Les uns et les autres étaient considérés comme des êtres à la marge et dangereux, susceptibles de faire du mal si on les ignorait. Through a closer examination of some of the characters, it is the aim of this article to consider the reasons for their fiendish aspect and to explore how their iconographical features shaped audiences’ understanding of their overlapping identities.Įn Chine, les mendiants et autres figures déclassées et marginales ont longtemps été associés aux fantômes et aux démons. Providing an inventory of wretchedness, degradation and physical affliction, his figures are indeed often shown with a combination of human and demonic visual features. Zhou Chen’s now famous Beggars and Street Characters, painted in Suzhou in 1516, might have been informed by contemporary practices surrounding ritual expulsions of this kind. In particular, at the end of the lunar year, beggars and the local poor dressed up like ghosts and demons and executed exorcism dances to drive out threatening malevolent forces and start the new year afresh.

In order to expel or cope with ghosts and malevolent spirits, local communities staged a wide range of apotropaic or prophylactic ritual performances, which often involved street beggars or beggar households ( gaihu) in the Suzhou area. Both were considered marginal beings, dangerous and capable of harm and disruption if ignored. In China, beggars and other marginal and displaced figures with no clear social place or identity have long been associated with ghosts an demons.

Lu lunark demon gaze