Arbre divin shenshu 神樹

Anonyme

The tree, which still has traces of black and white polychrome, can be totally dismantled. The various pieces fit together with mortice and tenon joints.
Trees of immortality (shenminshu) were placed in tombs in the Han period. The best-known ones are the cash coin “money” trees, characteristic of the period, which had small coins on the branches symbolising prosperity. Quite a large number of them have been found in graves in Sichuan province. Here, the theme and symbolism are different. Stylised peacocks are pictured on the branches, drawn in black on a white ground. In Chinese mythology, the peacock is associated with Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, who, at her mythical residence in the Kunlun mountains, has an orchard producing the peaches of longevity. In the Eastern Han period, this theme, like the related one of the Immortals, was particularly common.