8-31-08: Ancient Beijing Finds

As an American, it is an exercise in both fantasy and reality to imagine a history that winds itself back, back, back, and back longer than anything we can hold or imagine. That, I think, is one of the mysteries of the Great Wall-- it seems as old as the hills AND its not even as old as its people! And sometimes, amidst high rise buildings, new Olympic venues, "new" antiques and modern shopping malls, it is even harder to appreciate the ancient in Beijing. Recently, on a rambling hike in downtown Beijing led by our old Beijing hand Raquel, a Brazilian who grew up in Beijing during the ‘60s and ‘70s (but that is the subject of a different blog!), we happened upon two little hidden jewels of ancient Beijing.

The first is the Temple of Wisdom Attained, or Zhi Hua Si. The temple was originally built in 1443 by the eunuch Wang Zhen, favored by the crown prince at the time but later, in 1449, murdered with his relatives (see this website for more history of Wang Zhen: www. chinaculture.org.gb.en_travel/2003-09/24/content_34749.htm). Parts have been renovated, it is true, but it is the most intact of Ming dynasty temples in Beijing. Here, set away in a quiet hutong, you will find thick twisting trunks of ancient lilac trees and black-tiled temple buildings. (Black tiles indicated non-imperial buildings, green tiles princely buildings, and yellow tiles were for imperial buildings.) There is the Pavilion of Ten-Thousand Buddhas and in the Tibetan Hall, an octagonal wooden structure with a pedestal of white marble, atop which is a recessed Buddha (remarkably unscathed from the Cultural Revolution because it was inaccessible and because the temple had become a warehouse, thus protected from marauding groups). The structure itself has exquisitely carved patterns of celestial beings, elephants, lions, and other beasts. Delicate carvings exist in other parts of the temple, but some were stolen by monks and sold in the 1930s and are now preserved in the Nelson Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. A copy of one long-gone ceiling frieze is on display in one building.

Noteworthy ancient structures in peaceful surroundings notwithstanding, there is an additional treat the temple offers: each day musicians perform ancient ritual music, supposedly handed down over 27 generations. The group definitely performs at 3 p.m., when we saw them (but one website also says performances at 9, 10, 11 & 3) and uses bamboo flute, sheng (a kind of mouth organ), drums of different sizes and styles, and an unusual instrument comprised of 9-10 differently tuned copper plates mounted vertically in a wooden frame and tapped with a slight wooden mallet. The concert is not long, about 15-20 minutes, but it is beautiful. The temple is in the Luomicang Hutong in the Dongcheng District, west of Yabuolu area and north of Jinbaojie within the 2nd Ring Road (see map foto in slides). On Wednesdays, the first 200 visitors get in free.

The second treasure was Prince Fu’s Mansion (Fu Wangfu) on Chaoyangmennei St. Here, covering over 40,000 sq. meters, is the mansion of Prince Fu, the ninth son of Emperor Daoguang from the Qing dynasty. Carved up in the 20th century, it currently houses not only an Academy of Science publishing house and a Chinese-French research group, but it is also surrounded by a rabbit-warren of small businesses, homes, local restaurants and at least one government official’s home. (A wonderful website from the Australian National University’s China Heritage Project details historic preservation, and sometimes its lack, on big projects, hutongs and princely mansions in Beijing at www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/features.php?searchterm=001_beijing.inc&issue=001.) Grass grows from the roof; a badminton court lies before an unusual balconied two-story building and the large performance/receiving hall now is a storage structure. In the back, what was originally private quarters now house smaller offices cheek-to-jowl with fire extinguishers and a small garden. Patterned tiles still adorn some floors and dragon-relief wall tiles run along wall bases in some cases. In one corner of the private garden stood what looked like a kiln!

While there are people on the premises working for these various offices and organizations, they are unobtrusive, though friendly, and the mansion grounds are peaceful and, like the Temple of Wisdom Attained, seemingly disengaged from modern Beijing. What a delight, to step off a busy thoroughfare, walk a few paces, and suddenly find oneself a century (or six!) back in time. Another sudden gift from Beijing. May we all embrace and preserve them.