Ji Yi Temple | The persimmons must be soft and squishy, not the old and unbroken production team

A twenty yuan entrance fee per person is neither expensive nor standard. The temple is guarded by an elderly man with the surname Yang, who appears to be in his sixties or seventies and has lived alone in a bungalow on the west side of the temple for years, which is about seven or eight square meters in size. According to his own account, he took over from his father, and both have spent their lives protecting this place. Inside the hall, there is a hand-drawn floor plan of Ji Yi Temple from 2017, with the planner 'Yang Weijun' being the father of the temple guardian. The original mountain gate and the standing statues on both sides were destroyed during the sixties and seventies. To the south of the mountain gate, there is a screen wall and an ancient cypress tree that is a thousand years old, which was cut down by the local ironwood industry and made into dozens of coffins to sell. To the north, there is an offering hall that was also destroyed during the sixties and seventies, and it is unknown which unit was responsible or who led the destruction. Now only the platform base and a few stone steles remain. After just a few decades, without the protection of the offering hall, the inscriptions have become blurred and there are no protective measures. The main hall originally had colorful statues, which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but the building was spared because it was used as a warehouse by the supply and marketing cooperative. Salt bags were piled up against the wall with murals, and the bottom of the murals was eroded by the salt. On the east and west sides of the main hall, there were originally the Holy Mother Shrine and the Guan Di Temple, which were occupied by the village hospital and the credit cooperative, respectively. In the eighties and nineties, they were demolished to build a movie theater, which showed a few movies and then was abandoned. What remains is a Yuan Dynasty stage with five bays, which escaped destruction because it was useful for holding village meetings. Today, the south side of Ji Yi Temple is the local government compound. In Shanxi, the protective measures for murals vary from place to place. It is understandable that photography is not allowed, but when a study tour group of more than a dozen people, each holding a cold light lamp, takes turns photographing, it is us individual visitors who become the soft persimmons. Since we're here, we might as well bask in the light of others, since there are no picture albums for sale to us wild visitors. Murals, this traditional art form, are lessened with each viewing. It's hard to say how well they are protected in the almost free-range state of Ji Yi Temple. We are willing to pay Mr. Yang's fee, as it is at least more sustainable than no compensation at all.