Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 12 (1200s): Art, History and Details

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 12 (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This section of the Daoist pantheon depicts six generals, five of whom are identifiable by inscriptions. Starting from the right, they are Guan Yü 關羽, Zhang Bo 張渤, a general whose label has been lost, Ma Lingyao 馬靈耀, Zhou Guangze 周廣澤, and Zhao Gongming 趙公明. The generals, clad in military gear and wielding weapons, command spirit armies to intimidate and destroy demons that cause sickness and misfortune.

Object facts

• Title: Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 12
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Album; ink on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 34.2 x 38.4 cm (13 7/16 x 15 1/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Album leaf
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 2004.1.12

A detail from the museum

At far left, the God of Wealth Zhao Gongming holds a golden rod.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund in honor of Dr. Ju-hsi Chou and Gift of various donors to the department of Asian Art (by exchange)

Further reading listed by the museum

• Martin, F. R. Zeichnungen nach Wu tao-tze aus der götter- und sagenwelt Chinas. München: F. Bruckmann a.g, 1913.
• Giuffrida, Noelle. Representing the Daoist God Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior, in Late Imperial China. PhD diss. University of Kansas, 2008.
• Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.