Golden Boy and Jade Girl

Jin Tong and Yu Nu are immortal child attendants serving the Daoist deities known as the Highest Perfected Immortals and Sages. Whenever these exalted beings make ceremonial processions or receive celestial audiences, Jin Tong bears the imperial seal while Yu Nu holds aloft the sacred lamp—both forming an essential part of the divine retinue and ceremonial guard. Their imagery originates in early Daoist legends of immortal pages, wherein disciples and attendants of realised adepts were said to possess bodies of golden and jadelike purity. In temple sculpture and painting, Jin Tong and Yu Nu are invariably depicted standing symmetrically on either side of the principal deity, their countenances radiant and serene, their garments elegantly rendered. Over time, in popular folklore, they evolved into symbols of harmonious marriage and gifted offspring; traditional wedding couplets and longevity banners frequently invoked their names as auspicious blessings, while New Year prints often portray them holding lamps or lotus blossoms—emblems of abundance, felicity, and auspicious continuity.