Studio design: drawn with AI image tools to the iconography of Chinese Folk Religion & Taoism, checked against that tradition's rules and approved by a person. Captions are set in real type, never generated. Made to order in the USA.
Zhong Kui (鍾馗) is the fierce guardian whose portrait watches over Chinese doorways. Legend says he was a gifted scholar from Mount Zhongnan, denied honour in the examinations, who rose after death to drive harmful spirits from the world. Emperor Xuanzong dreamed of him and ordered his likeness painted. With a bristling black beard, wide eyes and a red official's robe, he keeps a sword in hand and bats of good fortune overhead. At New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival, families still hang his picture.
From The Deity Project, a living encyclopedia of the sacred.
