Location info and some photos withheld. As of my last visit, this mural site is vulnerable to theft or destruction. I have withheld the location beneath the county level and any photographs (of steles, signs, scenery, etc.) that might identify the place. If you are an accredited scholar and you have a good reason to want to see this information, email me and we’ll talk about it.
Structure Type: Village temple 村廟. The building is composed of two arched Shaanxi-style cave houses 窯洞, with a newer roof added on.
Location: Jia County, Shaanxi Province 陝西佳縣. The village was unwalled, and consisted of a long slope into which cave houses were cut; the temple sits across from a stage in a small plaza at the foot of this slope.
Period: Qing. I am genuinely unsure when this is from – the stylistic progression in northern Shaanxi province seems different from the one I’m familiar with further east. If I saw this elsewhere I would say probably 18th century, but several small painted elements especially in the Lord Guan hall look later to me. There is a stele outside from the 1903 commemorating the generosity of a local man who helped re-establish the village after unspecified disasters in the late-19th century. Two graffiti on the wall commemorate successful prayers for rain in 1924. Shaanbei may just be a place where older styles lingered late?
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: There are two halls, one devoted to the Jade Emperor 玉皇 and the other to Lord Guan 關公. The Jade Emperor hall shows the standard iconography for this deity in Shaanbei, identified to me by the brothers of the Zheng 鄭 family painters at Xinglong Monastery 興隆寺. The innermost deities are the Thirty Three Heavens 三十三天, while the side walls have the Twenty Eight Astral Mansions 二十八宿 and the Nine Celestial Bodies 九耀. On the outermost arch of the hall are the Dragon Kings 龍王, who proceed out and back dispensing rain according to the Jade Emperor’s order.
The Lord Guan hall has images drawn from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義.
Highlight Gallery
Jade Emperor Hall Full Gallery
Lord Guan Hall Full Gallery
