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LEFT: an excellent 19th-century Daoist-flavored San-shin taeng-hwa from Dr. Zo's former collection.  The tiger is classic Korean folk-art, crazy-eyed and looking both ferocious and cute.  His tail rises upwards in a gentle S-curve, decorated with leapord-spots.  San-shin's right hand pets the beast, while his left holds the typical white-crane feather-fan.  His head is covered with a crumpled cloth, in the style of a Daoist hermit (rather than the usual royal topknot-holder).  The eyebrows are very long in the fashion of a Buddhist Na-han or Daoist "Immortal" (see page 73 in the first edition of my book); the beard is very full and snow-white, another Daoist touch.   But the most striking aspect of this unique painting is how San-shin's skull is over-sized, bald and buldging in front.  This is a conflation with the North-Star-Spirit in Korea's Chil-seong paintings, derived from the Chinese Daoist God of Longevity (see pages 107-109 for more on this).
RIGHT: a new San-shin icon created by Horae for his 1998 exhibition.  It follows traditional but uncommon motifs, and the result is entirely fresh.  The tiger is as surreal as any, with that "retarded" look Horae loved.  The San-shin is a yonger female, very rare.  She wears a white Korean han-bok instead of Chinese royal robes; her hair is held up with a gold pin but sports no crown.  She rides on the tiger in the Shamanist style.  She holds a huge mature ginseng [insam] root, not only a symbol of health and longevity but also of "maleness", granting this icon a Daoist theme of yin-yang [eum-yang] balance.
NEXT: An excellent article by Lauren W. Deutsch, L.A.-based writer and friend of Korea, entitled "New Roads to the Old Spirits: Dr. Zo Zayong's 'Old Village' Movement".