Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Zhong Kui the demon queller

Glossary

Zhong Kui

  • 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.

Past Exhibition

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Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by Shelagh Vainker

    Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

    Zhong Kui, associated with upholding righteousness and opposing evil is a popular figure in Chinese legend and appears in Daoist, Buddhist and folk paintings from as early as the Tang dynasty. Shen Kuo is a famous Northern Song (960-1127) dynasty writer, and one of the first to record the legend of Zhong Kui; the Huangpu River runs through the artist's native city of Shanghai. Cheng Shifa specialised in figure painting and this powerful image is representative of his best work in the genre.

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