Mi Gong Temple 米公祠

About Mi Gong Temple

Its principal interest is the passage from brushwork to carved stone: inscriptions and reproductions let visitors compare the movement of characters across different media. Courtyard buildings and the stele corridor make this a focused cultural stop on the Fancheng side of the Han River. It is a memorial to an artist, rather than a general Buddhist temple, and is distinct from other Mi Fu shrines elsewhere in China.

Originally known as Mijia'an (米家庵), a hermitage first built in the Yuan dynasty, the site was expanded in the Ming and rebuilt during the Kangxi era of the Qing, when it was converted from a hermitage into a shrine (祠) dedicated to Mi Fu (米芾), the Northern Song calligrapher and connoisseur. The Worship Hall (拜殿) was built in the 32nd year of the Kangxi era (1693) with a hip-and-gable roof (硬山顶) and a post-and-beam timber frame (抬梁式), while Baojin Hall (宝晋殿) was built in the fifth year of the Tongzhi era (1866) with a hip-and-gable roof and a chuandou-style timber frame (穿斗式).

The shrine faces south and covers 16,000 square meters, laid out symmetrically along a central axis with four courtyards; its memorial buildings include the Worship Hall, Baojin Hall (宝晋斋) and Yanggao Hall (仰高堂). It also holds 58 stone tablets, including the ‘Record of Rebuilding Mi's Ancestral Home’ (重建米氏故里碑记), and 45 stone-carved reproductions of Mi Fu's calligraphy.

It was listed as a Hubei provincial cultural heritage site in 1956 under the name ‘Mi Gong Temple and Its Stone Inscriptions’ (米公祠及其石刻), and in 2006 was designated, as Mi Gong Temple, a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) in the sixth such national listing.

What to look for

• Stone inscriptions preserving and reproducing celebrated calligraphy.
• The memorial courtyard and stele-corridor arrangement.

Location & getting there

Getting to Mi Gong Temple

Use No 2 Jiefang Road in Fancheng District. This shrine is on the north side of the Han River, across from the walled Xiangyang centre; plan a crossing if combining the two.