山西运城市芮城永乐宫-中国元代壁画巅峰之作｜Palace of Eternal Joy，World's Greatest Murals Created by Chinese 700 Years Ago

Yongle Palace (palace of eternal joy), one of the three biggest Taoist temples in China, is the largest of all Taoist temples remaining from the Yuan dynasty, and it was built to consolidate political power for the emperors of the Yuan dynasty. The Palace, covering an area of 248,000 square meters, is world-renowned for its architectural art and murals. It is located in the suburb of Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province, about 3 kilometers north of the county center. Endowed with magnificent and fascinating scenery, the Palace is bounded by the mountains in the north and the Yellow River in the south. Yongle Palace started to be built in 1247 and was completed in 1358. The whole project took 111 years. On March 4, 1961, it was chosen into the first batch of key historical sites under state protection by the State Council. On October 28, 1998, it was listed on the pre-list of world cultural heritage by the UNESCO. In 2001, the State Post Bureau issued the stamps of its murals. In 2004, it was rated as a National AAAA Level Tourist Attraction by the National Tourism Administration. In 2011, it was awarded “one of the top ten most beautiful cultural relics in Shanxi Province”. The Palace was originally built in Yongle Town, 20 kilometers southwest of Ruicheng County. Yongle Town is the birthplace of Lü Dongbin, the ancestor of Taoism. In the late 1950s when the Sanmenxia Reservoir was being constructed, the Palace was expected to be in the submerged area according to the planning. With the approval and instruction of Premier Zhou, the Ministry of Water Resources allocated 2.2 million RMB for the relocation project of the Palace. From 1959 to 1965, the whole palace with its cultural relics was moved to the Ancient Wei State Site of the Western Zhou Dynasty, 2 kilometers north of the county center. The six-year relocation project and the relocation of Egypt’s Abu Simbel temples were known as “the two miracles of artificial relocation in the world history of cultural relics”. The most impressive is the 1000-square-meter mural of the Yuan dynasty, distributed in the Longhu Hall, Sanqing Hall, Chunyang Hall and Chongyang Hall. There are many works of different styles such as figures and landscape paintings in gongbi style. Known as the “Oriental Art Gallery”, the mural is one of the existing treasures of ancient mural art, a masterpiece in the history of world art, and a valuable legacy of world culture. Since its opening in 1979, it has become an imitation practice base for major art schools in China.