Xiaoxitian: Colour and Craft in a Small Temple
A late Ming temple on Phoenix Hill in Xixian, where a five-bay hall holds more than 1,900 clay figures in suspended relief, begun under the last Ming emperor and finished under the first Qing.
Xiaoxitian
Xiaoxitian, formally Qianfo Nunnery, stands on Phoenix Hill west of the seat of Xixian County in Linfen. It was built late in the Ming and is arranged on a slope, facing east, in two courts: the upper one holds the Mahavira hall, the halls of Manjusri and Samantabhadra, the Beiji hall and a shrine to the horse god, while the lower one has the Wuliang hall, the Weituo hall, the Moyun pavilion, an eight-trigram pavilion and bell and drum towers. The Mahavira hall is five bays wide and six rafters deep under a single-eave overhanging gable roof; inside are more than 1,900 clay figures. It was listed in the fourth batch of national key cultural relics in 1996.