Archives for posts with tag: ghost

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

W120xD120xH300mm, China

Master 7 and Master 8 comes in a pair, 7 tall and white, 8 shorta and black .  Master 7&8 (aka the Black and white Supernaturals) are probably the most horrifying members of the underworld as they are guards from hell who also execute punishment for the dead.  Master 7 is known as  Xie Bi An, Master 8 Fan Wu Jiu, the two were close friends who worked as guards for a small court.  One day the prisoner they were escorting managed to escaped.  They went their separate ways to search for the fugitive and agreed to meet back at the embankment by the bridge at a certain hour.  It rained hard and didnt stop, Xie (8) didnt manage to get to the embankment in time while Fan (7) waited.  Fan saw the water level on the river raise, started to flood but remain there, he didnt want his friend to think that he has deserted him and left Xie to take the blame of losing the prisoner.  When Xie got there, the river has flooded, Fan being a shorty got drowned.  Xie was upset with himself, he was too tall to drown himself, so he found a tree and hang himself, finally making the appointment with Fan in the underworld.  The Jade Emperor was impressed by the loyalty the two has shown and made them the Generals of Hell.

On the night of the Halloween when all the ghosts are about, perhaps Master 7 and 8 would get a day off from their tasks as well.

Advertisement

costume

W700xH1400mm, China

This costume belonged to the wizard of the minority Dong tribe.  In the villages of Guang Xi area, each village will have their own wizard, whom like Harry Potter are passed down from generations of wizards.  The wizard would make offering to the gods as well as casting away the evil ghosts.  Life in the villages are harsh, whenever sickness or other misfortune fell on a family, they would asked the wizard to see if the place needed cleansing.

costume OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Kui XingW250xD250xH500mm, China

This is a figurine of the Kui Xing, unlike the one posted earlier, this figurine has a more popular composition; its left leg is kicking backward in the air.  This composition is inspired by the word 魁 (the Chinese word for “Kui”).  Can you see the resemblance?

魁, on the left is the word 鬼 (ghost) and the left 斗 (dou – traditional Chinese unit for volume, where 1 dan = 10 dou).  The word 鬼 (ghost) reflect the appearance of Kui Xing, a talented scholar who was born with a face so slightly that he looked like a ghost .  The word  斗 (dou),  goes back to phrase 才高八斗 which is a praise for someone’s intellect, if the intellect in the world is measured to be 1 dan, someone who has 8 dou of the world intellect who be a genius.  Dou therefore became a measurement of intellect as well as for wine.

L50xW20xH50mm, China

The Chinese name for this cute little chicken is “the loud crowing rooster” which was originated from the “rooster crowing pillow”.  The rooster shaped pillow was believe to offer blessing to the child; better sleep and a wiser child.  The Chinese believed that the rooster is responsible for pulling the sun out of the darkness, a god that extinguish the ghosts (rooster being associated with the sun and light while the ghosts with darkness).  Nowadays, the symbolic meaning of the rooster is faded, this is seen as rooster toy more than a protector symbol.

%d bloggers like this: