Chinese
Nine Tripod Cauldrons
九鼎
The legitimacy to rule all under heaven. They rest with dynasties of virtue.
VesselFirst recorded c. 400 BCE
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Photograph: A late nineteenth-century round fan painting by the Chinese painter Shu Hao, Zhou Dunyi Admiring Lotus Flowers. A scholar seated in a pavilion by a pond and lotus leaves are painted within a circular composition on silk.
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2,780 × 3,000 PX2780×3000
ArchiveChinese · Treasure
Banana-Leaf Fan
芭蕉扇
One wave puts out fire, two bring wind, three bring rain.
- Owner
- Princess Iron Fan (Rākṣasī)
- Maker
- Unknown
- First record
- Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West1592
- Gallery
- Chinese
Notes on the photograph 3
Story
On their way west, Tripitaka's party met the Flaming Mountains, where fire burned for eight hundred li. To put it out they needed the banana-leaf fan of Princess Iron Fan, wife of the Bull Demon King.
Holding a grudge because Sun Wukong had handed her son Red Boy over to Guanyin, the princess refused to lend it. Sun Wukong turned into an insect, got into her belly and forced her to hand it over, but it was a fake that only made the fire larger.
Disguised as the Bull Demon King he took the real one, then lost it again by trickery, and won it only after three fights. Waving the fan forty-nine times, he put out the fire of the Flaming Mountains forever.
The object in the photo
The photograph shows Zhou Dunyi admiring lotus flowers(China, late 19th century), a real museum object that evokes the legendary artifact.
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