Zhenwu Pavilion 真武阁

About Zhenwu Pavilion

Its most unusual structural detail is inside: four columns on the second level stop short of the floor below, working within the building’s balanced timber frame. The exterior profile and the interior joinery are therefore two parts of the same visit. Look first at the roof and supporting frame, then follow whatever interior access is permitted on the day.

According to local tradition, the Jinglue platform (经略台) was built between 758 and 779 by the Tang poet Yuan Jie (元结), Rong County's military commissioner, to drill troops. Its original buildings decayed, leaving only the platform base, until a Taoist temple, Zhenwu Temple (真武庙), was built on it in the early Ming to worship the god Zhenwu against fire. In 1573 local officials had the temple rebuilt as the present three-storey pavilion.

The pavilion is built entirely of timber in a lever-based structure, using nearly 3,000 components joined by mortise and tenon without a single nail or metal fitting. Eighteen ground-floor columns rest on round stone bases on the platform. On the second and third floors, nine crossbeams each pass through the eave columns, which act as a lever's fulcrum, their outer ends supporting the broad eaves and their inner ends carrying the suspended upper-floor columns.

It was designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) by the State Council in 1982, and rated a national AAAA-level scenic spot in 2017. In 1962 the architect Liang Sicheng (梁思成) published an account of its structure, bringing it attention. It is grouped with Yueyang Tower, Yellow Crane Tower and Tengwang Pavilion as one of the Four Great Towers of Jiangnan (江南四大名楼), the only one never rebuilt.

What to look for

• Four second-level columns are suspended above the floor beneath them.
• The three-storey timber frame and layered roof can be read from the surrounding platform.

Location & getting there

Getting to Zhenwu Pavilion

Go to 57 Dongwai Street in Rong County, within Rongzhou Ancient City scenic area. Specify Zhenwu Pavilion at the Jinglue platform when confirming the entrance and interior access.