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Foshan Zumiao / The Ancestral Temple

Jewel of Lingnan Architecture

The Ancestral Temple (Zumiao) is located in the center of Foshan City, and is a museum of ancient Lingnan architecture, Taoist culture, traditional Foshan folk culture and martial arts culture. The carvings and sculptures in the Ancestral Temple are the finest examples of Lingnan architectural art.

Foshan Ancestral Temple (Zumiao 祖庙) is located in the city center of Foshan, the museum is dedicated to the Taoist Zhenwu Emperor (also known as Xuantian God, the god who guards the north), and is a museum that integrates Lingnan ancient architecture and art, Taoist culture, traditional Foshan folk culture, and martial arts culture.

The ancestral temple was built in the Northern Song Dynasty, and has undergone many renovations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. On the axis of the middle road, there are Wanfu Terrace 万福台, the Lingying Memorial Arch 灵应牌坊, Jinxiang Pond 锦香池, Bell and Drum Tower, The Third Gate, Front Hall, the Main Hall and the Qingzhen Tower 庆真楼. With its exquisite structure, the ancestral temple is a very Lingnan-temple-style architecture cluster.

Foshan is famous for its ceramics, and the Ancestral Temple is also famous for its “Three Carvings and Two Sculptures” ( wood carving, brick carving, stone carving, pottery sculpture, and clay sculpture). The Third Gate of Ancestral temple has a 31-meter-long ceramic tile ridge, on both sides of it, there are a total of more than three hundred vividly depicted historical figures, mostly from the ancient Chinese stories.

Manywhere Trivia:
The tiled ridge of the Third Gate of Ancestral temple, known as the “King of Flower Ridge”, was made in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and the posture and expressions of the figures on it were strictly based on the Cantonese opera characters.

There are Archway of Royal Praise 褒宠牌坊, Archway of Virtue, Confucius Temple, Ip Man 叶问 Hall and other well-known attractions. In recent years, in order to commemorate the Foshan martial arts master Huang Feihong 黄飞鸿, people have built a Foshan Huang Feihong Memorial Hall in the north side of the ancestral temple, which is used to showcase Huang Feihong’s life and deeds, as well as many precious historical relics.