Xunxian Temple

Xunxian Temple is a Daoist temple at Xianxing Mountain in what is now Guanqiantou Village, Jingqiao Town, Lishui District. In the list attached to the district government's notice publishing the third batch of district-level protected sites, intangible cultural heritage projects and transmitters (Li Zheng Fa [2017] No. 197), the temple is item 3, its period recorded as "清代" (Qing), at Guanqiantou Village, Jingqiao Town. The village name, Guanqiantou, means "in front of the temple" and corresponds to the temple's position.

The gap between the recorded period and the actual history must be stated first: the "Qing" in the register is a characterisation of the temple at the time of listing, whereas the gazetteers place its foundation and earlier rebuilds well before the Qing. The two are different layers and are set side by side here, neither used to overwrite the other.

The gazetteer record: history and four traces

The Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, juan 3, under temples:

尋仙觀在縣東南四十三里仙杏山。建於梁，有石壇、古三門基、仙人跡、洗眼池諸跡。按記中，山一名仙壇，唐周垂拱間，道士宋文干因山自然形似，修立仙壇三，琢石為茅君像。縣令王通遂以名鄉。聖歷二年，縣令岑仲林……

Translated: The Xunxian Temple stands at Xianxing Mountain, forty-three li to the southeast of the county seat. It was founded in the Liang. It has the altar, the base of an old gate, the traces of an immortal and the Eye-Washing Pool. As the record states, the mountain was also called Xiantan; in the Chuigong years of the Tang the Daoist Song Wengan, seeing that the natural shape of the hill resembled it, raised three altars and hewn a stone image of Lord Mao; the magistrate Wang Tong thereupon named the township after it. In the second year of the Shengli era, the magistrate Cen Zhonglin left an inscription on the altar stone.

The Guangxu Lishui County Gazetteer, juan 20:

尋仙觀縣東南四十三里仙杏山。梁建。有石壇、古山門基、仙人跡、洗眼池諸跡。唐垂拱閒，道士宋文翰立仙壇三，琢石為茅君像，縣令王通遂以名鄉。聖歷二年，縣令岑仲休有石壇銘。宋宣和中重建。三清殿咸淳士年修。

Translated: The Xunxian Temple, at Xianxing Mountain forty-three li to the southeast of the county seat. Founded in the Liang. It has the altar, the base of an old mountain gate, the traces of an immortal and the Eye-Washing Pool. In the Chuigong years of the Tang the Daoist Song Wenhan raised three altars and hewn a stone image of Lord Mao; the magistrate Wang Tong thereupon named the township after it. In the second year of the Shengli era, the magistrate Cen Zhongxiu composed an inscription on the altar stone. Rebuilt in the Xuande reign of Song. The Hall of the Three Pure Ones was repaired in a year of the Xianchun era.

Where the two can be read together: the same forty-three li to the southeast of the county seat; the same four traces; the same account of three altars raised in the Tang Chuigong years and of the magistrate naming the township; the same inscription on the altar stone in the second year of Shengli; the same rebuild in the Xuande reign of Song. Three points of divergence are set side by side: "古三門基" in Kangxi against "古山門基" in Guangxu; the Daoist's name as Song Wengan (Kangxi and Yu Qing) against Song Wenhan (Guangxu), a near-identical miscopy; and the magistrate of the second year of Shengli as Cen Zhonglin (Kangxi), Cen Zhongxiu (Guangxu) and Cen Junshen (in the Quan Song Wen transcription), three readings with no choice made among them.

The Xianchun rebuild and the record by Yu Qing

The Record on the Rebuilding of Xunxian Temple was written by Yu Qing, magistrate of Lishui in the Southern Song, for the rebuilding begun in the seventh year of the Xianchun era (1271). It is the earliest contemporaneous text known here on the temple's history. It recalls that the temple stood against Xianxing Mountain, also called Xiantan; that in the Tang Chuigong years the Daoist Song Wengan raised three altars because the hill's natural form resembled one; that in the Changshou era the magistrate Wang Tong named the township after it; that in the Shengli era the magistrate Cen hewn a stone image, "and the mountain got its name from this"; that in the Yuanfeng years of Song the Daoist Qian Yuzhou wished to rebuild the Hall of the Three Pure Ones from his own robes and bowl but did not succeed, and that his successor Rui Shenqi gathered labour and chose timber yet did not succeed either; and that in the Xuande reign Zhou Maomian, in charge of the temple, together with Wu Huncheng, first succeeded in creating the worship hall, with the help of "Zhao Sanjie Gongwu of Yifeng and Mao Yude Zai of Zanxian", after which it fell into ruin once more. The rebuild was funded by exhausting the coffers and soliciting subscriptions, and Zhao Sanjie's great-grandson Wang Guang, courtesy name Binfu, "gave funds and called for labour without stint".

The dates and the colophon: "Work began in the third month of the seventh year of Xianchun and was completed in the ninth month of the eighth." "On the jiazi day of the fifth month of the ninth year of Xianchun, Yu Guoqing recorded this, Xuanjiaolang, Inspector of Jiankang Prefecture and Magistrate of Lishui County…; Yuan Qiao, Principal of the County School, wrote the calligraphy; Wang Gongli, Assistant Magistrate of Lishui County, wrote the heading." That is, work began in the third month of 1271, was completed in the ninth month of 1272, and the record was set up in the fifth month of 1273. The record is signed "Yu Guoqing ji"; Chen Yuan's catalogue of Daoist metal and stone inscriptions and the Lishui114 forum post both give the colophon as "Yu Guoqing", and the two agree.

