Cleveland Museum of Art

Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 21

Date: 1200s
Medium: album, ink on paper
Culture: China, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279)
Department: Chinese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This leaf is part of an important album of 50 drawings encompassing three subjects: processions of Daoist deities to the celestial spheres, the Ten Kings of Hell, and Erlang’s Campaign to Rid Mount Guankou of Dangerous Beasts ( soushan tu 搜山圖). This leaf belongs to a group of drawings of deities of the Daoist pantheon that inspired Chinese Buddhist iconography in many instances. Here we see the personified Nine Brilliant Constellations ( Jiu yao 九曜). From right to left in the upper row are the sun and moon followed by three other stars: Venus as a goddess, Mars, and Yuebei. Proceeding in the lower row from right to left are Luohou, the comet Jidu, Ziqu, Jupiter, Mercury depicted as a female, and Saturn.

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