Temple of Wu, Part 4: What Happened to the Wu Temples?
The Last Huangdi of China, Yuan Shikai, created his own list of great Chinese Generals
(Yuan Shikia, 1915, photo from the Wikipedia)
See Part 1 - The Temple of Wu
See Part 2 - The Big Expansion to the Temple of Wu
See Part 3 - Changes to the List of Generals
The Wu Miao Under the Ming Dynasty
In the Ming Dynasty, it is well known that the founder (Zhu Yuanzhang) did not appreciate either Buddhism or Daoism. He made substantial changes to the state religion (well described by Romeyn Taylor in his chapter of the Cambridge History of China), but he was apparently uninterested in the Wu Temples.
The Ming founder did something very unusual with regard to his army: he declared that the officers of the Ming army would be a hereditary class. His generals and his officers were to have sons, and they would take their father’s places in the Ming military. He may have been copying a Yuan Dynasty practice, but I am not certain. Regardless, the Ming government wasn’t particularly interested in recruiting new officers from the normal Chinese population. Instead, the government expected to obtain it’s future generals from the descendants of the great soldiers who had reconquered all of China in the years 1355-1380. These men would obviously be expected to honor their ancestors and their heroic deeds, making the Wu Meio’s list of Chinese generals somewhat superfluous.
For various reasons, Guan Yu became a folk deity for the Chinese during the Ming Dynasty. It is clear that he was being worshiped in ordinary temples across China, even before the Saga of the Three Kingdoms was published in 1520. I’m certain the Wu Miao continued to operate in Beijing, with the Ministry of Rites (or War) performing their yearly ceremonies. My guess is that other Wu Miao were still found in or near large Ming military bases. However, nearly the entire Ming army was destroyed when the Ming collapsed in 1644, or during the fighting which lasted from 1644 to 1680. I assume most of the Wu Temples were destroyed at this time.
The Wu Miao Under the Qing
The Qing military was very different from the Ming. The Sonoma Sage has written about this extensively and he tells me that he has a new work-in-progress on this topic. Suffice it to say that the Qing were Manchu, not Chinese. Their military focused on the battle methods of the Eight Banners, not on Chinese ideas of about tactics. Their heroes were Nurhachi and his five great companions (Fiongdon, Hurhan, Anfiyanggu, Eidu, and Hohori), along with Nurhachi’s sons and relatives: Hong Taiji, Daisan, Dorgon, Dodo, and others.
Consequently, I believe the Qing shut down the remaining Wu Temples, or simply did not rebuild them. The few temples which survived switched to worshiping Guan Yu and perhaps generals like Yue Fei, and Zhang Fei. Chinese men did join the Qing Army, they were part of the Green Standard Army but that army had very little prestige and was given very limited funding. No man joined the Green Standard Army and then advanced into high ranks of the Qing government.
When the European scholars arrived in China in the 1860s, they didn’t find any Wu Miao and as a result, no European histories mention them.
Yuan Shikai’s Changes to the List
Yuan Shikai took political control over China in late 1913, forcing Dr. Sun Yat Sen to flee to Japan. In December of 1915 he declared that he had accepted an offer from his specially selected assembly and announced he would become the new Huangdi of China, to be known as Hongxian. This decision provoked a massive backlash and after three months, he abdicated the throne on March 22, 1916 (he then died in June, 1916). Yes, Yuan Shikai was the true Last Emperor of China, not Pu Yi.
During his short reign, one of Yuan Shikai’s officials proposed a major change to the composition of the Temple of Wu. This was a complete rewrite of all of the previous lists. Gone were the ancient figures from 2,000+ years ago. Gone were the officials who came up with strategies and wrote books. Instead his list was nothing but generals who led men into battle.
Yuan Shikai’s List - 1915
#1 - Guan Yu: as mentioned previously, Guan Yu had been the #1 man since the mid-Ming and by 1700 the few remaining Wu Temples were known as Guandi: Temples of Lord Guan.
Yue Fei: One of the most famous generals in Chinese history. He saved the Song Dynast but was subsequently executed by the Chancellor Qin Hui. Yue Fei had never before been officially honored in the Wu Temples.
Zhang Fei: Honored as one of the 64.
Han Xin: Previously one of the Top ten generals.
Li Jing: Previously one of the Top ten generals.
Wei Qin: Previously one of Top ten generals.
Su Dingfang: Honored as one of the 64.
Guo Ziyi: Honored as one of the 64.
He Ruobi: Honored as one of the 64.
Li Guangbi. Honored as one of the 64.
Wang Jun: Presumably the man who conquered Shu-Han and previously honored as one of the 64.
Zhao Yun (AKA: Zilong): One of the Tiger Generals of Liu Bei.
Xie An: A general of the Southern state in the 300s)
Wang Yan Zhang: An unsuccessful general for Liang State, defeated by Li Cunxu. A very questionable choice in my opinion.
Di Qing: A general of the early Song Dynasty.
Cao Bin: A Northern Song general.
Liu Xin: A Song general and contemporary of Yue Fei.
Han Shizhong: A Southern Song general.
Xu Liev: A Mongol general and ruler, he conquered Persia and Mesopotamia.
Guo Kan: A Chinese general of the Mongol Empire.
Xu Da: A great early Ming general.
Feng Sheng: Another great early Ming general.
Chang Yuchun: An early follower of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming.
Lan Yu: Another of the great early Ming generals.
Qi Jianguang: A very talented late Ming general. Ray Huang wrote about him in his history 1587 A Year of No Importance.
Zhou Yueji: A late Ming general, he died heroically fighting against Li Zicheng’s army.
Comments on Yuan Shikai’s List
In this list we see a modern understanding of generalship. All the military writers are removed as are the statesmen. Still a couple of odd selections here, like Wang Yan Zhang, He Ruobi, and Wang Jun.
Concluding Thoughts
The inability or unwillingness to allow Chinese soldiers and generals to honor any of the great kings and Huangdi of the past was a major problem for the Wu Temples, in my opinion. Several of these future Huangdi are considered to be among the greatest military leaders in world history. I would have places these men in the Wu Temples:
Liu Bang (founder of the Han)
Wu of Han (more than doubled the size of China by military conquest).
Cao Cao & Liu Bei.
Yuwen Tai (should be much better known. Similar to Cao Cao, but more successful).
Li Shimin (Taizong of Tang) - astonishingly successful.
Zhu Wen (founder of Liang) - the man who created the state which eventually became the Song Dynasty.
Li Keyong (Zhu Wen’s implacable foe) and his son Li Cunxu.
Chai Rong (the man who rebuilt Zhu Wen’s kingdom)
Zhao Kuangyin (the founder of the of Song Dynasty).
Zhu Yuanzhang (Hongwu, founder of the Ming)
Zhu Di (Yongle, the 3rd Huangdi of Ming).
Nurhachi, Hong Taiji, Prince Dorgon, & Kangxi - all four were great warrior kings.
They should be remembered, but I don’t foresee any Wu Miao being built in my lifetime.
The End.