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Full List of Mural Categories:



Actors 演人 (17) Architectural Drawings 界畫 (54) Arhats 羅漢 (14) Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音 (20) Axial Temples 軸線廟宇 (16) Buddhas (all) 佛 (諸) (24) Buddhist Monasteries 佛寺 (21) Capturing the Evil Ones 捉妖 (14) Ceremonial Guard 儀衛 (16) Confirmed Dates 確定年代 (26) Deity-Temples 神廟 (73) Dispensing Rain 行雨 (34) Dragon Kings 龍王 (39) Endangered Murals 瀕危壁畫 (42) Four Messengers 四值使者 (27) Goddesses 娘娘 (18) God of the Earth 土地神 (19) God of the Mountains 山神 (18) Hebei 河北 (58) Late Qing 晚清 (1800-1911) (60) Lord Guan 關公 (22) Mid Qing 盛清 (1700-1799) (24) Mother of Waters 水母 (26) Opera Graffiti 戲台題壁 (18) Opera Scenes 戲曲情景 (17) Opera Stages 戲台 (29) Panel Narratives 方格敘述 (46) People's Republic 中華人民共和國 (1949-Present) (28) Perfected Warrior 真武 (19) Portico Pictures 門廊畫 (49) Processions 巡行 (50) Qing Dynasty 清朝 (1644-1911) (79) Republican 民國時期 (1911-1949) (24) Ritual Images 儀式圖 (27) Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 (18) Screens 屏風 (19) Shaanxi 陝西 (16) Shanxi 山西 (30) Trompe-l'œil 錯視畫 (23) Unique Topics 獨特畫題 (38) Village Temples 鄉村廟宇 (64) Western Architecture 西方建築 (20) Western Elements 西方因素 (26) Yu County 蔚縣 (47) Śākyamuni Buddha 釋迦牟尼佛 (14)


Murals by Time Period: Note that the main-page image-scroll is organized chronologically, so you can get a sense of the progression of styles and themes by scrolling up and down and checking the dates.

A made-up but typical temple history goes like this: A temple is founded outside a village the 16th century. It is repaired in the 18th century and an artist is hired to repaint the murals from scratch at that time. Villagers ask a student from the county school to write a stele text, which is mostly a eulogy on Confucian themes but does mention the artist’s name and says that the temple hall has been “made resplendent” 莊嚴. In the early 20th century the roof begins to cave in, and so villagers re-shingle it, installing newly-painted rafters and ceiling panels as they do so. Villagers ask another student to write another stele, which also gives an artist’s name and once again says that the temple hall has been “made resplendent” 莊嚴. Then in the 1950s, Communists destroy the temple statues, plaster over the murals, use the steles as paving stones, and convert the temple building into a schoolhouse. Later on in the 1990s a new schoolhouse is built elsewhere and the old building is abandoned. In the mid-2000s, newly wealthy villagers renovate the temple, scrape off the plaster on the murals, repaint the rafters, re-color the most important murals on the main wall, and install new statues which may or may not be the same deities as the old ones. In 2018, I visit the temple for an hour or so, chat about the place and its history with the elderly villager who has the keys, and photograph the room. I also photograph the two steles, but they are now mostly illegible. Based on the painting style, I label the gallery: “Qing Dynasty Murals.” I’ve noted in the individual gallery descriptions my grounds for assigning particular murals to particular periods. These assignations range from certain (the mural comes with a clear date attached) to fairly sure (the style matches others from a particular period), to just guessing (absent other indicators, I’m “writing what I feel”).

  • Late-Ming Murals 明朝壁畫 (1500-1644): Ming murals are characterized by a fine classical line and warm, bright colors, with strong use of reds, pinks, blues, and greens. There is a delicate treatment of clouds, which are often yellow or pink in color. Buddhist themes are common, including Water-and-Land paintings and images of the Arhats or Boddhisattvas. Murals devoted to the Perfected Warrior, Lord Guan, and the Goddesses are all attested from this period.
  • Seventeenth Century / Early Qing Murals 十七世紀/初清壁畫 (1644-1699): Early Qing murals are a stylistic continuation of the late-Ming, often with a strong use of reds and greens. Many such murals were painted in the context of the re-construction or re-consecration of temples damaged during the Ming-Qing transition. The earliest clearly dated Dragon King images known to me are from around the turn of the eighteenth century.
  • Eighteenth Century / High Qing Murals 十八世紀/盛清壁畫 (1700-1820): High-Qing murals are characterized by a cooler palette, with a strong use of browns and blues. The figures become slimmer, with enlarged heads. There is a marked interest in illusionistic techniques from this period, including the first adoptions of Western techniques like perspective and cast-shadows. Buddhist themes are relatively uncommon, although Water-and-Land murals continued to be painted at large scale.
  • Nineteenth Century / Late Qing Murals 十九世紀/晚清壁畫 (1796-1911): Late Qing murals are characterized by strong use of blue and white. While all of the old themes continued to be painted, a variety of new types of painting appeared in this period, some of them seemingly unrelated to anything which had come before. Important new developments include: new genres of opera-stage murals, often incorporating Western architecture, figures, or text; paintings connected to the Yellow River Formation 黃河陣 ritual; and a large number of rather eccentric Buddhist murals commissioned by charismatic wandering monks.
  • Republican Period Murals 民國時期壁畫 (1911-1949): Murals from the Republican period form a relatively continuous group with the late Qing, although European themes and techniques continued to gain dominance in this period.
  • People’s Republic of China Murals 中華人民共和國壁畫 (1949-Present): Few Maoist-period murals now survive, although there is some graffiti. In the post-Maoist period, traditional mural painting seems moribund east of the Yellow River in Shanxi and Hebei; the one exception are the “Grandfathers’ Houses” pantheons painted around Five-Peak Mountain. West of the Yellow River in northern Shaanxi, all of the old themes continue to be painted; these contemporary murals are characterized by bright, cheerful colors and a sort of folkic charm.

Two more useful categories:

  • Confirmed Dates 確定年代: These are murals for which I think the date of painting is reasonably certain, usually either because the painter left a graffito on the wall, or because the temple epigraphy (steles or plaques) provides an unambiguous date. Such murals are invaluable for understanding regional stylistic progressions and are, so to speak, the frame on which the rest of my often speculative dating is hung.
  • Unknown Dates 不詳時代: The majority of images in this collection do not have clear dates attached, but I usually feel comfortable assigning them to a century or so based on style. I’ve reserved this category, however, for cases in which I feel genuinely unsure of when a mural was painted. If anybody has leads about these mysterious customers, I would be interested to hear.

Murals by Location:
My survey region encompasses two basically disparate cultural areas, located to the east and to the west of the Yellow River as it flows south out of the Ördös desert. East of the Yellow River are Shanxi 山西, Hebei 河北, and the Beijing City District 北京市區. These areas are characterized by wide, flat plains cut through by low but rugged ranges. Villages here were usually walled, with above-ground houses built of mud and brick around a timber frame. Temples were located on and around the village walls, and in large complexes outside the village gates. Cultural and economic links were to the major cities of Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Datong, and Taiyuan, with trade routes running south to the Central Plains 中原 and north to Mongolia.

