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Subject:Re: Very Scary Chinese with green eyes
Posted By: Bill H Mon, Dec 08, 2008
Here's an unmarked pair of the same figures glazed in black. A friend acquired them circa last August from their owner, who had bought them decades ago in the belief they were Chinese. Pictures were given to me for an opinion. I'd never seen anything similar, but found enough sources around the web to support a bit of speculation. The write-up given my friend is shared below, in case anyone else may be interested.
A number of Chinese legendary figures are depicted with black features in art and drama, the latter category generally encompassing characters in Chinese opera, where black paint is reserved for actors playing the parts of people of great valor and trustworthiness. Prominent among them is the Daoist God of Wealth, Cai Shen. Another is the Guardian God of the South, Hung Mo-li, seen at southern entrances to Buddhist temples. These deities usually are shown costumed resplendently as warriors. Both of them have their roots in the Vedic pantheon.
Some Chinese Daoist sects in the southern province of Fujian have used black-features to portray individuals of less than deified status in their rituals. One example is Grandfather Eight. According to the legend, he and Grandfather Seven were steadfast friends. Grandfather Eight drowned in a flash flood encountered en route to a meeting with his friend, causing Grandfather Seven to become distraught enough to commit suicide. Daoist deities on high honored the pair's devotion to each other by making them watchmen in the afterlife, responsible for keeping an eye on towns and villages, and reporting sinful acts. In this instance, the use of black features bears on the funerary aspect of Grandfather Eight being a deceased person.
In addition to celebrating the Grandfather Eight legend, some Fujian Daoists sects also are known to have associated the color black with funerary practices, to the extent of only permitting "Black Monks" to preside over certain burial rituals. This lends weight to the possibility that the two black-featured ceramic figures were made and used for ritual purposes by Daoists in and around Xiamen (Amoy), a center for such sect practitioners along the coast of Fujian, west of Taiwan. Many Daoist temples in Taiwan employ icons and rituals from this same area of Fujian, so a connection between the figures and Taiwan can't be ruled out.
Both figures have characteristics in common with two Daoist Immortals, Longevity God Zhang Shoulao and the sole female Immortal, He Xiangu. The male figure has a gnarled wooden staff and enlarged cranium similar to Zhang, while the female carries a lotus flower like He. Both have elongated earlobes, which are associated with Immortals, Buddhas and other holy beings. Furthermore, the female figure is holding her hands in a posture similar to the Buddhistic Abhaya Mudra, also called the mudra of dispelling fear. Under other circumstances, this might also be seen as an indication that the female is Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, a manifestation of the Mortal Buddha Avalokitesvara, who often is depicted with a lotus in hand.
The aforementioned characteristics alone would probably be enough to say that the figures represent the two cited Immortals, but their black skin suggests otherwise. Among the Immortals, only Li Tieguai is indicated by available references to be shown occasionally with black features. However, his corporeal manifestation is as a crippled beggar, who walks with the aid of an iron crutch and has decidedly grotesque features.
Having said this, I should note the comment of one of my best informed and most experienced gurus in the Chinese antiques business, who opined that these two figures looked to be of Japanese origin. Food for thought, and rather apt, considering how Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895-1945.
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Very Scary Chinese with green eyes ( China & Japan ) - kk - Dec 03, 2008 (02:11 PM) 
- kk - Dec 04, 2008 (10:54 PM) 
