Zhenguo Temple, about 12 km north of Pingyao's old city, contains something remarkable: the oldest surviving painted clay sculptures in China, dating to the Five Dynasties period (10th century CE). The main hall was built in 963, and the figures inside — eleven bodhisattvas and guardians — were made at roughly the same time. They predate even the finest work at Shuanglin Temple by three or four centuries.
The sculptures have a different character from the more elaborate later work at Shuanglin: simpler, more austere, with the solidity of early medieval craftsmanship rather than the dynamic movement of the later Qing. The faces have an archaic quality that connects them visually to Tang-era Buddhist art. The hall itself, with its wide, shallow roof pitch and heavy timber framing, is a masterpiece of early Chinese wooden architecture.
Fewer visitors make it out here than to Shuanglin, partly because the distance is slightly more — a hired vehicle is the most practical approach. Worth combining with a visit to Qiaojia Dayuan (the Qiao Family Compound) if you're heading north of the city anyway.