West of the Yellow River in Shaanxi 陝西 is the loess or “yellow earth” plateau 黃土高原, an endless maze of broken hills and ravines, much more remote and rural than areas to the east. The majority of villages in the loess hills are un-walled and characterized by cave-house architecture 窯洞, in which the predominant structural form is the arch, either dug into mud hillsides or built of stones and earth above-ground. Temples are found scattered between the houses or atop the hills; notable are many painted rock-grotto shrines, many of which remain active religious sites today. A few walled government strongholds were dispersed through this area, usually at important fords on the Yellow River, or guarding the larger valleys. An over-large proportion of the photographs in this collection come from large temples in a line of fortress-towns which followed the Great Walls 長城 across the north of the province. I had less time to spend in this fascinating area than I did further east, but my short stay there only convinced me of the cultural richness of the region and the great number of high-quality murals still to be discovered there.

Finally, these galleries include a few more scattered photos from southern Shanxi (Pu County 蒲縣 and Hongtong County 洪洞縣), taken during two short trips to see famous sites down there. These don’t really mesh up with the rest of the photos geographically, but the murals were so interesting that I uploaded the galleries anyway.


Murals by Venue:
Note that the below are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

  • Ancestral/Family Temples 祖宗祠/家廟: Ancestral temples were relatively rare in North China, but they did exist. To give an example, to my knowledge Yu County 蔚縣 has eight pre-Revolution ancestral temples extant, representing two in the county seat and six more scattered through the villages. Of these, three survive with murals. All of these murals show the plaques 牌位 of the ancestors arrayed for worship, along with the arrangements of an ideal grave-site 墓地. In this they are similar to the scroll-format “family genealogies” 家譜 that are hung up for New Years worship.
  • Buddhist Monasteries 佛寺: Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, large and small, remain a major feature of the Chinese countryside. Usually such monasteries will contain a Mahāvīra Hall 大雄殿 with images of Śākyamuni 釋迦佛, Maitreya 彌勒佛 and Dīpaṃkara 燃燈佛. Such a hall might have images of the Life of Śākyamuni 佛專故事, the Arhats 羅漢, the gods of the Water-and-Land rite 水陸齋, or other themes. There are often other shrines to Kṣitigarbha 地藏 and the Yama Kings 閻王, a hall for the Monastery Protector 伽藍佛 (= Lord Guan 關公), a special shrine for the Water-and-Land Ritual 水陸殿, etc., each with attendant murals. Most Buddhist monasteries in contemporary north-China are now devoted to some form of devotional Pure-Land 淨土 practice, although Chan 禪 is also an influence. Tibetan Buddhism was a relatively minor historical presence, but has gained great popularity in the 21st century, especially due to the repeated dispersals of Chinese monks from the Larunggar བླ་རུང་སྒར and Yachengar ཡ་ཆེན་སྒར colleges in eastern Tibet.
  • Daoist Abbeys 道觀: Devoted, doctrinally-defined Daoist abbeys were relatively rare in pre-Communist north China, and remain so now. This said, there is little practical difference between Daoist abbeys proper and cultic sites of particular deities that have attracted resident Daoist priests 道士. Many more Daoists practitioners live at home and perform rituals on-call at nearby homes and popular temples. A good example of a Daoist abbey narrowly defined is the Old Gentleman’s Abbey 老君觀 in Warm-Springs Township of Yu County 蔚縣暖泉鎮. This contains a central shrine to Laozi 老子, with images from the Old Gentleman’s Eighty-One Transformations 老君八十一化圖 (a polemically anti-Buddhist text) on the side-walls. Rear walls have images of Perfected Men 真人 and an inner-alchemy chart 內丹圖. An anterior shrine is devoted to the Perfected Warrior 真武, while side-halls are devoted to various astral deities and the Gods of Wealth 財神. The complex is run by a priest of the Quanzhen 全真 order.
  • Deity Temples 神廟: The “temple” 廟 is the most basic type of religious structure in north China. While a Daoist abbey or a Buddhist monastery are ideally defined by the resident population of religious practitioners, a deity temple is simply a shrine with an image or spirit-plaque 神牌 of a particular god. Any given monastic complex contains a number of such shrines, but many more of them are small, free-standing structures scattered through towns and villages, usually without any resident priest. Deity temples tend to be known by the name of the main god worshipped (i.e., “Temple of the Perfected Warrior” 真武廟, “Temple of the Goddesses” 娘娘廟), although this in no way precludes the existence of subsidiary images on the altar or smaller shrines to other deities within the complex grounds.
    • Axial Temples 軸線廟宇: Temples which stand on the main axial street of a walled settlement. Such temples are very often built on raised tower (樓、高台、高廟), especially those at the northern end of the axial road. Particular deities are associated with particular spots along these axial roads. In Hebei and Shanxi, the Perfected Warrior 真武 or the Jade Emperor 玉皇 are usually found at the northern end of the street, while Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音 or the Goddesses 娘娘 are found at ground-level around the southern gate. In larger forts, shrines to Wenchang 文昌 and the Kui-Star 魁星 are often built on arches over the road. These customs vary regionally, and other deities can occupy the main locations. These axial shrines represented the main spatial markers and defining visual features of pre-modern north-Chinese built space.
    • Urban Temples 城鎮廟宇: Temples in larger settlements or “cities”. The difference between “city” and “village” is fluid; here I use the arbitrary but emic distinction of whether or not a given settlement has a temple to the God of Walls and Moats 城隍廟. Urban temples tend to be of the same types as village shrines, except that they are larger and more opulent. Some state-supported cults existed only at centers of government and were never popular in the countryside; the most important of these is the God of Walls and Moats 城隍神, but other examples include the Eastern Peak 東嶽, the God of Fire 火神, to a lesser extent Wenchang 文昌 and the Jade Emperor 玉皇, etc. Urban temples were often converted to other uses during the Republican or Maoist periods or were demolished for redevelopment after Reform and Opening 改革開放, and thus relatively few survive with intact murals today.
    • Village Temples 鄉村廟宇: Pre-Revolution villages in north China had an average of four to eight such shrines, depending on the area. These structures were usually between one and three bays (jian 間) in width, sometimes with a small courtyard in front. Unlike the large Daoist temples of southern China, such shrines seldom had any resident priest; rather, they belonged to the village as a collective, and might be occasionally opened for worship on festival days. The majority of murals in this collection are found in such small, village-level temple halls. It should be pointed out that there’s often little difference between such shrines as found in villages, and shrines to the same deities found at well-known pilgrimage sites. The famous Daoist Abbey 道觀 at White-Cloud Mountain in Jia County 佳縣白雲山, for instance, seems to basically consist of a maze-like agglomeration of several dozen such deity shrines, with a small body of officiant Daoist priests supported by the local incense-associations 香會.
  • Houses 住宅: A variety of genres of house murals exist, but unfortunately due to the difficulty of entering private homes to photograph, only a few such murals form a part of this collection. The most common type of house mural is the kang-liners 炕圍子, about which see below. Other houses have paintings hung around or above outer gates to the courtyard, although few of these now survive. Most Chinese households once kept shrines with scroll paintings dedicated to the ancestors, local deities, and in some cases tutelary gods of the individual; I’ve photographed these where I’ve seen them.
    • Kang-Liners 炕圍子: This is both a venue and a genre associated with it. These are brightly colored decorative images painted around the heated kang-platform which forms the center of the north-Chinese home life. These often show geometric designs, opera scenes, famous beauty spots, images of prosperous modern cities, and Communist scenes. Most of the dated ones I’ve seen are from the Maoist period between the 1950s and the 1990s; village painters I spoke to said they made ends meet by painting such secular, domestic images during the period when religious activities were forbidden. The genre, however, should be older than this; some of the geometric patterns used in these pictures go back to at least the Song dynasty.
  • Opera Stages 戲台: Almost all rural opera stages in the areas known to me had painting on the walls, often incorporating some sort of trompe-l’œil. At least three regionally-specific traditions are known to me. The most interesting is that of Yu County 蔚縣, where stages either had images of folding screens 屏風 or architectural drawings of the European-inspired “Mansions of the Western Seas” 西洋樓, intended to represent the façade of the unseen realm behind the scaenae frons. Around Zhangjiakou City 張家口市, stages would frequently have life-sized images of actors and tumblers. In Shanxi province, it was more common for stages to have realistic images of scrolls 卷軸畫 hung from painted nails, with matching couplets 對聯 on either side. More such traditions must have existed elsewhere, and many unique stage paintings exist. Moreover, there was a highly developed tradition of stage graffiti, with many opera troupes creating elaborate depictions of their own performances or advertisements for their services.
  • Paintings and Scrolls 獨立圖畫、卷軸畫: My collection focuses mainly on painting on walls, but I did photograph scrolls and paintings on paper where I saw them. As one might expect, the diversity of painting on paper matched or probably exceeded that of painting on walls, but it’s difficult for the outsider researcher to see such paintings now. The most coherent genre represented in my photographs is the Grandfathers Houses 爺爺家, a type of pantheon-painting specific to the valleys around Five-Peak Mountain 五台山. Other painting genres include deity images, ancestral charts, calligraphy, etc.
  • Rock Grottoes 石窟: Rock grottoes and cave shrines are a common phenomenon all across north China, but few examples of painted grotto-murals exist east of the Yellow River. In the rugged and erosive loess plateau 黃土高原 of Shaanxi, however, rock grottoes are everywhere. In fact in this region there is little difference between shrines that are dug into hill-sides and shrines that happen to exist as free-standing structures; many sites incorporate both.

