Chinese Art Treasures (Art Ebook) PDF

CHINESE ART TREASURES
Front cover
Back cover:
Anonymous: Noble Scholar under a

Eleventh century, Sung dynasty. (No.
Wen Cheng-ming
Willo
26)
Old Trees by a Cold Waterfall.

Dated 1549, Ming dynasty. (No. 98)
:
:.._
CHINESE ART TREASURES
._^
61
Waiting for Guests by Lamplight, by
Ma
Lin (ca. 1246,
Sung
dynasty)
CHINESE ART TREASU RES
Selected Group of Objects
from
THE CHINESE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM

and
THE CHINESE NATIONAL CENTRAL MUSEUM
TAICHUNG, TAIWAN
,^,jf^
^'***-*-i4,
i--.
Exhibited
the United States by
in
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

at
The National
The Metropolitan Museum

The Museum
The Art
1961-1962
The M.
of Fine Arts,
Institute of
H.
Washington
Gallery of Art,
of Art,
New York
Boston
Chicago
De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco
HONORARY PATRONS
The Honorable John
Kennedy
F.
President of the United States of America
and Mrs. Kennedy
His Excellency Chiang Kai-shek

President of the Republic of China
and Madame Chiang
HONORARY COMMITTEE
For the Republic of China:
His Excellency
Chen Cheng
Vice President of the Republic of China and concurrently Presiden
His Excellency
Vice President
His Excellency
Wang Yun-wu
of the Executive
Yuan
Shen Chang-huan
Minister of Foreign Affairs
His Excellency Mei Yi-chi

Minister of Education
His Excellency George K. C. Yeh

Chinese Ambassador
United States of America
to the
For the United States of America:
The Honorable Dean Rusk

The Secretary
of State
The Honorable C. Douglas

The Secretary
The Honorable
of the
Dillon
Treasury
Everett F. Drumright
American Ambassador
to the Republic of
The Honorable William C.

The Honorable Walter
The Honorable Henry
Bullitt
S. Robertson
R.
Luce
China
of the Executive
Yuan
/
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
'
for the Republic of China:
Wang
Shih-chieh, chairman
Han Lih-wu
Chang Tao-fan
Li
Chang Chun
Chiu Nien-tai
Hu Shih
Kung Teh-cheng
Chi
Lo Chia-luen
For
t/ie
United States of America:
Walter Heil
Director,
The M.
H. de
Young Memorial
IVIuseum,
San Francisco
John Maxon
Director of Fine Arts,
The Art
Perry T. Rathbone
Director, The Museum
James
J.
Director,
Institute of
of Fine Arts,
Chicago
Boston
Rorimer
of Art,
New
Yorl<
John Walker
Director,
The
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
SELECTION COMMITTEE
For the Republic of China:
Wang
Shih-chieh
Ma Shou-hua
Lo Chia-luen
Chuang Shang-yen
Kung Teh-cheng
Tan T'an-chiung
Chiang Ku-sun
Na
Chih-liang
For the United States of America:
John A. Pope,
chairman
Aschwin Lippe
Tseng Hsien-ch'i
\
CATALOGUE COMMITTEE
John A. Pope,
Chairman
Aschwin Lippe
CHINESE OFFICIAL
James
Cahill
Chuang Shang-yen
IN
CHARGE OF THE EXHIBITION
Yang Yun-chu
V,
Preface
The Chinese Palace Museum's collection of objects of art is

unique. Few other ancient civilizations of the world have handed
down to posterity the masterpieces of their great artists in a single
collection that is comparable in size and value. The formation of
this famous court collection may be said to have started from the
very beginning of the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.).
Miraculously, it survived the invading Mongols in 1276, the
Manchus in 1644, and the fall of Peiping in China's disastrous
foreign wars in 1860 and 1900. Though it inevitably suffered some
losses
in
each upheaval,
it
has been
in
the main expanding con-
tinuously over the past eight hundred years.
Its
scope
is
compre-
hensive, with paintings, calligraphies, porcelains and bronzes
dominant features. The
as
its
in
the collection has set standards of evaluation for scholars
and
experts alike.
art
In
fine quality of the objects included
the current exhibition
many
of the best
items of the collection are presented to a foreign public for

the
time.
first
Founded
Palace
in
1925 by the
Museum
court at Peiping.
Government
inherited
Its
of the
Republic of China, the
collection from the former imperial
its
long-established policy
is
representation of Chinese art for the study of
other of
its
tion. Its
success
responsibilities
in
saving
is
it
to provide a
all
good
art lovers.
An-
to preserve this invaluable collec-
from the scourge
of
war during the
mean achievement. This has

farsightedness of the Museum's Board of
past thirty years alone has been no
been mainly due to the
Directors and the Chinese Government. Shortly before the out-
break of the Sino-Japanese
moved the
art
War
in
1937, the
Chinese Government
treasures from Peiping to Nanking, and later
re-
transported them to the southwestern provinces of Szechwan and
Kweichow where they were kept for the duration of the war. When
Communist revolt spread over many parts of the country in
1948-1949, the Chinese Government and the Museum decided to
the
move them to safety, this time to Taiwan. During

some good work has been done in cataloguing
the past decade,

this great
accu-
mulation of the fmest products of Chinese culture.
As
movement
early as 1953 a
to exhibit a choice selection of this
collection in the United States got under way. Frequent visits by
leading American and European authorities on Chinese art to the
Palace
Museum
Taiwan have
at its site in
movement. Much
also
is
owed
to Mr.
greatly
encouraged the
Henry R. Luce, Mr. Walter
S. Robertson, Mr. William C. Bullitt, Mr. Everett F. Drumright,

Dr. Hu Shih, Mr. Han Lih-wu and Mr. George K.C. Yeh, without
whose strong advocacy and support the current exhibition would
not have materialized.

I
deeply feel that introducing Chinese art to the Western world
carries a manifold meaning.

in
To begin
presenting Chinese art per
with, there
as well as
se,
in
is
intrinsic value
presenting Chinese
as one of the fmest parts of the Chinese people's cultural
art
heritage. Furthermore,
Chinese
art is singularly reflective of the
Chinese philosophy
traditional
ancient Chinese
art,
especially
of
in
Many
life.
a masterpiece of
the field of graphic
art,
described as being ultramundane. This characteristic,
may be
venture
may lend not a little comfort and solace to the modern

man who often feels himself entrapped in a materialistic world.
It is my belief that
the essence of ancient Greek art is its quality
to suggest,
if
of
harmony and symmetry,
ancient Chinese art

quillity
could perhaps be said that that of
it
to impart a high
is its ability
sense
of tran-
and peacefulness. The serene world the ancient Chinese
artist
labored to depict was, however, not a world void of pas-
sions
tion.
of
it
was
rather a world
Moreover,
ours a
fuller
where passions had found sublima-
also feel strongly that,
understanding
of
American people, on whose shoulders

the free world,
assumes
new
in
Chinese
these troubled times

art
and culture by the
largely rests the future of
significance. This exhibition
may
also serve as a reminder that the free Chinese are fighting to save
their cultural heritage as
For the current exhibition,
much as to recover lost territories.

some two hundred and fifty items have
been chosen. They are necessarily a mere fraction

collection
in
the Chinese Palace
people, major emphasis
same
time,
all
care
In
presenting them to the American
is laid
on paintings and porcelains. At
has gone into their selection.
the
of the vast
Museum. However, much
selected objects are highly representative of
each
of the categories of objects in the collection.
Many
of the
exhibits are so unique that they are not to be found elsewhere;
nor have they been given photographic reproduction anywhere

before.
we
For such a careful selection
work
John A. Pope,
are indebted to the
Aschwin Lippe, and

