金蝉子

Golden Cicada Wallpaper

This wallpaper depicts Golden Cicada (金蝉子), one of the most beloved figures in Chinese mythology. The composition follows the traditional iconography recorded in classical texts and centuries of temple murals, water-land ritual paintings and New-Year prints — not an invented modern design.

Your instant download includes phone-sized high-resolution JPGs (iPhone and Android lock-screen crops). Personal use license included; re-download anytime.

The Golden Cicada of 《西游记》 was the Tathagata's second disciple, exiled to ten rebirths for dozing at a sermon — the ninth of which was the flesh of Tang Sanzhang itself, whose immortality-granting body made every demon hunger. The cicada's shedding of its shell, long a Daoist image of liberation, lends the figure its golden, lotus-seated form.