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Quelling the Demons
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Description
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.
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Details
- Associated place
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Asia › China › Jiangsu province › Nanjing (place of creation)
- Date
- 1983
- Artist/maker
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Gao Made (1919 - 2007) (artist)
- Material and technique
- ink and colour on paper
- Dimensions
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frame 99 x 68.5 x 3 cm (height x width x depth)
painting 68 x 44.5 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Presented in honour of the forthcoming 70th birthdays of Jose Mauricio and Angelita Trinidad Reyes, 1995.
- Accession no.
- EA1995.191
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Further reading
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
Glossary
Zhong Kui
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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
see (1)
Location
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- 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
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Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Zhong Kui the Demon Queller derives from Tang legend, having been a poor but ugly scholar in the reign of Emperor Minghuang (712-56), whose unprepossessing looks denied him the recognition his intellect deserved. He is a popular subject not just for professional illustrators such as Gao Made and Cheng Shifa (see cat.no.13 [EA1995.180]), but also for other artists when producing figure paintings (see cat.no. 101 [EA1995.265]). This particularly fiery Zhong Kui is depicted in the style of an opera figure.
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