Zhongjing Temple, Temple and tomb memorial in Henan, China.
Zhongjing Temple is a walled memorial complex and garden on Yishengci Road in Wancheng District, Nanyang, Henan, honouring the Eastern Han physician Zhang Zhongjing. Its gate follows Han architectural style, with the name inscribed by Guo Moruo in December 1959, flanked by two stacked watchtowers called Zimu Menque, a taller mother tower beside a lower child tower. Inside the gate stand a 3.5-metre, six-tonne stone screen carved with Zhang's biography and a row of statues of four physicians: Yi He, Wang Shuhe, Hua Tuo and Li Shizhen.
The temple honours Zhang Zhongjing, a physician of the Eastern Han dynasty and author of the Shanghan Zabing Lun. His statue, tomb pavilion and steles were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and the present complex was rebuilt afterwards. It now holds national key cultural relic protection and 4A scenic area status.
The characters "医圣祠" over the gate were written by Guo Moruo in December 1959. Inside, a 3.5-metre, six-tonne stone screen carved from a single block bears Huang Zhuzhai's biography of Zhang Zhongjing on the front and the preface to his Shanghan Zabing Lun on the back, flanked by a couplet by Ren Yingqiu. Statues of the physicians Yi He, Wang Shuhe, Hua Tuo and Li Shizhen stand in the gate courtyard.
The temple stands on Yisheng Ci Road in the central district of Wancheng, Nanyang. Enter through the Han-style gate with its paired que towers, then pass the 3.5-metre stone screen into the courtyard; the rear garden with the water-spouting stone dragon and the four-horned ram-head brick tomb lies beyond. Allow time to read the inscriptions on both faces of the screen.
The bronze ring handles on the gate, each about 300 kg, are described as the heaviest pushou xianhuan in the world. The gate's paired towers, called zimu menque, set a taller mother tower beside a lower child tower, echoing Han-dynasty watchtower design.
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