Album of Daoist and Buddhist Themes: Procession of Daoist Deities: Leaf 21

This leaf is part of an important album of 50 drawings encompassing three subjects: processions of Daoist deities to the celestial spheres, the Ten Kings of Hell, and Erlang’s Campaign to Rid Mount Guankou of Dangerous Beasts (soushan tu 搜山圖). This leaf belongs to a group of drawings of deities of the Daoist pantheon that inspired Chinese Buddhist iconography in many instances. Here we see the personified Nine Brilliant Constellations (Jiu yao 九曜). From right to left in the upper row are the sun and moon followed by three other stars: Venus as a goddess, Mars, and Yuebei. Proceeding in the lower row from right to left are Luohou, the comet Jidu, Ziqu, Jupiter, Mercury depicted as a female, and Saturn.