The Religious-Political Strategy of the Mu Chieftains in Ming Dynasty Lijiang: A Spatial Analysis of the Murals in the Dabaoji Palace
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the murals of Dabaoji Palace in Lijiang during the Ming Dynasty, analyzing their tripartite religious spatial configuration to elucidate how the Mu chieftains visualized and asserted their political and cultural agency as local elites operating at the empire’s south-western frontier within the framework of imperial authority. Through an interdisciplinary methodology that combines textual research, spatial analysis, and iconographic interpretation, the study identifies and theorizes a threefold religious spatial model in Dabaoji Palace: a Daoist facade symbolizing allegiance to the Ming court, a Han Buddhist-dominated central hybrid space asserting political authority and local agency in cultural mediation, and a secluded Tibetan esoteric sanctum providing sacral legitimacy for frontier governance. This tripartite spatial configuration is interpreted as a strategic localization of religious space that embodies the Mu chieftains’ response to Ming frontier administration. By highlighting the Sino-Tibetan artistic synthesis in the murals, the paper argues that the Mu chieftains, as Naxi elites in a borderland context, crafted a visual narrative of frontier rule that both reinforced their ties to the Ming court and forged a distinctive local identity. In doing so, their initiatives contributed to the cultural integration of multi-ethnic communities in northwest Yunnan and laid the foundation for the formation of a shared national identity.
Source: Religions
DOI: 10.3390/rel16111344
Authors: Xiyu Hu, Shaohua Wang
Institutions: University of Edinburgh, Wuhan University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
Awards: G2193736114, G7623332448
OpenAlex ID: W4415560253