The Purple Bamboo Courtyard Palace (Zizhu Yuan Xinggong) is a district-level cultural heritage site located at 35 Zizhuyuan South Road, Haidian District, inside the Zizhuyuan Park. It served as a rest stop for Emperor Qianlong and the Empress Dowager during their visits to the Wanshou Temple and Suzhou Street in the Qing Dynasty.
The palace was originally built during the Ming Dynasty as a subsidiary temple of the Wanshou Temple. It was expanded into a palace during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. According to a stone inscription from the 11th year of the Guangxu reign (1885), “The ancient Zizhu Courtyard was a subsidiary temple of the Wanshou Temple.” Out of filial respect for his mother, the Empress Dowager, Qianlong had a statue of the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin) placed in the temple and replicated the water town landscape of Suzhou, Jiangnan, by building a “Reed Flower Bridge.” He also renovated an old Ming Dynasty temple on the southern hillside of the Guangyuan Zhahe Port and renamed it “Purple Bamboo Zen Courtyard.” Additionally, a palace was constructed on the western side of the temple to serve as a resting place during his visits to Wanshou Temple and Suzhou Street with his mother.
The palace is not large and faces south. During its peak, a large plaque reading “Fortune and Blessings of Purple Bamboo Courtyard” was hung above the entrance, reputedly written by Emperor Qianlong himself. The palace gate has three sections, with three rooms on each side and a covered passage leading to the main hall. The main hall consists of five sections, surrounded by galleries at the corners. Beyond that, there are three sections leading to a two-story building named “Repayment Tower” (Bao’en Lou), which also bears the Emperor’s calligraphy. The courtyard is planted with valuable southern bamboo, creating a picturesque environment.
The palace follows a symmetrical layout with a central axis. The main axis includes a platform, palace gates, a shadow wall, the main hall, and the Repayment Tower. To the west of the palace gate is the West Courtyard, which was constructed during the Guangxu period and served as the residence of accompanying officials during imperial outings. This courtyard is now enclosed and renamed “Ji Yun Xuan.” The East Courtyard marks the site of the original “Purple Bamboo Zen Courtyard.”
In the 1980s, the palace underwent renovation, with modern-style doors and windows installed. The buildings are small in scale but made of large wooden beams, with Suzhou-style decorative paintings and grey tiles. The palace gates and the main hall have steep roofs with covered galleries. The Repayment Tower has a prominent dual-level roof with a front porch, square balustrades on the lower floor, and ornamental railings on the upper floor. Both sides of the building feature stone stairs with external landings.
The layout of the palace buildings today differs from the original structure. In September 2009, the Beijing Institute of Archaeology conducted excavations of some of the palace’s foundations, uncovering two Qing Dynasty building sites, covering an area of about 400 square meters. On November 5, 2009, Zizhuyuan Park submitted a request for the “Restoration and Repair Project of the Palace and Surrounding Courtyards” to the Haidian District Cultural Committee, which was approved. The project involves a budget of over 30 million yuan and will restore and reconstruct the central courtyard, the Southwest Courtyard, Ji Yun Xuan, the Purple Bamboo Zen Courtyard, as well as the two main gates, the northwest and east side halls, the surrounding corridors, and the southern courtyard of the Purple Bamboo Zen Courtyard. In 2001, it was designated as a key cultural heritage site by the Haidian District government.
Phoenix Lee https://chinese-tradition.com/purple-bamboo-courtyard-palace-a-qing-dynasty-heritage-site-in-beijing.html