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The almost 700 year-old complex is impressive just in terms of its age, but Dong Yue Miao’s has also an aura of otherworldliness to it. After all, it is supposed to represent the realm of the afterlife (at least, according to the Taoist faith). This great surviving ancient temple in Beijing was built in 1322 and was thoroughly restored and opened to the public in 1999 by the Chinese government.

When I arrived this Saturday morning at about 10:30 AM, I found myself the first and only visitor at the site. I felt relieved because I had felt guilty for not getting up earlier this morning so that I could be there at the 8:30 AM opening time and avoid the crowds. I had found that Dong Yue Miao was within a 20-minute walk from my hotel and thought that because of its close proximity it was going to be very fast to reach. Unfortunately my sense of navigation was a little off this morning and I managed to take a couple of wrong turns before I finally reached the entrance gate. This involuntary detour ended up not being such a big issue because as a result of it, I had the opportunity to see a real Chinese produce market when it was very busy with morning activity.

Upon crossing the temple’s entrance gate, in addition to the raised walkway to the main hall, the visitor has the opportunity to see some of the 76 Taoist departments (or Si) presided by God Dong Yue (who also presides over 18 layers or Hell). The departments represent most of the conceivable human concerns and wishes and at the temple they have their own physical space (a cubicle around the main courtyard) where the gods appointed by Dong Yue (their statue-likeness to be more precise) preside over each department with the help of assistants also represented there. The faithful deliver offerings of money or red tokens inscribed with their names (fupai) when they have a request that is within the authority of the proper department. The entire temple is full of these colorful tokens, so the process must work for somebody!

Very close to the gate, I found a department that my own two sons might have found interesting: “Department for Raising Descendants”. It offers the following advice: “The love for the descendants is not shown so much in bringing them material enjoyment as in educating them to become people who by self support and being successful in a trade will be beneficial for the whole society”… What is amazing is that most of these concepts were defined when Taoism became a religion around the 5th Century A. D.

As a Star Wars fan, I was also a bit surprised when I read some of the basic principles of Taoism and the Tao or “path” in which it is based: It "refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe” (1). Sounds familiar? I guess long time ago the galaxy far, far away must have come in contact with ancient Chinese culture or maybe Lao Tse, the founder of Taoism came down from up there…. But I guess the most plausible explanation is that George Lucas found Taoism a good conceptual element for his movies when he was working on the concept for the Star Wars’ trilogy … Sorry to spoil the more interesting theories!

Later in the day, I also had the opportunity to visit Beijing’s Confucius Temple. The place where the famous Chinese philosopher of the Fifth Century B. C. was enshrined and worshipped by Chinese emperors from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Though most of Chinese temple complexes that I have visited display the same traditional classic architectural style and layout, the Confucius temple’s courtyard is somewhat different as this complex is littered with steles and their corresponding pavilion structures built by various emperors through Chinese history. I would say that 90% of these steles were erected to commemorate the various emperors’ ability to quench this or that other rebellion and capturing and punishing the rebels. Chinese emperors were obviously very busy people and had to be concerned with portions of their empire wanting to secede all the time.

Inside the Confucius temple, there was a hall that currently houses an exposition on the resurgence of Confucianism around the World. It was interesting for me to learn that many of the contemporary politicians in the West borrowed Confucian principles and presented them as their own: “Is not what the country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”, “El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz (Respect for others’ rights is peace)”, and others like them are all Confucian principles reworded a bit to suit the politician’s audience (and Confucius lived 2,500 years ago!).

As I was going through the temple’s steles near the entrance gate, I came upon a lateral gate that led me to another complex that I had not known anything about: Guo Zi Jiang or Imperial College. This impressive set of buildings housed the only ancient higher education institution that has been preserved in China. It served the higher education needs during the Yuang, Ming, and Qing dynasties. At the center of the main courtyard lies Bi Yong Hall, surrounded by a moat. This hall was built in 1783 during the 48th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong and was used by the emperor when he wanted to lecture the students of the day. The story goes that when the emperor came to deliver his first lecture, more than 3,000 people came to listen to him. Since no microphones or amplifiers had been invented then, appointed messengers were used to disseminate each of the emperor’s words to the entire audience.

This may be a good time to point out that as a result of my travels, I have found that I have become more and more interested in history. I regret not taking enough advantage of all the history classes through my elementary and secondary years of school. Unfortunately, I seemed to always get teachers that had turned such an interesting subject into something more appropriate for medieval torture chambers or Nazi interrogation rooms… Because of this early perception, I had unfairly turned history off from my scope of interests and relegated it to a dark corner of my consciousness. Travel has changed all that and now I find myself researching in advance the history related to every place that I visit (especially when I go to a place as timeless as China). The time dimension makes each place so much more interesting.




(1): From: http://www.religioustolerance.org/taoism.htm

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