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.

Contents
 Figures o
 Chinese Dynasties ooo
 Map of Song, Xi Xia, and Liao Empires, ca. 1100 ooo
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 14
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 Jin37
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 Power50
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
Appendix
A Dates of Extant Structures in the Jinci Comple 187
B Glossary of Building Terminology 199
Reference Matter
 Notes 215
 Select Bibliography 243
 Index 257