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Water-and-Land Hall at Xinglong Monastery (Xinglong si Shuilu dian 興隆寺水陸殿)

From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)

The Water-and-Land grotto is located within a large and well-preserved complex of shrines known as Xinglong Monastery (Xinglong si 興隆寺). The monastery stretches along the slope of a loess-canyon near the ruins of what was once Zheng Family Hollow Village (Zhengjiagou cun 鄭家溝村) in Jia County (Jia Xian 佳縣), Shaanxi. The new 'modern' village is now located on the hilltops above the canyon. The steles in this complex are discussed in Huyan Sheng's 呼延勝 dissertation (“Shanbei tudishang de shuilu hua yishu” 陕北土地上的水陆画艺术, Xi’an meishu xueyuan, 2012), and transcribed in Shaanxi shiku zonglu: Yulin 陕西石窟内容总录：榆林 (Xi’an: Shaanxi renmin chubanshe, 2017), Vol. 3, pp. 1196-97. The rock grotto was cut into the wall here between 1498 and 1506, as part of a high tide of Buddhist and Daoist grotto-excavation in the areas along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The hall was renovated in 1882. Huyan Sheng argues that the murals as we see them now should date from this late 19th-century reconstruction, but in any case, Water-and-Land murals in this region seem to have been highly conservative in the Ming-Qing period, with model-books (huapu 畫譜) passed down for generations in artist-lineages. According to the Zheng 鄭 brothers, from a family of mural-artists who now run the site, there is still a monk who performs Water-and-Land funeral rites here, as well as a number of mediums (matong 馬童) in the area; unfortunately this monk was absent during the researcher’s visit. The grotto is located in a western section of the monastery that contains several painted shrines related to funeral ritual; these include shrine-rooms to the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (Dizangwang pusa 地藏王菩薩) and the Ten Yama Kings (Shidian yanwang 十殿閻王), to the Ghost King (guiwang 鬼王)/Great Scholar of the Face (Mianran dashi 面然大士), to the Gods of the Soil and the Mountains (Tudi shanshen 土地山神), etc. Within the Water-and-Land grotto, the altar contains newly-made images of the three Buddha-kāyas (Sanshenfo 三身佛), plus a central image which probably represents the Buddha Vairocana (Piluzhenafo 毗盧遮那佛), who is associated with the Water-and-Land rite and the Vajroṣṇīṣa (Jingangding 金剛頂) cycle from which it descends. Around the altar-top are placed images of the Arhats (Luohan 羅漢). The central wall murals depict the Ten Vidyārāja (Shi mingwang 十明王) who guard the Water-and-Land bodhimaṇḍa, while on the flanking walls and around the door lintel are depicted all the hundreds of deities of who are called down to receive offerings in the course of the ritual. The room is too long and narrow to photograph an entire wall at once, thus the full-wall images contained here are composites of dozens of photographs of wall-segments, and contain many distortions and artifacts. The captions read as follows: East wall: top row, left to right: [...], [...]神聖眾, [...]聖眾, 東方☐國天王, 南方☐☐天王, 西方廣目天王, 北方多聞天王, 北極紫微大帝, 太乙諸神五方五帝聖眾, 日光天子聖眾, 月光天子聖眾, 金星真君聖眾, 木星真君聖眾; second row, left to right: [...], 天地水府三官大帝等眾, 普天烈矅一切星君, 北斗七元星君等眾, 井鬼柳星張翼軫星君, 奎婁胃昂畢觜參星君, 斗牛女虛危室壁星君, 角亢氐房心尾箕星君, 申酉戌亥子丑元君, 寅卯辰巳午未元君, 陰陽金牛白羊双魚宝瓶麽宮, 人馬天蝎天祥双女獅子臣解神君, 月孛星君聖眾; third row, left to right: [...], ☐☐引路王菩薩, 大藥叉等眾, 阿利帝母等眾, 矩畔拏等眾, 避支迦大將, 徃古曠野將軍, 徃古羅义女等眾, 徃古大羅叉等眾, 阿修羅等眾, 大威德菩薩, 年月日時四直使者, 天曹諸司判官; bottom row, left to right: 徃古宮妃女人等眾, 徃古文武官僚等眾, 徃古一切將士等眾, 徃古比君?冝等眾, 徃古比丘等眾, 徃古聖婆姑等眾, 徃古聚富婆娘, 徃古道士等眾, 徃古女官等眾, 徃古儒流秀士, 徃古孝子順孫. West wall: top row, right to left: ☐水?府子童帝☐, 守齋[...], 主苗主稼主病主藥諸龍神, 主風主雨主雷主電諸龍神, 虛空藏菩薩摩訶薩, 波池井泉諸龍神, 五湖百川諸大龍神, 江河淮済泗凟諸龍王, 北海龍王, 西海龍王, 南海龍王, 東海龍王, 中嶽中天崇聖帝君; second row, right to left: [...], 閻羅大王眾, 五官大王眾, 宋帝大王, 楚江大王, 秦廣大王, 地藏菩薩, 護國護民社稷城隍地祇神, 弔客喪門大耗小耗宅龍神, 陰官奏書帰急九伏兵士, [...], 大將軍黃幡白虎蚕官五鬼, 太歲太煞博士日遊太陰; third row, right to left: [...], 面然大☐, 孤獨地獄, 近邊地獄, 八爇地獄, 八寒地獄, 善惡二薄?牛頭馬面, 地府五道將軍, 地府都司判官, 地府三司判官, [...], 轉輪大王, 都市大王; bottom row, right to left: [...], 地獄餓鬼傍生道中一切有情, 車碾馬托重毒身亡, 悞死[食+咸]病疾造毒藥, 墮胎產亡含冤抱恨, 嚴寒大暑虎咬虫傷, 樹拆崖推牆崩屋倒, 飢荒浮饑疾病纏綿眾, 兵戈蕩滅水渰火焚眾, 赴刑都市牢獄隨死, 投崖赴火自刑自縊, 啣冤抱恨諸鬼神等. South wall: top row, left to right: 水星真君聖眾, 火星真君聖眾, 土星真君聖眾, 羅候星君聖眾, 東嶽天齊仁聖帝君, 南嶽司天昭聖帝君, 西嶽全天順聖帝君, 北嶽安天元聖帝君; second row, left to right: 紫微星君聖眾, 計都星君聖眾, 順濟龍王, 安濟夫婦; third row, left to right: 天曹六馬判官, 天曹府君等眾, 泰山大王, 平等大王; bottom row, left to right: 徃古賢婦烈女, [...], 大腹臭毛針炬具口, 依草附水幽魂滿魄眾.

Shaanxi Sheng (China); Jia Xian (China); 38.281316; 110.279555

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North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0402516

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