Zhong Kui Catches Ghosts

The Demon-Queller of New Year

After a failed exam drove him to death, Zhong Kui appeared in Emperor Xuanzong’s dream as the ghost-catcher.

The scholar Zhong Kui travels to the capital to take the imperial examination, but the emperor rejects his rank because of his ugly face; humiliated, he dashes himself against the palace steps and dies. Years later Emperor Xuanzong falls ill and dreams of a small demon stealing the fragrance sachet and jade flute of his beloved Yang Guifei — when a towering figure in official robes seizes the thief and eats him alive. The giant names himself Zhong Kui, a failed scholar of Zhongnan Mountain, and vows to rid the empire of all such pests. The emperor wakes cured and orders the painter Wu Daozi to fix the dream on silk; from that portrait came the fierce guardian whose picture is hung at year’s end and at the Dragon Boat Festival to drive evil from every door.