Houtu Temple | The City of Colored Glaze is a female temple that governs the mountains and all things within

After being overwhelmed by the aesthetic of colored glaze in Jie Xiu's City of Colored Glaze, one can't help but feel a bit 'fatigued', but Houtu Temple is still among the finest of the fine. 🫶🏻Houtu, also known as the Earth Mother, is the mother of all things that presides over the land and rivers, and also governs the fertility of yin and yang. The worship of the Earth Mother can be traced back to matriarchal societies, but it has also evolved through different dynasties. The southern part of Shanxi, where this temple is located, was originally an area where Houtu worship was quite prosperous. The scale and sequence of the Houtu Temple also reflect its significant status. The original construction date is unknown, but most of the existing buildings are relics from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Houtu Temple has a longitudinal double-axis structure, with a graceful entrance sequence that is narrow and long. After the Hall of the Three Pure Ones, the space suddenly opens up, and the five-bay-wide Houtu Hall makes one look up in admiration, feeling the warmth, grandeur, and inclusiveness of Houtu as a female deity. Inside Houtu Temple, the colored glaze artifacts are gorgeous and rich, full of innovative changes. My favorite is still the wind boards on the back-to-back stage of the Hall of the Three Pure Ones and the hanging fish decorated with grapes 🍇, which break away from the traditional colored glaze patterns and have a sense of life, perfectly combining with the location of these ancient architectural components. Although counted as a Taoist temple and absorbed into Taoist beliefs, Houtu worship should still be considered more as a category of folk belief. I also really like the meaning pointed to by Houtu belief, which can match the discourse of women's awakening today. I hope it will be understood and known by more people