Kuixing Pavilion,
Shanxi In Daoist tradition, Kui Xing is said to have been "bent and hunchbacked, as if he were an actual calligraphy character", and came to be viewed as a saint of human fortune, particularly with regard to
imperial examinations. He is the personification of the Pole star which in Daoist tradition was said to split Yin and Yang, Late
Ming Dynasty scholar
Gu Yan-Wu, often referred to as Gu Ting-Lin, wrote of Kui Xing in his
Records of Daily[-gained] Knowledge (): "The date of the beginning of modern people's veneration of Kui Xing is unknown. Since Kui (奎) was taken to be the master of composition, therefore the people established shrines to venerate him. Being unable to sculpt an image of the star (奎), his name was thus changed to [the homophonous character] 魁. Again being unable to directly construct an image of 魁, the character was split into its constituent radicals [鬼
Gui - Ghost/Spirit and 斗
Dou - Ladle/Gourd] and illustrated as such." As his form developed, people depicted Kui Xing's right foot standing on a character 鰲 (
ao), a giant turtle, in reference to a traditional saying, 獨佔鰲頭, "to stand lonely on the
ao's head", meaning coming in first in examinations), his left foot supports an inkpot, a writing brush in his hand, and his body full of vigor and life. Stylized calligraphy of Confucian adages often compose his torso. Artists have also depicted the
ao on which Kui Xing stands as a giant fish (see the image of a temple in Xinwupu,
Hubei), or as a realistic-looking turtle (e.g., the statue near Bijiacheng - the "Brush-rest wall" - in
Changde,
Hunan). ==See also==