Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Beauties and Heroes: Legends and Stories in Chinese Art

(from 21st Jan until 15th Jul 2012)

Explore paintings, prints and papercuts depicting legendary figures from Chinese folklore.

Detail of Heroes from The Water Margin, by Shi Dawei, Shanghai, 2003 (Museum No: EA2007.194)
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Zhong Kui the demon queller

Glossary

Zhong Kui

  • Zhong Kui

    Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demons.

Past Exhibition

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Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by Shelagh Vainker

    Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

    Zhong Kui, associated with upholding righteousness and opposing evil is a popular figure in Chinese legend and appears in Daoist, Buddhist and folk paintings from as early as the Tang dynasty. Shen Kuo is a famous Northern Song (960-1127) dynasty writer, and one of the first to record the legend of Zhong Kui; the Huangpu River runs through the artist's native city of Shanghai. Cheng Shifa specialised in figure painting and this powerful image is representative of his best work in the genre.
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Objects from past exhibitions may have now returned to our stores or a lender. Click into an individual object record to confirm whether or not an object is currently on display. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis, so please contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular Eastern Art object.

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