Structure Type: Village Temple 村廟.
Location: Zhuangke Village, Yu County, Hebei Province 河北省蔚縣莊窠村. The temple is located about 500 meters east of the old walled village, once out in the open fields but now in the outskirts of the town.
Period: 1709. The attestation for this temple is wonderfully complete, found in long plaques hung from the ceiling beams. The temple was originally founded in 1549, then renovated in 1625. In 1709 it was renovated once more, and at this time the murals were repainted. The temple survived the Cultural Revolution almost completely intact; curtains were hung over the murals and the building was used as a schoolroom. In the 2010s, an attempt was made to cut the murals off the wall for sale. For some reason the thief was not successful, but he scored long vertical cuts into the main wall of the room and broke off a large chunk. In 2015, the village undertook to repair the structure, making significant alterations to the site – they re-roofed the building, repainted the eaves, and built a new out-building, built a wall to form a courtyard, and set up a new screen wall outside. The worst alteration, however, is a fabulously garish golden Dragon King statue which now sits cemented to the altar. Besides being incredibly ugly and blocking the beautiful murals, this is not even the right deity – the central deity of a “Dragon King Temple” is always the Mother of Waters 水母.
Artist: Cui Wenxin 崔文新. This name is preserved on the ceiling plaques, where he is described as a “picture-worker” 畫工, working together with a carpenter named Miao Ao 苗敖 and a bricklayer of the surname Shi 史. The work was mainly sponsored by the Xu 徐 and Kang 康 families.
Mural Contents: The murals show the rain-making processions of the Dragon Kings 龍王. On the central wall is enthroned the Mother of Waters 水母, also called the Dragon Auntie 龍姑. Around her are the Dragon Kings of the Five Seas 五海龍王 and the Master of Rain 雨師. On the right-hand side wall, the Dragon Kings and their demonic retinue ride out from the Crystal Palace, dispensing thunder and rain to the world below. On the left-hand side wall, the dragons have shed their wrathful forms, and return peacefully to the Palace. In the small panels at the base of the composition, farmers plant their fields and hide from lightning, thresh their grain and pack it into bags, then form up into a harvest festival, a votive procession with Daoist priests and a shawm band that finally arrives at a recursive picture of the temple itself.
One unusual aspect of this temple, not found elsewhere, is the low panels on the rear walls which show the Gods of the Five Grains 五股神.
Other Notes: According to the shrine caretakers, the temple originally had one statue of the Dragon Auntie, carved from black wood. Every spring, this statue would be processed into the canyon in the mountains, where it would be washed in a spring known to be holy to the Mother of Waters.
This temple is the best-preserved, best-attested, and most artistically attractive Dragon King temple I’ve ever seen, not to mention one of the earliest. Although very small, this site should be better known.
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