2: Living with Earthquakes: Rethinking the Iconographic Program of the Main Hall at Lower Guangsheng Monastery

Two monumental Buddhist murals from Lower Guangsheng Monastery in southern Shanxi—one now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the other in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art—have remained at the center of scholarly debate for over a century regarding their provenance, subject matter, and intended function. A key interpretation understands this unusual juxtaposition of the Medicine Buddha and the Radiant Buddha as a direct response to the magnitude-8 earthquake that devastated the region in 1303 under Mongol rule. This paper reexamines the mural pair within the broader architectural context of the main hall, taking into account additional wall paintings from the site that have been newly identified. I argue that, through an ambitious and integrated iconographic program, the murals and sculptural ensemble of the main hall collectively sought to safeguard every dimension of communal existence in the aftermath of catastrophe—the past (the dead), the present (the living), and the future (their progeny).