Zhenwu Pavilion

Zhenwu Pavilion, one of most famous buildings in China, keeps abreast with Yellow Crane Tower, Yueyang Tower, and Tengwang Pavilion. Zhenwu Pavilion is build for God Zhenwu, which is the origin of its name. In Taoism, the south is in the control of the fire god, and God Zhenwu is a water god who can protect houses from fire disasters. It is located in Rongxian, Yulin, built in 1573 and has a history of over four hundred years, and still stands here after its survival from several earthquakes and big hurricanes. In 1982, it is approved by the State Council as a major historical and cultural site protected at the national level.
 

Zhenwu Pavilion

Zhenwu Pavilion is built on a stone table, Jingluetai which is built in 759 to train soldiers, has three floors in a square shape wiht three layers of eaves , and has a height of 13.2 meters, a length of 13.8 meters, and a width of 11.2 meters. This old building stands on a stone stable by several wood columns. Those columns have stone seats, which are filled with river sand. The stone stable is called Jingluetai, and it has four stone walls, with river sand filled in the stone table. And the whole building is made from woods, and uses 3,000 parts made from erythrophloeum ferdii and the joint of wood doesn't use any nails, and the woods are connected in a mortise-tenon joint.
 

It has twenty huge upright wood columns, and eight of them are from the bottom all the way to the top, and in the second floors, there are four suspending huge wood columns bearing all the loads from the upper, and the bottoms of this four columns don't touch the floor, and leaves an empty space of three centimeters, which is the dynamic mode of anti seismic design.
 

Many building principles are applied to the construction of this pavilion, thus it is so solid that it can stay safe and sound in the past four hundred years. According to history records in Rongxian, it survives five earthquakes and three hurricanes. When those disasters happen, all houses in this county, city wall with a thickness of about five meters fell down, and  big trees were  uprooted.
 

The Main Ridge

Zhenwu Pavilion is a landmark building of Taoism, and its patterns and decorations are closely related with Taoism culture. In its eaves, background tiles are in yellow color, representing earth, and tiles put in a vertical column are in green color, representing the sky. On the main ridge in the top of the third floor, there are mascot decorations like lucky star, kylin, the Jade Hare, crane, phoenix, gold rooster, magpie, butterfly, flat peach, and flower. The lucky star is in the middle, and others are arrange  in a symmetrical way. Those mascots are an indicate of the instruction made by God Zhenwu: to protect the world and make it a harmony world with everything good. In the side ridge, there is an ugly monster pressed by the mascots, which is  a change of a magic spell in Taoism, and the spell has the meaning of expelling the evil and bringing happiness.
 

In front of Zhenwu Pavilion, there is a smaller pavilion with two stories, which has the same construction style like Zhenwu Pavilion. Its main ridge also has mascot decorations, like animal and flower, and it has a special figure in the side ridge, named Zhong Kui, who is a god having magic powers to repel ghosts and evil spirits. Thus it is used to guard houses. In one side of Zhenwu Pavilion, there is a bronze bell, named Jingzi bronze bell. The bell is made from bronze, and is one of the biggest bells in Guangxi. according to the letters carved in the bell body, the bell is made in 796 AD,  and it is originally put in a temple which is ruined.

 

Zhongkui

Though history documents didn't record the designer of Zhenwu Pavilion who may never be known to us, we know the designer has done a great work, and this building has great value in building construction, and Taoism culture.