A catalogue of Chinese paintings from the Reyes Collection by Shelagh Vainker (published Oxford, 1996).
Gao Made is a professional theatrical figure painter who presents the Beijing opera version of Zhong Kui the demon queller. Characterising a righteous judge, Zhong Kui’s mask has a red flame pattern on the forehead. On the stage this character gives a special fire-breathing performance. According to scholar’s accounts from the Qing period, each year on the fifth day of the first month, a coal stove was set up in the shape of Zhong Kui, from whose nose and eyes came flames and smoke to quell demons.
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 September-1 December 1996, Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Vainker, Shelagh (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1996), no. 24 on p. 30, illus. p. 30 fig. 24
Vainker, Shelagh, ‘Modern Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum’, Oriental Art, 42/3, (Autumn 1996), p. 9, illus. p. 8 fig. 12
Zhong Kui
Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demons.
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