Wugutai

Wugutai

Wugutai is located 5 kilometers northeast of Huaiyang District, Zhoukou City, on the east side of Zhoukou Shangqiu highway. It is said that this is the place where Yan Emperor Shennong taught the people to farm and sow grain. There is a Shennong well nearby, which is dug for Shennong people to draw water and irrigate grain.

architectural composition

Wugutai (Temple) is located in Wugu village, 5km northeast of Huaiyang county. With a height of about 2 meters and a width of about 2000 square meters, Wugu terrace has three houses. The main hall faces east, three rooms wide and two rooms deep. A plaque of "Shennong Hall of Emperor Yan" is hung above the door, and a statue of Emperor Yan is built inside. On the left side of the main hall is Tingshu palace, the wife of Emperor Yan, with a statue of Tingshu inside; on the right side is Jingwei official, the daughter of Emperor Yan, with a statue of Jingwei inside. It is said that the temple was built in the Han Dynasty and rebuilt in 1993. There is a "Shennong well" beside the temple.

Historical records

Emperor Yan Shennong was born in Lieshan and raised in Jiangshui, so he was surnamed Jiang. According to the records of the five emperors in historical records, Emperor Yan Shennong took yandewang as his "capital at the beginning of Chen Dynasty (Huaiyang City, Henan Province)" and then moved his capital eastward to qushoushu. "Yanzhou Fu Zhi" also has the same record: "at the beginning, Leizhou was made, and the people were taught to plant grains, so it was named Shennong, the capital of Chen at the beginning, and then Qufu at the end.". "Huaiyang county annals" has more records: "about the 30th century BC, it is said that the Yan Emperor Shennong all lived in Chen, tasted a hundred herbs and developed medicine, cultivated five grains, and taught the people farming."

In the Shennong era, the population gradually increased. Emperor Yan taught people to plant grains to satisfy their hunger. It is said that at that time, a red bird flew over the sky carrying a nine ear grain, and the grain fell to the ground. Emperor Yan picked it up and planted it in the land beside the five grain platform, and later it grew tall and fat millet. Emperor Yan divided the grains into five kinds, named rice, millet, millet, wheat and Shu. The grain is delicious and people all over the world are competing to plant it. Emperor Yan started farming here. He knew how to cultivate crops and five grains, so he was called Shennong and became the founder of traditional agriculture in China.

Shennong also personally tasted all kinds of herbs, invented herbs, treated people's diseases, and was respected as the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. "Gangjian Yiru Lu" records: "people have diseases, but there is no medicine stone. Emperor Yan used plants to nourish them. He observed the nature of cold, warm, calm and hot, and identified the meaning of monarch, minister, assistant and envoy. After tasting 70 poisons in one day, he changed them into gods. So he wrote a prescription to cure people's diseases, and the way of medicine began from then on." It is said that Emperor Yan also had a magic whip, called ochre whip. When he whipped all kinds of herbs, he could show that the herbs were non-toxic, how effective they were, whether they were cold or hot. Based on this, he took some useful herbs to treat people's diseases.

Current situation of scenic spots

It is said that wugutai, the second largest temple in Huaiyang after "Taihao mausoleum", is an important cultural and historical landscape. It is said that there is a nine hole well on the platform, and one well in the middle is under the statue of Shennong. Due to the age and natural reasons, Shennong well does not know its location, which is a pity. The legend of nine wells in Huaiyang wugutai can be confirmed by the annotation of "Shennong well in chendi" in historical records.

Today, the five grain terrace is one mu high, on which nine temples and houses are built, with the statue of Emperor Yan Shennong. In the 1980s, local people spontaneously donated money to gradually build it on the ruins of some original terrace sites. Its scale is far from the scale of landscape in history. However, the local county government's call to "build Huaiyang into a cultural tourism city" is determined to build Shennong's wugutai, the former capital of Emperor Yan. The scenic area is planned to cover an area of 2000 mu. It is divided into ancestor worship area, cultural area, agricultural garden, herb garden, farm tool hall, etc. it will become a comprehensive tourism base integrating ancient and modern agricultural science and technology and patriotic education.

Address: Northeast of Huaiyang County, Henan Province

Longitude: 114.942373

Latitude: 33.78407

Chinese PinYin : Wu Gu Tai