Song Wenxin State Duke Temple

In the beautiful Wenzhou City Jiangxinyu Park east, there is a Song Wenxin State Duke Temple, which is a memorial building for the national hero Wen Tianxiang. Wen Tianxiang (1236-1283), styled Songrui, also styled Lushan, was a native of Wenshan Village, Luling County, Jizhou, Jiangxi (now Ji'an City). He was known as Mr. Wenshan. He was intelligent and studious since childhood, and became a top scholar at the age of 20. He held various positions such as Lang Officer, Prosecutor, Shangshu Left Lang Officer and Governor of Ganzhou. In 1275, when the Yuan army invaded the south, Wen Tianxiang organized a militia of 10,000 people in Ganzhou to go to the capital Lin'an (now Hangzhou) to serve the king. In January 1276, he was detained as the right prime minister and the envoy to the Yuan camp for negotiations, and later escaped with 12 people including Du Hui on the way to delivery. He arrived in Wenzhou on the eighth day of April after a long journey, stayed in Jiangxinyu for a month, and wrote the poem 'North Return to Zhongchuan Temple', expressing his determination to revive the country. In early May, he was summoned to Fuan (now Fuzhou), appointed as the right prime minister, and commanded the armies of various routes, fighting in Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places. In August 1278, he was conferred as the Shao Bao Xin Guo Gong, and in November, he moved his troops to Chaoyang, Guangdong, and was captured in December at Wupo Ridge in Haifeng. After being captured, Wen Tianxiang was imprisoned in Yuan Dadu (now Beijing) for three years. Despite threats and temptations, he remained steadfast and wrote the 'Song of Righteous Qi' to express his aspirations. He was executed calmly on the ninth day of December 1283, at the age of 47. Although Wen Tianxiang was executed, his national integrity deeply influenced the people of Wenzhou. In the eighteenth year of the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty (1482), Liu Xun, the county magistrate of Yongjia, suggested to Xiang Cheng, the prefect of Wenzhou, to build a temple in the east side of Jiangxin Temple to commemorate him. The temple was completed in April of that year, and has been renovated several times since then. The existing temple is a late Qing Dynasty building, with the original location unchanged, covering an area of 821 square meters, in a three-room, two-entry, four-courtyard style. The Wen Tianxiang Temple is shaded by green trees and is quiet and solemn. The door lintel of the main gate is inlaid with a blue stone plaque inscribed with 'Song Wenxin State Duke Temple' by Sha Menghai. Through the main gate, you enter the main hall of the second entry, where there is a painted statue of Wen Tianxiang. The walls on both sides are painted with murals of Wen Tianxiang's heroic resistance, including 'Supervising the Protection of the Country', 'Tracking the Escort', 'Fighting the Enemy in the South', 'Righteous Qi in the Yin Room', 'Resisting the Festival and Becoming a Man', and 'Always Remembering the Loyal and Heroic'. There are corridors on the east and west sides, connecting the front and back two entries. The corridor and the front eaves of the main hall display 22 poem steles, including four poems by Wen Tianxiang, and the rest are inscriptions by famous people from past dynasties who visited the temple.