Open Collections

Temple to the Goddesses and Laozi (Niangiang, Laojun miao 娘娘、老君廟)

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

Village name and precise coordinates concealed to protect potentially vulnerable sites from looters; the village is located in Yu County of Hebei Province (Hebei sheng Yu xian 河北省蔚縣). The Temple of the Goddesses (Niangniang miao 娘娘廟), also called Temple of the Holy Mothers (Shengmu miao 聖母廟), is located within the old walled village, facing east across a little square. The main (west) wall would originally have formed the backdrop to statues of the three Goddesses on the altar. These paintings show thrones, from behind which beautiful palace women bear offerings. The two side-walls show the procession of the three Goddesses to dispense fertility, out on the north wall and back on the south wall. While this iconography is relatively standard, the style of these paintings is quite unique, with a deep, lustrous palette of metallic ‘will-following clouds’ (ruyi yun 如意雲), as well as trailing aureoles of holy fire around the wrathful figures that suggest the possible influence of Tibeto-Mongol art. A stele is set into the outer wall of the temple, and a tentative transcription and arrangement of the multi-part text is below; the interested reader should compare this against the original photographs. The text is rather ambiguous, but it seems that the main encomium was composed by a villager named Song Xuede 宋學德 in 1724, when the village erected temples to Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音, Kṣitigarbha (Dizang 地藏) and the Ten Yama Kings (shidian yanwang 十殿閻王), and the Goddesses. The actual stele was carved later, in commemoration of charitable bequests of ‘incense-and-candle-land’ (xiangzhudi 香燭地) to the temples by pious villagers in 1766 and again in 1775. An artist is listed named Mi [Tu?]long 米徒?龍. Song Xuede’s encomium gives an interesting Daoist-inflected theological defense of the temple decoration, and the individual and collective actions of villagers in adorning these buildings: ‘…All of these altars are replete with holy images. [The gods] are the controllers (lit. ‘handle’) of all living and dying beneath Heaven. Hidden and revealed, none can fathom them, their holiness cannot be measured, their approach is beyond comprehension. Worship them and they will deploy numinous power (ling), pray to them and they will respond. They protect □□□ health and peace. Do good and they grant fortune, do evil and they cause disaster. They aid and guide the people. From east to west, from south to north, it is always so. Great is their numinous power (ling)! We have made [their temples] new and resplendent. The perfect lord has no form - he who gives him form has not arrived at the perfection of perfection. The subtle Way cannot be spoken - He who at last speaks it has not reached what is subtle about the subtle. And yet if we wish to illuminate its true form, we must provisionally adorn it with splendid color. Thus we ourselves first donated that which we possessed, and afterwards raised funds among the village altar-association. These golden bodies of massed virtues reach to the mysterious forms with the five supernatural powers. In heaven and amongst men, those who would cultivate blessings must first plant the seeds in this life, and in the lives to come they together will be crossed over unto the further shore. In the space of an inch or at great distance, all is one body - if we sincerely return to the lord, then we are near to the Way. Thus we have written these words that they may not decay.’ 天三教寺者身居□南?金容玉貌之尊 / 大士觀音面向北湖蘂闕琳宮之聖 / 地藏面南十王朝相掌人間善惡之種? / 聖母東昇滿龕聖像至天下生死之柄隱顯莫測聖□難量神之格思不可度思祈則靈禱則應保□□□康寧 / 善而福惡而禍拯兆民而真撝自東至西自南至北無時不然大哉神之為灵也燦然一新焉真王?無相誰相 / 而非至真之真妙道無言絕言而非殊妙之妙欲明實相必假莊顏由是先捐己有更募本村會 / 萬德之金軀?及五通之玄相天上人間修福為先種今生之因果伂?後世之津梁同?登彼岸咫尺之間遐通壹體 / 率實歸王則近道矣以垂不朽云耳 / 乾隆四十年三月二十日信士宋興施與 ([銀金?]仝?鄉?堡：宋滿倉、宋斌、宋[恩?思?]詳、宋贊) / 娘娘廟香燭地壹拾弎畝伍分共地價錢壹萬肆千文隨代堝里八甲[根?粮?] / 銀壹錢肆分貳厘正 (東窊地七畝、李家窊地三畝、嶺上地三畝五分) / 大清乾隆三十一年正月二十日信士施舍地人?宋武有酒務頭道陸地壹段計地壹拾捌畝長短在內丑家嶺陸地壹段計地捌畝長短在內情愿施舍□ / (老爺/娘娘) 廟隨帶?本地粮銀貳錢肆分正 / 眼仝 (鄉約/堡長)：(王金、宋滿倉、宋[恩?思?]詳、宋□、宋□、張國英、宋俊、聶起) / 經領人：宋[權?耀?] (馮聰明、宋言成、宋學成、李富安、宋坦、宋豹?、宋有寬、宋元賀) / 石匠：李富安。木匠：刘祥。埿匠：逯方向。塑匠：趙三。畫匠：米徒龍。主持道人史來恩。 / 王金榮备金、閻匠人、王鳳欒。 / 大清雍正二年歲次申辰季春起 季秋完 穀旦 本堡善人宋學德題. Adjacent to the Temple of the Holy Mothers on the south side is a small building called the ‘Old Gentleman’s Temple’ (Laojun miao 老君廟), e.g., a shrine to Laozi, the putative founder of Daoism. Whether this shrine was originally intended to be accessed from the north or the south is unclear; the altar is now long-gone. The two surviving side-walls show images of thirty-two named Daoist ‘perfected gentlemen’ (zhenjun 真君, zhenren 真人). The upper registers show more, unlabeled figures; at least some of these seem to be the Buddhist Arhats (luohan 羅漢). The surviving cartouches read as follows: East wall, left to right: 尹文子真人, [ ]成綺真人, 崔瞿子真人, [ ][ ]子真人, [ ][ ]沖l[ ][ ], [illegible], [ ][ ]明[ ][ ], [ ][ ][ ]帝君, [eight more figures, all illegible]. West wall, right to left: [ ]陽尹喜真人, 廣[ ]太古真君, 清淨點化元君, 天召[ ]陽真人, 杏林舉[ ][ ]人, [illegible], 道[illegible], [nine more figures, all illegible].

Hebei Sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 39.841503; 114.56477

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0413634

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