“The Paradise of Maitreya" Mural in the China gallery on the first floor of the ROM, is flanked by two magnificent Murals, called “Homage to the highest power” They are works from the Yuan Dynasty of Wansheng Taoist Temple in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi.
We started looking at the west wall from the right, the part facing the north. At the front of the team is Deputy Marshal Tianyou with two heads and four arms. Next to him is the barefooted and round-faced black assassin general. Behind it is the South Dipper Nine Heavens, corresponding to the Big Dipper on the east wall.
There are three main gods in the middle part. The one in the middle is Mugong Qingtong Taojun, the Prime Minister of Donghua. Mugong wears a crown on his head and wears a red robe. There is a tiger on his left sleeve, which is particularly vivid. There is also the words "Rebuilt in the second year of Zhiping of the Song Dynasty" written on Mu Gong's right sleeve. This is a trick done by the sellers to increase the selling price. In addition, ancient people also liked to draw Graffiti. If you are interested, you can look for them on the mural.
Back to the murals, next to Mugong are the Queen Mother of the West with phoenix crown. Just as the three main gods on the east wall, they dressed as emperor and empress. In addition, there is a baby's head on the right breast of the Queen Mother of the West. This was mentioned last time when I talked about "The paradise of Maitreya" Mural, so I won't repeat it here. The main god on the right wears a Taoist crown and a Taoist robe. There are sun and moon patterns on the shoulders of the outer robe; there are Penglai Islands on both elbows. Scholars mostly think of him as Laozi. There were also two maids in front of them holding an altar with peonies on it. There are three jade girls on the back, left and right in charge of the ceremonial guard. Normally there should be four of them. I guess there are just too many figures, so the painter didn’t draw so many.
The left part is the 12 earthly branches. There is a round light on the crown of the twelve gods, and there are animal images inside, representing the twelve zodiac signs of human beings. The one with rat on the crown is "Zi"; the one with ox on the crown is "Chou", and so on. They are Zi rat, Chou ox, Yin tiger, Mao rabbit, Chen dragon, Si snake, Wu horse, Wei sheep, Shen monkey, You ji, Xu dog and Hai pig. "Mao" holds a rabbit in his arms, and "Xu" has a puppy at his feet. These twelve gods correspond to the five stars, five elements on the east wall. Although there are a few more characters on the west wall and small animals are added, they are still in order and does not feel crowded at all.
Next time you go to the museum, you can compare them from left to right to feel its grandeur and ingenuity.