Tseng Hsien-ch'i as well as to the staff of the Palace Museum
and the Central Museum. The latter museum has also contributed
a number of items from its collection to this exhibition. On behalf
painstai<ing
of Dr.
Dr.
Mr.
of the joint
Board
to express
profound appreciation
of Directors of
these two Museums,

to the
Department
the Navy of the United States, without
wish also
of State
and
whose assistance and
cooperation difficulties relating to the arrangement of this exhibition
and the transportation
of
these
art
treasures to the United
States would have been insurmountable.
To
all
those
changes, may
who
are dedicated to Sino-American cultural ex-
this exhibition prove to
be an event which brings
high reward for past efforts and offers great encouragement for
future endeavors.
Wang
Taipei,
Taiwan
Republic of China
Shih-chieh.
Foreword
Interest
Chinese
in
art is
no new thing
the United States.
in
The
great porcelain collections of the nineteenth century associated
names as Altman, Morgan, Walters, and Widener show-
with such
museum
ed American
visitors
the late periods and are

only
in
still
some
of
thefmest Chinese wares
outstanding of their kinds. But
the last half century that
we began
it
of
was
back into
to look farther
the cultural history of China and to look beyond ceramics to the
bronzes, jades, lacquers, and especially the paintings of early

times.
enthusiasm
In their
the collectors of
of
fifty
for these newly discovered treasures,
years ago bought feverishly, and the
T'ang and Sung painters proliferated
after a
in
names
their catalogues.
Now,
sober reappraisal, we know better.
True, a number of the important early paintings
in
our collections
date from these pioneer days, and these have been supplemented
by the discriminating purchases of the last two generations of
curators to the point where American collections of Chinese

painting from the Sung, Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing dynasties are
pre-eminent
in
the western world. Purchases of bronzes, jades,
lacquers and of pottery and porcelain of the early periods have
been no less significant so that
become accustomed
public has
Chinese
art.
It
is
connoisseurship
in
recent decades the American
perhaps because
of
Americans
phase
to the best in every

of this
that
the
known
interest
Government
Republic of China has so generously agreed to exhibit
museums
a selected
collection
in
National
Museum
The present
of
Museum and
of
the
in
our
masterpieces from the greatest
the world, that preserved jointly
Palace
in
group
of
and
the
in
the Chinese
Chinese National
Central
Taichung, Taiwan.
exhibition will serve not only to sharpen the standards
of scholars professionally
occupied
in this field
but to
show
the
American public the
Those
culture.
finest products of the history of
charge
in
of the selection tried to
Chinese
keep
in
mind
the desirability of showing the kinds of things that are least

familiar to
of the
American museum goers and
The
highest quality.
result
to
show them
an exhibition
is
paintings such as has not been seen
in
examples
of
Chinese
the west before, and
in
these are supplemented by an equally fine group of ceramics,

lacquers, jades and other materials, and a few bronzes of particular historic interest.
For help
to
many
in
assembling
remarkable exhibition
this
people, but special mention must be
K. C. Yeh, the
Chinese Ambassador
been actively interested since

Taipei and has done
Dr.
Wang
much
his years as
Shih-chieh has been
Government
behalf of the
in
On
American
the
George
way
charge
of
Foreign Minister
in
for the final result.

all
negotiations on
Republic of China since they
of the
began, and has kept watch over

shipping.
are indebted
of Dr.
Washington, who has
in
to clear the
we
made
details
all
side.
from selection to
The Honorable Walter
S.
Robertson and The Honorable James Graham Parsons, former

Assistant Secretaries of State for Far Eastern Affairs, represented
our Government
in
the negotiations and were helpful
in
many
ways. For concrete support to the whole project we are indebted
The Henry Luce Foundation,
to the interest of
individuals were helpful
in
among whom we would mention
We
are also
most
Inc.
Many other
the promotion of the exhibition project,

especially Dr. Frank G.
grateful to the joint
James.
Chinese-American com-
mittee which undertook the actual selection of the objects and

particularly to the representatives of the
John A. Pope
Gallery of Art,
Aschwin Lippe
Art,
and Tseng Hsien-chi
who
travelled to
exacting task.
American museums,
of the Freer Gallery of Art, acting for the National

of the Metropolitan
of the
Museum
Museum
of Fine Arts,
Taiwan and spent many weeks devoted
On
their return, Mr.
with the assistance of
James
time-consuming assignment
Pope and
Cahill,
of
Boston,
to this
Mr. Lippe, this time
accepted the arduous and
of preparing the present scholarly
catalogue. Thanks are also due to the staffs of the Chinese
museums,
12
particularly
Messrs. Chuang Shang-yen, Tan T'an-
"^^
chiung,
Na
Chih-liang,
Wu- Vii-ch'ang who
and
Lin-ts'an,
Li
supplied the information, later compiled by Mr. H.
which,
Finally,
in
part, the descriptive text of the
the five participating
catalogue
museums wish
L.
is
Koo, on
based.
express their
to
satisfaction at having the opportunity to present an exhibition

of this extraordinary rarity
and beauty
to the
American
public.
JOHN WALKER
Director,
JAMES
Director,
The National
Gallery of Art,
Washington
RORIMER
J.
of
Art
RATHBONE
PERRY
T.
Director,
The Museum
of Fine
Arts, Boston
JOHN MAXON
Director of Fine Arts,
WALTER
Director,
The Art
Institute of
Chicago
HEIL
The M.
San Francisco
H. de
Young Memorial Museum,
Introduction
The Collection
The former
vast
Imperial Collection of the IManchu (Ch'ing) dynasty of China, the
assemblage
of art objects
Museums
from which the present National Palace and
was brought together in the eighwho is also known by the title of

his long reign (1736-1796) as the Ch'ien-lung Emperor. He inherited many of
the pieces from the earlier Manchu rulers, who had themselves taken over
some of them from their predecessors, the imperial house of the Ming dynasty.
Central
collections were drawn,
teenth century by the Emperor Kao-tsung,
But the greater
including the majority of the important painting and
part,
calligraphy, Kao-tsung acquired from private owners, either by purchase or
as
gifts.
The Ch'ien-lung Emperor's
was, naturally enough, aristocratic and
taste
conservative. Paintings from the court academies of former emperors, or from
orthodox schools
Chinese
gaps
later times,
in
ceramics from the Sung and Ming imperial
products of the most firmly founded and highly esteemed traditions of
kilns,
in
make up the bulk of the collection. There are, as a result, some

whole schools and categories of art that are sparsely represented
art,
it,
or absent altogether. Within
limitations,
its
however, the Palace
Museum
unmatched richness; and its areas of strength are among the

glories of Chinese art. It is these areas of strength that have been emphasized
in the selection of the present exhibition. The aim has been to choose the
collection
is
of
each of the major categories, rather than to represent the
finest pieces in
widest possible range of types and styles, at the expense of quality.
The
collection
has had a remarkable history since Kao-tsung's time;
it
is
any other of comparable importance has travelled so far or been

