The Lantern Night Excursion of Zhong Kui (late 1200s–early 1300s): Art, History and Details

The Lantern Night Excursion of Zhong Kui (late 1200s–early 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Yan Hui (Chinese, active 1270–1310).

The work and its context

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

Here, the demon queller Zhong Kui leads a nightly procession of street entertainers with bare, muscular bodies and demonic faces. Some wear shabby clothes, and all perform stunts and tricks to astound and scare the viewer. In fact, a New Year custom in cities of southeast China had the poor, disguised as demons, process through the streets and play their tricks to clear households of evil spirits and welcome the spring. From right to left, a demonic figure leads the procession and beats a drum; another lifts a large rock; one stands on his hands trying to drink; one balances a jar on his elbow; three hold and wield weapons; one carries a folded chair covered by a cow’s skin; another holds Zhong Kui’s qin (zither), books, brush, and inkstone. At the end of the scroll, two figures offer a cup and bottle of wine to Zhong Kui, who lifts his hand in command.

Object facts

• Title: The Lantern Night Excursion of Zhong Kui
• Date: late 1200s–early 1300s
• Creator attribution: Yan Hui (Chinese, active 1270–1310)
• Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: handscroll; ink and slight color on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 24.8 x 240.3 cm (9 3/4 x 94 5/8 in.); Overall: 25.7 x 904.4 cm (10 1/8 x 356 1/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Handscroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1961.206

A detail from the museum

Zhong Kui was an ancient ghostbuster.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goepper, Roger. 1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei. München: Haus der Kunst, 1959.
• Hui, Yen, and Sherman E. Lee. “The Lantern Night Excursion of Chung K’uei.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 49, no. 2 (February 1962): 36–42.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.