401g Chinese amazonite skull – Zhong Kui

Zhong Kui, as Chinese tradition tells, passed the imperial civil service examination as the best of them all. But the emperor revoked the honor because his face was deformed and ugly. In his anger Zhong Kui struck his head against the steps of the palace until he died. In the afterlife, however, the outcast became the King of Spirits, the conqueror of all demons and evil beings; he was said to command eighty thousand demons. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty lay ill with fever for over a month. In a dream he saw a small spirit who stole the perfume sachet of his consort Yang and the imperial flute. Then a great spirit seized the thief, tore out his eyes and swallowed them. He then revealed himself: He was Zhong Kui from Mount Zhongnan. Sweating, the emperor awoke, and the fever was gone. He ordered the court painter Wu Daozi to fix the dream image, and since then Zhong Kui’s grim face has watched over doorstep and New Year pictures. In gratitude Zhong Kui married off his younger sister to his faithful friend Du Ping. In paintings this bridal procession appears as a merrymaking procession of spirits: demon attendants carry banners and parasols, blow horns and bear the bridal sedan chair. This skull resembles such a procession and is at the same time a testament to the entire madness of life. Blue, turquoise and green, yellow, orange and red, brown, gray, beige and sandy: every color seems represented, as if the ghosts had thrown their banners over him. In several spots it opens inward and releases small nodules, crystallized lumps, as if demons trapped inside were crouching there. But his face bears the mark by which one recognizes Zhong Kui: from the nose to the chin it is gnawed, porose and pockmarked, as if an acid had worn away layer after layer. What once brought scholars titles and honor makes the king of the spirits unmistakable, for demons flee only before this countenance. This face exists only once. The name of his stone is also based on a mere guess. Amazonite, a blue-green variety of the feldspar mineral microcline, bears the name of the Amazon, from whose region people once believed green stones came. Whether those stones were indeed amazonite remains uncertain to this day; as a mineral it was described only in the 18th century. A name based on appearance, a judgment based on the face: for Zhong Kui, as for this stone, what it contains is what counts in the end. Material: Amazonite-bearing mixed rock (trade name “Chinese Amazonite”): blue-green amazonite (variety of feldspar microcline) in combination with dark brown, waxy-glossy as well as cream to beige mineral parts, porous gray zones and iron oxide coloration; Origin: China Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 6.5 cm Weight: 401 g Special features: Extremely multicolored pattern in blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, red, brown, gray, beige and sand tones; highly porous, hollow-sponge-like region in the lower face (from the nose to the chin, especially on the left half of the face) as well as isolated pores on the forehead and skull cap; several naturally open small druses with knobby crystalline formations, including above the right eye, above the left side of the skull, at the back of the head and on the underside; angular beige to khaki inclusions at the back of the head; occasional strong turquoise-green speckles, including on the chin, lower jaw and right cheekbone; fine natural hairlines, including along the right lower edge of the jaw and in the inclusions at the back of the head

Estimate:£0.83

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