Calling sheep on Gold-flower Mountain
Huang Chuping emanates power with two fingers gesturing toward the cobalt-colored rocks, which have started to transform into sheep. With a white scroll spread out in front of them, he speaks with his elder brother, Huang Chuqi, who is similarly dressed in the flowing robes of immortals.
This painting is a synopsis of “Calling sheep on Gold-flower Mountain,” a tale in Biographies of Immortals (Shen xian zhuan) attributed to Ge Hong (284–363), Daoist master, alchemist, and physician. The story goes: A Daoist master had apprenticed Chuping when he was a teenaged shepherd. Forty years later, Chuqi finally found him in the mountains based on a fortune-teller’s divination. Chuqi asked Chuping where the sheep were since he could not see them. Chuping commanded, “Arise sheep!” Whereupon the rocks stirred and became sheep. The brothers then together learned the Way of the immortals, ingesting pine sap and fuling fungus (poria coccus) for 50,000 days. They ceased to cast a shadow and appeared youthful even after all their relatives had passed away.
Ink and color on silk
Overall:91 x 43 5/16 in. (231.1 x 110 cm)
Image: 59 x 37 1/4 in. (149.9 x 94.6 cm)
Gift of Mr. Kenneth Easterday
2012.26
Provenance: Kenneth Easterday
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
