Fu Hsi

Category : ,

Date : 2018

To study the Folk tales around the world could be very addictive, you read a couple of them and your brains will ask for many more. There’s so much to know and so few time to read!

Looking for some Chinese tales, we found a stunning picture with two serpents intertwined like a Caduceus, but with human upper bodies. That image grew so big in our heads that we had to do our version of it.

Fu Hsi (or Fu Xi) was an ancient god from the Chinese mythology, and some people believe he was the founder of China (or creator of Humanity). He invented the art of hunting, fishing and cooking. And taught Chinese people how to domesticate animals, taught math and the eight trigrams of Yi Jing (I Ching).

“Fuxi and Nüwa.”-Hanging scroll from the mid 8th century (Tang Dynasty) Unearthed at the Astana Graves. Anonymous Artist.

For “Fu Hsi Ascends” we used the most common representations as a model. We can see Fu Xi and Nü Wa (his wife/sister – mother goddess) intertwined with dragon/snake bodies and holding the tools of creation: the compass and the square/ruler.
“We see the king and queen embracing at their wedding, the king holding the square on high, the queen a compass. (…) the instruments are taking the measurements of the universe, at the founding of a new world and a new age(…).” As Hugh Nibley wrote in  “Temple and Cosmos”.

The serpent on their shoulders represent the idea of mortality and rebirth (Naga), both parts as the process of creation.

The constellations, behind the figures, are related to the human position in the universe – as we see in the original painting (unearthed in Xinjiang).
For us, makes sense to include the Yin-Yang instead the Sun and twelve discs on their heads – that is seen in the original picture.
The Yin-Yang is a concept of Taoism that expose the duality of everything that exists in the universe. It describes the two opposing and complementary fundamental forces found in all things: the yin is the female principle, night, moon, passivity, absorption. The yang is the masculine principle, Sun, day, light and activity.

At the bottom we see parts from a manuscript of Chinese alchemy and a diagram of the anatomy and acupuncture.
We relate them to the Earth and the Man itself in a sphere of mystical and physical. Where both collide!

“Nuwa and Fuxi, two of the Three Divine Rulers” mural painting from Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD.) - image from: Li Ung Bing, Outlines of Chinese History, Shanghai 1914
“Woman with sun, moon and inner planets”. Paulus Grillandus. Grilandas inventum libri VI. Florence, 1506-1507.
“Rebis” - from: Compendium alchymist novum sive Pandora explicata and figurisjllustrata(…)- Joh Michaelis Faustij, 1706
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