Research On Age Verification And Image Configuration Of The Mural Of The Ten Kings At Zhenguo Temple In Pingyao County

The religion of the Ten Kings originated in the late Tang Dynasty.There are various versions of the "Sutra of the Ten Kings" in Dunhuang documents.In the Song Dynasty,with the prosperity of the Shuilu Rite,,and the mixture of Confucian Ideology and Taoism,the production and dissemination of the Ten Kings’ images showed the trend of localization.With the social and economic changes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the ways to worship the Ten Kings were more diverse.The paper chooses the mural of the Ten Kings at Zhenguo Temple in Pingyao county,Shanxi Province as the subject,aiming to formulate and perfect the theoretical framework of the belief system based on the case studies on the image system of the Ten Kings.This paper does research on the mural of the Ten Kings at Zhenguo Temple,including four parts: First,the introduction summarizes the background,methods and status quo of the current research on related topics at home and abroad.Second,the paper analyzes the changes in the Ten Kings’ image : The transition of the leading role from the Sakyamuni Buddha to the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,and transition from emperor and general to equal status with the conclusion on four forms.Third,the paper does a detailed study of the drawing time,composition and disposition order of the Ten Kings’ mural and defines it as a new pattern featuring the combination of paintings and calligraphy.Fourth,the paper analyzes the social factor that shape the style from the perspectives of religious psychology of the local strata and the non-standard nature of image production of the Ten Kings.