China's Oldest Wooden Building Confirmed

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 04, 2001

China's Oldest Wooden Building Confirmed

A temple named after an ordinary Chinese woman has been confirmed by archaeologists as one of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in China, dating back to as early as the Tang Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago.

The temple, located in Boshan, Shandong Province, in east China, is one of the three Tang Dynasty (618-907) wooden buildings still standing in China.

The other two buildings are the Nanchan Temple and Foguang Temple, both at Wutaishan, a mountain in Shanxi Province known for its cluster of Buddhist temples.

A monument in the temple and the local historical records show that the temple existed even before the Tang Dynasty, though the large scale construction work did not begin until the year 746.

This means the temple is now 1,255 years old, at least three decades older than the Nanchan Temple at Wutaishan, said Pan Rongshen, one of the several experts on ancient buildings that inspected the temple recently.

The temple was built as a memorial to Yan Wenjiang, believed to be living between 770 B.C. and 476 B.C. She is cited by the king for her filial piety -- being an obedient daughter -- a high virtue in traditional Chinese culture.

According to the experts, the temple underwent a major repair in the early Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), which gave it a false appearance of Qing architectural style.