The Di Opera of Guizhou, China, due to its rich repertoire and numerous characters, features a wide variety of mask designs, which can be broadly classified into five categories: main generals, Taoist priests, clowns, animals, and secular characters. Among these, the main generals hold an extremely important position in Di Opera, not only divided into protagonists and antagonists but also further categorized into civil generals, military generals, old generals, young generals, and female generals.

Cheng Yaojin, courtesy name Yizhen, was originally named Yaojin before changing his name to Zhijie. He appears in the Di Opera librettos "Xue Rengui's Eastern Expedition" and "Xue Dingshan's Western Expedition." Cheng Yaojin is considered a fortune-bringing general, so in the carving of his Di Opera mask, a cluster of bats is sculpted on both sides of the mouth, taking advantage of the homophony between "bat" (蝠, fú) and "fortune" (福, fú) in Chinese. Moreover, since Cheng Yaojin was known for his longevity during the Tang Dynasty, a god of longevity is carved on his forehead, conveying the auspicious meaning of both good fortune and long life.

 

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