Murals by Deity:
Most, although not all, murals are associated with the worship of one particular deity or group of deities, plus that deity’s retinue of subsidiary figures. However, the details of a single temple room can be quite complex. To give an example, a particular “Dragon King Temple” 龍王廟 will have as its central deity the “Mother of Waters” 水母, flanked by the Dragon Kings of the Five Seas 五海龍王 and the Master of Rain 雨師. Around them will be enshrined dozens of smaller gods involved in precipitation, including the Four Messengers 四值使者, the Thunder Lords 雷公, the Goddesses of Wind 風娘娘 and of Lightning 閃電娘娘, in some areas the Gods of the Five Ways 五道神 and the Locust King 叭蜡王 etc. etc. Further, the same temple hall might also contain flanking shrines to the Horse King 馬王, the God of the Yellow River 河神, etc., each of whom have their own roster of attendants and flunkies. Some genres of painting (the Feasts of Water and Land 水陸齋, the Grandfathers’ Houses 爺爺家 scrolls) are simply immense lists of dozens to hundreds of deities – a full catalog of all the major and minor characters found in these murals would run into thousands of entries. I have listed here the central deities, that is, those deities like the Dragon Kings or Guanyin who can command an entire temple for themselves and their retinue.

To help make sense of this immense list, I’ve also included a simplified version of the data collected by Willem Grootaers. Grootaers was a Belgian Catholic missionary who, over the course of the 1940s, made a series of heroically detailed surveys of temples and cults around the cities of Datong 大同 and Xuanhua 宣化 in what’s now northern Shanxi and Hebei, respectively. Our research areas overlap; most villages surveyed by Grootaers were almost totally denuded of their temples during the Cultural Revolution, but I’ve picked them over for what I can, and other adjacent areas (most notably, Yu County 蔚縣) survive much better. Grootaers’ and my data are slightly different because we’re interested in different things. I’m interested in the murals, while Grootaers was counting temples and units of worship (“cultic units,” signified by a “spirit plaque” 神牌 to a specific god). Thus while I have a heading for “Arhats 羅漢,” because they are a frequent topic in murals, Grootaers would discuss these under “Buddha Halls 佛殿.” Moreover, I differ from him in some places about nomenclature, and whether to consider particular deities as separate cults or as aspects of the same cult; these disagreements are almost entirely cosmetic. It should also be noted that Grootaers’ numbers aren’t a foolproof measure of the importance of the deity. Many temples with a great many units were small and unimportant, while some with only a few were large and centrally located. Nevertheless, when understood properly, his data are a unique and invaluable field-guide to the religious landscape. I wrote a detailed introduction to his work here https://twosmall.ipower.com/blog/?p=3876; note that this is several years out of date, although still I think useful.

Each deity heading is followed by numbers of “cultic units” found at p.119-21 of Willem Grootaers, The Sanctuaries in a North-China City: A Complete Survey of the Cultic Buildings in the City of Hsüan-hua (Chahar), Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1995. Further references are to Grootaers, Li Shiyu 李世瑜, and Wang Fushi 王輔世 “Rural Temples around Hsüan-hua (South Chahar): Their Iconography and Their History,” Folklore Studies, vol.10, no.1 (1951), pp.1-116; and Grootaers, “Temples and the History of Wanch’üan 萬全 (Chahar): The Geographical Method Applied to Folklore,” Monumenta Serica, Vol.13 (1948), pp.209-316. This list will expand as I add more galleries.

Finally, note also that I haven’t cataloged deities which appear as parts of large pantheon sets. For instance, Lord Guan 關公 frequently appears in Water-and-Land and Grandfathers’ House pantheons, but I haven’t tagged those sets with his name – you’ll have to hunt through and find him yourself.

