Guanshuo Li Family Temple Phoenix Hall

"Li's Family Temple Phoenix Hall" is located in jieyang city, Jiedong District, Yujiao Town, Guanshuo Township south of the association, sitting north to south, an area of 100 square meters, is the grand ancestral hall of Guanshuo Township.

The ancestor of Guanshuo Township originally lived in Luoyang, was a family of official eunuchs, and the ancestor Li Jun was a descendant of the Later Wei general Shen Guogongfa, and was the imperial attendant of Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty. He had three sons, and the descendants of the third son, Li Bo, in order to avoid war, moved their family from Luoyang to present-day Jianyang, Fujian, until the thirty-first year of Song Shaoxing (1161 AD), when the twelfth ancestor Li Ying and his brother Li Xuan traveled with jieyang County's famous Scenic Jingxingyuan (in the old village of present-day Guanshuo), knowing that it was an auspicious place, ordered his son Guo Gonggong to establish a foundation in Guanshuo. The 14th Emperor Changgong (a member of the First Year of the Southern Song Dynasty) built the "Phoenix Hall of the Li Family Temple" in the 8th year of Song Jiading (1215 AD), because the legend of Guanshuo Township was a phoenix, like the trend of the phoenix taking off, plus the "Jingxing Phoenix" sentence written by Han Yu in the second ancestor Li Bogong in the Middle Tang Dynasty, the hall was named "Phoenix Hall", and the plaque was inscribed by the Duke of Zichang and the main hall of the family temple was hung. Since then, Li's ancestors have settled in Guanshuo to cultivate and breed their descendants, through the Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republic of China, and have a history of 800 years.

The ancestral hall is a three-in-two-patio structure, built in accordance with the etiquette system of the previous family temple in the Tang and Song dynasties, full of local characteristics, and later for various reasons, it was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and for hundreds of years, the "Li Family Temple" has been the birthplace of the Li clan to worship ancestors and cultivate talents. Until the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Guanshuo Township fell, and the ancestral hall suffered unprecedented damage. In the following decades, due to the restrictions of many conditions, it has not been renovated. It was not until the beginning of 2010, at the initiative of Zhongxiang Xian, that the reconstruction of the ancestral hall began, and construction began on January 30, 2012, and the project was successfully completed in December.

The newly built "Li's Family Temple" is a palace-style building, simple and majestic, magnificent, the temple top cornices are soaring, the double phoenix dynasty peony inlaid porcelain, the stone carving in front of the door, the two stone lions at the door, the carving is exquisite, the door top stone plaque, the front Yang text "Li Family Temple", the back concave text "ShiZe Long" are imitated according to the original, and the surrounding areas are carved with auspicious patterns such as Fu, Lu, Shou, deer, crane, lin, etc., especially the roof ridge is inlaid with inlaid porcelain "Double Phoenix Dynasty Peony" to explain the meaning of "Phoenix Hall". Inside the temple, there are three courtyards and two patios, red rafters and green horns, and gilded overflowing. The word "Phoenix Hall" in the back hall is still the same, hanging high in the main hall, and the two sides are engraved with "The stars are brilliant, the phoenix takes off", and the couplet matches each other, which looks extraordinary. The various wood carvings in the family temple, inlaid with porcelain, are exquisite, highlighting the phoenix's soaring. The Central Hall has set up the "Guanshuo Township Anti-Japanese Memorial Hall," in which the stone plaque of the "Li Family Temple, which was destroyed and damaged in those years, is being displayed; images and texts are used in the hall to reproduce the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese aggressors in Guanshuo in those years, and to show the heroic deeds of the People of Guanshuo in indomitablely cooperating closely with the anti-Japanese garrison and counterattacking the Japanese invaders. This ancestral hall, reborn after the disaster in the mottled historical traces, closely combines the cohesion of the Li family and the spirit of patriotism, which is a symbol of the revitalization of Guanshuo Township and the embodiment of the unity of the clan.

As an ancient building, the "Li Family Temple" has social, historical, cultural and artistic value that cannot be underestimated.

Author: Li Qianyi

Source: Jieyang Daily(2018.10.10)