Content and Composition of Woodcarvings of Immortals in Luoyang Folk Museum

He, T. T.

Luoyang Folk Museum, Luoyang, 471000, China

Abstract: The image of immortal woodcarvings in Luoyang Folk Museum refers to the data digitized from the physical collections housed in Luoyang Folk Museum, including: (1) a set of pictures of immortal woodcarvings, consisting of pictures of statues of 27 statues of Wealth God, 8 statues of Guan, Yu, 17 statues of Door God, 5 statues of Mountain God, 4 statues of Thunder God, 36 statues of Land God, 3 statues of Kitchen God, 3 statues of Lord Ma, 71 statues of Guanyin, 29 statues of Lao-tzu and 7 statues of Lu-tsu; (2) statistical table of immortal woodcarvings, covering name, filing code, size, texture, age, quantity and thumbnail, etc. The dataset is archived in. jpg and pdf in data formats, and consisted of 211 files with data size of 1.42 GB (compressed into 4 files, with 1.41 GB in size).

Keywords: woodcarving; portrait of characters; immortal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodp.2021.04.10

CSTR: https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.14.2021.04.10

Dataset Availability Statement:

The dataset supporting this paper was published and is accessible through the Digital Journal of Global Change Data Repository at: https://doi.org/10.3974/geodb.2021.07.04.V1or https://cstr.escience.org.cn/CSTR:20146.11.2021.07.04.V1.

1 Introduction

In order to build Luoyang Lao-tzu Memorial Hall, Luoyang Folk Museum began to collect cultural relics related to Lao-tzu from 2011 to 2013, and finally obtained more than 1,000 woodcarving statues of Buddhism, Taoism and Jiaxian and others. Most of these woodcarving statues are from private sources, represented by more than 200 Taoist statues.

In terms of the time of origination, these woodcarvings of immortal statues would be traced back as early as to Yuan dynasty, then developed from Ming dynasty to the era of the Republic of China. Especially in Qing dynasty, it saw a golden period of its development. Among the modes of the spread of Chinese deity and Buddha culture by writing, traditional opera singing, sculpture and grotto carving, and family’s sacrifice offering, the way of offering is most popular in terms of worshipper quantity and scope, which is unprecedentedly seen during the Ming and Qing Dynasties^[1]. From the matter of the subject, these statues are mostly woodcarvings of immortals relevant to Buddhism, Taoism, especially Taoism and others. For the intended meaning of the expressions, these statues of woodcarving statues are mostly made to convey the best wishes of the working people, such as bringing peace to the family, offering more sons and the more blessings, making a good fortune, living a long life and so on. With a sense of religious belief, they are a true portrayal of the people’s spiritual life at that time, useful for studying the folk life, religious belief and woodcarving art of that time.

2 Metadata of the Dataset

The metadata of Wood carving figures dataset of immortals and gods archived in Luoyang Folk Museum^[2] is summarized in Table 1. It includes the dataset full name, short name, author, year of the dataset, data format, data size, data publisher, and data sharing policy, etc.

Table 1  Metadata summary of Wood carving figures dataset of immortals and gods archived in Luoyang Folk Museum

3 Main Content of the Dataset 

This dataset refers to the collection of the digitized woodcarving statues collected by Luoyang Folk Museum, totaling 210 woodcarvings of immortal statues collected from 2011 to 2013, which would be traced back as early as to Yuan dynasty, Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty till the era of the Republic of China. In the data is specified the name, archive code, size, texture, age and quantity of woodcarving statues, which are further divided into 3 categories and 11 subcategories. To be specific, the data is comprised of pictures of 27 statues of Wealth God, 8 statues of Guan, Yu, 17 statues of god of door, 5 statues of Mountain God, 4 statues of Thunder God, 36 statues of Land God, 3 statues of Kitchen God, 3 statues of Lord Ma, 71 statues of Guanyin, 29 statues of Lao-tzu and 7 statues of Lu-tsu (Table 2, Figure 1-3, Table 3, Figure 4-6).

Most of the immortal statues collected in Luoyang Folk Museum have been carved in the Ming and Qing Dynasties when small woodcarving statues were extremely popular. Among the colorful works of art of Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, nothing can be widely spread like traditional woodcarvings, which appeal to both the more and the less cultured, including the upper class from the royal palace, temple, governmental department, villa residence of the superrich and down to the common people’s living room. It is unprecedented that such a large number of woodcarvings have been passed down to this day^[1].

Table 2  Classification of Woodcarving Figures in Luoyang Folk Museum

3.1 Worshipping of God of Wealth in Hope of Making More Money and Protect the Earnings

Caishen, widely worshipped by Chinese folks, is a god of wealth in charge of money making. In ancient times, it was often placed indoors that could bless people with money pouring in from all sides. Until today, such belief of Wealth God still exists widely among folks. There are two categories of statues collected by Luoyang Folk Museum, with one for civil Caishen represented by Bigan and another for martial Caishen by Zhao, Gongming and Guan, Yu.

The woodcarving of the civil Caishen collected in Luoyang Folk Museum is represented by Bigan statue, which is dressed in a Kylin robe and wears a black gauze cap custom-made for prime minister and five beams of beards, and holds symbols of wealth of a gold ingot or the Ruyi silver ingots under his feet. Bigan statue looks serious but delicate, with the typical dress-up of civil officer. According to a legend, Bigan, the uncle and prime minister of King Zhou of Shang dynasty, pleaded with King Zhou not to do offer the oppressive political ruling. Refused by the king, Bigan threatened him with death. Historical Records of Song, Weizi Family reads “Bigan, a relative of King Zhou, seeing Jizi enslaved due to his bold speaking in defense of justice, said that the people would suffer if the king did not listen to his minsters’ advice, and bluntly remonstrated with King Zhou. He became furious and intimidated Bigan by saying ‘do you believe there are seven orifices on the heart of a saint?’ King Zhou killed Bigan and dug out his heart.”^[4]. A legend has it that Bigan, with no greed for money, did not die even with no heart, and was named the civil god of wealth in charge of the world’s earnings. His statue in the museum looks gentle and quiet of disposition, and his noble qualities of loyalty, integrity and selflessness are kept deeply in the hearts of the working people, which represents the aspirations of people to live an affluent life by making more money. Therefore, the woodcarving follows the image of Bigan and became the civil god of wealth. Up to now, the picture of Bigan, the civil god of wealth, is still very popular during the period of Chinese Spring festival.

  Figure 1  Door God (002144)   Figure 2  Door God (002324)     Figure 3  Wealth God (002290)

Table 3  List of collections

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Zhao, Gongming, known as martial god of wealth, is also worth noting. Luoyang Folk Museum holds the largest number of statues of martial Wealth God Zhao, Gongming. As a legendary figure in the folklore, Zhao can be found in fairy tales in many ancient books like In Search of the Supernatural, Origin of Three Religions, etc. However, his public image of being the martial god of wealth is actually derived from Creation of the Gods, written in Ming dynasty. Zhao, Gongming was regarded as a god and Jiang Ziya named him Blessing God supervising four deities who bless people with different forms of luck and wealth.

The woodcarvings of Zhao, Gongming collected in Luoyang Folk Museum are just a small share of the Wealth God in Qing dynasty. At that time, the god of wealth was enshrined and worshipped in almost every household during Qing dynasty. As the god in charge of financial resources in folklore, Zhao, Gongming became an embodiment for the Chinese working people to have a good fortune and achieve every success.

Luoyang Folk Museum has a collection of woodcarving statues of Guan, Yu, another martial god of wealth. Dressed in broad robe and jade belt, Guan, Yu had a martial bearing and thick eyebrows, reading The Spring and Autumn Annals while sitting or holding broadsword while standing. Guan, Yu was loyal and brave all his life, not greedy for gold and silver so that he was worshipped by the followers of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. After Guan, Yu’s death, the people honored Guan, Yu as Guangong, and many imperial courts in the past dynasties sang high praise for him. The carving of Guan, Yu’ statues are mostly funded by the government while Zhao, Gongming’s carvings are supported by civilians. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Guan, Yu was regarded as the King of martial art and Saint of war. Making use of the people’s firm belief in Guangong, the rulers of feudal society portrayed him as the defender of the ethics of feudal society. Therefore, they repaired the Guandi Temple extensively while vigorously publicized and advocated him as a model of loyalty and courage.

