Li Tieguai (1300s): Art, History and Details

Li Tieguai (1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

It is said that Li Tieguai’s ethereal self visited the deified Laozi but when he returned, he found that his own body was burned. He had to inhabit the corpse of a person who used a crutch to walk, and thus gained his name Tieguai—the Iron Crutch. The painting depicts Li Tieguai after he took possession of the body, with the iron staff in his hand. As Li exhales, he blows a small Li Tieguai in the air, showing the immortal’s ability to send his spirit on journeys.

Object facts

• Title: Li Tieguai
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 100.5 x 38.4 cm (39 9/16 x 15 1/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 182 x 59.2 cm (71 5/8 x 23 5/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1982.29.1

A detail from the museum

Li Tieguai is one of the Eight Daoist immortals.

Collection credit

Edward L. Whittemore Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–55.
• Delacour, Catherine. La Voie du Tao: un Autre Chemin de L'être: Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais, 29 Mars-5 Juillet 2010. Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 2010.

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.