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Temple to the Perfected Warrior at Cao Family Village West Fort (Cao tuan xi bu Zhenwu miao 曹疃西堡真武廟)

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

Cao [Family] Village Forts (Cao tuan bu 曹疃堡) is a small village in the western part of Yu County 蔚縣. The settlement is a conurbation of two fortresses set side-by-side, each of which originally had a gate in the south and a temple to the Perfected Warrior (Zhenwu 真武) at the northern end of the main north-south axial road. The gateway of the eastern fort has now vanished, but the western fort gateway still exists. A plaque set over the gate bears the legend: “Cao Family Village Fort, [built] on the ☐☐ day of the sixth month of the tenth year of the Jiajing reign (1531)” 曹家疃堡, 嘉靖拾年陸月☐☐日. The inscription also gives the name of the Fortress Headman (buzhang 堡長) and a list of other names, mostly surnamed Dong 董. An 1846 stele now lying on the side of the street outside the fortress states that the western temple to the Perfected Warrior had existed at that location since the founding of the fortress (建邑以來以有之矣). By the 19th century, however, the temple had become dilapidated and its images faded, and the villagers decided to shore up the foundation and have the murals repainted. The stele names a picture-artisan (huajiang 畫匠) named Wei Guangcheng 魏廣成; the murals match the style of this period, and should be in the hand of this individual. Later, during the Cultural Revolution, the temple was stripped. Any murals which had existed in the lower part of the complex were plastered over, and the words “Destroy the Private, Elevate the Public” (posi ligong 破私立公) were painted on top. The murals in the upper shrine room remained intact on the wall at the time of visit in 2013, at which point the researcher took a few low-quality photos, but on a return visit in 2016 the murals had been totally stripped by thieves. The murals showed a central image of the Perfected Warrior by the Peach-Blossom Girl (Taohuanü 桃花女), and the Duke of Zhou (Zhougong 周公). The side walls showed the heavenly generals, labeled as follows: East wall, left to right: 先天一炁張天君, 混元龎天君, 左雷大魔苟天君, 正乙靈官馬元帥, 地祇主令溫元帥. West wall, right to left: 天醫五☐☐☐, 洞神劉天君, 右雷大魔畢天君, 黑虎玄壇趙元帥, 神霄伏魔劉元帥. The temple is faced at the far southern end of the axial road by an opera stage, which in 2018 had been recently repaired. Within the fortress walls are also many handsome old courtyard-houses with ornate screens (zhaobi 照壁), albeit many now derelict or falling into disrepair.

Hebei Sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 39.882812; 114.430748

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0433574

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