The Five Tiger Mandarins and the Two Serpent Generals in a Spring Excursion

This painting is Duke Hoang’s new pro bono work for the project Divine Portraits. It depicts the Five Tiger Mandarins and the Two General Serpents in a new-year jaunt.

At the end of the year, people usually ask the deities to leave the shrine and return to their divine realms, so that the people can start to clean and prepare for the upcoming year. Inspired by this ritual, we imagine that the deities taking time off would travel to scenic locations and enjoy the spring.

The Mighty Five Tigers in the painting are portrayed as follows.

 Yellow Tiger: wearing a yellow giao lĩnh (crossed-collared) dress. He guards the Central (sitting in the center) and governs the Earth element.

 Black Tiger: wearing a black viên lĩnh (round-collared) dress and a lotus hair bun holder. He guards the North direction (standing above) and governs the Water element.

 Green Tiger: wearing a green viên lĩnh (round-collared) dress and a lục lăng bình đính (hexagonal flat-top) hat. He guards the East direction (standing on the right) and governs the Wood element.

 Red Tiger: wearing a red giao lĩnh (crossed-collared) dress and a đối khâm (parallel-paneled) shirt. He guards the South direction (lying below) and governs the Fire element.

 White Tiger: wearing a white viên lĩnh (round-collared) dress and a round leaf hat. He guards the West direction (standing on the left) and governs the Metal element.

The two Great Generals, Green Serpent and White Serpent, are wearing armor suits in the style of the Lê dynasty