Water sprites and ancestor spirits: reading the architecture of Jinci

(7.) Essays that focus on the remains of Jinci in terms of their art historical value include Qi Yingtao, "Jinci Shengmudian yanjiu" (Research on the Shengmudian at Jinci), Wenwu jikan 1 (1992): 50-68; and Peng Hai, "Jinci Shengmudian kance shouhuo--Shengmudian chuangjian niandai xi" (The reward of the Jinci Sage Mother Hall survey--the date of the first construction of the Sage Mother Hall), Wenwu 1 (January 1996): 66-80. The latest monograph, documenting the full restoration of the building from 1993 to 1996, is Chai Zejun et al. (as in n. 5).

(8.) The Sage Mother Hall is rectangular in plan, measuring 89 ft. 5 1/4 in. (26.83 m) north-south along the front facade and 70 ft. 8 in. (21.20 m) east-west along the side facades; see Peng Hai et al., Jinci wenwu toushi (A cultural perspective of Jinci) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin, 1997), 176-77. The largest extant Northern Song building is the Buddhist Moni Hall of Longxing Monastery in Zhengding, Hebei Province, and it is approximately 133 ft. 4 in. by 123 ft. 4 in. (40 by 37 m), including the porticoes that project from each of its four facades. See Liang Sicheng, A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture, ed. Wilma Fairbank, bilingual ed., trans. and ed. Liang Congjie and Sun Zongfan (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye, 1991), 77. The Temple to the King of Broad Benevolence (Guangrenwang miao, also known as the Five Dragon Temple, or Wulong miao) is dedicated to the Spirit of Five Dragon Spring (also called Dragon Spring) in Ruicheng, Shanxi, and its main hall dates from 831 C.E. But it is a much smaller building than the Sage Mother Hall, roughly 46 ft. across the front facade and 17 ft. 4 in. along the side facades (my measurements). For more on the Temple to the King of Broad Benevolence in Ruicheng, see Jiu Guanwu, "Shanxi Zhongtiaoshan nan Wulongmiao" (The Five Dragon Temple south of the Zhongtiao Mountains in Shanxi), Wenwu cankao ziliao 11 (1959): 43-44.

(9.) See esp. the important role of the Sage Mother Hall in Liang Sicheng et al., Yingzao fashi zhushi (The Yingzao fashi annotated and explained) (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye, 1983; reprint, Taipei: Mingwen shuju, 1984).

(10.) In addition to figuring prominently in surveys of Chinese art and sculpture history, separate works treating these sculptures include Amy McNair (as in n. 4), 238-53; and Zhao Zhiguang et al., eds., Zhongguo Jinci Songsu (China Song dynasty statues at Jinci) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin, 1993).

(11.) The first work to diverge fully from this interpretation and include the popular religious traditions as well as those of the elite was jinci wenwu toushi, written by Peng Hai, an archaeologist and historian working in architectural preservation in Shanxi, and a group of local scholars working on the restoration of the Sage Mother Hall from 1993 to 1996 (Peng Hai et al. [as in n. 8]). Peng Hai also concluded that interpretation of the Sage Mother as Yi Jiang was representative of a 17th-century reading of the site. The publication of the Jincizhi in 1986 has been instrumental in facilitating a more nuanced understanding of the competing patronage groups at Jinci for Peng, as well as other scholars, primarily because of Liu Dapeng's transcription of all of the stela inscriptions at the site. The modern Chinese historian Henrietta Harrison has come to similar conclusions about the manipulation of the Sage Mother's identity by elite patrons of the site through her reading of Liu's work. See Harrison, "Village Identity in Rural North China: A Sense of Place in the Diary of Liu Dapeng," in Town and Country in China: Identity and Perception, ed. David Faure and Tao Tao Liu (New York: Palgrave, 2002), 96-97.