The Tarot of Beijing

The Tarot of Beijing: the Rider–Waite–Smith deck redrawn in the hutongs

The Tarot of Beijing (also called the Beijing Tarot) is a 78-card deck created by the Tarot Academy collective under the direction of Olena Zhukova and Volodymyr Zhukov. It follows the Rider–Waite–Smith system exactly, with 22 major arcana, 56 minor arcana, four suits, and full court cards, while replacing every traditional scene with a moment of life in old Beijing: its lanes, teahouses, temple fairs, and courtyard homes. The skeleton is the classic deck and every meaning is preserved; only the clothing is the city's.

What is the Tarot of Beijing?

It is a full reading deck, not an art-only project. Each of the 78 cards carries the standard RWS meaning, expressed through a specific Beijing scene painted in the style of Feng Zikai. The Fool is the Newcomer arriving from the provinces, one stride from walking off the curb into the maze of hutongs. The Magician is the Sugar-Figure Man who blows molten sugar into a dragon and, from nothing but breath and heat, makes the world and sells it for a fen. The Hermit is the old man who walks his covered birdcage before sunrise, keeping his light covered until it is needed. Death is the single character 拆, "to be demolished," chalked on a gray wall while swallows already carry mud to build a new nest two streets away. A reader trained on the classic deck recognizes each card immediately; the images simply speak in ink and kraft paper.

How do the four suits map onto the city?

The minor arcana are rebuilt around four objects of everyday Beijing life:

• Kites replace Wands: fire, will, ambition, and enterprise. The Ace is a new swallow kite offered into the first wind of spring; the Ten is a man carrying ten wound spools on a shoulder pole, unable to see the road ahead over his own successes.
• Teacups replace Cups: water, heart, bonds, and feeling. The Three is three old women on low stools with tea, sunflower seeds, and thirty years of gossip and not one betrayal; the Ten is four generations under a grape trellis around a pot that never empties because someone always refills it.
• Brushes replace Swords: air, mind, words, and trials. The Nine is a scholar upright in bed at the third watch, brushes throwing shadows like the strokes of the character for grief; the Ten is a dismissed official face-down over his desk with the first gray-gold line of dawn at the window.
• Coins replace Pentacles: earth, work, body, and household. The Five is two beggars in the snow beneath a teahouse whose name-board reads "Ten Thousand Blessings," the door just around the corner; the Ten is a siheyuan so old its wealth has become architecture.

The court cards are recast as Apprentice, Courier, Matron, and Master. The Master of Coins, for instance, is the old proprietor of a Dashilan silk house who tests silk with two fingers and men with two questions, and has never confused price with worth, a direct translation of the traditional King of Pentacles.

Who created the deck?

The Tarot of Beijing is the work of the Tarot Academy collective, an artist group headed by Olena Zhukova and Volodymyr Zhukov. The collective built the deck as a complete system: alongside the imagery, every card is documented across 19 content sections, including keywords, spread interpretations for six life topics (money, business, work, romantic relationships, social relationships, and the physical self), personality profiles, professions, symbolism, astrological correspondence, numerology, archetype, philosophical and psychological readings, significator use, an arcana-of-the-day text, and a guided meditation.

Why is Strength called The Girl and the Lion?

Strength sits at VIII, the Rider–Waite–Smith position, as a New Year lion dance: the great silk lion lowers its huge head before a tiny girl in a red jacket, and she, unafraid, gently scratches its chin. Two grown men are inside the lion, but that is exactly the point — true strength is what makes strength kneel gladly. Justice keeps position XI as The Hand Scale, an old vendor weighing pears on a hand scale held high so the whole lane can see the balance point.

How were the other major arcana recast?

Every major keeps its number and its core meaning. The Empress is the Courtyard Grandmother under a pomegranate tree, whose hundred-seed fruit is her crown. The Emperor is the old man standing at dawn on Jingshan Hill on the Central Axis, gazing down at the Forbidden City like his own chessboard. The Hierophant is the Calligraphy Master in the Imperial Academy, guiding two boys' first brushstrokes hand over hand. The Wheel of Fortune is a pinwheel seller whose dozens of paper wheels all spin in the same wind. The Devil is a cricket-fighting den where no man is chained but none will notice the door standing open all night. The Tower is workers pulling down an old gate tower, terrible and necessary, and the sky very clean. The World is the view from Jingshan, the whole city on the Central Axis with the four seasons happening at once in its four corners, and the Newcomer from card 0 walking at the center, no longer lost.

How do you read with this deck?

Exactly as you would read Rider–Waite–Smith. The Fool (the Newcomer) is numbered 0, Strength is VIII, Justice is XI, and reversals are fully supported; most of the 19 content sections carry separate upright and reversed texts. The six topic-specific spread sections make the deck practical for focused questions. The meditation section on each card supports single-card contemplative practice as well as predictive spreads.

What does the artwork look like?

The imagery is Feng Zikai–style ink sketch: a handful of calm brush lines, muted black and gray washes with one or two accents of vermilion or teal, on warm aged kraft paper flecked with gold, and a small red seal in a corner of each card. The minors are fully illustrated scenes rather than pattern pips. The four suit emblems — kite, teacup, brush, and coin — appear together only twice in the whole deck: on the Magician's cart, where they are his tools, and hidden in the four corners of The World, where they have become the seasons. Seventy-eight cards, one city, drawn in ink and kraft paper.