The measurements and the scenery as self-described in the record: "Examining the registers, the mountain lies forty-three li from the county, its circuit more than ten li, its height thirty zhang; on the summit are the apricot grove and the traces of an immortal." These are the Song-period measurements and the writer's own account, not to be taken as present-day surveyed data.

As to the stele: in the survey of metal and stone inscriptions it is recorded under the title "Record of the Third Hall of the Pure One at Xunxian Temple, at the temple itself in Lishui", of the form "a half rubbing, two chi three cun high, two chi five cun wide, twenty-two lines in regular script, characters nine fen in size" (Draft Gazetteer of Jiangsu Province, Records of Metal and Stone, juan 19). That is, when the survey was compiled in the late Qing and early Republic, the stele was recorded as standing in the temple and only a half rubbing was preserved. The stele title differs from the Rebuilding Record as received in the Quan Song Wen, and both titles stand. The recorded dimensions are in the Qing building standard of chi and cun and must not be converted directly into metres. A "half rubbing" describes the form of the rubbing and does not mean that only half the original stele survives.

The Xiantan Mountain inscription and the place-name

According to a report by Xinhua Daily Media Group (contributed by the Lishui District Local Gazetteer Office), the temple holds a Tang stele, the Xiantan Mountain Inscription, which was "collected as a cultural relic by the Nanjing Museum in the 1960s". The report states that the stele "has a round head, with an image of a deity carved along its upper edge and the inscription below, the inscription numbering 16 lines of 18 characters each, written by the Daoist Zhou Daoci and cut by Tang Yisi", and quotes:

溧水县寻仙观仙坛山道士宋文干，字上仙。以大唐垂拱五年，因山石自然形似，修立仙坛三所。洎长寿元年，县令王通，字元览，在任清勤，户口增益。因开三乡，遂以仙坛名乡，奉仙号里。

Translated: The Daoist Song Wengan of Xiantan Mountain at Xunxian Temple in Lishui County, courtesy name Shangxian. In the fifth year of the Chuigong era of the Great Tang, the natural form of the mountain stone resembling it, he raised three altars. Then in the first year of the Changshou era, the magistrate Wang Tong, courtesy name Yuanlan, was diligent in office and the households increased; opening three townships, he therefore named the township Xiantan and gave it the designation "village of the immortals".

Three points must be kept apart. First, "collected by the Nanjing Museum in the 1960s" is the destination of the collection and does not mean the stele is now in the Nanjing Museum; whether it was returned after collection, and whether the stone is still in the temple, are both unverified. Second, the Lishui114 post says the original Xiantan Mountain Inscription "is now all held by the Nanjing Museum", while the same post also says a replica made to the original's size stands beside the temple; these two accounts stand alongside the "collected" account, and neither the present state of the stele nor the replica is verified. Third, the magistrate Wang Tong's courtesy name appears as "Yuanlan" in Xinhua Daily and as "Xuanlan" in the forum transcription; both stand, undecided.

The place-name Xiantan also appears in the gazetteer account and the press report. Xiantan Village lies in the southeastern part of Jingqiao Town, north of Jianshan and south of Lingshan. An altar was set up there in the Tang Chuigong years, and in the Changshou era (692) the magistrate Wang Tong, opening three new townships, gave one of them near the temple the name Xiantan. The report states that volume 2 of the Guangxu gazetteer, under "villages and wards", records the village name Xiantan as belonging to Xiantan township; that volume was not read in this round, so this remains a report quoting the gazetteer and is not cited as gazetteer text.

After the Qing and the present state

A Lishui114 forum post transcribes the text of the Xunxian Temple stele set up by the Lishui district government in 2017. It records that the temple "is located in Xiantan Village, Jingqiao Town, first built in the Southern and Northern Dynasties in the Liang, with such traces as the stone altar, the traces of an immortal and the Eye-Washing Pool", and continues: "In the Xuande reign of the Northern Song the Hall of the Three Pure Ones was rebuilt; until the early years after Liberation there still stood such buildings as the Hall of the Three Officials and the Hall of Guanyin. By 1985 only the five-bay great hall remained. In 2007 the local villagers raised funds to rebuild the Hall of the Three Officials and erected a stage to its south."

These statements about 1985 and 2007 have not been corroborated by any government document or heritage-authority material located in this round, and can serve only as leads; any citation must say "according to the forum post quoting the stele". The stele's "first built in the Liang" agrees with the gazetteers' "founded in the Liang"; but Yu Qing's record states plainly that "the temple had an old record, now lost, and the beginning of it is unknown", so Liang foundation must not be asserted on the strength of that record. The stele also places the temple in Xiantan Village, a different village name from the "Guanqiantou Village" of the district list; both stand.

Open questions

• The temple is now in Guanqiantou Village, while the 2017 stele places it in Xiantan Village; the relation between the two villages and the administrative attribution of the site are unverified.
• The present state of the stele is unverified: the collection and return of the original Xiantan Mountain Inscription, whether the Hall of the Three Pure Ones stele is still in the temple, and the existence and date of the replica beside the temple are all untraced.
• Beyond the post's transcription of "by 1985 only the five-bay great hall remained" and "in 2007 the Hall of the Three Officials was rebuilt with a stage to its south", there is no second source for the number and form of the surviving halls, so the present layout is not described here.
• No material on the Ming and Qing history of the temple was found in the gazetteers or heritage records consulted.
• The deity worshipped, the line of Daoist incumbents and the scale of the incense offerings are not mentioned in any source.