Built around three sacred springs, the Jin Shrines complex (Jinci), near Taiyuan in Shanxi province, contains a wealth of ancient art and architecture dating back to the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). The complex's 1,500-year-long textual record allows us to compare physical and written evidence to understand how the built environment was manipulated to communicate ideas about divinity, identity, and status. Jinci's significance varied over time according to both its patrons' needs and changes in the political and physical landscape. The impact of these changes can be read in the physical development of the site.

Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, and religious, social, and art historians, this book seeks to recover the motivations behind the creation of religious art, including temple buildings, sculpture, and wall paintings. Through an examination of building style and site organization, the author illuminates the multiplicity of meanings projected by buildings within a sacred landscape and the ability of competing patronage groups to modify those meanings with text and context, thereby affecting the identity of the deities housed within them. This study of the art and architecture of Jinci is thus about divine creations and their power to create divinity.

1 Introduction 1

The Pattern of Heaven and Principles of Earth / 3

Shu Yu and the Cult of a State Founder / 8

The Significance of the Jin Springs and the Temple to Its Spirit / 10

Methodology and Approach / 12

Confronting Late Imperial Reinterpretations / 13

2 Jinci: Place and Name 19

The Modern Site of Jinci as Shrine and Sacred Landscape / 20

The Significance of the Term “Jinci” / 30

3 Taiyuan and the First Ancestor of Jin 37

Heaven, Earth, and Man: The Deities of the Jin State / 38

Archaeology and the Relationship Between the Tang Fief, Jinyang,

and Taiyuan / 42

Taiyuan/Jinyang as a Seat of Local Power / 50

The Song Founding and the Separation of Taiyuan from Jinyang / 55

4 The Shrine of Shu Yu of Tang 57

The Form of Ancestral and Founders’ Temples / 58

Shu Yu and Imperial Legitimacy: The Founder’s Shrine from the

Sixth Century Through the Northern Song Dynasty / 62

The Shape of the Pre-Yuan Shu Yu Shrine Complex / 73

Local Officials and the Shu Yu Cult / 74

The Symbolic Value of the Shrine to Shu Yu / 78

5 The Jin River and the Emergence of the Spirit

of the Jin Springs 81

Springs, River, Canal / 82

The Worship of the Spirit of the Jin Springs / 85

6 The Song-Dynasty Temple to the Sage Mother 97

The Sage Mother Hall / 98

The Temple Program and Deity Identity / 122

The Pre-Yuan “Complex” of the Sage Mother as a Local Nature

Spirit Temple / 145

7 Manipulating the Spirits of Jin 147

The Development of the Jinci Ritual Complex from the

Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries / 147

Changes in the Social Order During the Ming-Qing Transition / 151

Water Management During the Late Ming / 155

Building Projects of the Late Ming and Divinity Identity / 158

Reading Jinci in the Wake of the Qing Conquest / 164

Spirits of Jin Transformed? / 174

8 Conclusion: The Temple and Shrine as an Expression of

Divine Presence 177

Appendixes

A Dates of Extant Structures in the Jinci Complex 187

B Glossary of Building Terminology 199

Reference Matter

Notes 215

Select Bibliography 243

Index

Tracy Miller is Assistant Professor of Art History at Vanderbilt University.