Some Qing Dynasty frescoes in a temple near Jia Xian

Helen Wang found a very interesting blog on the internet, called twosmall.ipower.com/blog 

She made a selection of her own and I liked the following article from October 2013 very much...

Some Qing Dynasty frescoes in a temple near Jia Xian

October 18, 2013 – 2:13 pm

I’ve been poking through a lot of temples lately, as every village in this area seems to have one or more small shrines, and they’re usually unlocked. I’d break down the contents of these temples as follows: 50% of it is recent trash, and not interesting. Another 40% is still recent trash, but zany, interesting trash. Another 9% is recent, but not trash, and well done. And a final 1% is old stuff, half-ruined, and gemlike. The following are from a small village temple in a valley near Jia Xian, Shaanxi (陕西佳县). To be honest I’m not going to say exactly which village, because old frescoes like this are quite valuable, and you could take them off the wall pretty easily with an exacto-knife. Also the gallery function on the blog seems to have turned into a gallery malfunction so until I can straighten that out I’m just going to post photos directly.

An inscription outside the temple says that it was renovated in the twenty-fourth year of the Guangxu reign, or 1899, which may or may not have been the year in which these frescoes were painted. Some of these drawings put me in mind of the Yuan dynasty depictions of Chingghis Khaghan, or, weirdly, Darius in the Pompeiian frescoes of Issus…

The first set come from a chapel of the Jade Emperor, and contains his assorted ministers flanking him on three sides.

The second set are from the adjacent chapel, dedicated to the Guansheng Lord Emperor, or to give his full title from the spirit tablet, the Dark Thunderbolt King Respected Jade Emperor ‘Sage of the Passes’ Lord Emperor (玄雷王玉皇尊关圣帝君). The walls contain lively comic-book style illustrations.