pictures (ritual & belief: representations)

Representation of Chang Kuo or Zhang Guo Lao, one of the 8 Daoist Immortals. Flat figure made of card with costume in padded silk. Old man with grey straggly beard wearing a black hat with green emblem at front, brown sleeved upper garment over blue tunic and pale grey-green trousers. Carrying a tube drum with two sticks to play it with.

Zhang Guolao, 7th or 8th century AD, was a recluse who had supernatural powers of magic such as rendering himself invisible. He is usually depicted with a white mule which he rode backwards over great distances, and, when not required was folded away and put in his wallet. When he wished to resume his travels he squirted some water on the wallet and the mule at once appeared. His emblem is a You Gu, a kind of musical instrument in the shape of a bamboo tube or drum with two rods to beat it.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

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