Here’s a “Blue Ground” or qingdi print (青地年画) from Yangliuqing showing the master strategist Kongming, aka Zhuge Liang, from the historical novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. A roundel above contains a generalised lanscape with figures, with a pair of crickets (feeding on some fruit) below. I especially like the crickets. As with most Yangliuqing prints, the outlines have been …
A warrior’s phoenixes
Here’s a stone rubbing of a pair of phoenixes amongst peonies, overshadowed by a wutong tree. Peonies are considered the “king of flowers” in China, often paired in art with the phoenix, which usually represents female power. But here, as both male and female phoenix are shown, the peonies simply emphasise the regal nature of the birds. The tree links …
He He Harmony
Here’s a rubbing from a tablet at the Hanshan Temple in Suzhou of Hanshan (寒山) and Shide (拾得), two Tang-dynasty free thinkers later deified as He He Erxian (和合二仙), the twin Immortals of Harmony. Nothing definite is known about Hanshan and Shide, not even their dates or real names. They lived sometime in the seventh or eighth centuries; Hanshan – …
Tribute Elephants at the Qing Court
Elephants are associated with wisdom in Chinese lore – the bodhisattva Puxian, the very embodiment of wisdom, is depicted riding one – and the emperors themselves used them as a symbol of their own sagacity and authority. Life-sized carvings of elephants guarded the Imperial tombs, and the palace kept live ones too, in stables known as the “Tame Elephant Facility” …
Dryden Phelps and the Omei Illustrated Guide Book (峨山圖志)
Mount Emei – or “Omei” as the locals say it – rises three thousand metres above the edge of the Chengdu plain in China’s Sichuan province, its southern face a dramatic, sheer cliff. Covered from its subtropical foothills to chilly summit in dense green forest and tangled undergrowth, full of rare plants and dripping with moisture, it’s also a holy …
Highway Robbery At The White Bear
On 30 June 1831 James Noad, a fuller from Westbury aged around 50, was assaulted at Devizes, a busy wool-market town in Wiltshire. Noad had been drinking at the White Bear inn and was found at 3am dead drunk on the road, mumbling that he had been off with a girl at the churchyard when she robbed him, but he …
Medicinal Moon Hare
Here’s a print from Beijing of the white Moon Hare pounding herbs in a mortar to make the elixir of immortality. It was probably meant to be put up in the home during the Mid-Autumn Festival – associated with the full moon – and dates from the 1930s. Behind the hare is the icy Guanghan Palace, residence of the beautiful …
The God of Wine
The Venerable Wine-Making Immortal, inventor and patron of brewing and distilling (most Chinese “wines” are spirits), shown stroking his beard, surrounded by wine jars. According to some accounts the immortal was a legendary character named Du Kang (杜康), while others identify him as Shao Kang (少康), one of the kings of the Xia era (2070–1600 BC). The couplets either side …
The Immortal Archer Zhang Yuanxiao
Here’s a woodblock print from Yangliuqing village west of Tianjin, one of nineteenth century China’s most prolific folk-craft centres. It shows the Daoist immortal Zhang Yuanxiao (張遠霄) from Meishan in Sichuan province, driving off the malignant black Heavenly Hound, shown flying away top right on red wings. The hound was believed to cause eclipses by eating the sun, and could …
Miss Fosbery’s Passport
Here’s a Qing-dynasty passport for travel within China issued in 1889 to Miss Emily Fosbery (俌美禮, Fu Meili), a missionary with the London-based China Inland Mission (CIM). The CIM was founded in 1872 by Hudson Taylor, to recruit missionaries from working class backgrounds and send them to parts of China as yet uncovered by the protestant church. Unlike many other …