Most of these woodcarving statues of Guangong collected in Luoyang Folk Museum were dated back to Ming and Qing Dynasties. Guangong was regarded by folks as a mascot good at money making and saving. Reading The Spring and Autumn Annals while sitting or holding broadsword while standing represents that Guangong is well versed in both literature and military affairs. For this reason, businessmen often worship Guangong in expectation of making big money by their learning.  

3.2 Statue of Baby-blessing Goddess Avaloktesvara

There are a total of 71 pieces or sets of the sitting statue of Avaloktesvara collected in Luoyang Folk Museum, most of which are small and medium-sized woodcarving works (Figure 7). The statues, holding a baby sitting or standing, always look quiet and solemn, gentle and beautiful, leisurely and easy. 

After the Ming dynasty, there were folk stories in Buddhism that Avaloktesvara taught her disciples Shancai and Daughter of the Dragon, from then on, Shancai and Daughter of the Dragon always come out in the meantime, implying to bring good luck and happiness to people. The statue of Avaloktesvara sending a child witnesses the secularization and looks like female folk so that she becomes approachable, gentle, quiet and popular among the people. In the feudal society, many people went to temples to make wishes for having a large family or having more sons in front of the statue of Avaloktesvara.

Most of these woodcarvings collected in Luoyang Folk Museum are of small size, which are easy to carry and put in order for individual families. It can be seen that the belief in Avaloktesvara sending a child has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the Guanyin worshipping of human reproduction has been passed down from generation to generation.

3.3 Worshipping Earth God, Mountain God, Raytheon and Dragon King for Peace

There are statues of 5 Mountain Gods, 4 Thunder Gods and 36 Land Gods collected in Luoyang Folk Museum (Figure 8-10). These gods in terms of natural elements such as land, mountains and thunder are worshipped for the reason that people have faith in the force of nature in feudal society in hope of these natural gods blessing them safe and sound.

Land God, known as the guardian of people’s wellbeing, is one of the immortals for folks in ancient times, extremely popular in spite of its low status in Taoist deity system. The worship of Land God began and prevailed in the Ming dynasty, which is closely related to the birth of Zhu, Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, in the land temple. In the feudal society, people showed high respect for monarchy and farmed the land for food and clothing. Therefore, the temple of local god of the land and statues has been built all around to show the locals’ worship of Land Gods. The statues of these Land Gods collected in Luoyang Folk Museum are mostly of the civil officers or elders, holding a walking stick, or a Ruyi, Yuanbao and so on. They look kind in face and plain in clothes. These woodcarving statues are dressed like ancient landlords, with hats on their heads and two pieces of cloth at the brim drooping over their shoulders. Generally speaking, they wear plain clothes, with round and plump faces, slightly narrowed eyes and a kind smile. Some of these woodcarvings of the Land God are enshrined either in the temple or in people’s home. Such practice embodies people’s worship of the land, and they expect it to bring good luck and harvest for farmers, to come first in the highest imperial examination and to get rich and prosperous for businessmen.

In addition, there are 29 statues of Lao-tzu’s, 7 Lu-tsu’s, 3 horse lords and 3 Kitchen Gods stored in Luoyang Folk Museum (Figure 11-13).

4 Conclusion

If the history is likened as a river, a museum should be a bridge, which would connect the present with the past and be very forward-looking. The worshippers of immortals are always very superstitious due to the backward productivity in feudal society. It is a common belief in immortals for the ancients, which should be called the faith in the instinctive survival rather than the faith in a primitive religion. Such belief can help people to conquer the fear of death^[1].  The working people in the past don’t know how to get through the long night and how to face birth, senility, illness and death, hence they embody their way of thinking in immortals, and hope that the gods of nature can bless the good weather, safeness and smoothness, and the life of wealth and happiness.

These woodcarving statues have provided physical evidence for today’s people to understand people’s living conditions, folk customs and spiritual beliefs in a specific period of the history. To conquer the fear of death, people should be provided with the firm belief in the solidity and indestructibility of human life^[5]. On the other hand, there is a high artistic value for these precious historical artifacts, from which the carving techniques, unique plastic arts, selection and preservation of raw materials are all worthy of in-depth study.

Acknowledgements

All the woodcarvings and pictures included in this collection come from Luoyang Folk Museum, and are exhibited in Lao-tzu Memorial Hall in Luoyang. Under the supervision of Honorary Director of Luoyang Folk Museum and senior museologist Wang, Z. S., the author has finally completed the studies on the data. Hereby, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to them.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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