Changchun Guan

Changchun Guan (长春观Eternal Spring Temple) is located outside the Great Eastern Gate of the Wuchang part of Wuhan city in Hubei Province. To its west is the Yellow Crane Tower and to its east the Mount Hongshan Pagoda, forming beautiful surroundings. The mountains in this region used to be covered with green pines, so the area was called the Island of Pines. It is recorded that Lao Zi was once invited by a disciple to meet the Five Elders at Lubu. Lao Zi did not stay in Echeng south of the Yangtze River but went west to the “island of tall pine trees,” a reference to this area.

During Genghis Khan’s reign (1206-27) in the Yuan Dynasty, Qiu Chuji, the patriarch of Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism’s Longmen (Dragon Gate) sect, came here to build a Daoist (Taoist) temple. Later generations called it Eternal Spring Temple because Patriarch Qiu was known as Changchunzi (Master of Eternal Spring). From then on, “Daoists gathered in well-known areas along the Yangtze River in Hubei.” Eternal Spring Temple became Hubei’s most famous Daoist monastery, attracting thousands of Daoists to its hundreds of rooms.

In 1851, the first year of Qing Dynasty’s Xianfeng reign period, Eternal Spring Temple was destroyed in war. In 1864, the third year of the Qing Dynasty’s Tongzhi reign period, He Hechun, the 16th-generation patriarch of Quanzhen Daoism’s Dragon Gate sect, came here from Mount Wudang. He begged for alms and rebuilt Eternal Spring Temple in the Ming Dynasty style.

Eternal Spring Temple faces south and is situated against a hill. The whole temple rises tier after tier. The Hall of Supreme Purity is magnificently decorated on a large scale. The hall has an altar with a gilded statue for worshiping the Supreme Master Lao Zi. At his sides are statues of his two disciples, the Perfect Man of Nanhua (Zhuang Zi) and the Highest Perfect Man (Yin Xi). The hall has many murals, two of which are remarkable: Lao Zi Going West Through Hangu Pass and Lao Zi Elaborating on Dao de jing (Tao Te Ching).

Behind the Hall of Supreme Purity is the Hall of the Seven Perfect Ones, where there is a shrine for worshiping Quanzhen Daoism’s Seven Perfect Ones, who are Wang Chongyang’s seven foremost disciples: Ma Yu, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Hao Datong, Wang Chuyi and Sun Bu’er. They made significant contributions to the popularization and development of Quanzhen Daoism and formed their own sects. The sect that has the greatest influence on later generations and most Daoists is the Dragon Gate sect, which considers Qiu Chuji as its founder. The Hall of the Seven Perfect Ones is Eternal Spring Palace’s main hall and a place where Daoists read scriptures every day and hold important religious ceremonies.

The tallest place in Eternal Spring Palace is the Hall of the Three August Ones, where the ancestors of the Chinese nation are worshiped: Taihao Fuxi, the Red Emperor Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan. Since the Daoist religion is indigenous to China and has a strong national flavor, it always incorporates outstanding figures from Chinese history into its celestial system for later generations to pay their respects. This is the unique Daoist tradition of “deifying those who benefit the people.”