The national protected building in the village, it seems that every village in Shanxi has cultural relics.

In the mouth of Shanxi mural lovers, there is a title of "South Yongle, North Princess" "South and North Shuangshu", which refers to the Princess Temple in Princess Village, Fancheng Town, Fanshi County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province. So I deliberately stayed in Fanshi County for a day and rushed to the national key protected cultural relics in this small village-the colored sculptures and murals of the Princess Temple. The current Princess Temple is just a small temple in the village, but its initial construction time can be traced back to the Northern Wei Wen Emperor period. The Princess Temple was built because the fourth daughter of Emperor Wen of Wei became a monk here. Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty specially ordered the expansion, but it was subsequently destroyed by war. The current main hall, which has been reduced countless times, was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. There are two essences of the Princess Temple, one is the entrance hall. It is famous for its exquisite clay sculptures. The front view of the Vairocana Buddha and the Emperor Shitian statue, surrounded by Manjusri, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and the Eighteen Arhats, this hall was rebuilt in 1506 (the first year of Zhengde). It is heartbreaking because its exquisite dozens of colored sculptures were cut off by thieves in the 1990s and sold abroad. Now, except for the main hall Buddha statue and the four Arhats, the original sculptures are all later. The villagers and believers raised funds to rebuild. The contrast between the old and the new is obviously not as good as the craftsmanship and aesthetics of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen. To say the most precious of the Princess Temple, it is the Daxiong Hall. Here enshrines the Buddha statue of Sakyamuni and the horizontal three-world Buddha, and the venerable Kasyapa and Ananda are on both sides. The colored sculptures are also relics of the Ming Dynasty. Of course the most beautiful is the Ming Dynasty murals on all four walls. The area is more than 200 square meters, and more than 480 character images have different expressions and are lifelike. It's amazing. I have seen countless murals in Shanxi temples these days. The scale of the Princess Temple is definitely not on the list, but in terms of exquisite and delicate degree, the murals of the Princess Temple can definitely be said to be the "peak" of the Ming Dynasty murals! The murals are preserved intact as a whole, with hundreds of colorful characters, centered around Rulai Buddha, as if worshiping, and as if listening to the Dharma. You can find the eighteen arhats, ten great Ming kings, eight dragons and eight parts, twenty-four heavens in Buddhism in various characters; there are also twenty-eight constellations in Taoism, and the familiar four sea dragon kings, five emperors, Big Dipper, twelve The phase belongs and so on, and there are "emperors from ancient times to the present", "famous generals from ancient times to the present", "filial sons from ancient times to the present"... the meaning of transcendence of all beings is required. Very interesting. Each character has a different expression, very much in the style of Ming Dynasty vernacular novel illustrations, but much more exquisite, and there are signatures of painters and painters on the murals. According to the villagers, that was the court painter! No wonder it is so shocking! As a cultural relics protection unit, the Princess Temple does not require tickets. But it may not open. If you see the door locked, you can ask the villagers on duty in the village. Someone should open the door for you. It’s not bad to let the villagers be your tour guide and explain the history of the small temple (20 yuan).