  • Ancestors 祖宗: (Not in Grootaers) Ancestors are worshipped in family temples 祖宗祠, of which a few survive with murals intact.
  • Arhats 羅漢: (Not in Grootaers) The Arhats are the disciples of the Buddha; they are commonly painted on monastery walls, or in shrines to Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音.
  • Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音: (194 units) The so-called “Buddhist goddess of mercy.” She is usually depicted flanked by the Red Boy 紅孩兒 and the Dragon Girl 龍女. In earlier murals, she is frequently shown in association with the Eighty-Three Stations of Sudhana 善財童子五十三參; in later iconographies, she is usually associated with the Universal Gate Sūtra 普門品, in which she displays salvific powers.
  • Black Dragon King 黑龍王: (11 units; see “Temples and History of Wanch’üan, p.231-2, and ‘Rural Temples around Hsüan-hua, p.41-2.) One of the Dragon Kings of the Five Seas 五海龍王. In the 1940s he was worshipped as a deity in his own capacity in only a few temples in northern Hebei and Shanxi; I haven’t seen any surviving today. In northern Shaanxi, however, his cult is very popular, and temples to him are common.
  • Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha 地藏王菩薩: (34 units) The Bodhisattva associated with rescuing beings from the Buddhist hells; his merciful image is commonly found in Buddhist monasteries, along with images of the Yama Kings 閻王 and their infernal courts. He is depicted as a standing monk with a Five-Buddha Crown, holding a khaṭvāṅga staff.
  • Buddhas (all) 佛 (諸): (98 units; this is aggregating the cults Grootaers lists under “Buddha Hall” 佛殿, “Nunnery” 庵, and Amitabha 彌陀.) Late-imperial Buddhas are usually painted in trinities; these are generally assumed to be Dīpaṃkara, Śākyamuni, and Maitreya, but the actual identities may vary or. In any case Buddhas are in principle infinite and inter-subsumptive; from the perspective of mural painting, there’s not much difference.
  • Confucius 孔子: (6 units; this is aggregating the cults Grootaers lists under “Three Teachings” 三教 and “Confucius Temples” 孔廟.) Confucius is not generally supposed to be worshipped as a god, but his image appears in shrines to the Three Teachings 三教廟, as well as in Water-and-Land pantheons and in a few other contexts.
  • Dragon Kings 龍王: (220 units) In some ways the “Dragon Kings” is a misnomer, because the central deity of this cult is almost always the Mother of Waters 水母 (see the separate tag below). She is depicted flanked by her sons, the Dragon Kings of the Five Seas 五海龍王, plus the Rain Master 雨師. In other cases the Dragon Kings appear by themselves as a group in the Water-and-Land pantheons. In northern Shaanxi, the Dragon Kings of the five directions are worshipped individually; most important of these is the Black Dragon King 黑龍王, king of the northern sea. The Dragon Kings are rain deities, and the murals in their temples depict them precipitating storm and rain on the world beneath.
  • Four Heavenly Kings 四天王: (Not in Grootaers.) Guardian kings of the four directions, whose images are usually sculpted or painted in the entrance hall to Buddhist monasteries. They also figure prominently in the Water-and-Land pantheons.
  • Four Messengers 四值使者: (Not in Grootaers.) Four minor deities who carry tablets delineating the years, months, days, and hours. They appear in a number of pantheons, most commonly that of the Dragon Kings, and they play an important role in the Water and Land ritual.
  • Ghost King 鬼王: (Not in Grootaers.) Also called the Great Master of Burning Mien 面燃大師. The lord of hungry ghosts, his image is usually found on the lower-left outside the main hall of a monastery. His statue is very common in this context, but only a few murals exist; he also appears in the Water-and-Land murals.
  • God of Fire 火神: (19 units) Now a relatively rare deity, found mostly in larger towns and cities. He appears riding out upon a fiery wheel 火輪, surrounded by his retinue.
  • God of the Earth 土地神: (21 units) Unlike southern China where shrines to the earth gods are ubiquitous, the God of the Earth is relatively obscure in North China. He appears as a figure welcoming the procession home in certain Dragon King murals, hence his numerical strength here. In Shaanbei, it’s more common to see small shrine boxes to the God of the Earth and the God of the Mountains set outside temples. The God of the Earth usually appears as a dark-faced old man leading a wolf.
  • God of the Five Grains 五股神: (1 unit) Obscure deity; now appears sometimes in images or tablets within Dragon King temples.
  • God of the Mountains 山神: (13 units) Usually appears together with the God of the Earth 土地神; independent shrines to this deity are quite rare, although sometimes you see cairn-shrines in the mountains dedicated to him. The God of the Mountains is depicted as a white-bearded old man leading a tiger.
  • God of the Walls and Moats 城隍神: (10 units) Also translated “City God”, this was a state-supported cult of the administrative locality that existed only within the larger towns. Almost all of these buildings were destroyed over the course of the 20th century, and now murals to the God of Walls and Moats exist in only two places known to me.
  • God of Wealth 財神: (41 units) God governing wealth. Different gods of wealth exist, and (like the God of Walls and Moats) they are often considered to be particular historical figures who were granted that position; this is difficult now to reconstruct. A number of a iconographies are associated with these deities; some shrines have the “Hundred Trades” 百工圖, while others have “Barbarians Bringing Treasures” 胡人進寶.
  • Goddesses 娘娘: (87 units; this is aggregating what Grootaers calls the Goddesses 娘娘, the Eye-Glow 眼光, the Goddess of Progeny 子孫娘娘, and the Grandmother of Mount Tai 奶奶泰山, all of which seem like aspects of the same trinity.) A so-called “Goddess Temple” (娘娘廟、奶奶廟、聖母廟) might be dedicated to any of a spectrum of closely-related female deities. The usual trinity is composed of Jade-Mists 碧霞, Grants-Children 送子, and Eye-Light 眼光 – these are involved in human fertility and the provision of maternal health. In 19th century temples of northern Shanxi, a new identification seems to become prevalent, that of the three Goddess Yunxiao 雲霄, Qiongxiao 瓊霄, and Bixiao 碧霄. These are drawn from the novel Romance of the Investiture of the Gods 封神演義, and are associated with the Yellow River Formation 黃河陣 ritual. Elsewhere, the Holy Mothers 聖母, Nüwa 女媧, and the Holy Mother of Five Dragons 五龍聖母 all have almost identical iconographies, such that one suspects there was little practical differentiation between any of these deities in early-modern popular belief.
  • Gods of the Five Ways 五道神: (255 units) A god worshipped at small crossroads shrines. These small shrines were once extremely common in rural north China, and seem to take the place of the similar shrines to the God of the Earth 土地神 found in southern China. He is depicted patrolling the roads to capture demons. Village deaths are announced at his temple, since he is thought to communicate with the underworld.
  • Gods of the Harmonies 律呂神: (Not in Grootaers.) This refers to a pair of male and female deities, who are worshipped at a single temple in Holy-Creek Village, Hunyuan County 渾源縣神溪村. Their mid-Qing iconography seems to differ little from that of the Dragon Kings, except that there is only one male god who grants rain instead of five.
  • Horse King 馬王: (130 units) Originally the Indian deity Hayagrīva. In late-imperial village practice, the Horse King is the protective god of all equids. He is usually flanked by the Ox King 牛王 and the God of Water and Grass 水草王.
  • Hudu God 胡都神: (65 units) This is a local rain deity found in far northern Shanxi and Hebei. There has been some debate in Chinese and English since the ’40s about the exact origins of this deity and the meaning of his name. So far as I know, only one pre-Revolution mural of this god survives, that found at Chaili Village in Ying County 應縣釵里村, where he is depicted flanked by the River God 河神 and the Rain Master 雨師.
  • Jade Emperor 玉皇: (38 units) Nominally the highest ruler of the popular pantheon, although his temples are relatively rare. The Jade Emperor is usually depicted as flanked by his courtly ministers, both martial 武 or civil 文. In northern Shaanxi, he is instead flanked by astral deities, and the outer parts of the walls show the Dragon Kings departing to dispense rain at his command.
  • King Wuling of Zhao 趙武靈: (Not in Grootaers.) An ancient king, whose name is strongly associated with the region of northern Shanxi. To my knowledge, only one temple now exists in which he is worshipped as a god.
