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 Temple 村廟.
Location: The temple is located outside the old fort, and on a small rise somewhat to the north-east.
Period: The date of this mural is mysterious. One of the tiny figures at the bottom of the western wall is wearing what seems to be Qing-dynasty (1636-1911) dress, thus implying that the images were painted during this period or immediately thereafter. There is a small stele in-set into the front of the building which records a repair in the year 1919. This stele lists the names of the carpenter 木匠, mason 石匠, and bricklayer 泥匠, but no artist 畫匠, thus seemingly implying that the structure was renovated but not actually repainted at that time (?). The style of the murals is baffling to me – the subtle shading of the clouds and faces on the side walls seems virtuosic, but the same figures on the main walls are crude to the point of being almost repulsive, and yet the whole thing is clearly from the hand of the same artist. This temple in Zhuolu (which I’ve assigned, on a whim, to the seventeenth century) seems like a stylistic parallel, but this may be total coincidence. Other parallels might be this 1730 temple, located quite nearby (the style of the clouds), or this one from 1709 (especially the images of the Gods of the Five Grains). On the whole: I would like to know when this was painted, but I do not.
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: The murals show the standard procession of the Dragon Kings out from the Crystal Palace 水晶宮 on the left wall, and back on the right. On the main wall, the Five Dragon Kings 五海龍王 and the Master of Rain 雨師 sit in state around the Lady Mother of Waters 水母娘娘. On the rear walls to either side of the door, there are heavily-damaged monochrome paintings of what appear to be the Gods of the Five Grains 五榖神.
Other Notes: This site is disintegrating at a rapid rate – each new rainfall takes with it a chunk of the murals. That said, while the whole is damaged, many of the details here are extremely fine.
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