In Chinese culture, if you learn Chinese in China when Dragon Boat Festival comes, you can see some family usually hang on the picture of Zhong Kui in the hall in some places. It is said that Zhong Kui addicted to destroy all the evils. Therefore, they use Zhong Kui’s picture to get rid of the evils.
In ancient Chinese culture, there was a story called “Zhong Kui makes his sister’s marriage”. The story goes like that: one Chinshih went to the capital to take part in an examination. He borrowed the travelling expenses from the kind man Du Ping. And Du Ping helped Zhong Kui generously and gave him a lot of money. After Zhong Kui left home, Du Ping dispatched his maidservants to help Zhong Kui’s sister. Later, Zhong Kui had got the Champion in the exam. However, Zhong Kui was dismissed by the king because his ugly appearance. The king was unwilling to make his daughter marry Zhong Kui because Zhong Kui’s appearance. Zhong Kui was so angry that he struck on the stages and killed himself. It happened that Du Ping did business in capital and buried Zhong Kui. After Zhong Kui’s death, he was conferred the title of “the general who prevent the evil things”. In order to pay a debt of gratitude to Du Ping, Zhong Kui showed up and brought some ghost to make his sister marry Du Ping.
In Chinese culture, about Zhong Kui have a lot of stories. So there are various kinds of pictures about Zhong Kui: one kind is about travelling such as the picture is about Zhong Kui going hunting; another kind is about drinking and enjoying with the ghosts such as “the picture of drunken Zhong Kui”; the third one is about marring his sister; the forth one is about Zhong Kui and bat such as” the picture of Zhong Kui welcoming the bat”.
On day, when Zhong Kui was passing “枉死城”, he met a little ghost on the Nai He Bridge. He blocked the ghost and shouted: “I implement the order to kill the ghost and evil things in the world.” The little ghost answered: “If the honored god would travel through the world, I’d like to go with you.” Zhong Kui said: “Did you have any abilities? You dared to follow with me? ” The ghost answered again: “I used to a mole in the field. I have changed into ghost type just now. I wanted to drink the water off because I bet on others. However, I found it was impossible for me to drink off the water. After drink this water, I have grown 2 wings and change into bat. I can find out the entire ghost no matter where he is. Therefore, if you like, I can be you guide.” Zhong Kui was happy with the ghost’s advice and said: “I am short of a guide. Show me your ability.” After his words, the ghost suddenly changed into a huge bat. And Zhong Kui decided to bring the bat and followed the bat with his sword in hand.
At first, this was how Zhong Kui and the bat get together. However, this story was changed, spreading among the people. The “蝠” and “福” has the similar pronunciation and “福” represents the good luck. Therefore, people preferred to treat “蝠” as “福”. At the same time, Zhong Kui looked up the bat with a sword in hand. This was described as “执剑蝠来”. Well because The “蝠” and “福” has the similar pronunciation, they regarded it as “只见福来”(only the good luck comes). Therefore, in order to get the good luck, people liked to hang up this picture in the hall. It had the same meaning of “恭喜发财” or “招财进宝”(fortune prosperity). What’s more, it more interesting than the couplets. If you learning Chinese characters, you know many different mean of characters have same pronunciation. So Chinese people some time use different characters show same meaning.
Among all the pictures of Zhong Kui, the most interesting picture is “the drunken Zhong Kui”. Zhong Kui is sloppily dressed and drunken deeply. There are some little ghost pulling his boots and some are taking off his hat. At the same time, some are drinking his good wine. The picture looks lively and interesting.