  • Laozi 老子: (8 units; this is aggregating the cults Grootaers lists as “The Three Teachings” 三教 and “Laozi” 老子.) The legendary sage-founder of the Daoist religion. Laozi is worshipped in the form of the Great-High Old Worthy 太上老君; around him usually appear Perfected Worthies 真君 or scenes from his hagiography, the Eighty One Miracles of the Old Gentleman 老君八十一化圖. In other cases, he appears next to Confucius and the Buddha in Temples of the Three Teachings 三教廟.
  • Longevity Star 壽星: (Not in Grootaers.) Deity of the star Canopis. I’ve never seen a shrine dedicated to this deity in a pre-Revolution temple, but his image shows up now and then in subsidiary iconographies. He is depicted as an old man clutching a knobbled staff, with long white beard and an enormous bald cranium.
  • Lord Guan 關公: (135 units) Historical hero of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義, often known in the west by his personal name Guan Yu 關羽. Lord Guan appears in martial and civil attitudes, or sometimes mounted on a horse. Murals in his temples almost always depict scenes from the Romance, although in a few cases he is instead depicted as processing out with his retinue.
  • Maitreya Buddha 彌勒佛: (18 units) The Future Buddha 未來佛. Maitreya appears in a few All-the-Heavens pictures 諸天圖 found in Buddhist monasteries.
  • Mother of Waters 水母: (Not in Grootaers.) Technically, the Mother of Waters is one of the most common deities in north China, since hers is the central votive image in almost all of the shrines called “Dragon King Temples” 龍王廟. She is thought to be the mother and ruler of the Dragon Kings of the Five Seas 五海龍王, and she is depicted as a queenly lady who awaits their meteorological expedition at the gates of the Crystal Palace 水晶宮.
  • Nüwa 女媧: Nüwa is the “Chinese Eve”, the original progenitor of humanity. Shrines to her are not common in the areas I surveyed, but they are elsewhere in north China. Her iconography does not seem to differ from that of the fertility-granting Ladies 娘娘 generally. Rather, they seem to me to be part of a continuum of barely-differentiated goddess cults in the early-modern countryside (see “Goddesses” above).
  • Perfected Warrior 真武: (128 units) The Daoist god of the north. The Perfected Warrior’s cult is very important in north China, and murals depicting him are extant there from the mid-Ming onward. The Perfected Warrior is usually depicted surrounded by the demonic soldiers of the Thunder Bureau 雷部. Most often, scenes from his hagiography 真武起聖錄 are painted on the flanking walls.
  • Plague God 瘟疫神: (8 units; Grootaers refers to this deity variously as the “Plague God” 瘟神 and the “God of Smallpox” 痘瘟神.) Once a common deity in the north, I’ve know of only one surviving mural image of this deity, that found in the Shrine of the Harmonies 律呂神祠 in Hunyuan.
  • River God 河神: (78 units, but see the “Second Lad” below.) Again, this deity was once very common in the villages, but is now very rare. According to Grootaers’ understanding, his cult was closely connected to that of the Second Lad 二郎 and to that of the Hudu God 胡都神. In one example known to me, the River God is depicted as a white-faced man in teal-and-orange armor, processing out with attendants bearing water-granting tubes. In another, he is depicted as a white-robed man on a horse.
  • Śākyamuni Buddha 釋迦牟尼佛: (See the entry for “Buddhas”.) This is the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama, who left his palace, achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, and taught in India for the remainder of his life. His image is often worshipped as part of the trinity of the Buddhas of the Three Times, but Śākyamuni’s personal hagiography has been painted on walls in north China continuously from the third century AD to the present day. Notably, the general structure of his story (miraculous birth into royal family, leaving his palace, meditation in the forest, teachings and miracles) has influenced that of other non-Buddhist deities, including the Perfected Warrior 真武 and the Ladies 娘娘.
  • Second Lad 二郎: There’s some confusion about this deity. Grootaers thought that no independent cult to this deity existed in his area; rather, “Second Lad” was merely another name for the River God 河神, and that both cults referred to a particular Song-Dynasty official named Yang Jian 楊戩. Grootaers notes that something like 65% of “River God Temples” in his survey were actually called “Second Lad Temples,” see “Wanch’üan,” p.262-3. I’m holding off judgement on this, if only because the local distinction between “River God Temples” 河神廟 and “Second Lad Temples” 二郎廟 always seemed quite clear. I have only seen one even slightly intact wall-mural in a “Second Lad Temple,” located in northern Shaanxi. These side-wall murals depict the god’s holy generals 神將, who will presumably carry out his exorcistic commands. They seem to have no relationship to the ‘River God Temple’ murals in Shanxi, described above.
  • Spirit Official Wang 王靈官: (Not in Grootaers) In northern Shaanxi, Spirit Official Wang appears together with Spirit Official Zhao (i.e., Zhao Gongming 趙公明 or the Dark Altar 玄壇) as attendants of the Perfected Warrior 真武. In the images I’ve seen, he is depicted as a wrathful barefoot exorcist, with red hair, carrying a sword and a magic seal.
  • Sun God 太陽神: (Not in Grootaers) A single shrine exists to this deity in Ying County of Shanxi. The Sun God appears enthroned together with his wife, receiving gifts brought on camel. The iconography as a whole is similar to that of the Gods of Wealth. Another temple complex I visited has a “Shrine of the Sun and the Moon” 日月廟, but there were no images inside this, and I’m not certain if it should be considered to be the same deity.
  • Ten Great Wisdom Kings 十大明王: (Not in Grootaers) Sanskrit Vidyarāja, these are a set of ten wrathful esoteric deities, almost always associated with the Water-and-Land ritual. In a few cases, however, images of these deities exist without the Water-and-Land paintings. It strikes me that in such cases the Water-and-Land paintings should have existed in scroll form, but I can’t prove this.
  • Thirty Three Heavens and Twenty-Eight Astral Mansions 三十三天、二十八星宿: (Not in Grootaers.) These two sets of deities can be found separately, but since they’re often together and their iconography is indistinguishable except for the number of figures, I’ve put them together here. These are astral deities, usually painted in attendance to the Jade Emperor 玉皇. They are depicted as civil officials in long, sweeping robes.
  • Three Emperors 三皇: (9 units) The Three Emperors are usually Fuxi 伏羲, the Holy Farmer 神農, and the Yellow Emperor 黃帝. Shrines to this trinity were once relatively common, but I haven’t seen any surviving pre-revolution examples. However, the three of them occasionally pop up as a group in other contexts.
  • Three Officials 三官: (80 units) A trinity of Daoist deities, the Official of Heaven 天官, the Official of Earth 地官, and the Official of Water 水官. Usually these deities are depicted as three civil officials processing out with their demonic retinue, but in a few cases I’ve also seen murals depicting their hagiographies or miracle stories.
  • Two Harmonious Gods 和合二神: (Not in Grootaers.) These two deities are common elsewhere in China, but I’ve only encountered their image once in my region. They are depicted as two boys embracing each other, smiling beneficently. Apparently in some contexts they are understood as gods of homoerotic desire.
  • Wenchang 文昌: (59 units) The God of Literature. Wenchang is usually depicted as a civil official in a long green robe; he is often accompanied by the Kui-Star 魁星, a devil standing on one leg with a brush in his mouth. Intact shrines with murals to these deities are now very rare.
  • Yama Kings 閻王: (In Grootaers these deities are found under Kṣitigarbha 地藏王, of which there were 34 units.) The ten infernal judges of the underworld. Usually they are depicted as seated at tables in their courts, surrounded by official documents and terrifying psychopomps. Murals depicting them often appear in shrines to the Boddhisattva Kṣitigarbha.
  • Zhao Gongming / The Dark Altar 趙公明 / 玄壇: (34 units; aggregating the cults Grootaers calls “The Spirit Official” 靈官 and “The Dark Altar” 玄壇.) Zhao Gongming is depicted as a black-faced man riding on a black tiger, carrying a club. He appears in different contexts: he appears in small shrine-boxes on the northern exterior wall of temples to the Perfected Warrior; he appears as an important figure in the Goddess iconographies derived from the Romance of the Investiture of the Gods; and in northern Shaanxi, he appears together with the Spirit Official Wang as an attendant of the Perfected Warrior.

