Open Collections

Temples to the Three Purities and Dragon Kings at West North-River Village (Xi beijiang cun Sanqing, Longwang miao 西北江村三清、龍王廟)

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

West North-River (Xi beijiang 西北江) is a small walled village located on the road between the Yu County seat and the town of West Combined Garrison (Xiheying 西合營). While the walled village at its height could not have held more than forty families, the village once had an extraordinarily large number of religious structures in and around its walls. According to conversations with villagers, these were originally as follows (the numbers refer to locations on the attached map): (1) a Temple to the Perfected Warrior 真武廟, located on a tower on the northern wall (2) an opera stage 戲台, facing north to the Perfected Warrior Temple (3) a “Dragon Pavilion” 龍廳, which also had an opera stage on its grounds (4) a Tower to the Kui-Star 魁星樓, located atop the south gate of the walled village, which also would have contained a shrine to Wenchang 文昌, (5) an opera stage 戲台, which faces the now-vanished Tower to the Kui-Star, (6) a Dragon King Temple 龍王廟, (7) a Hall of the Three Purities 三清店; this is flanked on the west by a small shrine to Kṣitigarbha 地藏 and on the east by a shrine to the God of Wealth 財神; this structure was originally a “passing hall” 過殿 that led into the main temple courtyard behind (8) an “Old Worthy’s Hall,” 老君殿, that is a shrine to Laozi 老子, (9) a Hall to Lord Guan 關公殿 (10) a Temple of the Fire God 火神廟, (11) a Goddesses Temple 娘娘廟 (also called a Mount Tai Temple 泰山廟), which also contained a passing-hall with images of the Four Great Heavenly Kings 四大天王, (12) an opera stage 戲台, which faced north to the Goddesses Temple, (13) a shrine to “Guanyin Sitting in Reverse” 倒座觀音, i.e. an Avalokiteśvara image that faces north, which also contained something called a True Teachings Monastery 正教寺, (14) an opera stage 戲台, which faced the “Old Worthy” shrine complex to the north, (15) another Hall of Avalokiteśvara-Guanyin 觀音堂. On top of this, there were also five small Temples to the God of the Five Ways 五道廟 scattered through the village. In 2018 only seven of these buildings were standing, all in ruinous state. The foundation-date of the walled village is unknown; the gate has a plaque stating only that it was rebuilt in the Kangxi reign (1661-1722, the exact date is illegible). The Goddesses Temple appears to be of Liao-, Jin-, or Yuan-dynasty construction (916-1368 CE). The age, and the fact that locals remember it originally having a front hall with images of the Guardian Kings of the Four Directions, suggest that the structure may originally have been a Buddhist monastery. A plaque hanging from the ceiling of the Hall of the Three Purities states that this building was erected in 1595 (歲在大明萬曆貳拾叁年歲次乙未庚辰月拾壹甲申良旦吉時建 立), and the simple wooden brackets beneath the eaves suggest that the structure has substantially retained its form since this period. This building contains ruinous 19th-century murals of seated Daoist divinities and, on the flanking walls, the courts of hells. The Dragon King Temple is built in a similar style to the Hall of the Three Purities, and the murals inside are both more intact and clearly older in style, perhaps even dating to the original Ming-dynasty construction of the building. These show a relatively standard procession of the Dragon Kings out on the east wall and back on the left, although the east wall is heavily eroded. Unusually, the upper register shows hundreds of small figures in official dress processing along with the Dragons. The meaning of this scene is unknown; it exists in at least two other temples nearby in Yu County (both 19th-century in style), but one of these is almost completely destroyed, and unfriendly local cadres prevented me from closely examining or photographing the other.

Hebei Sheng (China); Yu Xian (Hebei Sheng, China); 39.895522; 114.712361

chi

North China Mural Survey

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0433575

Non UBC

Graduate

DSpace