subjected to such hazards. It was passed down through the Manchu imperial
unlikely that
line to the last
from 1908
emperor, Hsuan-t'ung, whose period of actual
until 1912,
but
years after that. While
were given as
it
gifts or
who
was under
his control, a great
otherwise disposed
installed in Peking in 1925 as the Palace
objects that had been recovered from
placed
Central
in
a separate
Museum
in
museum
rule lasted only
retained possession of the collection for
of.
Most
many
of
some
of the best pieces
what remained was
Museum (Ku-kung Po-wu Yuan). Some

the old Summer Palace in Jehol were
these were eventually turned overto the National
Nanking. During the period 1933-1937, when Peking was
threatened by the Japanese invasion, the most important objects from both
collections were crated and shipped south to Shanghai and Nanking. Later
they were taken for safety inland to
Szechwan and Kweichow Provinces where
they remained throughout the war. Between 1945 and 1947, the crates were
moved back
to Nanking,
and
in
ever since, stored near Taichung
1949 to Taiwan where they have been kept

in
the central part of the island.
15
Art of the Early Periods: Shang, Chou,
The
earliest period in
preserved artifacts
1028 B.C.
until
China that
Shang
the
is
is
l^nown from both recorded history and
or Yin dynasty, which lasted from about 1523
the revised chronology; 1766-1122 B.C.
(in
chronology). During the
was located near the present town
of the
Yellow River, and excavations there
remains of a
civilization of high material
was reached
Chou dynasty
ing
in
the late
of
Anyang
in
times, are
Honan province, north
in
recent years have uncovered the
and
artistic
Shang and
achievement. The peak
early part of the
succeed-
manu-
(1028-256 B.C.) and bronze vessels from this age,
was never
factured on a technical and aesthetic level that

later
the traditional
in
from around 1300, the Shang
latter half of this period,
capital
of this civilization
Han
among
the treasures of Chinese
art.
to be equalled in
Admiration for their
powerful shapes and well integrated decor, however, as well as for the amazing
precision of the casting and the richly colored patina they have acquired with
through the centuries, is chiefly a matter of modern occidental taste.

Chinese antiquarians and connoisseurs, who usually clean and wax the bronze
burial
surfaces, have valued the vessels rather as relics of a great early stage
by Confucius,
civilization, of that idealized antiquity praised
of rulers
and subjects were ordered by
The vessels were

The
relief or linear
and cooking food
Chou
of the
in
their
in
who could
afford
such
sacrifices to the spirits of
surface designs, apart from the purely abstract,
are entirely devoted to animal forms, which held
significance
in
the lives
and ceremony.
originally used, by the ruling class
costly objects, for heating wine
ancestors.
ritual
when
the religion of the time.
Some
some symbolic and magical
of the vessels, especially
period, have long inscriptions cast or incised
in
those
them, and such
pieces are especially treasured by the Chinese as monuments of epigraphy

and documents of history. It must be remembered, however, that many
"antique documents", handsome bronzes with long inscriptions, were fabricated
with great skill centuries later, in the Sung dynasty and thereafter, to meet the
demands of scholars and collectors. It is only recently that epigraphists and
metallurgists have
begun
to distinguish the later copies
from the
truly
ancient
originals.
By the middle of the Chou, the central power was drastically weakened, and
the country divided into feudal principalities. By the time of Confucius (551-
become independent states. The last three centuries of the

known as the Warring States Period, was a time of almost continual
struggle between these states which ended only when one of them, Ch'in,
overcame the last opposition and established a unified rule over the first true
Chinese empire. The Ch'in dynasty was short-lived (256-207 B.C.) but the Han,
which succeeded it, was one of the strongest and most enduring (206 B.C.-
479 B.C.) these had

dynasty,
Chinese history.
and sculpture flourished under the Han, but little of either
survives. Painting is known chiefly through pictorial engravings in stone, and
sculpture through small objects of bronze, pottery and jade. The jade chimera
in the exhibition, while it is probably of a slightly later date, retains a good bit
220 A.D.)
The
of
in
arts of painting
Han
and reveals how well the sculptors had by now mastered threeitself. Jade is a "tough" stone comfibrous crystals which cannot be cut or carved, but must be worked
style,
dimensional form, as well as the medium
posed
of
entirely by abrasion
like.
16
various sawing tools,
The jade used by
drills,
grinding wheels, and the
the early Chinese craftsmen
came from Chinese
Turkestan, west of China proper, and varied
color through a wide range of
in
brown, green, yellow, grey and white tones, with subtle markings. To the
visual loveliness
and
appeal of polished jade, a special value was added
tactile
by the supernatural properties the Chinese attributed to the stone.
One
great chapter
in
the history of Chinese
the Buddhist sculpture of the
art,
centuries following the Han: the Six Dynasties, Sui and T'ang periods,
illustrated in this exhibition at
small
gilt
bronzes, never had
Buddhist sculpture, except
all.
much
attraction for
case was not considered sufficiently elegant
in
Buddhism
in
any
taste to have a place
in
the
in
the
is in
order here. Originating
in
first
became
a powerful element in
was once more

fifth to
attract
split into rival states.
It
was
the eighth century, after which
it
the peak of
at
declined
adherents and commission works of
art,
it
Chinese society
Han empire, when China
the turbulent period following the collapse of the
the
in
China shortly before the
India in the sixth century B.C., the religion reached
beginning of our era, but
not
Chinese collectors, and
in
imperial collection. Since a few Buddhist paintings of later times appear

exhibition, however, a brief note on
is
the form of
its
influence from
and while it continued to

played no major role in
Chinese culture and thought thereafter though it influenced Neo-Confucian

thought in the Sung and later periods, and developed a special sinicized form
of Buddhism, the Ch'an (Zen) sect.
Painting and Calligraphy

In
painting and calligraphy, two of the three arts traditionally held
esteem by the Chinese

It
is
poetry), the Palace
unmatched especially
Sung dynasty
flower and animal pictures of the

of the leading
In
is
Museum
in
highest
Collection
is
what may properly be called

Chinese painting: the landscapes, figure compositions, and bird,
richer than any other.
the core of
(the third
in
(960-1260 A.D.), and the works
masters of the YUan (1260-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties.
other collections, moreover, painting of the
Sung dynasty and
earlier is
represented almost entirely by small pictures, chiefly handscrolls; nowhere

else can
The
one see large hanging
scrolls from the early periods in any
extraordinary strength of the Palace
Museum
collection in
painting accounts for the preponderance of early works

tion.
It
is
true that only a small
number
in
numbers.
Sung and
earlier
the present exhibi-
of these bear reliable signatures
and
can be safely ascribed to particular masters, but the same or (more commonly)
worse situation prevails

must be used to date and
paintings
scholars
will
in all
other collections as well, and other evidence
attribute the pictures.
probably always remain
may be
in
majority of early Chinese
anonymous however successful
determining their age and the
stylistic traditions to
future
which
they belong. Of the few extant early paintings with trustworthy signatures
and the even fewer dated pieces,

in this
a surprisingly large proportion are included
exhibition.
Most Chinese painting occurs in one or the other of the two forms of mounting
mentioned above, the handscroll and hanging scroll. The handscroll is in the
shape of a horizontal strip, ordinarily about a foot in height but varying greatly
in length. It is kept rolled up except when actually being viewed, at which time
one sees it in sections, as the pictures pass before one's gaze, one hand
unrolling (to the left) and the other rerolling the portion already seen. Such
scrolls were not, therefore, meant originally to be exposed at full length, as
they must be in an exhibition, at least so far as space permits. The hanging
17
scroll, by contrast,
as
to be
was intended
the western easel painting.
is
either of a collection of
hung on the
third
form
is
wall
and seen
In its entirety,
the album, which
may
consist
pictures by different artists and of different
small
periods, or of an integrated series by one artist, executed as a single work.

