Open Collections

Peaceful and Settled Monastery (Anjian si 安堅寺)

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

Peaceful and Settled Monastery is located in East Liu [Family] Village of Guangling County in Shanxi (Shanxi sheng Guangling xian Dongliutuan cun Anjian si 山西省廣靈縣東留疃村安堅寺). The monastery is located just within the old fortified village, against what would have been the southern wall of the fort. A plaque on the ceiling beam of the main hall is heavily blackened, but the words, “The eighth year of the Zhengde reign of the Great Ming Dynasty (i.e., 1513)” (Da Ming Zhengde ba nian 大明正德八年) can be made out. Several architecturally similar monastery halls from the same period exist in the region, including at Prior-Fortress Village (Gucheng cun 故城村, built 1507) and West Great-Peace Village (Xitaiping cun 西太平村, built 1482), both adjacent in Yu County of Hebei Province (Hebei Yu xian 河北蔚縣). The temple courtyard also includes a front or “passing” hall (guo dian 過殿), called the “Monastery Protector’s Hall” (qielan dian 伽藍殿), and a small Patriarch’s Hall (Zushi tang 祖師堂) adjacent to the main hall and facing east. The temple steles also indicate that there were once a Buddha Hall (Fo tang 佛堂) on the western side of the compound, and a Dhyāna Courtyard (Chan yuan 禪院, i.e. monks’ quarters) on the east, both built in 1595. (The relevant steles from this temple are found at: Li Yuming 李玉明 and Wang Ya’an 王雅安 eds., Sanjin shike daquan: Datong shi Guangling xian juan 三晉石刻大全: 大同市廣靈縣卷 [Taiyuan 太原: Sanjin chubanshe 三晉出版社, 2013], 51, 170, 174, and 432.) The buildings were repaired in 1818 and 1822 by members of the Tong 仝 family, who had an ancestral hall in the adjacent village and seem to have been the main stakeholders in the monastery throughout its history. It’s possible that the present murals were painted as part of these repairs, although the extant steles do not list any painters among the artisans. The murals are done in a lively and folkic style, certainly from the 19th or early-20th century. The front hall is dedicated to Lord Guan (Guan gong 關公) as the monastery protector, and the surviving southern and eastern walls show captions scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo yanyi 三國演義). The missing north and east walls mean that neither the beginning nor the end of the story is present. Not all of the cartouches are filled in, and their sequence is highly garbled, suggesting that the captions may be guesswork later additions by someone not in communication with the original painter. The captions read: West wall: bottom row, right to left: 曹操賜馬, 白馬山前斬文醜, 黃河渡口斬顏良, 馬☐譚?☐☐, ☐☐☐☐☐; middle row, left to right: 臥牛山收周倉, 鎮國寺斬卞喜, 華榮小道擋曹, 劉備東吳招親, 轅門射戟; top row, right to left: 霸橋曹操賜袍, 東嶺關斬孔秀, 洛陽關斬韓福, 沂水關斬王植, 黃河渡口斬秦琪. South wall, western panel: bottom row, left to right: 關公征前收黃忠, 關公大戰蔡史慈, 關公獨下汝☐; middle row, right to left: 水淹七軍, 水戰龐德, 關公大下江東; top row, left to right: 黃河渡口斬顏良 [again], 古城壕斬蔡陽, [no visible caption]. South wall, eastern panel: bottom row, left to right: 曹操進美女, 一宅分二院, 挂印封金; middle row, right to left: 冀德闖轅門, 三戰呂布, 屯土山說關公, top row, left to right: [no visible caption], [no visible caption], 過五關收關平. Traditionally, Patriarchs’ Halls in Chinese monasteries held images of former abbots and lineage-holders. The central (west) wall mural in the hall here is now vanished, but the side wall murals are unique. The lower registers have images of the Arhats (Luohan 羅漢), while the upper registers show rows of what appear to be bodhisattvas (pusa 菩薩), or possibly just various forms of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音, riding various mounts. The main hall of the monastery has a central statue of Śākyamuni Buddha (釋迦佛) facing south, while on the other side of the altar wall a statue of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin faces north. The side-walls show the deities of the Water-and-Land (Shuilu 水陸) rite in enormous profusion, although unfortunately the labels on each group have not been filled in. The northern walls of the room show the wrathful Vidyārājas (Mingwang 明王) who guard the Water-and-Land maṇḍala. A small annex jutting out of the north face of the building has two side walls with murals. The lower registers show Arhats, while the upper register show the miracles of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin as enumerated in the Universal Gate (Pumenpin 普門品) section of the Lotus Sūtra.

Shaanxi Sheng, China; Guangling Xian (China); 39.726463; 114.320951

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0421702

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