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 Temples 村廟.
Location: These temples are scattered about the village, which is an unusually large and rambling place. The temples to the Perfected Warrior and Wenchang are, respectively, the southern- and northern-facing sides of the same building, which is constructed on an arch that sits at the center of the village. There was originally another, larger temple to the Perfected Warrior within the village, located on the northern wall. This suggests to me that the arch which holds the surviving shrine was once the south-gate of the fort; later on when the village expanded to the south, the new area was walled in and the old south-gate became a bell-and-drum tower at the center of the town. I can’t actually prove this though. The temple to the Three Officials is located just within the west gate of the village; steles outside indicate that it was used as a village Confucian school in the 19th century.
Period: Late 18th or early 19th centuries, based on style.
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: The north wall of the Temple to the Perfected Warrior represents the trompe-l’œil backdrop to the statue that would once have stood on the altar; thus it shows handsome wooden lattice-work of a portico, with matching couplets 對聯 on the pillars on either side. The two walls show scenes from the Perfected Warrior’s hagiography. These are faded but elegant, done without the heavy panel-borders of most of these painted narratives.
The Temple to Wenchang (the “God of Literature”) seems always to have been sparsely decorated. On the rear (south) wall of the room is painted the god’s throne; the two flanking walls show images of two Confucian officials who appear to be the god’s attendants; I’ve seen similar figures to these in other temples to Wenchang from the same period.
The Temple to the Three Officials is heavily damaged but nonetheless somewhat impressive. The murals show the Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water processing out upon their mounts, a phoenix 鳳凰, qilin 麒麟, and dragon 龍, respectively.
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