Open Collections

Description

Hemp Town (Ma zhen 麻鎮) is a large walled settlement on the Ming dynasty 明 (1368-1844) Great Wall in Fugu County, northern Shaanxi province (Shanxi sheng Fugu xian 陝西府谷縣). Most of the town’s religious buildings are found in a sprawling complex in the north-western part of the walled area, known simply as the “Big Temple” (Damiao 大廟). The main hall of this complex is dedicated to Lord Guan (Guan gong 關公) (Image 01); the murals discussed here are found in a two-story hall set to the north-east of this hall (Image 02). The origins of these structures are somewhat unclear. A stele set into the side wall of the building records land-grants to the Lord Guan temple in 1770 (Image 18). A plaque hung from the roof beams of the Hall to the Three Officials (Sanguan dian 三官殿) records the name of a “beam-raising donor” in the year 1788 (時大清乾隆五十三年歲次戊申律中姑洗躔大梁之次扶樑功德主 義和號等叩 敬立) (Image 20). A highly effaced stele in the courtyard confirms that general repairs to the temple complex were made in this year. While none of these sources provide indisputable dates for the structures or the murals within them, the style of the paintings is roughly consistent with a late eighteenth century date. The first (ground) story of this building is a barrel-vault room that contains a shrine to the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (Dizang wang pusa 地藏王菩薩) (Image 03) and the Yama Kings of the Ten Halls (Shidian Yanwang 十殿閻王) (Image 04); these are represented by recently made statues set around the room (Image 06). The walls have pre-Revolution murals depicting folding screens. The original use of the second story rooms is not entirely clear; today, these hold images of the Three Officials (Sanguan 三官) (Image 08), the Buddha (Fo 佛), and Confucius (Kongzi 孔子), but the murals indicate that at least the latter of these may not have been the original object of the shrine. On the upper floor only the murals on the two side-walls survive. The eastern wall shows images of the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water riding in the clouds. They are accompanied by human devotees in the bottom register, as well as what appear to be the God of the Mountains (Shan shen 山神) and the General of the Five Ways (Wudao jiangjun 五道將軍). The western wall has two main registers. The upper register shows scenes from the “Universal Gate” (pumenpin 普門品) section of the Lotus Sutra, in which Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin觀音) rescues mortals from a series of evil fates (Image 09). The lower sutra shows the arhats (luohan 羅漢). Images of the upper wall murals, rafters, and ceiling (Image: 05, 07, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19).