Zhengjue Temple, Buddhist temple in Qinglongqiao Subdistrict, China.
Zhengjue Temple is a Tibetan Buddhist Gelug monastery in the Yuanmingyuan park area of Haidian, Beijing, standing just west of the Qichun Garden main gate and facing south. Its 14,300 sq m walled compound holds a single south gate with eight-character side walls, the Tianwang Hall, bell and drum towers, the seven-bay Sansheng Hall with a rear porch, the octagonal Wenshu Pavilion, and the northernmost Zuishang Tower, a scripture library. The gate plaque bears the name in Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian.
Qianlong ordered the temple built in 1773 to promote Tibetan Buddhism and pacify the Mongols, staffing it with a grand lama and forty small lamas transferred from Baodi Temple at Xiangshan, who chanted there five times a month. Because Beijing already had a Grand Zhengjue Temple, this one was called the New Zhengjue Temple. In 1860 and 1900 it escaped the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan because it stood outside the garden wall.
The temple's name tablet above the gate was written by the Qianlong Emperor in four scripts: Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian. Under the Qing, the Lifanyuan assigned resident lamas here, and the temple was also called the "New Zhengjue Temple" to distinguish it from the Grand Zhengjue Temple. Since 2023 it has housed the Yuanmingyuan Museum.
The temple stands west of Qichun Garden's main gate, with its own south-facing entrance and a rear gate opening into Qichun Garden. The site covers 14,300 square metres, so allow time to walk from the gate through the halls to the northern library building. The temple reopened to visitors in 2011.
The temple gate's plaque bears the name Zhengjue Temple in the emperor Qianlong's own hand, written in four scripts side by side: Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian. The temple was also called the New Zhengjue Temple, since Beijing held another famous Zhengjue, the Great Zhengjue Temple, and both were Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.
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