Murals by Genre and Topic:

  • Actors 演員: Images of actors are often painted on the backstage walls of opera stages. They also appear in panels showing opera scenes hung over the stage, or side-wall paintings in which they peak around the edge of screens. See also”opera scenes” below.
  • Ancestral Tablets 祖宗牌位: Found in ancestral temples, these murals show the names of the ancestors written on tablets to be worshipped, often arranged around a depiction of the geomantically ideal grave-plot.
  • Architectural Drawings 界畫: Several genres of murals typically have architectural drawings, while graffiti depicting buildings is often found on stage walls. A few structures known to me have actual builders’ blueprints sketched on the walls, presumably in order that the structure could be repaired in case of damage. I’ve used a fairly wide definition of “architectural drawings” in tagging these, to include any image which contains significant depictions of a building.
    • Pagoda of Gazing in the Four Directions 四望亭: Drawn from a scene of a popular novel with the same name, these drawings depict a girl pursuing a monkey across the roofs of a pagoda or tower. This was a common scene in opera-stage paintings in Yu County 蔚縣.
    • Portico Pictures 門廊畫: This is a name I’ve given to what was among the broadest genres of early-modern temple murals. Portico pictures depict the façade of an opulent building, from which gods or human processions travel out and back. Often paired with some kind of trompe-l’œil, these drawings depict the façade that divides our world and that of the gods, and emphasize the idea of the temple or stage as a liminal zone between ontologically different spaces (i.e. our realm, fictional space, holy space, etc.). Such images are found all across north China. Closely related to the “processions” genre below.
  • Bookshelf Pictures 冊架圖: A genre of trompe-l’œil painting similar to the better-known chaekeori 책거리 in Korea, these images depict realistic books or other objects set in shelves. Such images were often painted on panels over temple or household doors. I have seen such images mainly in Shanxi and Hebei, although they probably once existed elsewhere.
  • Ceremonial Guard 儀衛: This refers to side-wall images of martial deities which show that deity’s “primordial” or “spirit-” generals 元將、神將 lined up in an imposing row on either side of the worshipper. Sometimes, this array of guards will be formed with statues, while the wall murals display some other topic. Such images are a basic part of the iconographies of the Perfected Warrior 真武, the Jade Emperor 玉皇, and others, appearing all across north China.
  • Feast of Water and Land 水陸齋: Buddhologist Holmes Welch called the “Water and Land” ritual, “the tour de force among rites for the dead […], very large, very long, and very expensive” (The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1967, p.190). The murals associated with this rite are correspondingly large and complex. Meant for exorcistic funeral ritual, these murals show processions of hundreds of deities, historical figures, and ghosts circling about the space of the temple hall to receive offerings. These images are found all across north China, from all historical periods after the eleventh century.
  • Feeding the Hungry Ghosts 施食餓鬼: Depicts the ullambana/avalambana 盂蘭盆 ritual, in which monks and funeral worshippers make offerings of food to the hungry ghosts 餓鬼. This may ultimately be associated with the Water and Land Rite 水陸齋, which ends with an ullambana ritual of this sort. A few mural depictions of this ritual are found in northern Shaanxi; I have not seen it elsewhere.
  • The Golden Road 金光大道: This is an arbitrary name I’ve given to a genre of 21st century screen decorations, after a title written on a few of them that I’ve seen. Another common title is “The Golden Bridge, the Road to Prosperity” 金橋富路, which could equally well name the genre. These screens are generally placed at the entrances to houses or village streets. The images are printed in iridescent colors and depict roads or bridges leading off into a verdant and prosperous landscape, usually with an eclectic mix of photoshopped Chinese and Western buildings. They seem to represent a sort of Xi Jinping-era “Moderately Prosperous Society” 小康社會 rural modern.
  • Grandfathers’ House Pantheons 爺爺家百神圖: A genre of scroll painting found in the area around Five-Peak Mountain 五台山. Meant for household shrines, these images show dozens of deities lined up to receive worship. Images in similar style are now sometimes set in temples in place of statues. Artists continue to paint these scrolls today, and some households in the mountain valleys also possess pre-Revolution examples.
  • Hell Images 地獄圖: Images of the courts and tortures of hell are found in many contexts, but the most common is shrines to Kṣitigarbha 地藏王 and the Ten Courts of the Yama Kings 十殿閻王. These murals show the judges of hell surrounded by paperwork and terrible psychopomps, as well as the gruesome tortures to which evildoers are subjected.
  • Inner Alchemy Charts 內丹圖: I’ve only seen two of these in mural form. They both depict the internal structure of the body as a sort of hydraulic system, with flows of water pouring up and down through different locks and gates. In one example, this image is hidden above the lintel behind the altar in a Daoist abbey; in another, it is paired across the room in a Buddhist monastery with a rare image of Mount Sumeru 須彌山 (see below).
  • Mount Sumeru 須彌山: See above, “Inner Alchemy Charts”. This appears in one heavily damaged iconography found in an early-19th century Buddhist monastery. Its depiction may be influenced by Tibeto-Mongol monasteries, where Mount Sumeru is often painted on the exterior walls.
  • Opera Stage Graffiti 戲台題壁: Graffiti painted on backstage walls. When actors finished a performance, it was customary to write a graffito on the rear walls of the stage. These operatic scribblings can contain nearly anything – advertisements for the troupe, poetry, paintings, votive and exorcistic drawings, record of the opera masks, messages to other performers, etc. Like graffiti all over the world, they also depict all variety of sex, including straight, queer, and downright peculiar.
  • Opera Scenes 戲曲情景: Scenes depicting popular operas appear in a number of contexts. They can be painted on the side-walls of opera stages, or they can appear on panels over the stage or in backstage graffiti. In other cases, scenes from operas will be painted in household murals, particularly the kang-liners 炕圍子.
  • Panel Narratives 方格敘述: This is a bit of a misnomer. Not all panels with images in them necessarily depict sequential narratives, and not all sequential narratives are necessarily gridded up into clearly-defined panels. Nevertheless, images showing stories or other types of list are extremely common.
    • 53 Stations of Sudhana 善財童子五十三參: The Gaṇḍavyūha 入法界品 section of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra 華嚴經. Depicts the pilgrimage of the boy Sudhāna 善財童子 to worship with fifty three different masters. Very common in Ming and early Qing Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin shrines.
    • Apotheosis of the Perfected Warrior 真武起聖錄: I use this as a blanket term to refer to all hagiographic narratives surrounding this figure. Key elements are his miraculous birth, worship by five dragons, meditation in the forest, achievement of immortal-hood atop Mount Wudang 武当山, receiving a sword from the Yellow Emperor, and the taming of the Turtle and Snake demons. More or fewer episodes appear according to the wall-space available. Contrary to Grootaers’ speculations about the Journey to the North 北遊記, most of these episodes in fact appear to be drawn from a Song-dynasty text called The Apotheosis of the Perfected Warrior 真武起聖錄, hence the name.
    • Hagiography of the Three Officials 三官神傳: Only three examples of this painted narrative(s) are known to me, two of which don’t have captions. The one that does have captions seems to be less a hagiography than just a collection of miracle stories concerning these deities. The other two examples don’t seem to be illustrating the same text; this needs more research. Much more commonly, the Three Officials are depicted in procession with their demonic attendants.
    • The Hundred Games 百戲: This may not be the local name for this iconography. Found in temples to the Goddesses 娘娘, these images show children at play, putting on costumes, flying kites, even learning to drive automobiles and shoot guns. These images are found only in northern Shaanxi, although images of gamboling sons are common in Chinese popular art generally.
    • The Hundred Trades 百工: Usually but not always found in halls to the Gods of Wealth 財神, these panel-images show all of the trades of early-modern rural China, cobblers, peddlers, barbers, carpenters, scriveners, farmers, wheelwrights, etc. These are found in Yu County of Hebei and adjacent Guangling County of Shanxi; I haven’t seen them elsewhere.
    • Life of the Buddha 佛傳故事: The famous story of the prince Siddhārtha Gautama, his birth in a royal family, meeting an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a holy man at the gates of the palace, meditating in the forest, achieving enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, preaching, miracles, and his parinirvāṇa or final death. These narratives are painted in monastery halls all across north China.
    • The Old Gentleman’s Eight-One Transformations 老君八十一化圖: This is a famous Daoist polemical text, better known under the title of the “Scripture of Converting the Barbarians” 化胡經. The story has three parts: (1) the appearance of the universe and the manifestation of Laozi, (2) Laozi leaves China to the west and takes the form of the Buddha in order to convert the ignorant barbarians, and (3) he returns to China as a god, to perform more miracles. Images from this text are commonly painted in the larger Daoist abbeys; I’ve seen three examples.
