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Repaying-Benevolence Monastery at Yang Family Hollow Village (Yangta cun Bao'en si 楊塌村報恩寺)

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

‘Repaying-Benevolence Monastery’ (Bao’en si 報恩寺) is located in ‘Yang Family Hollow’ (Yangta 楊塌), a small village along the road between Yulin City and the Jia County seat. Huyan Sheng’s 呼延勝 dissertation provides transcriptions of the steles and other relevant information for this site (“Shanbei tudishang de shuilu hua yishu” 陕北土地上的水陆画艺术, Xi’an meishu xueyuan, 2012: pp.131-143, steles at pp.134-36). Steles from 2003 and 2016 claim that the original bells in the courtyard were cast in 1604, which may mark the foundation of the monastery. A repair stele from 1844 describes a repair in which the village “newly matched [sic] Water-and-Land gods in the main hall, and newly sculpted the Four Great Heavenly Kings in the middle hall” 正殿新配水陸神位中殿新塑四大天王. The painters are listed: Li Guan 李琯, Deng Ju 登舉, Zhe Dayou 折大右, Zhang Dayun 張大運, Pei Shengzhang 裴生長, and Dan Benyuan 單本元. The monastery seems to have undergone repeated repairs from the late-1980s until the 2010s; at some point during this time, someone painted over the lower half of the faded Water-and-Land murals. Today, the main hall has central statues of the Buddhas of the Three Times (sanshi fo 三世佛), flanked by the Daoist dharma-protectors Black Tiger (heihu 黑虎) and the Spirit-Official Wang (Wang lingguan 王靈官). The roster of figures in the Water-and-Land paintings is as follows, transcribed by Chen Pei’an 陳姵安. Asterisks * mark captions which were added in the 1990s; some of these seem to reflect the original text, while others are clearly spurious. East wall, top row, right to left: 日光天子神眾, 太乙諸神五方五帝神眾, 北極☐☐大帝神眾, 北方多聞天王神眾, 西方廣目天王眾, 南方增長天文神, 東方持国天文神眾, 大梵天王神眾, 五色界四文天神眾; second row, left to right: 月光天子, 金星真君, 木星真君, 水德星君, 南方火德星君, 土德星君神眾, 羅睺星君, 計都星君神, 紫微星君神眾, 月孛星君神眾; third row, right to left: 普天列矅一切星君, 北斗七元星君, 井鬼柳星張翼軫星君, 奎婁胃昂畢觜參星, 斗牛女虛?老室璧星君, 角亢氐房心尾箕星君, 子丑寅卯酉申元君, 辰己午未申酉戌亥元, 阴阳金牛白羊双魚宝瓶, 人馬元蝎天祥双女獅子☐☐; fourth row, left to right: *天地☐☐三官大帝, *天逢天然 [...], [...], [...], [...], *年月日時四方☐使者, [...], [...], [...], [...]; fifth row, right to left: [...], [...], [...], [...], [...], [...], [...], *三矩田畔等众, [...], *曠野大將等眾; bottom row, left to right: *往古此僧等☐, *徃古僧尼等众, *僧侶渡化超世, *尼姑善婆等众, *往古女家亲居等, *往古 [...], [...], [...], [...], [...]. West wall, top row, left to right: 北海龍王神眾, 西海龍王眾, 五胡百川龍王神眾, 江河淮済四凟龍王, 南海龍王神眾, 東海龍王神眾, 中獄大帝神, 北獄大帝神, 西獄大帝神; second row, right to left: 井泉龍王, 虛空藏菩薩神位, 雷公電母風伯雨師龍部, 主五谷田苗神眾, 守齋護伏諸龍神眾, 地府三官大帝, 五方行雨龍王, 安樂夫人等眾, 太歲太熬太阴太阳神眾, 大將軍黃幡白虎神眾; third row, left to right: 阎羅大王神眾, 五官大王神眾, 宋帝大王, 楚江大王, 秦廣大王, 地藏王菩薩, 護軍民城隍土地神眾, 吊客丧门大小耗宅龍諸神, 金神能庶?豹?虎?上相神眾, 阴官奉書神眾; fourth row, right to left: *变成大王神象, *泰山大王神象, *平等大王神象, *都市大王神象, *转輪大王神象, *帝府☐市判官神象, *帝府三司判官神象, *地嶽五道將軍神象, *善恶二都牛头马面, *地府六曹判官神象; fifth row, left to right: *☐嶽黑☐☐ [...], *大風大雨飢渴餓死鬼眾, *主病鬼王溫疫使者, *孤独地嶽等眾, *啟教面然大士神眾, *近边地☐神眾, *☐☐地嶽神眾, *八冥地嶽神眾; bottom row, right to left: *地府各嶽上天☐, *孤魂餓鬼輪回转世各部冤家, *陰曹都嶽龙神众身等眾, *失身妖拆孩童等众, *白虎写画中第子救安, *夢吞日月妇人怀孕寸奶投身等众神眾, *陰间发福发财群生, *陰曹判官陸曹☐殿登神望乡家位, *渡化本身投胎转世成果大全. Related to these Water-and-Land murals is the hall to the Ghost King (guiwang 鬼王), painted in the 1990s, which displays scenes of Buddhist monks and donors feeding hungry ghosts in an Ullambana ritual (yulanpen 盂蘭盆).

Shaanxi Sheng, China; Yuyang Qu (Yulin Shi, Shaanxi Sheng, China); 38.366934; 110.111771

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0421043

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