The Second Imperial Stele Pavilion of the Five Dragons Palace

#Wulong ·2022-08-20 23:32:13

The two huge stele pavilions existing in the Wulong Palace were built in the tenth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty. They are a high-level symbol among the ancient architectural complexes of Wudang Mountain. The sculpture of a giant turtle carrying an imperial stele in the pavilion is a form of ancient inscriptions, evolving from forms such as turtle inscriptions, plate inscriptions, tripod inscriptions, and stele inscriptions. Here is demonstrated the practice in ancient Chinese traditional culture that only the giant spirits were qualified to convey important orders to the world. The purpose of building such a grand and luxurious stele pavilion is to protect the permanence of the turtle stele and the integrity of the palace architecture. However, there is another folk legend. It is said that the big turtle often climbed out at night and was trampled on crops. To protect the people, Emperor Zhenwu built this thick and solid stele pavilion and kept the turtle inside to prevent it from going out to do bad things.