    • Romance of the Investiture of the Gods 封神演義: A famous Ming-dynasty novel, this narrative seems to have appeared in the areas known to me only in the nineteenth century. In Shanxi, this story is most closely connected to the cult of the Goddesses 娘娘 and the ritual of the Yellow River Formation 黃河陣. Wall-murals show the magic combats of the three Goddesses with Zhao Gongming 趙公明 and others, and their use of the Formation as a weapon of war. Graffiti, magic diagrams, and ethnographic accounts attest to the popularity of the Formation ritual in practice. In a few other cases, images from the Investiture appear in other contexts, for instance on stage walls.
    • Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義: Another famous Ming-dynasty novel, although some episodes found in the murals are not drawn from the book. Murals depicting this story are almost always associated with Lord Guan 關公, the most famous martial figure in the novel; a few others exist in shrines to the “Three Oath-Bound Ones” 三義廟, being the three heroes Lord Guan 關公, Liu Bei 劉備, and Zhang Fei 張飛. Crucial plot points include the Oath in the Peach-Garden 桃園結盟, the Battle of Red Cliffs 赤壁之戰, and Lord Guan revealing his spiritual form 顯靈 after his untimely death. These narratives are found all across north China.
    • The Universal Gate: 普門: Drawn from the Lotus Sūtra 蓮華經, this extremely common theme shows the vows of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音 to rescue the pious from dangers. Each scene shows a man beset by snakes, robbers, flood, etc., and Guanyin exerting her powers 力 to save him. Such murals are found all across north China. This theme is known among painters all over China by a variety of names, including “Saves-from-Sufferings Guanyin” 救苦觀音 or “Guanyin of the Eight Difficulties” 八難觀音. A closely related iconography exists in Indo-Tibetan art, the “Tara who Delivers from the Eight Terrors” (*Tārāṣṭa­ghora­tāraṇī / Drölma Jikpa Gyé lé Kyoppa སྒྲོལ་མ་འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ།).
  • Preparing Food 備飯: A sub-theme of some temples devoted to female deities, usually the Goddesses 娘娘, or the Mother of Waters 水母 who is the principle deity in Dragon King temples 龍王廟. These scenes are usually located in the inner parts of the composition, either on the side or rear walls, and show women within the gods’ palaces chopping vegetables, stacking plates, placing steamers of dumplings on the fire, etc.
  • Processions 巡行: Probably the most common single theme in early-modern north-Chinese mural painting. These images show the gods processing out and back, either to bring their blessing to humanity or to capture evil spirits. The most common types of procession murals depict the Dragon Kings 龍王, the Goddesses 娘娘, the Three Officials 三官, or the God of the Five Ways 五道神, but processions also exist depicting Lord Guan 關公, the Horse King 馬王, the River God 河神, the God of Walls and Moats 城隍神, and many others. Usually the procession goes in a clockwise direction, proceeding out on the left-hand wall (facing south) and back on the right-hand. All sorts of variant versions also exist, particularly in spaces where only one wall was available. This theme is closely connected to the “portico-pictures” listed under “architectural drawings” above.
    • Arhats Crossing the Seas 羅漢渡海: This is only sort of a “procession,” but it’s similar so I’ve stuck it under this heading. “Arhats Crossing the Sea” is a common theme in Chinese Buddhist art generally, but I’ve only seen it once in mural painting. The image shows all of the Buddha’s disciples walking on the waves from one shore to another, presumably Mount Potalaka 普陀山 or the “farther shore” 彼岸 of enlightenment.
    • Barbarians Bring Treasures 胡人進寶: Usually found in temples to the Gods of Wealth 財神, these images show fancifully dressed Central-Asian merchants bearing valuable goods, usually watched from above by the deity.
    • Pursuit of the Evil Ones 捉妖: This name comes from Grootaers. Here I use it to refer to exorcistic procession images in which demons are captured or killed. Often they are seen being run down in their mountain hideaways on the left-hand wall, and led back in chains on the right. Many types of demons and regional variations exist. Usually the deities doing this are the God of the Five Ways 五道神 or the Horse King 馬王, but in some areas the Dragon Kings 龍王 also perform this function.
    • Dispensing Rain 行雨: This is the most common single iconographic scene in early-modern north China, and one of the most complex. The scene usually depicts the Dragon Kings 龍王, although a few iconographies of the Goddesses 娘娘 also seem to take on the same meteorological functions. These images show the Dragon Kings processing out amidst sturm und drang on the left wall, while their various attendants pour out water and fire lightning down at the world below. On the right-hand wall, they return in peace, as the Rainbow Boy 彩虹童子 lets lose a rainbow from a jar. In the lowest register of the painting, we see farmers planting, harvesting, and then holding an autumn harvest festival/temple fair as the dragons return on the right-hand wall. In the upper right-hand corner, Heaven receives their rain-report 雨表, usually personified either by a gate or by a disembodied hand. Examples are common all across the north, and a number of regional variations exist. In northern Shaanxi, the God(s) of the Five Ways 五道神 join the procession, where they are seen smiting Willow-tree and Fox Sprites 柳樹精、狐狸精. Many more minor variations exist; see also “Dragon Kings Cross the Bridge” 龍王過橋 and “Myriad Officials Processing” 群官併行 below.
    • Dragon Kings Cross the Bridge 龍王過橋: A rare Dragon King iconography that once existed on the plain south of Datong; I’ve only seen one intact example, but the ruins of a few more demonstrate that it was once widespread in that area. This shows the Five Dragon Kings 五海龍王 crossing a bridge which seem to lead from the Crystal Palace 水晶宮 to the South Gate of Heaven 南天門. The exact meaning of this scene is unclear to me.
    • Granting Children 送子: This refers to the fertility-granting procession of the Goddesses 娘娘, in which they travel out in their carriages as their flunkies dispense babies from bags and wagons. The gods of smallpox and eyesight are also present, suggesting a curative function as well. Some of these iconographies seem to merge with the “Dispensing Rain” images.
    • Myriad Officials Processing 群官併行: This is a rare variant of the Dragon King murals, found in at least three temples of Yu County and adjacent Zhuolu County of Hebei. These images show the same out-and-back procession of the Dragons, except the uppermost register is filled with hundreds of small human figures in civil dress, processing along with the Dragons. I’ve never met anyone who could explain this scene to me. The name “Myriad Officials” is my invention and presumably does not correspond to whatever the original artists called it.
  • Pure Lands 淨土: These images show the Buddhas seated in their holy realms, receiving homage from monks and heavenly beings. Such images, while extremely common in medieval Chinese murals, are quite rare in the early-modern period; the one example in this collection is from northern Shaanxi.
  • Qilin Gazing at the Moon 麒麟望月: These images were painted on the central back-stage walls of opera theatres in northern Hebei and Shanxi. They typically show a massive Qilin (麒麟 Kirin) beast howling at the moon, and may be flanked by paintings of tigers, actors, or auspicious symbols. Often these Qilin images would become densely over-written with performers’ graffiti. I don’t know why exactly this theme in particular became the customary backstage decoration; presumably it had some auspicious or apotropaic meaning.
  • Ritual Images 儀式圖: This refers to any image which depicts ritual or ritual diagrams. The most common type is found in Dragon King iconographies, were the autumn harvest rituals are typically painted in the lower register of the right-hand walls. These can include temple processions with mummers 社火 and Daoist priests 道士, shawm-and-drum bands 樂班, and opera performances. Other types of ritual drawing include magic diagrams of the Nine Bends of the Yellow River Formation 黃河九曲鎮, and images of the ullambana festival.
  • Screens 屏風: Trompe-l’œil images of folding screens, often with images painted on the screen panels. Many of these screens also have actors or other characters peaking around the edges to bring out the realism. In Yu County 蔚縣, these images are often found on opera stage side-walls. Elsewhere, they frequently appear behind the seats of the deities, where they form a simple but visually realistic backdrop.
  • The Heavenly Court Images 朝元圖: I’m taking this name from Lennert Gesterkamp’s work on medieval Daoist murals. Heavenly Court Images strictly speaking weren’t painted in the early-modern period, but a close relative exists in the Jade Emperor 玉皇 iconographies of Northern Shaanxi and Shanxi, which show the massed astral deities facing in towards the central god. Another related genre is what I’ve called the “Ceremonial Guard”; the key difference being that in a Heavenly Court image the figures all face inward, while the “Ceremonial Guard” figures face out towards the worshipper.
  • Trompe-L’œil Hanging Scrolls 錯視吊掛捲軸: These images show realistic scrolls hung from painted nails, usually with some sort of flower-and-bird painting on them. The central scroll is usually flanked by hung vertical couplets 對聯. While simple, these paintings can achieve quite realistic verisimilitude. Such images are common as stage decorations in northern and central Shanxi, and they can appear in elements of other iconographies as well.

