Ryo Douhin　呂洞賓

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Ch: Lu Dongbin. Alternative pronunciation in Japanese, Ryo Douhin. Also called Lu Yan (Jp: Ryo Gan 呂巌) or Chunyangzi (Jp: Jun'youshi 純陽子). A popular Taoist hero, particularly among followers of the Zenshinkyou 全真教 (Ch: Quanzhenjiao) Taoist sect. Also popular with followers of the eight immortals *hassen 八仙, and is the most-frequent immortal found in painting of this type. According to a 1252 inscription on a stele at Yonglegong (Jp: Eirakukyuu 永楽宮), a Taoist temple from the Yuan dynasty in Shanxi 山西, Ryo Douhin was born in that town and was awarded the jinshi 進士 degree in the civil service in 825. A different account is found in The Series of Biographies of Immortals (Ch: Liexianzhuan, Jp: RESSENDEN 列仙伝), where it states Ryo Douhin did not pass the exam until the age of 64, when he met his Taoist teacher Zhong Liquan (Jp: *Shou Riken 鍾離権). Ryo Douhin was said to have been capable of supernatural speed and to have wielded a miraculous sword with which he defended the people of central China. Later he retired to Mt. Lu 盧 in Guanxi 關西 province. Legends about Ryo Douhin circulated from the 10c, in particular he came to be regarded as one of the five founders of the Zenshinkyou. By the Yuan period, the stele suggests, his cult was firmly established. In painting Ryo Douhin is usually shown in a voluminous scholar's robe holding a gourd bottle of wine and a sword. He is often pictured riding on a cloud or a dragon; a reference to the legend that Ryo Douhin used his famous sword to subdue a dragon. He is also frequently depicted crossing water on his sword. Among the many Japanese artists who painted Ryo Douhin since the Muromachi period, Sesson Shuukei 雪村周継 (1504?-90?) is most closely associated with the theme.

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