Chinese painters, especially after the Sung dynasty, were fond of writing
inscriptions on their
artist,
related in subject to the pictures, or prose
works poems
circumstances under which they were created. Friends of the

as well as later connoisseurs and collectors, added inscriptions, which
of the
accounts
poems
again could consist of
or prose, usually appreciative
comments
in
the
case. Probably the most prolific writer of inscriptions in history, and

one of the few who violated the canons of good taste in the size and placement
flaccid
of his inscriptions, was the Ch'ien-lung Emperor himself. His rather
latter
calligraphy
may be seen on most
of the
paintings
in
the exhibition. Long
inscriptions were also written on the mountings, or, in the case of handscrolls,
on separate pieces of paper or silk mounted after the picture. Inscriptions of
known as colophons, and often yield valuable information

about the history of the painting and how it was understood and appreciated in
former times. Also of value in tracing the previous ownership of a painting,
although somewhat annoying to occidental viewers, are the seals impressed
this last type are
on the painting surfaces

or studio
names. Most
in
red pigment by collectors, bearing their personal
of the large
and often obtrusive seals on the Palace
paintings are those of the Ch'ien-lung Emperor, although seals of

two of his successors, the Chia-ch'ing and HsiJan-t'ung Emperors, are also
Museum
common.
The early
is known
history of
chiefly
Chinese painting,
through
great flourishing of the art

to the sixth centuries,
prior to the
T'ang dynasty (618-906 A. D.),
records. From these
literary
we
learn of the first
the later Six Dynasties period, from the fourth

it first attained a truly respectable status, along
in
when
with literature, music, and calligraphy, as worthy of serious critical attention.

The survey of Chinese painting presented by the exhibition begins, however,
The brief Sui dynasty (589-618) had unified the

country again after nearly four centuries of division, during which extensive
areas had been under the control of non-Chinese peoples from Central Asia
with the early T'ang period.
and Mongolia, and placed it once more under a single native rule. The T'ang
inherited and consolidated this new national power, and through brilliant
west.
military campaigns pushed the frontiers of Chinese dominance far to the
Changan, the T'ang capital, became the richest and most cosmopolitan city
perhaps
of the seventh century world. The painting that is stylistically (although
not
to
in
actual date) the earliest
Yen Li-pen
pride
(d. 673),
an
in
the exhibition, the Tribute Bearers attributed
artist of the imperial court,
reflects the
Chinese
from
this national glory, depicting the arrival of a tribute mission
in
Southeast Asia. Figure subjects were most popular in the T'ang period;
life.
historical anecdotes, famous personages of the past, scenes of palace
Another favorite subject was animals, especially horses, a genre in which the
eighth century master
new prominence
in
Han Kan was pre-eminent. Landscape began

the latter part of the dynasty.
Emperor Mmg-huang's journey

century
the ostensible subject
to Shu,
is
An example
is
to
assume
the famous
depicting an incident of the eighth
subordinated to
its
setting, a vivid rendering
rugged mountain scenery of Szechwan Province. These paintings are

done in the ancient and orthodox Chinese mode, fine-line brush drawing on
other artists.
silk with washes of color. In this same period, however, certain
of the
18
who worked
most
for the
of ink
known
and were
some cases
in
painted as an avocation, explored the potentialities
monochrome painting and broader manners of brushwork. The best

of these was Wang Wei (699-759); another was Lu Hung, to whom
the important early scroll entitled
attributed
is
part outside the court circles
who
scholars and officials
Ten Scenes Viewed from a
Thatched Lodge.
Under the brief Five Dynasties period (906-960) which followed the T'ang,
China was divided once more, with short-lived "dynasties" succeeding one
another
in different
T'ang, with
its
Among
parts of the country.
capital at Nanking,
was
these states, the Southern
relatively peaceful.
It
claimed to be the
legitimate successor to the T'ang dynasty,
and continued T'ang artistic traditions. The court Academy of the last Southern T'ang ruler, the poet-emperor
Li Yu, included several of the greatest Chinese artists: Chou Wen-chij, who
specialized in scenes of palace ladies the flower painter Hsu Hsi Chao Kan,
;
who was famous
for river
scenes and the landscapists Tung Yuan and ChiJ-jan,

;
who, along with two northern painters of slightly earlier date, Ching Hao and
Kuan T'ung, began the evolution that was to culminate in the incomparable
landscapes
and twelfth centuries. Meanwhile, the north and east

what are now Manchuria and Mongolia, was controlled
of the eleventh
of China, with portions of
by the Liao dynasty of the Khitan Tartars, which lasted into the early twelfth
The famous
century.
paintings of deer
in
an autumn forest are works of this
period, and others in the exhibition, whether or not actually painted by Liao
artists,
belong
in
the special tradition they inaugurated.
The Sung dynasty (960-1260) is customarily divided into two parts: the first
(960-1127), when the capital was located at the northern city of Kaifeng, is
known as the Northern Sung, and the remainder, the period after the capital
had been moved south to Hangchow and the north of China abandoned to the
Chin (Jurchen) Tartars, as the Southern Sung. Among the Northern Sung
artists,
the landscapists were outstanding. Beginning with
Ch'eng and
Li
continuing with Fan K'uan, Kuo Hsi and others, a succession of masters of
such power that Chinese

art of
landscape
critics
to a height of
elsewhere. Through a
speak
of
them as superhuman brought the
grandeur never equalled again,
consummate handling
of ink
through new solutions to problems of representing
in
China or
monochrome technique,
space, mass and texture,
they gave to their compositions a sense of vast order and coherence that
reflects both the Taoist
beings, placed
play only minor
The same
in
in
and the prevailing Neo-Confucian world-views.
and transitory roles in these pictures.

from the human world to that
shift of interest
the popularity of bird, flower and animal painting
such eminent
artists
the imperial court.
as Ts'ui Po and
The
last of the
of nature
in this
Yuan-chi were
may be seen
when
period,
summoned
to paint for
who
specialized
in
Academy.
genre
The
greatest of the landscapists
his
same
Northern Sung emperors, Hui-tsung, was
himself a painter of birds and flowers, and favored artists

this
in
Human
sharp contrast to the grandeur and permanence of nature,
in
Hui-tsung's Academy,
Sung
a pivotal position in the transition to Southern
important surviving works, both
in this
Li
T'ang, occupies
styles.
exhibition, illustrate the
the huge hanging scroll preserves
much
His two most
main phases
ing
Sung tradimonumental landscape, while the handscroll, especially in its openpassage, points the way to the smaller-scale, more intimate mode that
was
to prevail in the Imperial
of his art
of the Northern
tion of the
Academy through
the following centuries. This
19
new mode reached

in
its full
maturity
in
the school of
Ma Yuan and
Hsia Kuei,
the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Ever greater areas of the
picture
were given over to mist and space
viated.
The
stern world of Northern
forms were simplified and abbre-
Sung landscape was transformed
into an
through which roam elegant scholars enjoying the scenery. The
ideal realm,
warm romantic mood
of
Academy works
these pictures also pervades the
other genres: pictures of playing children by
Su Han-ch'en
or
Li
in
Sung, or
and flowers by Li Ti, Ma Yuan and others.