Other Categories:

  • Endangered Murals 瀕危壁畫: Murals which I don’t feel are sufficiently well protected. In the time I’ve been looking for these things (2014-18), I’ve seen multiple murals stripped off the walls by thieves, destructively “repaired” by villagers, or damaged or destroyed by disintegrating structures. I have not stated the locations of these murals, since I don’t want my work to be used as a map for thieves.
  • Stolen Murals 已盜壁畫: Apropos of the above, several murals in this collection have been cut off the walls and carried away since I took these photos. If you see these murals in a gallery or art-market, you should inform the local police or interpol as appropriate.
  • Trompe-L’œil 錯視畫: Various trompe-l’œil effects go back at least to Dunhuang painting, and such “trick of the eye” images remain an important part of Chinese mural painting today. Such effects are particularly common on stages, where they emphasize the recession of imagined space behind the scaenae frons, and in general point constantly to the “doubleness” of the theatrical space. In temple murals, trompe-l’œil effects are often found on the rear walls flanking the deities, where they emphasize the divine realms and forces receding off behind the altar wall. After the 18th century onward, these effects were enhanced with European-inspired techniques, including perspectival architectural painting and cast shadows. Various types of trompe-l’œil are found painted in all areas of north China.
  • Unique Topics 獨特畫題: A catch-all category for murals that are one-of-a-kind in some way – these are usually interesting.
  • Western Elements 西方因素: Images with European-inspired elements appear probably from the early eighteenth century and inarguably from the 1780s on. European images arrived in these villages via various means, including Jesuit painters in the imperial court, missionaries carrying European objects and images, printed new-years pictures 年畫 showing foreign scenes 西洋景, and from the late 19th century onward, direct contact with Western people and buildings in Beijing and elsewhere.
    • Perspective Painting 透視畫法: Images which show architectural lines receding to a single horizon-point. The largest body of such images are stage paintings from Yu County 蔚縣, which show fantastic Western-inspired architecture. While the use of formal perspective in these images is often shaky, the clear division of foreground and background marks them off from earlier paintings. By the early 20th century, perspectival techniques were being used in all areas of north China, often in depictions of European-style or seemingly Islamic buildings (see “Western Architecture” below).
    • Shadows 影子: I have seen two images which unambiguously incorporate shadows, located in closely adjacent areas of northern Hebei and Shanxi. In both cases, these shadows are cast by painted prayer-beads hanging on the wall behind the altar. In a few other cases it seems more arguable what the painters intended; some late-period paintings of auspicious objects outline these objects with black ink, creating a shadow-like effect.
    • Western Architecture 西洋建築: From the turn of the 19th century onward, images showing Western-inspired “fantasy” architecture became popular. Popular themes include tall, multi-bulbed spires, long galleries of windows, minaret- and steeple-like towers, and domes. One of the Yu county opera paintings these are identified as the “Ita[lian] Palace” 意大宮; in another, these are the “Mansions of the Western Seas” 西洋樓, a name that usually refers to imperial palaces built by Jesuits outside Beijing in the eighteenth century.
  • Women in Murals 壁畫中女人: Another catch-all category for any mural with significant female figures. Examples here include the Goddess iconographies which show women worshipped as queens, breastfeeding, preparing food, playing music, fighting magical battles, etc. Other examples include opera-stage depictions of martial heroines 女俠, the Mother of Waters 水母 and her all-female temple bands, etc.