A Sovereign in Monk’s Garb: Understanding Daoist Visual Art through Vernacular Dramas

For scholars studying Daoist visual art, the particular identity of one seemingly anomalous main figure in the pair of Yuan dynasty Heavenly Court murals housed at the Royal Ontario Museum has long been an intriguing puzzle sparking academic debates. This is an important puzzle to solve as this figure belongs to a main visual schema in medieval China, depicting the six major imperial deities (four male and two female) in the Daoist pantheon generally referred to as the Six Sovereigns (liuyu 六御). During the Yuan dynasty, the Six Sovereigns include the Jade Emperor (Yuhuang dadi 玉皇大帝), the North Pole Emperor (Beiji dadi 北极大帝), the August Heaven (Tianhuang 天皇, also referred to as Gouchen dadi 勾陳大帝), the Earth Goddess (Houtu 后土), Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu 西王母) and the Lord of the Eastern Flower-Palace (Donghua dijun 東華帝君, also referred to as Dongwanggong 東王公, King Father of the East).

Existing studies have all regarded this figure to be an anomalous deviation from the standard visual treatment of the Six Sovereigns, due to its attire and the direction it is facing: While the other five main deities in the ROM murals don imperial gowns and face toward the direction of the celestial procession (thus presenting a ¾ view to the audience), this one figure is dressed as a Daoist monk and directly gazes at the living audience with a front view. Such treatment differs from other existing medieval Daoist murals portraying the Six Sovereigns, such as the well-known Heavenly Court mural at Yongle Palace in Shanxi (which shares stylistic similarities with the ROM murals), where all the six are garbed as emperors or empresses and depicted in a ¾ view.

A few proposals have been made to explain this incongruity in the ROM murals. Scholars have assumed that this figure replaced the August Heaven (Tianhuang 天皇), and suggested variously that it might be a depiction of Laozi, the Quanzhen Daoist Master Song Defang, or even a generic Daoist monk. However, none of these identifications is fully convincing and scholarly consensus has not been reached.

Different from these previous studies which have attempted at identifying the “anomalous” figure by solely focusing on Daoist textual and visual materials, this paper draws upon the prevalent vernacular performing art contemporary to the murals, the Yuan dramas, to elucidate the identity and significance of this figure, as perceived by the common audience. By examining how some Daoist deities were dressed and acted out in theatrical settings during the Yuan dynasty, I argue that the purported “anomaly” is not anomalous at all: In fact, we will find that it aligns well with the common audience's likely perception of one of the Six Sovereigns, the Lord of the Eastern Flower-Palace, if we prioritize the popular performing art to understand the visual experience of the commoners in medieval China. More specifically, my examination of several Daoism-themed Yuan dramas shows that in the theater, the Lord of the Eastern Flower-Palace was indeed dressed as a Daoist monk, referring himself as a Daoist monk, and wearing the headpiece and Daoist robe just as how he is depicted in the ROM mural. Such evidence strongly suggests that the six major deities in the ROM murals were actually the standard set of the Six Sovereigns, obviating the need of introducing an additional figure to explain an alleged anomaly.

Through this study, I also want to make a case for the importance of viewing religious art through the eyes of common people, delving into their lived visual experiences. For this particular case, vernacular dramas were very popular in medieval China, particularly in the Shanxi province, where the ROM murals were taken from. Moreover, Daoist stories formed the core content of many Yuan dramas, revealing a profound interplay between theatrical art and religious teaching. In this light, the ROM murals serve as a well-preserved testament to the connections among the mural artisans, playwrights of the dramas, the theatrical performers, as well as their audience, who collectively shaped the tapestry of medieval Chinese visual culture. While detailed historical records of these individuals are scarce, studies such as this can offer a tantalizing glimpse into their lived experience.