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He Xiangu is one of the Eight Immortals in the Daoist pantheon. She was thought to have been a real person who lived in the Tang dynasty, originally named He Qiong. As a teenager, she was instructed in a dream to eat powdered mica to become immune from death and to vow to remain unmarried. She did so and became an enlightened practitioner of Daoism.<br><br>In this delicate carving, He Xiangu is placidly seated in a gnarled and knotty wooden raft amid green-tinted ivory waves. In front of her rests a bamboo basket filled with objects associated with Daoist immortality, and she holds a branch of lingzhi fungus like an oar.
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- Page
- 1
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- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- 8ec05a53a860ae92
- Size
- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 148813
- Core
- obj
- Type
- object
DTO data
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"contentType": "object",
"title": "Figure of Daoist Immortal He Xiangu",
"description": "He Xiangu is one of the Eight Immortals in the Daoist pantheon. She was thought to have been a real person who lived in the Tang dynasty, originally named He Qiong. As a teenager, she was instructed in a dream to eat powdered mica to become immune from death and to vow to remain unmarried. She did so and became an enlightened practitioner of Daoism.<br><br>In this delicate carving, He Xiangu is placidly seated in a gnarled and knotty wooden raft amid green-tinted ivory waves. In front of her rests a bamboo basket filled with objects associated with Daoist immortality, and she holds a branch of lingzhi fungus like an oar.",
"date": "1700s",
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"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.60.a/1976.60.a_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 13.5 cm (5 5/16 in.)",
"cul": [
"China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)"
],
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}
Context sent to Scholar
Document identity
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"label": "Figure of Daoist Immortal He Xiangu",
"core": "obj",
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Document source metadata
{
"id": "148813",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Figure of Daoist Immortal He Xiangu",
"description": "He Xiangu is one of the Eight Immortals in the Daoist pantheon. She was thought to have been a real person who lived in the Tang dynasty, originally named He Qiong. As a teenager, she was instructed in a dream to eat powdered mica to become immune from death and to vow to remain unmarried. She did so and became an enlightened practitioner of Daoism.<br><br>In this delicate carving, He Xiangu is placidly seated in a gnarled and knotty wooden raft amid green-tinted ivory waves. In front of her rests a bamboo basket filled with objects associated with Daoist immortality, and she holds a branch of lingzhi fungus like an oar.",
"date": "1700s",
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Document source extras
{
"tec": "Boxwood",
"tombstone": "Figure of Daoist Immortal He Xiangu (黃楊木雕何仙姑泛舟), 1700s. China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Boxwood; overall: 13.5 cm (5 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 1976.60.a",
"titleInOriginalLanguage": "黃楊木雕何仙姑泛舟",
"collection": "China - Qing Dynasty",
"formerAccessionNumbers": [
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],
"didYouKnow": "The lingzhi she holds is a woody mushroom often used in traditional Chinese medicine and associated with immortality.",
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1976.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 64, no. 2 (February 1977): 39–78.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 79, no. 167; Reproduced: p. 65, no. 167",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152676"
},
{
"citation": "Little, Stephen. <em>Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China: the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 15, p. 43"
},
{
"citation": "Watson, William, and Chuimei Ho. <em>The Arts of China After 1620</em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 116, fig. 135"
},
{
"citation": "Spee, Clarissa von. \"Arts of Asia fiftieth anniversary: featuring fifty favorite objects: selected by experts in the Asian art world.\" <em>Arts of Asia </em>50, no. 1 (January/February 2020): 57–110.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 106; Mentioned: p. 106"
},
{
"citation": "Spee, Clarissa von. “Four Curators, Four Favorites.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>62, no. 2 (2022): 31.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 31"
},
{
"citation": "von Spee, Clarissa. \"Art In New Dimensions: Chinese Miniature and Small Objects at the Cleveland Museum of Art.\" <em>Arts of Asia </em>52, no. 4 (Winter 2022): 117-121.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 120, fig. 8"
},
{
"citation": "Kedziora, Haley. “3-D Magnifies Miniatures and More.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>vol. 62, no. 4 (December 2022): 24-25.",
"page_number": "Reproduced as artistic rendering: P. 24."
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1976.60.a",
"creditline": "Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund",
"sketchfabId": "8c05cc28fbdb41c486f68d56d6200f29",
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"updatedAt": "2026-06-18 21:16:03.048000",
"imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1976.60.a/1976.60.a_print.jpg",
"sourceId": 148813,
"dept": "Chinese Art",
"coll": "China - Qing Dynasty",
"med": "Boxwood",
"thumbnail_url": null,
"image_url": null
}
Page context
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