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 and opera stage 戲台.
Location: The temple is located outside the old village walls, on a small rise to the east. The temple is immediately adjacent, except facing west in through the gate of the old fort.
Period: 1730. The temple was originally founded at this site in 1591. It was repaired again in the year 1730; the stele here lists an artist named Li [ ]sheng 李[ ]生. This artist’s name is in fact found written on one of the triangular panels in the rafters, in the form of Wansheng Li 萬生李 [sic], thus confirming that we should associate the murals with this date. The temple was repaired a further time in 1773, but no artist is listed here. The murals on the opera stage should be much later, late 19th or early 20th century.
Artist: Li Wansheng 李萬生 (see above). The little triangular panels under the rafters contain the following inscription: “Pictures painted by Wansheng Li [sic] of Jintan County in Pingyang fu, inscribed by Weizhen Li [sic] from this place” 平陽府金壇縣万生李繪圖，本境維貞李題. This presents several puzzles. I’ve not been able to locate anywhere in Pingyang (present-day Linfen Cityship 臨汾市) with a name like Jintan County. Nor am I sure why the two men of the Li family thought to reverse the order of their names (the surname is always written before the personal name). Nevertheless, it does seem to confirm the 1730 date for the murals. It also explains the unusual style of the painting – the artist is from far-off southern Shanxi.
Mural Contents: The murals show the standard Dragon King processions, out on the left wall and back on the right. In the lower register of the right-hand wall there are images of rituals performed in propitiation of the Dragon Kings, including a table of offerings and a plaque with the words “The Spirit-Positions of the Five Emperors of the Five Directions, the Rain-Giving Dragon Kings” 五方五帝行雨龍王神位.
The temple is also notable for the triangular plaques under the rafters, which contain numerous little poetic inscriptions produced by the local Li Weizhen 李維貞 (see above).
There’s also an opera stage adjacent to the temple, which faces west in through the gate of the fort to a now-vanished temple. The two side-walls have heavily effaced remnants of a ‘Mansions of the Western Seas’ 西洋樓 image. The rear wall has a new screen, which shows the theme I’ve been calling ‘The Golden Road’ 金光大道.
Other Notes: This temple is now used as a sawmill. The fellow who kept it allowed me in to photograph at one point; the last time I passed by in 2018, a plaque had been put up declaring it a Yu County cultural relic. Presumably this means the structure will be protected in the future.
Full Gallery
