Qingyang Palace in Chengdu, largest and oldest in SW China

Qingyang Palace, located in the southwest suburbs of Chengdu, is the largest and oldest Taoist palace of Southwest China, and is one of the most famous Taoist palaces in China. The palace was first built during the Tang Dynasty over 1000 years ago but the original buildings were ruined and destroyed over years and the current palace was constructed during the Qing Dynasty.

The name of the palace, Qingyang Palace (also called Black Goat Palace) is derived from one pair of black bronze goat sculptures placed in the front of Sanqing Hall. The single-horned goat on the left is in a unique shape, which looks like a sheep at a glance, but it is actually a mythical looking creature which combines features of the 12 animal signs in Chinese Zodiac, Shengxiao. It has a mouse's ears, an ox's nose, a tiger's claws, a rabbit's mouth, a dragon's horn, a snake's tail, a horse's face, a goat's beard, a chicken's eyes, a dog's belly and a pig's thighs. One legend goes that the two goats were incarnates of two boy servants of the Pure Emperor, and they could cure all diseases. A slight touch on certain part of the goat body will release pain and eliminate disease.

The most magnificent building of the Qingyang Palace is the Eight Trigrams Pavilion. Built on a square with a colored glazed dome, this octagonal building was erected without a nail or wedge. Surprisingly, the structure is quite stable. Amazingly, it has successfully endured erosion of winds and rains for hundreds of years. The square pedestal and round pavilion body follows the Taoism philosophy of "the sky is round and the earth is square". The glazed dome is engraved with 81 dragons, symbolizing the 18 spirits of Laozi. In the middle of the pavilion is a vividly carved sculpture of Laozi riding on a black goat.

Another renowned building inside the Qingyang Palace is the Sanqing Hall. Built during the Tang Dynasty, the wooden and brick structure covers an area of over 1,600 square meters. Walls, windows and pillars of the building are colorfully and exquisitely decorated with carvings of flowers and lions playing silk balls.

Pingyang Palace houses many important Taoist cultural relics, among which, the most valuable one is undoubtedly the wooden engraving of Dao Zang Ji Yao of the Qing Dynasty, this series contain over 130,000 two-sided wooden sculptures of Taoist books. It is believed to be the most comprehensive Taoist scripture.