Structure Type: Buddhist Monastery 佛廟.
Location: Abbey-Well Valley Village, Jia County, Shaanxi Province 陝西省佳縣觀井溝村.
Period: 1840, possibly painted over an earlier basis. 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.62-4. The author Huyan Sheng argues for late-Qing dates for these beautiful north-Shaanxi Water-and-Land murals. I freely admit my inability to judge styles in this area, but I wonder in this case; these look Ming to me. The temple was founded at this location in 1490, then repaired in 1523, 1650, 1765, 1840, and again in the 2000s.
Artist: Eleven artists are listed on the 1840 stele. These are: Li Guan 李官, Guo Huanglin 郭荒林, Gao Jialin 高家臨, Nan Bisui 南必雖, Li Chang[ ] 李長[ ]，Li Zhangfang 李張方, his son Lü’er 男驢兒 (lit.: “Donkey”), Li Binggui 李秉貴, Li Shunxi 李順喜, Feng Bingzhu 馮秉珠, Li Zhichao 李之朝, Liu Dengshang 劉登尚, Liu Dengsheng 劉登升.
Mural Contents: There are two extant old murals at this site. The less-spectacular but actually rarer mural is the one dedicated to the Second-Lad 二郎. Ostensibly a very common god in China, this is the only even marginally intact Second-Lad mural I’ve ever seen. There are probably more such murals hidden away in the hills and gulches of northern Shaanxi, but I’ve not managed to locate any. The mural shows what are presumably the Second-Lad’s retinue, processing through cloud.
The main-hall murals 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 damaged but quite beautiful in their details.
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