Taoist literature, art, miscellany, stories, architecture, music, sculpture, relics, calligraphy and painting.
An introduction to Taoist art of the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties: early Taoist statues shaped by Buddhist models, the Dunhuang murals of the King Father of the East and the Queen Mother of the West, and the Taoist works of painters such as Gu Kaizhi, Lu Tanwei, Zhang Sengyou, and Cao Zhongda.
How Chinese painting depicts the Taoist mountains of the immortals: the “immortal isles in the sea” and “mountain pavilions of the immortals” formats, landscapes of grotto-heavens and blessed lands, and story paintings of seeking the Tao—images expressing the unity of heaven and humanity.
How Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dreamed of Zhong Kui catching a ghost and had Wu Daozi paint it, why Huang Quan dared not alter Wu’s picture, how later painters portrayed Zhong Kui and the custom of hanging his image, and the many kinds of Zhong Kui art and their meanings.