi. ...
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Murals
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish adjective that is used to refer to what is attached to a wall. The term ''mural'' later became a noun. In art, the word began to be used at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1906, Dr. Atl issued a manifesto calling for the development of a monumental public art movement in Mexico; he named it in Spanish ''pintura mural'' (English: ''wall painting''). In ancient Roman times, a mural crown was given to the fighter who was first to scale the wall of a besieged town. "Mural" comes from the Latin ''muralis'', meaning "wall painting". This word is related to ''murus'', meaning "wall". History Antique art Murals of sorts date to Upper Paleolithic times such as the cave paintings in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave in Borneo (40,000–52,0 ...
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Lü Dongbin
Lü Dongbin is a legendary Chinese scholar and poet who lived during the Tang dynasty whose lifetime supposedly spanned two hundred and twenty years. Elevated to the status of an immortal in the Chinese cultural sphere by Daoists, he is one of the most widely known of the group of deities known as the Eight Immortals. Lü is also a historical figure and mentioned in the official history book ''History of Song''. He is widely considered to be one of the earliest masters of neidan, or internal alchemy. He is also depicted in art dressed as a scholar carrying a sword to dispel evil spirits. Character Lü Dongbin is usually portrayed as a scholarly, clever man with a genuine desire to help people obtain wisdom/enlightenment and to learn the Tao. However, he is often portrayed as having some character "flaws," not an uncommon theme for the colorful Taoist immortals, all of whom in general have various eccentricities: *He is portrayed as having bouts of drunkenness, which was not un ...
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Sanmenxia Dam
The Sanmenxia Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the middle-reaches of the Yellow River near Sanmenxia Gorge on the border between Shanxi province and Henan Province, China. The dam is multi-purpose and was constructed for flood and ice control along with irrigation, hydroelectric power generation and navigation. Construction began in 1957 and was completed in 1960. It is the first major water control project on the Yellow River and was viewed as a major achievement of the new People's Republic of China. Subsequently, its image was printed on the country's bank notes. However, due to sediment accumulation in the reservoir, the dam later had to be re-engineered and renovated. The effects from sediment, which include flooding upstream, have placed the dam at the center of controversy and criticism-related arrests by the Chinese government. History In response to centuries of flooding on the Yellow River, engineers initially proposed the Sanmenxia Dam in early 1935. In 1954, the Yellow ...
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Major Historical And Cultural Site Protected At The National Level
A national priority protected site is the highest-level national protection for immovable cultural relics in China. The designation was first created under the 1961 Provisional Regulations on the Protection and Management of Cultural Relics, which evolved into the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics. According to the 2002 Cultural Relics Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the National Cultural Heritage Administration of the State Council selects those with significant historical, artistic, and scientific value as national key cultural relics protection units. National key cultural relics protection units shall not be demolished; if they need to be relocated, they must be reported to the State Council for approval by applications from the people's government of the provincial administrative region. Statistics In 1999 it was reported that there were some 350,000 immovable cultural properties in China, of which 70,000 were protected at one of the three main lev ...
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Chinese Gods And Immortals
Chinese gods and immortals are beings in various Chinese religions seen in a variety of ways and mythological contexts. Many are worshiped as deities because Chinese folk religion, traditional Chinese religion is Polytheism, polytheistic, stemming from a Pantheism, pantheistic view that divinity is inherent in the world. The gods are energies or principles revealing, imitating, and propagating the way of heaven (, ''Tian''), which is the supreme godhead manifesting in the celestial pole, northern culmen of the starry vault of the skies and its order. Many gods are ancestors or men who became deities for their heavenly achievements. Most gods are also identified with stars and constellations. Ancestors are regarded as the equivalent of Heaven within human society, and therefore, as the means of connecting back to Heaven, which is the "utmost ancestral father" (, ). There are a variety of immortals in Chinese thought, and one major type is the ''Xian (Taoism), xian'', which is ...
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Major National Historical And Cultural Sites In Shanxi
Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in music, an interval, chord, scale, or key * Major sport competitions Major(s) or The Major may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Old Major, a pig in ''Animal Farm'' * Major Major Major Major, in ''Catch-22'' * The Major (''Hellsing'') * Major (Cinderella), a horse in Disney's ''Cinderella'' * Major Gowen or the Major, in ''Fawlty Towers'' * Motoko Kusanagi or the Major, in ''Ghost in the Shell'' Film, television, theatre and print * '' The Major'', a 1963 BBC natural history documentary film * ''The Major'' (film), a 2013 Russian action film * ''Major'' (film), a 2022 Indian biopic * ''Major'' (manga), a sports manga and anime series by Takuya Mitsuda * ''The Major'' (play), an 1881 American musical come ...
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Taoist Temples In China
Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', 'path', or 'technique', generally understood in the Taoist sense as an enigmatic process of transformation ultimately underlying reality. Taoist thought has informed the development of various practices within the Taoist tradition and beyond, including forms of meditation, astrology, qigong, feng shui, and internal alchemy. A common goal of Taoist practice is self-cultivation, a deeper appreciation of the Tao, and more harmonious existence. Taoist ethics vary, but generally emphasize such virtues as '' effortless action'', ''naturalness'', ''simplicity'', and the three treasures of compassion, frugality, and humility. The core of Taoist thought crystallized during the early Warring States period (), during which the epigrammatic and th ...
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