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Shrine of the Gods of Harmony (Lülüshen ci 律呂神祠)

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

The “Shrine of the Harmonies” (Lülü shenci 律呂神祠) is located on a small rock outcropping over a marsh north of the Hunyuan County seat; the village beneath is called 'Holy Creek' (Shenxi cun 神溪村), presumably named after the temple and the waterlands that surround it. The shrine complex is genuinely old, with the central hall dating to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and many fragmentary steles and dhāraṇī pillars scattered around the courtyard. A central panel behind the main deity statues with a simple painting of a screen in ochre and white may date from this period as well. The rest of the temple murals, however, are certainly from the 18th century, based both on style, content, and inscriptions. A stele outside records the repainting of the temple in 1783 by two artists named Feng Lian-[illegible] 馮連□ and Hou Chengde 侯成德. The same stele gives an explanation of the name “harmonies”: “‘Harmonies’ is a way of saying the modulation of yin and yang” (gai lülü zhe tiaoli yinyang zhi wei ye 蓋律呂者調理陰陽之謂也). (The text of this stele is found at: Ed. Chen Xuefeng 陳學鋒, Sanjin shike daquan: Datong shi Hunyuan xian juan xubian 三晉石刻大全: 大同市渾源縣卷續編. Taiyuan 太原, Sanjin Chubanshe 三晉出版社 [2015]: 110-111.) The text goes on to explain that by this divine “modulation” of male and female principles, the gods grant rain and fertility. Within the shrine room, the two north walls flanking the altar show images of the interior of the divine ‘rear palace’ (hougong 後宮) or women’s quarters, in which beautiful maidens serve tea and hold up ornamental objects as offerings. In one of these images, a string of prayer-beads and a lantern hung on the back wall are depicted with Western-influenced chiaroscuro and cast-shadows, creating a realistic trompe-l’œil effect. The two side-walls show a standard Dragon King procession scene, in which the male Harmony god rides out from the Crystal Palace granting rain on the east wall, and returns amidst peace and rainbows on the west. Two north-facing walls on either side of the entrance also have images. The one on the west shows the Horse King/Hayagrīva (Ma wang 馬王). The elderly caretaker of the shrine identified the image on the east wall as the God of Disease (Wenyi shen 瘟疫神). This may be correct, but the figure could also be the River God (He shen 河神), another deity once-common in the area but whose iconography is now very poorly attested.

Shanxi sheng (China); Hunyuan xian (China); 39.720088; 113.651629

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0413607

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