Wing Temple Mural Drawing's Test

The present consists of four parts. Part One includes a literature review and outlines the aims of this paper in the context of previous research. Part Two gives a thorough overview of the Yong An Temple and its murals. Part Three investigates into the dates of the Yong An Temple Murals by studying their patrons and patterns , reaching the conclusion that the Yong An Temple Murals were painted during the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. Part Three also engages with previous speculations that the Yong An Temple Murals might have been painted in several different periods or that they had been repainted by later artists. Part Four examines the image origins of the Yong An Temple Murals and sets forth a distinction between the dates of the outline draft drawings (fenben) and the dates of the execution of the paintings. This distinction sheds light on the reason why the Yong An Temple Murals are generally believed by scholars to be works of the Ming Dynasty.This paper is based on the previous research in three aspects: 1) it focuses on the painting dates of the Yong An Temple Murals and presents the new view that these murals are painted during the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty; 2) it actively explores ways of dating temple murals and introduces the new method of dating temple murals by studying patrons and patterns ; 3) this paper provides the field with photographic reproductions, inscriptions and prefaces relevant to the Yong An Temple Murals. Among them, the Portraits of the Ten Great Mingwang (Vajrahasa) and a panorama of the Yong An Temple Murals are adopted here for the first time.