Zhong Kui

deity intermediate Chinese single tradition · 5

Zhong Kui is a protective deity in Chinese folk religion. The entity is documented as a supernatural being within Chinese folklore traditions.

↻ synthesized from 5 sources

When

First attested
800 CE
Attested period
800 – 2020
Historical notes
Replaced Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong by the 9th century.

Relationships

aspect of
Menshen
allied with
Du Ping
manifested by
Menshen

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Zhong Kui (鍾馗)... List of supernatural beings in Chinese folklore”

#14394 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“Zhong Kui (鍾馗)”

#14585 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“However, by the 9th century, they were replaced by Zhong Kui (鐘馗), the famed ghost catcher (demon-queller). couplets (lian; Chinese: 聯) began to be written on the taofu boards around the 10th century.”

#21650 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“In the Tang dynasty, Zhong Kui worship first took shape, and its earliest complete record links him to Emperor Xuanzong. Tradition relates that Xuanzong once dreamed of Zhong Kui chasing away a malignant spirit from the palace; on waking, he ordered the court painter to set down the figure so that it might guard the precincts”

#21948 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“In cases where a door god is affixed to a single door, Wei Zheng or Zhong Kui is commonly used.”

#34849 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5