Chaoyuan Tu Mural, Sanqing Hall, Yongle Gong永乐宫三清殿壁画《朝元图》

Type

Steles and Inscriptions

Location

China · Shanxi · Ruicheng, Yuncheng · East of Longquan village, Guwei town; Sanqing Hall, Yongle Gong

Coordinates

34.7219, 110.6875 Map ↗

School

Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage of Quanzhen

First built

2nd year of the Taiding era, Yuan (1325) · Two views exist on the painters: an inscription in the Sanqing Hall reads "eldest son Ma Qi of Ma Junxiang of Gou Shan, Luojing, Henan Prefecture"; scholarly opinion generally attributes the Sanqing Hall to the Ma Junxiang lineage and the Chunyang Hall to Zhang Zunli and other disciples of Zhu Haogu (18th year of the Zhizheng era, 1358)

Heritage status

Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, 1st group (1961)UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List (1998)

Overview

The Chaoyuan Tu is painted on the four walls of the Sanqing Hall at Yongle Gong, completed in the second year of the Taiding era of the Yuan (1325); it depicts a grand procession of deities paying homage to the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, and is the largest surviving Yuan-dynasty mural in China and the richest in subject matter, its style descending from Wu Daozi's Five Sages Paying Homage to the Origin tradition. The painted surface is 4.26 meters high and 94.68 meters long; two figures are given for its area, 429.56 and 403.34 square meters. It depicts two hundred and ninety figures (another count gives two hundred and eighty-six), the principal deities standing over two meters tall, their crowns, robes, ceremonial guards, and ritual implements all rendered in precise detail, forming a pictorial pantheon of the Daoist gods. Two views exist on the attribution of the painters: one holds that the work came from the Zhu Haogu workshop, the other, based on an inscription in the Sanqing Hall reading "eldest son Ma Qi of Ma Junxiang of Gou Shan, Luojing, Henan Prefecture," attributes it to Ma Junxiang and his sons. Scholarly opinion generally holds that the Sanqing Hall belongs to the Ma Junxiang lineage, while the Chunyang Hall belongs to Zhang Zunli and other disciples of Zhu Haogu (1358); the two should not be conflated. Yongle Gong was built between 1247 and 1358; its surviving murals total 1005.68 square meters across four main halls. Because of the Sanmenxia Reservoir project, the entire complex was relocated to its present site between 1958 and 1966. It was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in the first group in 1961. See also the entry for the mother temple complex, "Yongle Palace (Palace of Eternal Joy)."

Highlights

• The largest surviving Yuan-dynasty mural in China
• 4.26 meters high, 94.68 meters long, with nearly three hundred figures
• Descends from Wu Daozi's Five Sages Paying Homage to the Origin tradition
• Relocated as a whole complex between 1958 and 1966