Tengwang Pavilion

Reconstructed Tang-era multi-storey wooden pavilion on the Gan River, immortalised in Wang Bo's 7th-century 'Preface to Tengwang Pavilion'.

Tengwang Pavilion was first built in 653 CE by Prince Teng, Li Yuanying, a younger brother of Tang Emperor Taizong, on the western bank of the Gan River in what is now Nanchang. The pavilion was destroyed and rebuilt 28 times across the subsequent centuries — by floods, wars, and fires, each time restored at the instigation of successive officials and scholars — making the current 1989 reinforced concrete building the 29th iteration. The existing structure rises nine storeys to 57 metres and is built in a Song-dynasty palatial style, though it stands on the same general site as its predecessors.

The pavilion is culturally significant almost entirely because of a single document: the 'Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion' (Tengwang Ge Xu) written by the 26-year-old prodigy Wang Bo in 675 CE, reportedly composed impromptu at a banquet held to celebrate a contemporaneous reconstruction of the building. Wang Bo's preface is a formal essay in parallel prose (pianwen) describing the autumnal view from the pavilion over the Gan River, moving through images of light, water, distance, and seasonal change to a meditation on the relationship between the individual's ambitions and the indifference of nature — 'the mist dissipates and the cold river appears clear; the sunset fades and the isolated pagoda stands parallel.' Wang Bo died the following year, drowned at sea at 26. The preface became one of the canonical texts of classical Chinese prose and is read in Chinese middle schools. The most-quoted lines describe the view from the pavilion at sunset; the view from the current building is of the Gan River and the Nanchang skyline, rather than the empty marshland Wang Bo described.

The pavilion complex includes galleries on Wang Bo and the history of the reconstructions. Evening opening to 9:30pm allows a visit combined with the river lighting.