''Homage to the Highest Power'' (朝元圖) is a prime example of Daoist paintings in the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

collection. The wall painting was created during the late

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

, . The painting is colored pigments mixed with clay and plaster. It measures 306.5 cm high and 1042 cm in length. This painting is similar to those found in Sanqing Hall of the

Yongle Gong Yongle Gong is a historic Taoist temple complex (Despite misleadingly referred to as Yongle Palace due to literal translation) in Ruicheng, Shanxi Province, notable for its Yuan dynasty murals. Built over a period of 128 years between 1240 and 1 ...

Shanxi province Shanxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is ...

. The Sanqing Hall paintings are dated by an inscription to 1325. Based on the strong stylistic affinities, this work can also be dated to the Yuan dynasty.

Daoist imagery

Homage to the Highest Power is a popular theme in Daoist pictorial art.

Daoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

theology advocates the concept of Dao (the Way), a primeval force which gives form to all things in the universe. Homage to Dao is expected of all regular followers.

Description

The wall painting is one of a pair from the Pingyang region of southern Shanxi province. This work was created as decoration for the west wall of a temple hall or worship space. It is symmetrically balanced leading your eye first to the central figures and then fanning out on either side. It shows a procession of heavenly beings moving at a leisurely pace to pay homage to the Supreme Power. The procession is led by a fierce warrior, the Lord of the Southern Dipper (Sagittarius). He leads nine star spirits, female attendants with plant offerings, three important deities, and personifications of the twelve

Earthly Branches The twelve Earthly Branches or Terrestrial Branches are a Chinese ordering system used throughout East Asia in various contexts, including its ancient dating system, astrological traditions, zodiac and ordinals. Origin This system was built ...

. The three deities have been identified as

Laozi Laozi (), also known by numerous other names, was a semilegendary ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher. Laozi ( zh, ) is a Chinese honorific, generally translated as "the Old Master". Traditional accounts say he was born as in the state ...

(founder of Daoism) with the

Jade Emperor The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three ...

and the Empress of Heaven, or

with the Holy Ancestor and Ancestress of the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(960–1279). Giuffrida, Noelle (2008). Representing the Daoist God Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior, in Late Imperial China. Master of Art Thesis. University of Wisconsin, Madison- 1999.

References

14th-century paintings Collections of the Royal Ontario Museum Yuan dynasty art Chinese paintings Religious art {{China-hist-stub