Atthe same time, however, very different kinds of painting were being produced
birds, animals
outside the
Academy,
especially
painters" that had arisen
in
in
the school of scholar-amateurs or
belong the great Su Shih and his friend the
landscapist Mi Fu and his son Mi Yu-jen, the figure painter

well as
of
such
later
Sung
who were
these men,
"literati
Sung period. To this tradition

bamboo painter Wen T'ung, the
the late Northern
artists
as
Wu
YiJan-chih and
Mou
poets and calligraphers as well
Li
Kung-lin, as
The primary aim

as painters, was not to
I.
create accurate images of the world outside them, or objects of beauty, or

rather to embody in their works something of their
skill
it was
own nature and feeling.
The new ideals and new styles of the scholar-painters did not arrive at full
fruition, however, until the Yuan dynasty (1263-1368). This was the dynasty
of the Mongols, descendants of Genghis Khan, who had overcome first the
Chin Tartars and then the Sung Chinese, and now ruled the whole of China
from their capital in Peking. The Literati School of painting, which had showed
little originality or impetus in the Southern Sung, now sprang again to life.
A few of its major masters, such as Chao Meng-fu and Kao K'o-kung, held
high office in the Mongol court, but more of them belonged to the society
of "recluses", disaffected scholars who congregated in a small area south of
the Yangtze River and remained somewhat aloof from the affairs of the nation.
In this group belong the so-called Four Great Masters, Huang Kung-wang,
Wu Chen, Ni Tsan and Wang Meng. All these, and a number of their important
displays of
contemporaries, are well represented
in
the present exhibition.
In
landscape,
the main theme of Yuan painting, they turned from the styles and taste of
Southern Sung to something
partly
new,
partly derived
from older schools,
Kuo Hsi. Bamboo painting in ink monochrome was also popular among the Yuan artists.
With the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), native rule was restored to China, and
Chinese culture, including painting, came to be suffused with the sense of
particularly those of
Tung
Yiian and
well-being that reflects an age of peace and prosperity. During the

of the
Ming period only a few
tradition of the
of a
group
artists of rank,
such as
Wang
first
century
Fu, carried on the
Yuan scholar-painters. More impressive are the achievements

many of whom worked under imperial patronage;
of professionals,
of these, the landscapist Tai
Chin and the bird-and-flower master Lu Chi are
New
was infused into the literati tradition

Shen Chou, his follower Wen
Cheng-ming, and their numerous associates who make up the Wu or Soochow
School. Admiring and imitating the Yuan masters, and through them certain
schools of Sung painting, they exhibited a degree of eclecticism that was new
represented
in
in
the exhibition.
life
the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by
Chinese painting. Also active in the same city of Soochow (just west of
in this period were T'ang Yin and Ch'iu Ying, two very versatile
painters who, with remarkable success, combined the superb technical mastery
in
Shanghai)
of the best professional styles with the refined taste of the scholars.
20
The seventeenth century was the age

the leading connoisseur and
of the individualists.
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang,
opened the way with landscapes

which, although purportedly based on the styles of the Yuan
masters, were
revolutionary in their effect on later painting. From the late
years of the Ming
through the early decades of the Ch'ing (or Manchu) dynasty
(1644-1912), a
number of individualists and eccentrics appeared on the artistic scene. IVIany
of them entered religious orders or went into retirement
after the fall of the
critic of his
day,
Ming, refusing to serve under the Manchu invaders. Partly because

of these
political dissent, partly for reasons of artistic taste, their
works
were almost ignored by the Ch'ing emperors. Only one of them,
Ch'en Hungconnotations of
shou,
represented
is
in
the exhibition, although works of a few others are
in
Museum.
the Palace
The orthodox
line in
Wangs (Wang
the early Ch'ing lay
Shih-min,
Wang
in
the school of the so-called Four
Wang
Hui and Wang Yuan-ch'i),

and Yijn Shou-p'ing. In their landscapes, the innovations of Tung Ch'ich'ang were adopted but used for tamer and more conservative
ends, and
Wu
Chien,
Li
practically every painting
famous
early master.
richness
in
was designated as being "in the manner of" some

The Chinese admire their works for a special textural
the brushwork, and for subtle references to old traditions for

is, which may easily elude most western viewers.
Their styles
qualities, that
dominated the Ch'ing Court Academy to a stultifying degree. The Palace

Museum collection contains hundreds of paintings by court artists of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but they were not considered
to be of
sufficient interest to warrant inclusion in the exhibition.
China as in the west, paintings were sometimes translated into

textiles
through the techniques of tapestry weaving and embroidery. The
special
Chinese form of tapestry weave known as k'o-ssu, in which colored threads
In
woven into the warp to make the design, was done in Central Asia as early
as the T'ang dynasty, and a few fragments of that age have been
discovered.
are
The three examples in the exhibition are attributed to the Sung dynasty;
two
of them bear signatures (also woven) of a famous master
of this technique,
Shen Tzu-fan. An example of Sung dynasty embroidery is also included.
Of
all
the arts
in
China, the most widely practiced by far has been calligraphy

who takes pride in his writing is to that extent a calligra;
every literate person

pher.
Because
calligraphy, like poetry
and painting, can serve as a vehicle for

the individual man to communicate his thought and feeling, and was
therefore
one of the scholarly accomplishments rather than a professional skill, it
has
been regarded by the Chinese as one of the major arts. The choice of the text
to be written is of decidedly secondary importance; the
artistic value of the
work of calligraphy lies in the design of the individual characters and their
compositional relationship,
ginality
in
the correct balance between tradition and
ori-
the variant forms of characters used, and in the strength and

expressiveness of the brushstrokes of which they are composed. The forms
of
in
calligraphy, in their essentially abstract character, are somewhat

akin to the
expressive forms of non-objective art in the modern west, although it
must be
noted that the Chinese calligrapher underwent a longer and stricter
training,
and
much
firmer discipline
was required
of
him than most "calligraphic"
Many Chinese calligraphers are said to have found

nature: the greatest of them, Wang Hsi-chih, in the curving
necks of swimming geese, another in scudding clouds, and so forth. But
the
painters display today.
inspiration
in
proficiency that preceded such inspiration
came from years
of practice.
21
Any understanding
of
Chinese calligraphy demands some knowledge
of the
nature and evolution of the script. Beginning as a form of picture-writing, the
Chinese
script
soon overcame the limitations
com-
system
of
now
use can
of this primitive
munication. Only a minor fraction of the Chinese characters
in
most are compounds formed by combining

complex ways. By the latter part of the
Chou dynasty, the characters had become highly formalized, and the Large
be traced back to simple pictures
phonetic and semantic elements
came
Seal (ta-chuan) script

{hsiao-chuan)
Han, and
in
in
into being. This
was followed by
the Small Seal
the Ch'in dynasty, the Clerical or Official style (li-shu)
finally, shortly after
the
in
the Han, the Square or Standard script, k'ai-shu,
which has been the orthodox form of writing ever since, and upon which the
The abbreviated and fluid cursive
typefaces of printed Chinese are based.

