Head like a leopard, bulging eyes, stony expression, and a bushy beard….it may not sound like your type, but according to Chinese legend, this is the perfect face for scaring away ghosts. This is the job of a Chinese deity called Zhong Kui (钟馗), who was once rejected by the emperor because of his strange looks.

According to a book called the Comprehensive Mirror on Past Deities (《历代神仙通鉴》) from the Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644), Zhong Kui was a mortal man who lived near the Zhongnan Mountains of northern China during the reign of the first emperor of the Tang dynasty (618 – 907). He was adept at both the literary and martial arts, so he went to the capital city Chang’an (modern Xi’an) to take the imperial civil service examination. The official examiners were so impressed by Zhong that they gave him the title of jinshi (进士), the name for a scholar who passed the highest level of the imperial exams.

However, when he went to the court to meet the emperor, he was refused an official post because the emperor thought he was too ugly. In his anger and grief, Zhong committed suicide by bashing his head on the stairs in front of the court. The emperor was moved by Zhong’s death, and awarded a red shroud, which only officials could wear, for him to be buried in.

Decades after Zhong’s death, another emperor of the Tang, Xuanzong, came down with a spleen disease and couldn’t be cured for many years. One night, he dreamed of an ugly and rough man who caught a little demon, dug out its eyes, and ate it alive. The man in the dream yelled at the emperor that he was “the jinshi who couldn’t get a government post, Zhong Kui!” When Xuanzong woke up, he was cured. The emperor immediately summoned the famous painter Wu Daozi (吴道子) to paint a portrait of Zhong Kui, which he hung in his palace to ward off evil spirits. He would also send paintings of Zhong to his officials at the end of each year as gifts.