Open Collections

Temple to Lord Guan in Ever-Peaceful Fort Village (Yongningzhai cun Guangong miao 永寧寨村關公廟)

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

The temple to Lord Guan is located at the western end of the main east-west street of the old walled village, facing east down the road. The photographs in this collection are from multiple visits in 2013 and 2018. While the building was semi-derelict in 2013, by 2018, the temple had been renovated with funds from an agricultural company that operated in the area. New plaster deity-statues had just been installed, and are seen in the photographs with clothes draped over their heads to prevent the gods’ faces from being seen before formal consecration. There is a stele in a side-room commemorating a campaign to plant pine trees in the area in 1846, but nothing that directly dates the temple or the murals. The bright colors and Prussian blue of the images suggest a mid-nineteenth century origin. The murals are iconographically standard for this deity. The central wall depicts Lord Guan (Guan Gong 關公) surrounded by other major characters from the "Three Kingdoms” (Sanguo 三國) cycle, including Liu Bei 劉備, Zhang Fei 張飛, Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮, Guan Ping 關平, etc. The side wall murals show panel narratives of Lord Guan’s heroic deeds, beginning with the ‘oath of the peach-garden’ (taoyuanyi 桃園義) and ending with Lord Guan posthumously ‘displaying his sagehood’ (xiansheng 顯聖) at Jade-Springs Mountain (Yuquan shan 玉泉山) in chapter seventy-seven. This narrative proceeds top to bottom in reverse boustrophedon, i.e., beginning in the lower left panel of the north wall, proceeding left to right, then right to left, left to right, etc. A full transcription is as follows: North wall: bottom row, left to right: 桃園三結義, 二客送金馬, 初斬稱遠志, 三英破黃巾, 翼德打☐郵, 酒溫斬華雄; second row from bottom, right to left: 三英戰呂布, 北海斬管亥, 陶謙讓徐州, 盱眙瞻紀靈, 盱眙斬苟正, 白門樓斬布; third row, left to right: 代天子射鹿, 賺城斬車胄, 擒王劉二將, 土山約三事, 一宅分兩院, 曹賜赤兔馬; fourth row, right to left: 匹馬刺顏良, 河北斬文醜, 掛印封金銀, 霸陵橋餞行, 廖化殺杜遠, 胡華☐☐書?; fifth row, left to right: 東嶺斬孔秀, 洛陽斬韓福, 沂水斬卞喜, 胡☐☐密謀, 榮陽斬王植, 黃河☐☐琪. South wall, bottom row, right to left: 郭常厌?止宿, 郭子夜盜馬, 臥牛山收倉, 收關平為子, 城☐斬蔡陽, ☐☐☐聚義; second row from bottom, left to right: 三請諸葛亮, 漢津斬曹操, 柴桑口保駕, 華容道擋曹, 長沙斬楊齡, 義釋黃漢升; third row, right to left: 大戰周公瑾, 鎮守荊州府, 單刀驚魯肅, 胡班投降, 興師伐曹操, 用計取襄陽; fourth row, left to right: 立斬夏侯存, 進兵功樊城, 大戰龐令名, 決水渰七軍, 于禁乞性命, 箭射成何將; fifth row, right to left: 周倉擒龐德, 怒斬龐令名, 用水渰樊城, 大戰徐公明, 活捉呂子明, 玉泉山顯聖.

Hebei Sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 39.878528; 114.81632

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North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0406623

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