Page 14 - Bonhams, Images of Devotion, April 21 2021

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A SILVER FIGURE OF KUI XING
YUAN DYNASTY, 13TH/14TH CENTURY
Himalayan Art Resources item no.16984
16 cm (6 1/4 in.) high

HKD400,000 - 600,000

元 十三/十四世紀 魁星銀像

Identified by the writing brush held in his raised right hand and his iconic posture,
Kui Xing (‘Chief Star’) is a Daoist deity worshipped to obtain academic success.
As the Chinese character Kui is composed of the ideograph for ‘demon’ and the
ideograph for ‘ladle’, Kui Xing is often portrayed with a demonic appearance, a
hideous face, a horn-like protuberance on his head, and a misproportioned body,
as in the present sculpture. According to legend, he was once a mortal scholar with
outstanding literary skills but repeatedly failed the civil service examinations due to
his repulsive appearance. Out of frustration and humiliation, Kui Xing threw himself
into a river, where he was saved by a mythical monster, Ao. He then ascended to
the Big Dipper and became the stellar patron of the literati. From the Song dynasty
onward, scholarship was the major determinant of a young man’s rank and social
status, as candidates for the state bureaucracy were selected through written
examinations. Kui Xing, as the God of Literature, was tremendously popular among
exam candidates.

This vigorous silver figure is skillfully modelled with fluid lines and vivid details,
capturing the movement of the body and the soft celestial scarf flowing in the
wind. Kui Xing’s large hands and feet are typical of Yuan-dynasty (1279-1368)
images; see a wood figure of Shakyamuni in the Penn Museum (C405A) and a
bronze Guanyin in the British Museum (1991,0719.1). Also compare his slightly
hunchbacked, stocky torso with the Yuan-dynasty silver figure of Zhang Qian riding
in a raft, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan (中雜-000100).

Provenance
The Nyingjei Lam Collection 菩薩道收藏, acquired in the 1990s

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