The Second Imperial Stele Pavilion of Yuxu Palace

Outside the Jade Xu Palace lies the Luo City, where two imperial stele pavilions from the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty are preserved. They serve as historical witnesses to another major renovation and expansion of Wudang Mountain after its completion. The form of inscriptions on guilt-carrying steles has evolved from ancient forms such as turtle inscriptions, plate inscriptions, tripod inscriptions, and stele inscriptions. The ancients believed that the form and living habits of the spiritual turtle were similar to the original meaning of "Dao", and they thought it had the qualification and ability to convey important announcements. The Dongbei Pavilion is a stele inscribed with the records of the reconstruction of the Xuandian Hall on Mount Taihe during the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty. It was erected in the 32th year of the Jiajing reign. The cap of the stele features a relief of two dragons playing with a pearl, and the inscription is in regular script with 617 characters. The total height is 7.72 meters. The inscription on the stele records the reasons and methods for the major renovation of Wudang Mountain by Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, and there is an imperial edict bestowing upon it the title of "Xuanyue of the World" and so on. This major renovation was called "the Second Renovation of Wudang" by historians and was supervised by Lu Jie, the then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works.