scripts,
used for ease and speed
in
writing letters
and drafts
of
documents,
evolved along with the Standard style; these are the Running (hsing-shu) and
mistranslated as "Grass") scripts. All these are
Draft (ts'oo-s/iu, often
used by modern calligraphers, although the

others being considered archaic.
Already
it
its
greatest heights
Chinese have revered
in
the Six Dynasties.
for sixteen
Wang
still
most common, the
the Han period calligraphy had attained the status of an
in
rose to
last three are
Hsi-chih,
art,
but
whom
the
centuries as the "Sage of Calligraphy",
belongs to this period. Very few examples of writing by the masters of that age
survive, except in stone engravings. Their works were admired, collected and
imitated, however, by
T'ang calligraphers, such as the eighth century Emperor
HsiJan-tsung, the writer of the
developments
in
first
piece of calligraphy
Draft script, practiced by the eccentric Buddhist
The
the exhibition.
in
New
the T'ang included a "wild" (and scarcely legible) form of the
was the
next peak period
late
monk
Huai-su,
among
Northern Sung, when the group of
others.
literati
Su Shih, mentioned already in connection with painting, produced three

first-class calligraphers: Su himself, his disciple Huang T'ing-chien, and
Mi Fu, all represented in the exhibition. Their younger contemporary Emperor
led by
Hui-tsung, besides being an accomplished painter, created an elegant and

distinctive calligraphic
several paintings
writing.
The
although
manner, which may be admired
the exhibition, as well as
into painting.
Yuan dynasty.
The
in
greatest painters were usually proficient as calligra-
was not so regularly true. Chao Meng-fu of the

and Tung Ch'i-ch'ang of the Ming, all of whom
in
the exhibition as painters, are to be seen also as
Cheng-ming's four versions of the Thousand Character

special interest to occidental audiences in that they display
text in four of the principal scripts:
(//)
was
more and
painting and calligraphy
calligraphy were adopted
Wen
Classic will be of
same
on
Wen Cheng-ming
have prominent places

calligraphers.
Clerical
his inscriptions
calligraphy of his successor Kao-tsung has a similar elegance,
phers, although the reverse
the
in
the separate scroll of his
is
even closer, as types of brushwork used
more
in
more conventional.
Sung dynasty, the relationship between
it
After the
in
Standard
(k'ai), Draft {ts'ao),
and Seal (chuan).
Ceramics and Other Materials

The
collection of ceramics in the Palace
the painting collection
in
Museum
is
even more limited than
the variety of types represented, but as
painting, a great richness exists within these limitations.
22
in
the case of
The wares
collected,
Sung, Ming and Ch'ing dynasonce more the aristocratic taste of the Ch'ien-lung Emperor for
high technical finish and elegant forms. Ceramics of periods prior to the Sung
are not to be found in this collection, which seems to have been formed primchiefly the products of the imperial l<ilns of the
ties,
reflect
arily
of pieces transmitted by imperial
and other collectors, rather than
of
excavated pieces. Moreover, the Sung wares that were intended for more
practical use, such as the Chien and Tz'u-chou wares so much admired in the
west today, partly because of their popularity in Japan, have traditionally
been held in lower esteem by the Chinese, and are likewise absent from the
collection, or poorly represented.
Sung ceramics
in
body
technique, style and taste from T'ang
reflect a radical shift in
pottery which, although

(fired at a
some
was being made,
porcelain
lower temperature), simpler
in
is
generally softer
shape, and often decorated
Sung potters aimed rather at the utmost

The profiles of their pieces exhibit complex
curves, and the glazes are usually monochrome, in subtle hues. Decoration,
when present at all, is ordinarily confined to designs carved or moulded on
the body, and softened in appearance by the covering glazes. The Sung wares
with florid designs in brilliant colors.
refinement
in all
aspects of their
art.
are of the highest order technically as well as artistically, with their f eld spat hie
glazes firmly bonded to high-fired stoneware bodies, and such glaze charac-
minute bubbles which are responsible for the unctuous appearance and texture, and the crackles that are cultivated as spontaneous patterns,
teristics as the
all
controlled by these master craftsmen.
Examples
wares from the Sung dynasty are included in the exhibition

Kuan and Chi-chou. Chun ware was produced at several kilns in
of four
ChiJn, Ju,
Honan Province, in the north of China. Its thick, bubbly glaze, on a fine light
stoneware body, ranges through soft blue and lavender tones, otten with
suffusions of crimson. Ju ware
and one
of the rarest;
is
it
is
one
of the
most renowned
of
Sung ceramics,
said to have been produced under strict imperial
supervision and exclusively for use in ceremonial banquets in the imperial court,
and only during the short period from 1107 to the fall of the Northern capital
in 1127. The traditional site of the Ju kilns is at Ju-chou, also in Honan
Province, but no shards of the type now generally identified as Ju have
been found there, so the exact circumstances
of
its
manufacture remain pro-
The glaze is grey-blue or grey-green in color, and usually has a fine

ice crackle. Kuan (which simply means "official") was made, presumably for
court use, at both the Northern and Southern capitals, but that made for the
blematic.
Northern Court
imperial court to
city for
at
Kaifeng has yet to be identified. After the removal of the
Hangchow
in
1127, kilns
exhibition were probably
ban Altar")
kiln,
times so that
made
all
from which
one
at
kiln site
we have some
were established
The examples
the production of Kuan ware.
of
at
two places
Southern Kuan
of these sites, the Chiao-tan
materials have been recovered
clues to
its
identification.
pieces range through grey-greens and grey-blues, and there

a widely spaced crackle.
Many
of the
Kuan shapes
is
in
the
("Subur-
in
The colors
in that
modern
Kuan
of
nearly always
reflect the antiquarian
Sung nobility, imitating ancient bronze and jade objects.

The Yuan dynasty saw only a single major innovation in ceramic manufacture,
but one that was to overshadow all others for more than three centuries:
interests of the
porcelain with underglaze decoration
"blue and white." White porcelain
in
cobalt blue, the universally renowned
was not new
in itself;
a translucent white
ceramic had been produced as early as the T'ang dynasty, and another, the
23
Ch'ing-pai ware, under the Sung. (The Chinese word translated as "porcelain"
is
not confined to white or translucent wares, but applies to
all
that are high-
and produce a ringing sound when struck.) The date and circumstances
the origin of the blue and white technique are not known. Chinese tradition
fired
of
puts
Sung
the
in
it
found.
period, but no evidence to verify this early date has been
any case,
In
was
it
highly developed by the mid-fourteenth century;
development was certainly stimulated by, if it did not originate in, the
close contacts with the Near Eastthat had been opened by the Mongol conquest
and
of
its
nearly
Asia, including China. These contacts continued
of
all
during
several of the Ming reigns, the cobalt material used for the underglaze blue
was imported from
"Muhammedan
Blue" produced a deeper,

and so was preferred. Also from the
Near East came Islamic decorative motifs which are to be seen on some blue
Persia. This
richer color than the local cobalt ore,
and white pieces.
One
manufacture
of the centers for the
had been the region of Chingtechen
in
porcelainous ware
of
in
the
Sung dynasty
Kiangsi Province, where the ware known
as Ch'ing-pai or "bluish-white" (often called Ying-ch'ing or "shadowy-blue")
had been made. Large deposits of kaolin or "china clay" and petuntse or
"china stone", along with other materials used
were
in
the porcelain body and glaze,
chiefly responsible for the concentration of porcelain production in this
region.
In
Yuan dynasty, a distinctive white ware with slip decoration under

known as Shu-fu ware, was made in the same place. At
the
a transparent glaze,
the end of the fourteenth century, imperial kilns were established at Ching-
techen, which had by then

It
become
the center of ceramic manufacture
in
China.
supplied blue and white porcelain to the imperial court, to the Chinese market
and to merchants engaged in foreign trade, who exported it to Japan, Southeast

