北京朝天宫和玉皇阁的历史沿革考释

A Textual Research on the Historical Evolution of Chaotian Palace and Yuhuang Taoist temple in Beijing

朝天宫曾是明代北京最大的道观,也是道教中枢道录司之所在,但不幸毁于明末的一场神秘大火。在朝天宫短暂的历史中,仅留下存于童谣和文献中的只言片语描述。本文通过对这些仅存的史料进行考证,释义出朝天宫的兴建、功能、灾毁等情况,理清了从明初朝天宫到明末玄天观的演变以及在清初为了避讳而改成元天观,直到新中国成立后再次更名为玉皇阁至今,并在此基础上对相关误解予以解析。

Chaotian Palace was once the largest Taoist temple in Beijing during the Ming dynasty and the office of the Taoist pivot,the Daoist Department of Records,but was unfortunately destroyed by the mysterious fire at the end of the Ming Dynasty.In its short history,only a few words of description remain in nursery rhymes and documents.This paper examines these surviving historical sources to explain the construction,function and destruction of Chaotian Palace,clarify the evolution of Chaotian Palace from the early Ming Dynasty to Xuantian Taoist temple at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the change of its name to Yuantian Taoist temple in the early Qing Dynasty to avoid taboo,t has been renamed Yuhuang Daoist temple since the founding of P.R.China,and then on the basis of which the relevant misconceptions are resolved.