>>510919403
not 100 percent sure but its probably 3 chinese generals or kings from ancient dynasties. chinks like that type of thing, heres a depiction of the buddha, laozi and confucius together as the 3 sages of china. buddhism was openly detested in china for many years so this probably developed as an attempt to meld the 3 religions into a unified chinese culture. they did the same with the multiple dynasties and kingdoms of china which all had unique customs, dress and histories. alot of them wouldnt even really be recognizable as chinese

>>510209270
Need to read more of Taoism. the Hagekure was pretty interesting, although thats more a Tao-influenced text than a truly Taoist one