“Eight Wise Men and Mentor of State” are the eight wise man lives in caves from states of Holy Land, who known for their morality and justice (The archetypes are inspired by eight ancient Chinese and Japanese artists, mainly famous painting monks of the past generations, and the names of the characters in the film are extended from the Chinese monk painter Fa Chang, Shi Tao, Guan Xiu, Juran, Scalping, and the Japanese Bai Yin Hui He and Xian Ya Yi Fan, and Wang Xizhi's calligraphy teacher Wei Mao Yi), (The three donkeys are the state masters of the Spirited Arabs, who are the real power players, the emperor is just a puppet).
Why is there a skull in the middle? In Buddhism, a skull is a symbol of impermanence and  means to achieve liberation. The skull is used to make people see themselves as they are and to inspire them to practice sadhana to get rid of death. People often think that there is still a lot of time left in their lives and that death is still far away, people tends spend their lives on meaningless things. Seeing the skeleton makes us think that the owner of the skeleton may have died at very young age , and our life could be end at any moment. We have to use our time wisely, to expore the meaning of life, shall get rid of pain in circle live and death.

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