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In M Emory O F H .F.E. V Isser 47 Ching-Ling Wang ISSER V . A DAOIST FIGURE OF A CELESTIAL LADY. E IN MEMORY OF H.F.E. VISSER (1890-1965) In the collection of Herman Visser, the first curator of Asian art in .F. the Netherlands who was appointed by the Asian Art Society in the H Netherlands (VVAK), is a sculptured wooden female figure (fig. 1). Here is Mr. Visser’s description of the figure as published in his Asiatic Art—In F Private Collections of holland and Belgium in 1948: Plate 86, No. 177. Daoist or Buddhist Deity Beginning of Ming? Wood with vestiges of polychrome in white, red, blue, green, and gold. H. 47 cm. Only a fragment of the object in the hands, concealed by a cloth, remains. The dish-like object has a small hole in the top, from which it might be concluded that another object was fixed on it. Whether the object in front of the head-dress is the cintāman. i on a lotus pedestal, or a mere ornament, is very difficult to decide. In the former 1 EMORY O case the figure must be a Buddhist deity. M Visser left us several unanswered questions: When was it made? Who is the figure? Is she a Daoist or a Buddhist deity? What is she holding? These N questions have not been answered since Visser’s time; following clues he I left, this short article tries to address the mystery. The posture of the figure has more the character of an attendant than a central figure. The deity with the attribute of acintāman. i (wish-fulfilling gem) that Visser referred to is the Daughter of Dragon (Longnü), one of the two attendants of Guanyin (the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara). However, conventionally, the Daughter of Dragon is depicted as a young girl and paired with another attendant Shancai (Sudhana), a boy-pilgrim who travelled throughout South and Southeast Asia to study with learned masters and celestial Bodhisattvas in his quest for enlightenment. It is therefore less likely that the missing attribute of the deity is a cintāman. i; hence, this figure is not a Buddhist deity. The appearance of the figure, the posture, as well as the polychrome paint and the carving are redolent of a pair of wooden sculptures from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) in the collection of the Wudang Museum, near to the sacred Daoist mountain Mt. Wudang in Hubei province (fig. 2). The pair of wooden sculptures depicts the Boy of Gold (Jintong) and the Maiden of Jade (Yunü). According to The Supreme Venerable Sovereign’s Sublime Book of Divine Incantations Telling the Story of the Great Sage and Perfect Warrior of the mysterious northern heaven (‘Taishang shuo Xuantian Dasheng Zhenwu benzhuan shenzhou miaojing’), they are attendants of Zhenwu, also known as the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven.2 The Boy of Gold holds an attribute of a scroll and the Maiden 48 Fig. 2 Boy of Gold and Maiden of Jade (Jingtong and Yunü), wood, h. ca. 90 cm, China, Ming dynasty (1368- 1644), Wudang Museum of Jade holds an attribute of a seal wrapped in cloth. They represent the authority of Zhenwu, and are responsible for recording all the good and bad deeds of the creatures in the Three Realms (sanjie) of heaven, earth, and water. Comparing the example of the pair, the damaged and missing attribute of the figure could be identified as a seal, except in this case, unlike the conventional square shape, it is depicted as a round disk-like shape. The small hole in the top was perhaps originally intended for a finial of a knob (now missing) that would likely have represented the knot of the seal. Another Daoist deity, the Maiden of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian Xuannü), also carries a seal as an attribute (fig. 3). However, following the iconographic tradition she wears a phoenix crown, so this figure cannot be identified as her. It is more appropriate to see this figure as the Maiden of Jade. The polychrome colours correspond with the colours used in Daoist mural paintings from the 15th to 16th centuries; thus, it is proper to date this figure in the middle of the Ming dynasty, i.e., around the 15th to 16th century. Visser’s daughter, Mrs. Marianne de Heer-Visser, has generously loaned this figure from Visser’s collection to the Rijksmuseum. The year 2018 is .
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