拍品專文
Hsi Wang Mu (Korean: So Wang Mo) is the mythical Queen Mother of the West, chief of the Taoist fairies (female Immortals). She lives in a remote fairyland deep in the K'un Lun Mountains of Central Asia. Eternally young and beautiful, Hsi Wang Mu is a kind of Taoist goddess of immortality. The peach trees in her orchard bear fruit every three-thousand years. Anyone fortunate enough to eat a Peach of Immortality will live forever.
Hsi Wang Mu's palace is spacious and elegant; its pavilions and nine-story towers are built of jasper and marble. Her palace gardens are vast and splendid, with sparkling streams and trees bearing precious jewels. Her five principal handmaidens are named for the five colors associated with the five directions of the compass. Cranes and azure-winged phoenixes are Hsi Wang Mu's mounts and messengers. Her consort is Tung Wang Kung, Lord of the East. One of his duties is to keep a register of all the Taoist Immortals. Hsi Wang Mu and Tung Wang Kung have nine sons and twenty-four daughters.
Every three-thousand years, when the peaches ripen in her garden, Hsi Wang Mu gives a banquet for the Taoist Immortals. Chinese records tell us that the Chou Dynasty Emperor Mu attended one of Hsi Wang Mu's banquets, and the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu Ti attended another.
On panel 1 (the right panel) of this screen, attendants with horses wait outside the wall of a garden terrace. On panel 2, fairy handmaidens prepare a banquet. On panels 3 and 4, Tung Wang Kung and Hsi Wang Mu sit enthroned, entertained by fairy dancers, musicians and a dancing phoenix. Beyond the garden wall of panel 5, various Taoist Immortals and other mythical beings make thier way toward the banquet, most of them riding on clouds.
Some of their names are as follows: the scholar sleeping on the back of a giant carp in panel 5 is Ch'in Kao. The beggar with a crutch on panel 6 is Li T'ieh-kuai. The deity with the tall forehead riding a cloud in panel 7 is Shou Lao, the God of Longevity. The deified Buddhist monk accompanied by four nuns and four other women at the top of panel 8 is the hero of the old Korean novel, The Nine-Cloud Dream. The Immortal with the three-legged toad is Liu Hai. The man riding an ox is Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, a most appropriate ending for a painting of classical Toaist subjects.
Hsi Wang Mu's palace is spacious and elegant; its pavilions and nine-story towers are built of jasper and marble. Her palace gardens are vast and splendid, with sparkling streams and trees bearing precious jewels. Her five principal handmaidens are named for the five colors associated with the five directions of the compass. Cranes and azure-winged phoenixes are Hsi Wang Mu's mounts and messengers. Her consort is Tung Wang Kung, Lord of the East. One of his duties is to keep a register of all the Taoist Immortals. Hsi Wang Mu and Tung Wang Kung have nine sons and twenty-four daughters.
Every three-thousand years, when the peaches ripen in her garden, Hsi Wang Mu gives a banquet for the Taoist Immortals. Chinese records tell us that the Chou Dynasty Emperor Mu attended one of Hsi Wang Mu's banquets, and the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu Ti attended another.
On panel 1 (the right panel) of this screen, attendants with horses wait outside the wall of a garden terrace. On panel 2, fairy handmaidens prepare a banquet. On panels 3 and 4, Tung Wang Kung and Hsi Wang Mu sit enthroned, entertained by fairy dancers, musicians and a dancing phoenix. Beyond the garden wall of panel 5, various Taoist Immortals and other mythical beings make thier way toward the banquet, most of them riding on clouds.
Some of their names are as follows: the scholar sleeping on the back of a giant carp in panel 5 is Ch'in Kao. The beggar with a crutch on panel 6 is Li T'ieh-kuai. The deity with the tall forehead riding a cloud in panel 7 is Shou Lao, the God of Longevity. The deified Buddhist monk accompanied by four nuns and four other women at the top of panel 8 is the hero of the old Korean novel, The Nine-Cloud Dream. The Immortal with the three-legged toad is Liu Hai. The man riding an ox is Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, a most appropriate ending for a painting of classical Toaist subjects.