The Mystery of the Pilu Hall of Jingxin Temple

I didn't expect that an ancient temple from the Ming and Qing dynasties hidden deep in Taigu, Shanxi would take me a whole week to sort out and explore it one by one. At that time, I was attracted by the inverted glazed stage in Jingxin Temple, but when I came back and sorted them out one by one, I found that the stage was the first one I overlooked. The colorful sculptures and murals in every hall of the temple attracted me to explore. The difference between Jingxin Temple and most temples deeply attracted me and made me want to find out what was going on. I was also fascinated by the things going on in the last hall, the Main Hall of Jingxin Temple. The Main Hall is almost entirely dedicated to the statue of Sakyamuni Buddha. Sakyamuni has a virtue name called "Daxiong", so it is called the Main Hall. Then, judging from the hand gestures, the main seat of Jingxin Temple is Vairocana Buddha, so this hall should be the Vairocana Hall, not the Mahavira Hall. There are water and land murals painted on the east and west gables and the rear eaves wall of the hall. The temple was named after Vairocana Buddha, as the main deity in the temple is Vairocana Buddha. The area of ​​the murals in the Pilu Hall is about 220 square meters. The water and land murals in the Pilu Hall follow the format of the water and land murals of the Ming Dynasty, and are arranged on the east and west gables with four layers of graphic relationships of gods and figures. There are 29 groups (154 figures) on the east wall, 24 groups (147 figures) on the west wall, and 6 figures on the north wall, totaling 307 gods and figures. In terms of composition, the water and land murals in the Pilu Hall are most similar to those in the Lingshi Zishou Temple. There are no large, upright deities placed in the center of the picture. Instead, all the deities in the murals are treated equally, with only variations in size between the main deities and the maids (boys) holding banners. This is a typical composition style of Ming Dynasty folk water and land murals. The water and land murals in the Pilu Hall have an overall simple and detailed composition. The style of the murals is also light in style, showing the Ming and Qing mural styles. Due to the secular expression in shape and color, the picture is rich in content, and it depicts the society at that time in a highly generalized and refined way. It is a water and land temple mural that breaks through conventions and highlights strong folk characteristics.