Zhong Kui
deity in Chinese mythology
Zhong Kui (Chinese: 鍾馗; pinyin: Zhōng Kuí, in Japanese: Shōki) is a Taoist deity in Chinese mythology, traditionally regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings. He is depicted as a large man with a big black beard, bulging eyes, and a wrathful expression. Zhong Kui is able to command 80,000 demons to do his bidding and is often associated with the five bats of fortune. Worship and iconography of Zhong Kui later spread to other East Asian countries.
In art, Zhong Kui is a frequent subject in paintings and crafts, and his image is often painted on household gates as a guardian spirit as well as in places of business where high-value goods are involved. He is also commonly portrayed in popular media.
Mythology
Sources
The earliest extant reference to Zhong Kui appears in the Supplementary Notes to Dream Pool Essays by the Northern Song scholar Shen Kuo, which mentions a Zhong Kui portrait then attributed to the Tang painter Wu Daozi together with its inscription. By the Ming anthology Tianzhongji (Chinese: 天中記, Records from Mount Tianzhong), quoting Tang Yishi (Chinese: 唐逸史), the story of Zhong Kui catching ghosts had taken on its standard form.
Tang dynasty customs attested in practice
From the High Tang onward, it became customary for the emperor to bestow Zhong Kui portraits on ministers at year's end, and several sources record the practice:
Zhang Yue's Memorial of Thanks for the Bestowal of a Zhong Kui Portrait and Calendar (Chinese: 謝賜鍾馗及曆日表), describes how the imperial gift of a Zhong Kui painting and a new almanac was woven into New-Year celebrations during Emperor Xuanzong's reign.
Liu Yuxi submitted two analogous memorials in Emperor Dezong's reign: Memorial, on Behalf of Vice-Minister Li, Thanking for a Zhong Kui Portrait and New Calendar (Chinese: 為李中丞謝鍾馗曆日表) and Memorial, on Behalf of Chancellor Du, Thanking for a Zhong Kui Portrait and New Calendar (Chinese: 為淮南杜相公謝鍾馗曆日表).
“Zhong Kui” enters the record as deity in Chinese mythology. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Zhong, deity and Chinese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1092708. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zhong Kui” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.