Xi'an, Shaanxi, is an important birthplace of Chinese civilization and the starting point of the ancient Silk Road, with rich cultural accumulation and many historical monuments, including the Terracotta Warriors and Horses and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which are well-known at home and abroad. However, there are some monuments that are not well known, but they are also worth exploring, the most worth seeing is the Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace located in the Changle Fang of Dongguan in Xi'an.
Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace, originally known as the Eight Immortals Temple, was originally part of the ruins of the Xingqing Palace in the Tang Dynasty. Since its inception, the Taoist Temple has undergone many reconstructions and expansions, and now covers an area of more than 73,000 square meters, from the mountain gate to the apse is divided into three parts, the main hall buildings have retained the style of the Ming and Qing dynasties, solemn and simple, the environment is quiet, is the largest and most famous Taoist temple in Xi'an and the holy place for Taoists in the country.
Palace is the most prosperous title of Taoist temples, and temples that can be called "palaces" generally have to be authorized or "given" by feudal emperors. In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor had stayed in the Eight Immortals Nunnery when they came to Xi'an for refuge, and at the request of the abbot DaoChang, they donated 1,000 taels of silver to build the archway, and awarded the temple the title of "Eight Immortals Palace for Longevity", and the Eight Immortals Nunnery was upgraded from an temple to a palace.
Walking into the mountain gate, the first thing you see is the Lingguan Hall, which was built during the Ming Zhengde period. There is also a Yuxian Bridge in the center of the courtyard in front of the hall. According to folklore, this is the place where Lü Dongbin in the "Eight Immortals" met Han Zhongli, and "a pillow of yellow sorghum" broke through the dream and realized enlightenment. For thousands of years, Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace has been famous at home and abroad for its beautiful "Eight Immortals" legend, becoming a Taoist immortal resort and the world's largest Eight Immortals Dojo.
According to expert research, the Eight Immortals Palace was actually built to commemorate the Eight Immortals in Li Bai, He Zhizhang and other wines. During the Tang Dynasty, the huanggui thick wine made by the old Xu family of ChangleFang with glutinous rice was full of aroma and was quite famous, and Eight people such as Li Bai, He Zhizhang, Zhang Xu and so on came to visit and fell drunk in the liquor store many times. Later generations then erected a stone stele in Changle Fang and built the "Eight Immortals Temple".
Built during the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Immortals Hall is the main hall of the Eight Immortals Palace, and above the door hangs a plaque inscribed "Baozhen Immortal Biography" inscribed by the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The Eight Immortals Hall enshrines the Eight Immortals and the Emperor of Donghua. It is worth mentioning that the Donghua Emperor Jun, as one of the two gods who nurtured the tao jun of heaven and earth, his incarnation Wang Xuanfu was also the master of Zhong Liquan in the Eight Immortals, and later Zhong Liquan passed on Tou Dongbin, and it was because of this teacher-inheritance relationship that the nine immortals were enshrined in the same temple.
The Eight Immortals Palace is also the "most spiritual place for asking for a signature" according to the oral tradition of the old Xi'an population. It is said that because of the marriage and special spirit of study, every year at the beginning of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, a large number of good men and women will come to burn incense and prostrate their heads overnight to pray for the peace of the four seasons, and many stone carvings and stone carvings in the Taoist Temple have also been touched by tourists and pilgrims, which shows the grandeur of its incense.
The "Juxian Pavilion" in the back garden was the refuge of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi during the Gengzi Incident in 1900. Empress Dowager Cixi not only awarded 1,000 taels of silver to build the Eight Immortals Palace Arch, but also wrote two plaques in her own handwriting, "Yuqing Zhi Dao" and "Dongtian Yunqi". In order to protect the nunnery from infringement, Empress Dowager Cixi also gave li Zongyang, the presiding daoist, a "imperial staff" that could be used to beat people without being bound by the Great Qing Law.
The Wanshou Eight Immortals Palace not only preserves Taoist culture and traditional Chinese architecture, but also preserves a large number of poetry and calligraphy stone carvings of the Xuanmen masters of the past, of which the Quanzhen Sect ancestors Zhong Liquan and Lü Dongbin have the largest number of poems. Today's Eight Immortals Palace, which integrates religion, culture and tourism, attracts tourists at home and abroad with its quiet environment and colorful cultural life.