Huangling Temple History

Huangling Temple was the oldest and largest historical building in the Three Gorges area. It is located on the southern bank of the Yellow Ox Gorge and therefore it is also called the Yellow Ox Temple.

Historical Legend of Huangling Temple

According to the legend, this was where Dayu, the founder of the Xia Dynasty, led the people fighting against the floods. But with the mountains blocking the path of the floods, there was no outlet for the floods during the first eight years. Then the Yellow Ox, the incarnation of God on Earth assisted Yu by colliding the mountains apart, and ploughed the gorge. With deep affinity for the local people and the land, Yellow Ox became a towering ox rock and guarded there forever.

History of the Huangling Temple

During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC), Huangling Temple was built to memorize Yellow Ox's helping Dayu controlling the floods. Therefore, it was originally called Yellow Ox Temple.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the temple was rebuilt. It is said Zhuge Liang found the temple ruined and derelict when he led the troops to Shu and passed the Yellow Ox Gorge. So he presided over the reconstruction of the temple and wrote an article named "To the Yellow Ox Temple".

From October, 1036 to March, 1038 in Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu - a great litterateur was the leader of Yiling County (now Yichang). He believed in Dayu's controlling the floods but not in Yellow Ox's assistance, so he changed its name from Yellow Ox Temple into Huangling Temple. Besides, he wrote a poem named "Huangling Temple". The poem is very popular throughout the history and then the name of Huangling Temple was widely known.

In Ming Dynasty, Huangling Temple was repaired and rebuilt. What's more, some auxiliary facilities were added. The existing Huangling Temple was in fact built in Ming Dynasty.

In Qing Dynasty, a stone tablet with a height of over 3 meters was placed in west of the temple and is engraved with an article named "A Record of Controlling Shiping River".

In 1956, the temple was declared by the government of Hubei Province as the provincial key cultural relic protection unit.

On the 25th of May in 2006, Huangling Temple was listed by the State Council as the national key cultural relic protection unit. And the temple has now taken on an entirely new look.