Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1490-1590 (circa)
Materials:gold, earthenware,
Technique:painted, gilded, cold painted, fahua,
Dimensions:Height: 18.90 centimetres Height: 21.70 centimetres
Description:
Figures of Zhongli Quan and He Xiangu decorated in the ‘fahua’ palette with gilding and cold painting. Zhongli Quan, the smaller figure and one of the Eight Daoist Immortals, may be recognized by the feather duster which replaces the fan he usually carries to resurrect the dead. He Xiangu, the only female member of the Eight Daoist Immortals, is shown carrying her attribute, a lotus leaf. Both figures stand on high lotus-petal pedestals and have vertical seams on either side where the halves of the moulds met and the excess clay squeezed out. The exposed flesh of their faces, necks and hands is cold-painted with gilded details. Their hair and boots are painted with black pigment and the under-robes, belt and sleeve edges show traces of red colouring. Other areas are covered with a glossy ‘fahua’-palette turquoise glaze.
IMG
![图片[1]-figure BM-Franks.1557-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/43/mid_00262543_001.jpg)
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:In 1980 seventeen ‘fahua’ figurines, dating to the middle Ming period, were found in a pit in Xiguan, Shuozhou city, in Shanxi province. They comprised Shouxing, the stellar god of immortality, four huren foreign entertainers – musicians and dancers – the Eight Daoist Immortals, two men riding fish, one damaged sculpture of two figures standing in front of a rock and one ‘qilin’. These are now in the collection of the Shuozhou Municipal Cultural Relics Administration. Although probably not uniquely made for burial, these images of Zhongli Quan and He Xiangu would only have belonged to such a set of Eight Immortals as was excavated in Xiguan. Indeed the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has a similar ‘fahua’ figure of another of the Eight Daoist Immortals, Lan Caihe.Daoist believers were buried with icons and ornaments which represented Daoist or popular gods. Mme Wang, wife of Zhao Bingran (died 1584), a high official in the Ministry of War, was buried with thin gold ornaments representing the Eight Daoist Immortals and Shoulao.
Materials:gold, earthenware,
Technique:painted, gilded, cold painted, fahua,
Dimensions:Height: 18.90 centimetres Height: 21.70 centimetres
Description:
Figures of Zhongli Quan and He Xiangu decorated in the ‘fahua’ palette with gilding and cold painting. Zhongli Quan, the smaller figure and one of the Eight Daoist Immortals, may be recognized by the feather duster which replaces the fan he usually carries to resurrect the dead. He Xiangu, the only female member of the Eight Daoist Immortals, is shown carrying her attribute, a lotus leaf. Both figures stand on high lotus-petal pedestals and have vertical seams on either side where the halves of the moulds met and the excess clay squeezed out. The exposed flesh of their faces, necks and hands is cold-painted with gilded details. Their hair and boots are painted with black pigment and the under-robes, belt and sleeve edges show traces of red colouring. Other areas are covered with a glossy ‘fahua’-palette turquoise glaze.
IMG
Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:In 1980 seventeen ‘fahua’ figurines, dating to the middle Ming period, were found in a pit in Xiguan, Shuozhou city, in Shanxi province. They comprised Shouxing, the stellar god of immortality, four huren foreign entertainers – musicians and dancers – the Eight Daoist Immortals, two men riding fish, one damaged sculpture of two figures standing in front of a rock and one ‘qilin’. These are now in the collection of the Shuozhou Municipal Cultural Relics Administration. Although probably not uniquely made for burial, these images of Zhongli Quan and He Xiangu would only have belonged to such a set of Eight Immortals as was excavated in Xiguan. Indeed the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has a similar ‘fahua’ figure of another of the Eight Daoist Immortals, Lan Caihe.Daoist believers were buried with icons and ornaments which represented Daoist or popular gods. Mme Wang, wife of Zhao Bingran (died 1584), a high official in the Ministry of War, was buried with thin gold ornaments representing the Eight Daoist Immortals and Shoulao.
© Copyright
The copyright of the article belongs to the author, please keep the original link for reprinting.
THE END
![[Qing Dynasty] British female painter—Elizabeth Keith, using woodblock prints to record China from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China—1915-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-191x300.png)
