The Heavenly Phenomena

The Heavenly Phenomena does not depict an ascension or a historical story, but rather an astonishing and detailed celestial map painted on the arch-shaped ceiling of a tomb chamber. The images of the twenty-eight constellations and the four Chinese mythology creatures, namely the White Tiger, the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird and the Black Tortoise, are depicted on a circular band. Within the band, the sun and moon face each other while cranes and geese fly amidst colorful clouds. Enormous wave patterns lie on the interconnected walls of the tomb chamber, seemingly representing the mountains and rivers of the earth, and lifelike animal images can be seen throughout the walls.

This piece is compiled from the Chinese edition of Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting by Foreign Languages Press and Yale University Press, translated by Chen Ying.