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

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

The work and its context

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

This pair of hanging scrolls show the Daoist immortals Li Tieguai and Liu Haichan. 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. Liu Haichan is often shown as a young man wearing bangs across his forehead. He was said to have lived during the Five Dynasties period (907–979) and left his position as a grand councilor to become a hermit. Usually depicted carrying a string of coins and accompanied by a three-legged toad, Liu Haichan became a god of wealth and his toad symbolizes wealth as well. In this scroll, Liu is teasing the three-legged toad with a string of coins tied to his waist

Object facts

• Title: Li Tieguai; Liu Haichan
• Date: 1300s
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 106 x 38.6 cm (41 3/4 x 15 3/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1982.29

A detail from the museum

Li Tieguai walks with an iron crutch, while Liu Haichan is depicted with a three-legged frog.

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.