Qualla: Temple of the Five Lords https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/w/3/temple-of-the-five-lords-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Temple of the Five Lords https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords Temple of the Five Lords: Introduction https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords/ Photo credit Wwbread, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five stone figures stand in a temple on Hainan Island, each representing a man who was sent here to be forgotten. The irony is that China remembers them precisely because of where they were sent. The Temple of the Five Lords, about five kilometers southeast of downtown Haikou, commemorates officials from the Tang and Song dynasties who lost factional battles at court and were exiled to what was then considered the edge of the civilized world. Hainan in their era was not the tropical resort island of today. It was a punishment, a place where disgraced ministers were sent to languish and, in some cases, to die. That these men are now honored here says something about how history eventually sorts its verdicts.

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Image: Wwbread | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/w/3/temple-of-the-five-lords-wp/w7w3-temple-of-the-five-lords-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Temple of the Five Lords: The First Building in Hainan https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords/ Photo credit Neal dong2012, CC BY-SA 3.0. The temple complex covers 2,800 square meters, centered on a red two-story wooden hall that rises more than nine meters above its grounds. An inscription above the second-floor entrance declares it the "first building in Hainan," a claim that speaks less to chronological fact tha...

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Image: Neal dong2012 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/w/3/temple-of-the-five-lords-wp/w7w3-temple-of-the-five-lords-the-first-building-in-hainan.mp3 0:06 2 full Temple of the Five Lords: Fallen from Favor https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords/ Photo credit kaurjmeb, CC BY 2.0. The five lords span nearly three centuries of imperial politics. Li Deyu, a Tang dynasty chancellor who lived from 787 to 850, led one side of the Niu-Li Factional Struggles, a decades-long conflict between officials of aristocratic and humble origins. When Emperor Xuanzong crush...

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Image: kaurjmeb | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/w/3/temple-of-the-five-lords-wp/w7w3-temple-of-the-five-lords-fallen-from-favor.mp3 0:06 3 full Temple of the Five Lords: Generals, Poets, and the Shape of Memory https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords/ Photo credit kaurjmeb, CC BY 2.0. The temple complex extends beyond its five namesakes. The Ancestral Hall of the Two Fubo Generals honors Lu Bode, who captured Hainan for the Western Han dynasty in 110 BC, and Ma Yuan of the Eastern Han, who lived from 14 BC to 49 AD. Both received the honorary title "Fubo Gener...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/w/3/temple-of-the-five-lords-wp/w7w3-temple-of-the-five-lords-generals-poets-and-the-shape-of-memory.mp3 0:06 4 full Temple of the Five Lords: The Edge of the World, Reconsidered https://qualla.com/temple-of-the-five-lords/ Photo credit kaurjmeb, CC BY 2.0. To understand what exile to Hainan meant, consider the geography. The island sits across the Qiongzhou Strait from the mainland, a narrow but symbolically vast gap during the Tang and Song periods. No railroads, no airports, no bridges. Passage was by boat, and the tropical clima...

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]]> Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/7/w/3/temple-of-the-five-lords-wp/w7w3-temple-of-the-five-lords-the-edge-of-the-world-reconsidered.mp3 0:06 5 full