Page 139 - Bonhams May 11th 2017 London Fine Chinese Art
P. 139
Panel 10 Panel 11 Panel 12
The tenth panel depicts the other four of the Flying above in the sky on a phoenix is the The twelfth panel depicts a sage carrying
‘Eight Daoist Immortals’. Atop a mountain Queen Mother of the West, Xiwangmu. on his shoulder a sprig of peaches as he
terrace, Zhongli Quan proffers a peach. Below According to legend, the Queen Mother of gazes up at Xiwangmu in the previous panel.
on the river, Li Tieguai, or Iron-crutch Li, rides the West lives in the mythical Western Kunlun He could perhaps be a representation of
atop the waves on a magical double-gourd Mountains near the legendary Orchard of Dongfang Shuo, who was a ‘banished
said to be filled with medicine to heal the sick. Immortality Peaches. These peaches would Immortal’ for stealing Xiwangmu’s peaches.
Further down the stream, standing atop a ripen only once every three thousand years,
carp, is Zhang Guolao carrying his ‘fish drum’, and she would hold a large banquet for
a bamboo cylindrical tube that carried iron all the Immortals to eat these peaches so
mallets dispelling evil. Beside Zhang Guolao is that they could prolong their life for another
Lu Dongbin, with his sword and fly whisk that six thousand years. Beneath her are three
dispels evil, standing atop a lotus leaf. sages gesticulating wildly around three bats,
symbols of fortune.
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