Note: So as not to over-load these image-galleries, I’ve put photos from other shrines at the same monastery on a separate page, accessed here.
Structure Type: Buddhist Monastery 佛寺.
Location: Xinglong Monastery, Zheng Family Rear Village, Jia County, Shaanxi Province 陝西省佳縣鄭家後溝興隆寺.
Period: The rock grotto of the Water and Land Hall was probably cut and painted between 1498 and 1506, at the time of the monastery’s founding. A stele from 1882 indicates that the room was heavily remodeled at this time, and the murals repainted by village artisans. Whether or not the murals were entirely repainted or just re-colored at this time is unclear. I’m leaning towards “entirely repainted,” since they’re one of a closely-related family of Water and Land drawings in this region, all in the same style, and all associated with the 19th century. I’m getting this from a lovely PhD thesis about these images by Huyan Sheng, see: 呼延勝, “陝北土地上水陸畫藝術,” 博士論文, 西安美術學院, 2012, pp.30-33.
The shrines to the Ghost King and the Gods of the Earth and Mountains are not dated, but should be 19th or early 20th century based on style.
Artist: Three artists 丹青 are listed for the late 19th century repair of the Water and Land Hall, Li Fengchun 李逢春, He Shengwang 賀盛旺, and “the people of the combined villages of mulberry gulch, et cetera” 桑溝合村人等.
Mural Contents: The murals in the Water and Land Hall show the Buddhist Feast of Water and Land, in which all the gods and demons of the cosmos are called down to the altar to partake of offerings and be converted. These are drawn from a standard list, and do not generally vary from place to place.
The murals in the Kṣitigarbha Hall, the Ghost-King Hall and the Hall of the Gods of the Earth and Mountains are all in the same hand, which is far inferior to that of the Water and Land murals. The Kṣitigarbha Hall had murals of supplicants entering into the courts of hell, where they face the Yama Kings 閻王; these are now mostly destroyed. The murals in the Ghost-King Hall depict an ullambana 盂蘭盆 or flaming-mouth 焰口 ritual, in which Buddhist monks put out offerings to the hungry ghosts 餓鬼, who draw near and are converted. One form of this ritual forms the final section of the Water and Land rite, depicted in the rock-shrine above. In keeping with the quasi-exorcistic nature of this ritual, the shrine to the Gods of the Mountains and the Earth shows the minions of these two deities, in the forms of a tiger and a wolf respectively, bounding out into a darkened landscape to hunt evil spirits.
Other Notes: I’ve placed these images together because they’re all located in a single area of the monastic complex, accessed through locked-off gate. All of the shrines within this area have some connection to death or funerals. (For the section of the monastery that does not seem to be specifically associated with death, see here.) These death-ritual shrines include the Water-and-Land shrine, associated with the eponymous funeral ritual, the Ghost-King hall with its depictions of the exorcistic ullambana, the shrine to the Gods of the Mountains and the Earth which propitiates the gods of the locale and exorcises demons, and, located in a cave-grotto beneath the whole complex, the shrine to Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha 地藏王菩薩 and the Yama Kings 閻王, the judges of the afterlife. According to the Zheng 鄭 family brothers who run the monastery (see below), there is one monk who inhabits the monastery, and actually uses this space to perform funerary rituals. At the time I visited this monk was not in residence, having gone off to perform funerals elsewhere – I would have loved to spend some time at this site and see how these rooms were used, but unfortunately my time at that point was very limited.
The people I did get to speak to were the Zheng 鄭 family of artists 畫匠, specifically brothers Zheng Jindi 鄭進弟 and Zheng Jinwang 鄭進旺, who run the day-to-day operations of the monastery. I spent several days interviewing these two. They are wonderfully hospitable and extraordinarily knowledgable about all things mural-related. They also have amazing stories about how, together with their painter father Zheng Zhanghe 鄭長和, they collaborated to save their beloved monastery from the Red Guards by filling in some of the caves and then sneaking out at night to carry the precious scrolls and other objects out to secret places in the hills.
Highlight Gallery
Full Gallery (The Water and Land Hall)
Full Gallery (Various Shrines within the Monastery)
