《Research On Figural Statues Of Taoism System In The Yu Huang Temple In Jincheng》

Taoism was coexistent with Confucianism and Buddhism in the ancient feudal society with a long history. Its formation and development exerted profound impacts to the politics, economics, cultures and art of each historical period. Shanxi is an important birthplace of Chinese civilization, having a deep historical history in the Taoism activities and development. The Tao cultural development is diverse, and confers legendary characters to the figural images of Tao immortals.Yu Huang Temple was first built in the North Song Dynasty, and was a local Tao temple which was built by civil funding. Figural statues in the Yu Huang Temple are mainly of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty, and the Twenty-eight Stars painted statues are the elaborate works among them, which represents the hard work and wisdom of laboring people in the ancient Jincheng. Its designs are unique and characters are distinct, which subjects are relatively rare in the figural statues of Taoism.This thesis presents the Tao immortals’system composed by the immortal figures in the Yu Huang Temple through an analysis of the architectural style and the immortals’system demonstrated in the Yu Huang Temple during a site visit to the Yu Huang Temple. A research and analysis in combination with the characteristics of Shanxi Tao culture development reflects that the art features of figural statues in the Yu Huang Temple were mainly of Song and Yuan Dynasties, such as Yu Huang Temple, Twelve Animals Palace and Twenty-eight Stars Palace, with a focus on the image, coloring, dress and decoration, damaged situation and other aspects of the twenty-eight stars paint statues. The art value presented in the statutes of Yu Huang Temple imposes important inspiration to the modern art creation and carry forward the traditional sculpture art.