Zhong Kui- Chinese GodDeity"Demon Queller"

The Scholar

Zhong Kui was a brilliant scholar from Zhongnan Mountain who traveled to the capital to take the imperial examinations. He achieved the highest score, earning the title of zhuangyuan (top scholar). He was brought before the emperor to receive his title and be appointed to high office. But when the emperor saw Zhong Kui's face, grotesquely ugly with wild hair and fierce features, he was so horrified that he revoked the title, refusing to let such a man serve in his court.

Zhong Kui had worked his entire life for this achievement, had proven his worth through the objective measure of the examinations, only to be rejected for something beyond his control. In anguish and fury, he killed himself on the palace steps, dashing his head against the stone until he died.

King of Ghosts

Zhong Kui descended to the underworld. Yanluo Wang, recognizing both his virtue and the injustice of his death, offered him a unique role: he would become the King of Ghosts, charged with hunting and punishing evil spirits. The very ugliness that had cost him his mortal honors made him perfect for this work.

His righteous anger was channeled into protective power. Armed with his demon-slaying sword and vested with the authority of the underworld, Zhong Kui patrols the boundaries between the living and the dead. He captures demons with his bare hands, devours the smaller ones whole, and dispatches the rest with his sword.

The Emperor's Dream

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fell ill with a fever and, in his delirium, dreamed he was being tormented by a small demon. A larger figure appeared: a huge, ugly man in torn scholar's robes who captured the demon, gouged out its eyes, and devoured it.

The emperor asked who he was. The figure replied: "I am Zhong Kui, from Zhongnan Mountain. I killed myself after being denied the zhuangyuan title because of my appearance. But the previous emperor gave me an honorable burial, and in gratitude, I have sworn to rid the world of evil."

When Xuanzong awoke, his fever had broken. He summoned the court painter Wu Daozi and described the figure from his dream. Wu Daozi's painting became the template for all subsequent images of Zhong Kui: fierce face, wild beard, scholar's robes, sword in hand, capturing or devouring a demon. The Mengxi bitan records that distributing Zhong Kui paintings became an annual imperial custom, with the emperor sending them to officials and nobles at year's end as protective talismans. By Shen Kuo's time in the eleventh century, the tradition was already ancient.

The Sister's Wedding

Before his death, Zhong Kui had promised to marry his sister to his loyal friend Du Ping, who later gave him an honorable burial. Even in death, Zhong Kui kept his promise, escorting his sister's wedding procession from the spirit world.

This subject became a beloved theme in Chinese painting from the Song dynasty onward. The procession features a comic parade of ghosts and demons carrying wedding gifts, playing music, and behaving with mock ceremony. Each attendant's grotesque face wears a different expression, from solemn duty to drunken revelry.

The Protector

Zhong Kui's image hangs in homes and businesses throughout China. During the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month, when evil spirits are believed especially active, his paintings are displayed for protection. At New Year, his face wards off malevolent forces. Students pray to him before examinations, hoping his scholarly spirit will help them achieve the recognition he was denied.