Mingdao Palace 明道宫

About Mingdao Palace

The Guangxu-era Luyi county gazetteer traces the foundation to the Han dynasty. The complex originally bore the name Ziji Palace and became the Taiqing Altar in 743; by the Tang a large group of buildings had formed around the Ascension Terrace, and the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties each added to it, though most of that fabric was later lost to war. Emperor Zhenzong of Song lodged here in 1014 after worshipping Laozi at the Taiqing Palace some ten li away, convened his officials in the Yingxi Hall and wrote the three characters of the name Mingdao Gong; local people still call the compound the Eastern Imperial City for that reason.

The present scenic area is cut in two by Ziqi Avenue, with the Hongdao Garden south of the road and Mingdao Palace north of it, together about 100,000 square metres with some 15,000 square metres of buildings. Its main structures are the Hongdao Garden, the Zhongmiao Zhimen archway, the Yingxi Hall, the Xuanyuan Hall, the Wenchang and sutra pavilions, the Xiang Hall and the Ascension Terrace. Only Laojun Terrace itself is old: the rest, including the Xuanyuan Hall, was rebuilt from documentary and archaeological evidence.

What to look for

• Laojun Terrace, also called the Ascension Terrace, the only surviving historic structure here: 8.84 metres high on a base of 765 square metres, twenty-five-sided, faced in old blue brick and ringed by a crenellated parapet
• The hall on top of the terrace, three bays wide and three deep with eave columns and bracket sets, with a small side hall to east and west
• Shell damage on the terrace walls from the Japanese bombardment of 1938, when thirteen mortar rounds struck the main hall, the east side hall and nearby cypresses without exploding
• The iron pillar on the terrace, recorded in the Qing county gazetteer as eight chi high and described there as a Tang object, referring to Laozi's title of 'historian under the pillar'
• The Bagua Terrace, with a bluestone base and white marble railings, approached past the four pavilions named from phrases of the Daodejing

Location & getting there

Getting to Mingdao Palace

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 明道宫 with 周口市 and 鹿邑县.