The Chinese Tarot, part 1

[nendil]

As promised, I'm here to give a thorough rundown and review of Jui Guoliang's Chinese Tarot deck. I'll be showing scans of most (though not all) of the cards, which are hopefully small enough to not err... incur un-fair usage... but I do encourage you to click through and take a look at the very nice artworks even if you don't read my humongous info-dumps (and I can't blame you for that XP).

Overall I like these cards very much as an art deck, though the tarot associations are not as strong as they could be. I would have used many more archetypal characters from Chinese mythology & literature (and even history), and I'll be explaining my own choices for each card down below. (Granted, I'm far from an expert on Chinese culture and a large deal of my knowledge comes from Journey to the West... but the most popularly-known cultural elements are the strongest and most archetypal, right?) Nonetheless, I think the deck has a relatively fair compromise between Chinese references and relatability to a Western audience - in fact, there are a lot of things that people without a Chinese cultural knowledge wouldn't get even after reading the included Little White Booklet. And that's why I'm making this post!

(Apologies for using Simplified Chinese in these posts. I would have used Traditional to match the text on the cards, but I tried to figure out how to type in the Traditional Chinese input systems a while back and failed miserably. I need my pinyin!!)



Text: 傻子 - Fool
Comments: The book says "The Fool, in China, is seen as foolish and comic, but is also considered a kind and honorable person." I think it's actually more like some noble characters are hidden under foolish exteriors - Chinese stories aren't at all hesitant to ridicule true idiots.
My Choice: The imagery on this card, particularly the shabby fan, immediately brings to mind Ji Gong the mad monk, who outwardly appears foolish and eccentric but solves dilemmas through his unorthodox ways, and sometimes even seems to command magical powers. Granted, his trickster antics are perhaps more related to The Magician than The Fool, in terms of strict tarot interpretations. However, I wouldn't use him for The Magician, because...


Text: 魔术师 - Magician
Comments: I don't know the constellations in the background, but I'm sure they're significant. Other than that, this guy's just a generic magician doing stuff for... no reason...
My Choice: There is no character in Chinese culture more skillful, resourceful, and capable than Sun Wukong the Monkey King. He's also probably THE most well-known Chinese fictional character both in and out of China. It'd be a shame to not grant him a prominent position in such a deck! ;)


Text: 女师太 - Female Abbess
Comments: The text on the background scrolls are poetic Buddhist puns-of-sort, but it's too much for me to translate right now. I like the inclusion of lotuses - they're a symbol of purity and holiness in Buddhism, and are arguably also there at the tops of the pillars in the traditional High Priestess card :)
My Choice: The Bodhisattva Guan Yin is the most popular and worshipped religious figure in China by far, much like the Virgin Mary in the Western world. She is the very model of compassion and spirituality, not to mention having associations with water and lotuses as well :)


Text: 皇后 - Empress
Comments: - I think I would have included a phoenix crown. To me she looks more like a concubine than an empress, though that impression may be more influenced by Chinese period dramas than actual historical accuracy. I do like the inclusion of the peony because it happens to also be The High Priestess in The Herbal Tarot :) However the Little White Book says it's a "symbol of yang, the male principle, a reference to her consort, the Emperor." Yyyyyyno. At least not in China.
My Choice: In ancient Chinese mythology, the goddess Nüwa patched the heavens when the pillar holding up the sky was wrecked, then afterwards created mankind from mud of the Yellow River - a classic primitive mother deity. The epitome of the mother figure and nurturing energy, no?


Text: 帝 - Emperor
Comments: I'm not sure this guy's costume is quite emperor-ly enough either, but I suppose it depends on the era?
My Choice: Yu Huang Da Di, Great Jade Emperor of the Heavenly Court. Literally in charge of the highest imperial court (oho) as well as everything below it, though does he really do all that much...?


Text: 天师作法 - Heavenly Master performing his craft
Comments: The "Heavenly Master" refers to Zhang Dao Ling, the creator of Taoism. The LWB goes into a big discussion about the ba gua trigrams on his robe, which is appropriate for its place on the Wheel of Fortune, but I think less relevant for the scholarly/traditional hierarchy aspects of the Hierophant.
My Choice: Confucius, because not only was he an influential thinker and teacher, but his philosophy basically forms the structure for the societal values of not only China, but other influenced Asian countries like Korea and Vietnam as well.


Text: 和合二仙 - The two immortals Harmony and Union
Comments: In legend, these two were as close as brothers, both in love with the same girl, and became monks together instead of either one marrying the girl. Their portraits are often hung at traditional weddings to bring longevity to a marriage. One carries a lotus leaf, which sounds like "Harmony", and the other carries a box, which sounds like "Union". In terms of pure symbolism, of course it doesn't get much stronger than the Chinese version of Cupid...s, but their backstory doesn't sound all that romantic...
My Choice: I had considered a couple of other stories first, but though Chinese culture has no shortage of (usually tragic) love stories, Altair and Vega, the Cowherd and Weaver Girl feel like the most deeply entrenched, as well as the most sentimental. And at least they get a touch of happy ending, being able to meet on the magpie bridge once a year!


This may be tl;dr for you to read but it's even more time-consuming for me to research and type out. :P More next time!