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: Opera Stage 戲台.
Location: Yu County, Hebei Province 河北蔚縣. The stage is located facing west outside the gate of the fortress, which faces east. There is a temple to Wenchang 文昌 and the Kui-Star 魁星 on the fortress gate, but the intended recipient of the plays on the stage was probably the Temple of the Jade Emperor 玉皇廟 which sits at the end of the axial street, around a bend.
Period: Undated. Early 20th century based on style and topic.
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: The murals show scenes from the Romance of the Investiture of the Gods 封神演義, in which the gods and heroes of the Zhou and Shang dynasties battle for supremacy. Wooden panels over the stage continue the theme in more narrative format, here focusing on the cycle of stories surrounding the Goddesses 娘娘.
Other Notes: Both the content and the venue of these murals are unique. Almost all other stages in Yu County either have architectural scenes or pictures of screens. Murals derived from the Romance of the Investiture of the Gods exist farther west in Shanxi, but not in Yu County, always in panel format as opposed to this massive free-flowing battle, and never on opera stage walls.
It strikes me that we should probably take the panel-narratives of the Goddesses 娘娘 as evidence for the Formation of the Nine Bends of the Yellow River 黃河九曲陣 ritual being performed here in the early 20th century. At other sites this ritual and this particular deity-narrative derived from the Romance of the Investiture of the Gods are usually connected in epigraphy and murals.
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