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 on a small tower at the northern end of the axial road of the old fort. Thus it is one of the rare northern axial temples in this region that is not dedicated to either the Perfected Warrior 真武 or to the Jade Emperor 玉皇.
Period: 18th or early 19th century, based on style.
Artist: Unknown.
Mural Contents: The murals show scenes of miracles committed by the Three Officials. The cartouches give extensive accounts of the mural scenes, most of which are set in southern China. Presumably this is drawn from some particular ‘precious scroll’ 寶卷 of deity-stories, but I don’t know the name or origin of this text, and I haven’t seen it elsewhere. The rear wall shows the screen or throne-back behind the now-vanished deity-statues, which has images of dragons flying through cloud, unfortunately now heavily damaged.
Three of the four triangular panels under the rafters contain interesting scenes of people praying to the Three Officials and receiving response. The fourth panel shows a rare image of the Star of Longevity 壽星, a deity well-known in China generally, but almost completely absent from rural temple murals.
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