Note: So as not to over-load these image-galleries, I’ve put photos from other shrines at the same temple complex on a separate page, accessed here.
Structure Type: Village Temple 村廟. This is a massive temple complex in the northern part of the old fortified town, containing within it a number of separate shrines. A very similar complex exists in the neighboring Huangfu Town 黃甫鎮, the next in the line of garrison forts strung out along the Great Walls here.
Location: Hemp Garrison, Fugu County, Shaanxi Province 陝西省府谷縣麻鎮.
Period: 1788-1802. The exact sequence of repairs and repaintings isn’t 100% clear to me, but it should be around this time. A heavily damaged stele exists recording repairs to these temples around 1788. Two plaques hang on the roof-boards of the temples to the Three Officials and to Lord Guan, recording the “raising of the beams” 扶樑 by different donors in 1788 and 1802, respectively. Neither of these (nor the stele) give information about the murals. The temples certainly were not built at this time, because another stele records land-grants to the Lord Guan Temple in 1770; in all probability the temples have been there since the creation of these garrisons in the Ming. I’ve grouped all the temples on this page together because they are clearly painted in the same hand; the murals depicting the Three Officials 三官 and the Arhats/Avalokiteśvara 羅漢／觀音 are in a different style.
Artist: Unknown. I haven’t located an artist listed on the stele.
Mural Contents: The Lord Guan Temple 關公廟 murals are heavily damaged, but intricate and beautiful. The innermost niche, very difficult to photograph, has paintings of screens that form a backing to the statue. The outer faces of this niche show court scenes, where figures kneel down to worship the enthroned deity. Moving out, the two side walls show the procession of Lord Guan with his retinue out into the world and back. Outside of the main hall proper, two side-buildings 配殿 have murals showing panel-scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義, thus completing all possibilities of the Lord Guan iconography.
The hall to the Goddesses 娘娘 has a relatively standard procession-scene, with the three fertility goddesses processing out on the left wall and back on the right, dispensing healthy babies. Interestingly, a small cartouche at the bottom of the image gives the names of the figures, apparently a receipt of the artist’s work:
金粧碧霞娘娘壹尊／金粧雲霞娘娘壹尊／金粧奶母娘娘貳尊／金粧摧生送子娘娘貳尊／金粧痘神糠神貳尊／補塑痘神糠神貳尊／金粧痘神糠神貳尊 [sic, again] “One golden-painted Goddess of the Empyrean Mists / One golden-painted Goddess of the Clouds and Mists / Two golden-painted milk-mother Goddesses / Two golden-painted child-granting Goddesses / Two golden-painted Gods of Smallpox / Two repaired statues of the Gods of Smallpox / Two golden-painted Gods of Smallpox [sic, again]”
A matching cartouche on the opposite wall makes it clear that this refers to “painting the wall paintings” 畫墻畫. I’m a little unclear as to which figures in the mural are which, especially since there is the standard trinity of three main Goddesses on the wall, while the cartouche only lists two. I’m also not sure why the Gods of Smallpox are mentioned twice.
There are a few more small temples with heavily damaged but rare and interesting iconographies. The Hall of the God of Fire 火神殿 has badly preserved murals of that deity in procession; he appears here as a three-eyed man with a flame-red face. The Hall of the God of Wealth 財神殿 has curious murals showing devotees moving treasure through the halls of an immense and opulent mansion. This is a rather unusual example of the ‘Barbarians Bringing Treasures’ 胡人進寶 theme common elsewhere with God of Wealth iconographies. The god himself appears as a blue-faced demon in a long green robe. Finally, there’s a curious little side-hall now devoted to Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音殿, although judging by the wall-paintings this does not seem to have been the original function of the building. The murals are heavily damaged and covered-over with wall-hangings; the outer parts of the wall show an unidentified panel narrative, while the inner part of the left-hand wall shows a rare image of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions 二十八宿. Elsewhere in northern Shaanxi, these deities appear as one part of Jade Emperor 玉皇 iconographies, but I haven’t seen any other examples of an independent depiction like this. Unfortunately all of this is damaged and hard-to-photograph.
Highlight Gallery
Full Gallery of the Lord Guan Temple
Full Gallery of the Goddess Hall
Full Gallery of the Various Other Halls