Asia, India and the Near East, even to Africa, and finally to Europe, where it
revolutionized the taste and technique of occidental ceramics. While the
Chingtechen artisans maintained the most uniformly high quality only
pieces destined for court use,
many extremely
hands and even
well into private
fine pieces
found
their
in
the
way as
into the export trade.
During the early Ming reigns underglaze red, known as
yu-li hung,
sometimes
replaced the underglaze blue decoration. But the technique, based on the
reduction of copper oxide, proved extremely difficult to control, and wastage
was so great
used
in
its
that
abandoned later, and an overglaze red enamel

monochromes, likewise produced with reduced
the same reason, are called by the Chinese chi-hung or
was
it
place.
Two
all
but
red
copper and
rare for
"sacrificial
red" and pao-shih-hung or "precious stone red"; the story that
ground-up rubies were used

between them
distinction
is
for the glaze of the latter
not clear.
monochrome ware, on which
white
in slip
or incising on the
known
"three-color ware", the surface of which
enamel colors
covering
sented
it.
in
in
The
either by far
is
body before glazing (the so-called an-hua or "secret
the Ming polychromes, the best
fired lead glazes,
surely fantasy, and the
subtle designs were applied by painting
decoration") or else by moulded or applique
Among
is
More common than
is
relief.
in
the west are the san-ts'ai or
completely covered with medium-
and the wu-ts'ai or "five-color ware", on which lower-fired

body without
a greater variety are used to decorate the white

rarest
and most refined
the exhibition,
is
of the
Ming polychromes,
well repre-
the tou-ts'ai or "contrasting colors", on which
transparent green, yellow and aubergine enamels, together with an opaque red,
were
laid within
the spaces defined by drawing
in
underglaze blue. This was an
invention of the Ch'eng-hua period (1465-1487)
when the finest examples were

made, and was much imitated later.
As works of art, Ming porcelains are distinguished by a sense of purity and
perfection
minor flaws and accidental markings that were allowed or even
cultivated in Sung pottery could no longer be tolerated in the chaste, white
;
The same insistence on flawlessness continued into the

Ch'ing dynasty, and combined with technical advances to bring Chinese
ceramics to a stage of ultimate refinement in the late seventeenth and eighteenth
vessels of Ming.
Monochrome
centuries.
blossomed
glazes were no longer limited to a few colors, but
into a variety of hues.
that they could be
used
like
Enamels were now so
pigments
skillfully
to paint colorful pictures
controlled
on the porcelain
Some
ground.
of the finest known examples of such painting are in the exhibiinfluence of Europe, which reached the Chinese court through Jesuit
missionaries in Peking, appears in porcelain designs, and also in enamel designs
tion.
The
on copper and glass, two techniques also represented by fine examples.

Paintings by such European artists as Watteau and Boucher, classical motifs
and Christian scenes, were copied by the Chinese, for whom they had the same
exotic
charm as
did chinoiserie for
types of polychrome which
in
of as typifying the best Ch'ing
vases, for
are
none
example were
in
the Palace
in
Europeans
in
this period. Curiously, certain
the west have been highly prized and thought
taste the great famille verte and famille noire

made for the European market; there
fact mostly
Museum
collection.
Blue-and-white porcelain was still manufactured with some skill under the
Ch'ing dynasty, but the vigor was gone from this medium. A decadence had
begun
to set in generally; technical display
had become an end
in itself,
fascination with tour-de-force effects, such feats as the imitation
in
and
ceramic of
bronze, various minerals, wood, or shark-skin, supplanted the restraint and

taste of earlier periods. A few pieces of high quality were made in the
first half of the nineteenth century, but they are exceptions in a period of
steady
good
decline.
Finally, the exhibition includes objects in a variety of materials to exemplify
the varying taste of the scholars and nobility of the Ming and Ch'ing periods.
A fondness for the ornate may be seen

sonne vessels
the aim
in
in
The evocation
pieces, notably some
of Ch'ing.
certain
more austere elegance favored by the
the great Ming lacquers, and
in
the cloi-
modes seems to have been

jade carvings. The simpler and
of ancient
of the
well illustrated by other jade

carvings, or by pieces intended for the scholar's study, such as the carved
literati is
bamboo
brush-holders. All these serve to round out the remarkably full picture
presented by this exhibition of Chinese art as it was admired and collected by
the emperors of China, and is now being carefully preserved in Taiwan as a
constant reminder of China's traditional cultural heritage.
Map
of
China showing the principal places mentioned
in
the catalogue
Chinese Chronology
ShangorYin
Chou
ca. 1523-1028 B.C.
256-207 B.C.
Ch'in
Han
The Three Kingdoms
The Six Dynasties
The Northern and Southern Dynasties
1028-256 B.C.
206 B.C. -A. D. 220

i
'
A. D. 220-589
589-618
Sui
T'ang
618-906
The
906-960
Five Dynasties
Northern Sung
960-1127
Southern Sung
1127-1260
(While the Sung dynasty ruled over a gradually diminishing area
of
China
proper, the Tartar dynasties of Liao (907-1123) and Chin (1115-1235) controlled
in the north. All were eventually engulfed by the
Mongols under Khubilai Khan who called himself emperor in 1260 and adopted
the dynastic name Yuan in 1271. The last Sung pretender was drowned in
increasingly large territories
1279.)
Yuan
1260-1368
Ming
1368-1644
Ch'ing
1644-1912
These dates are in accordance with the revised chronology; the traditional dates of the
Shang dynasty are 1766-1122 B.C. In Chinese history all dates before 770 B.C. are uncertain.
27
Selected Bibliography
It is not feasible to list the hundreds of booths and articles in English, French,
German, Chinese and Japanese that should be read by those who wish to
gain an understanding of Chinese art. The following brief selection of English
titles will
serve to introduce the reader to the various subjects they cover,
and the bibliographies
will
lead those interested further into the fields of their
choice.
GENERAL
Laurence Sickman and Alexander Soper, The art and architecture of China,
Penguin Books, London and Baltimore, 1956.
PAINTING and CALLIGRAPHY

James
Cahill, Chinese painting, Skira,
New
York, 1960.
Chiang Yee, Chinese calligraphy, Methuen, London, 1958.

R. H. van Gulik, Chinese pictorial art as viewed by the connoisseur.
Rome,
Is.
M.E.O.
1958.
Osvald Siren, Chinese painting, leading masters and principles, Lund Humphries,
London, 1956-1958.
BRONZES
Bernhard Karlgren, Yin and Chou
of Far Eastern Antiquities, No.
by Karlgren
in
the
same
Chinese bronzes, Bulletin of the
in
8,
Museum
Stockholm, 1936 (and many other works
bulletin).
Lodge, Wenley, and Pope, A descriptive and illustrative catalogue of Chinese

bronzes, freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1946.
W.
P. Yetts,
The Cull Chinese bronzes, Courtauld
Institute of Art,
London,
1939.
CERAMICS
G. St. G. M. Gompertz, Chinese celadon wares, Faber and Faber, London, 1958.
William Bowyer Honey, The ceramic art of China and other countries of the
Far East... London, Faber and Faber and the Hyperion Press, 1945.
Soame Jenyns,
Later
Chinese
porcelain,
the
Ch'ing
dynasty
(1644-1912),
Faber and Faber, London, 1951. (Second Edition 1959).
John Alexander Pope, Chinese porcelains from the Ardebil

Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1956.
Shrine,
Freer
JADES
S.
Howard Hansford, Chinese jade
TEXTILES,
ENAMELS,
carving,
LACQUER
and
Lund Humphries, London,
MISCELLANEOUS
CARVINGS
The arts of the Ming dynasty. Oriental Ceramic Society, London 1958.
28
1950.
List of Titles in
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Index of Painters and Calligraphers
Chang Sheng-wen
CATALOGUE
FOREIGN ENVOY WITH TRIBUTE BEARERS

Yen Li-pen
Attributed to
Handscroll
The
of
in ink
painting
and color on
is
(died 673) T'ang dynasty
silk,
23%
white
parrot,
75^
in. (61 .5 x 191 .5
cm)
a fragment of a longer handscroll which illustrates the arrival
an embassy from
Champa
the "Rakshas" (demons), also

a
(Southeast Vietnam), Borneo and the country of

in
Southeast Asia,
elephant tusks,
in
A.D.
631
peacock-feather fans, an
mountain-goat or antelope, a weird animal which may be a

shaped rocks (or petrified wood) found in the sea.
The
gifts
ibex,
tapir,
include
piebald
and strangely
Yen Li-pen was a high official and architect-painter in the T'ang capital,
Changan, during the seventh century. He became famous for his paintings
of religious
34
and other
figural subjects.
?;
l^t
-*/
K]
-<-
The present work
gives us a
fairly
accurate idea of Chinese figure-painting
with landscape elements, of the seventh to eighth century.

of the figures are of
The
whose
is in
The contour
lines
even thickness and have a wirelike quality.
inscription with attribution
the painting
r*;^-..r>t-T-)--v.x-
and
title
on a
the handwriting of the
strip of silk
immediately preceding
Sung emperor Hui-tsung
seal appears on the picture, along with that of the late
minister Chia Ssu-tao. One body of opinion declines

and assigns the painting to a later date.
Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and
An
to
Ch'i (born 1683)
(1082-1135),
Sung prime
support this attribution
once owned the
scroll.
35
EMPEROR MING-HUANG'S JOURNEY TO SHU

Anonymous
Hanging
In
(T'ang dynasty)
scroll in ink
and colors on
July 756 the T'ang
had to
silk,
21^x31
in.
(55.9x81 cm)
emperor Hsuan-tsung (posthumous
flee before the rebel
An
Ming-huang)
title
Lu-shan. Taking with him his beautiful and
beloved consort Yang Kuei-fei, he crossed the passes into Shu (Szechwan)
where his troops, believing, rig'htly or wrongly, that she had been involved
in the rebellion and was a menace to the dynasty, seized and killed her.
The emperor appears at the right of the picture, in a red robe, on horseback
the horse's mane is braided into three tufts. The round-faced ladies of his
harem, who follow him, wear high perched hats or "hennin" like peaked caps.
The center group has already unsaddled the horses and one of the camels is
being relieved of its pack. An advance party is climbing the next pass. The
plank-roads overhanging the precipices are typical of Szechwan.
The blue-and-green landscape style seen in this painting is associated with

the names of Li Ssu-hsiJn (651-716) and his son Li Chao-tao. The picture has
been attributed to Li Chao-tao, who is reported to have painted the subject
"Emperor Ming-huang's Journey to Shu". It is doubtful whether Li Chao-tao
was still alive in 756. However, the painting faithfully represents the
landscape style of the eighth century. The strongly stylized clouds and cliffs
of
actually
are
done
in fine
outlines and rich
color-washesthe rocks with a kind
zontal hatching, forerunner of the later "texture strokes".
The
of hori-
colorful trees
and the disproportion in scale between figures and landscape are other features
of the T'ang style. Some scholars feel the painting was probably executed
during the tenth century, an opinion put forward two centuries ago by the
Ch'ien-lung emperor. Before being acquired by him,
of
Keng Chao-chung
(The
36
illustration
shows a
(1640-1686).
detail.)
it
was
in
the collection
*V-'''";:,--'^jaiS
37
TWO HORSES AND GROOM

Attributed to
Han Kan
Album
and
leaf in ink
(ca. 750,
light colors
on
silk,
T'ang dynasty)
10%x13%
in.
(27.5x34.1 cm)
The black
stallion and the grey are two of the famous blooded horses from
Ferghana and Khotan which were the pride and passion of the T'ang dynasty
emperors. The bearded groom also is a Central Asian.
Han Kan
said to have
is
summoned
the painting attributing
tsung and
The
begun
his career as a wine-peddler before he
was
Ming-huang's stables. The inscription on

to Han Kan was written by the Sung emperor Hui-
to portray the prizes of
is
it
dated 1107.
painting carries a seal attributed to the Southern T'ang court (937-975)
and another
of emperor Hui-tsung. It probably was executed in the tenth cenwas based on a work by Han Kan, it is a free copy and represents in
brushwork the style of the Northern Sung dynasty (late tenth - eleventh
tury.
Its
If
it
century) rather than that of the eighth century.

It
has been
in
the collections of Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525-1590) and Liang
Ch'Ing-piao (1620-1691).
38
mi
iv
TEN VIEWS FROM A THATCHED LODGE

Attributed to Lu
Handscroll
Hung
10 sections) in
(in
(early eighth century,

inl(
on paper, 115^x236%
in.
T'ang dynasty)
(29.4x600 cm)
The "Thatched Lodge" was the country place of Lu Hung, on one of the five
Sacred Mountains, the Sung-shan near Loyang. He preferred his hermit's
life to the court position offered by the emperor. The ten scenes are views
of
and from
The
his beloved
abode.
scroll is not signed.
artist.
is prefaced with a text composed by the

Yang Ning-shih, dated 947, attributes the
colophon, by Chou Pi-ta and dated 1199, supports
Each scene
An appended encomium
The first
One body of
painting to Lu Hung.
this attribution.
holds that this
accomplished
Lu Hung.
is
artist of
In
were a copy,
the
Hung's composition done by some highly

Sung dynasty. The Ch'ien-lung emperor, in his
mentions that Li Kung-lin (No. 29) was a follower
a later colophon, dated 1776, he concludes that even
could only have been done by
it
decidedly archaic with
its
and disproportionate sizes

unique value
opinion, however, both Chinese and western,
a version of Lu
on the painting,
inscription
of
is
by
in
bands
horizontal
of figures.
Li
The
if
the scroll
The style in any case

compact tree groups,
Kung-lin.
of mist,
painting, whatever
its
date,
is
of
transmitting to us an important aspect of T'ang dynasty land-
scape, the scholar-artist's very personal view of scenes that were familiar
to
him
it
also reflects an early stage
in
the development of ink
monochrome
painting.
It
has been
in
the collections of Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525-1590) and Kao Shih-
ch'i (1645-1704).
39
5-5
AMONG RED MAPLES

AUTUMN FOREST
IÊER
DEER
IN
Anonymous, Five Dynasties

Hanging
and colors on
scrolls in Ink
(906-960)
silk,
5:
46%
25%
in.
(118.5x64.6 cm)
6:
46%x25%
In.
(118.4x63.8 cm)
Both pictures probably were parts of a larger composition, perhaps of a screen.

In
the
all
first
look
aware
its
head while the hinds and fawns
direction, poised for flight.
Perhaps they have just become
panel, the stag
the
in
same
is
proudly raising
an approaching danger.
of
antlers forward as
if
to threaten an
In
the other picture, the hart thrusts
unseen
rival,
or
in
its
order to rub them on a
The rest of the herd is resting orfeeding. Both groups of animals, superbly
drawn with subtle shading in wet ink, are placed in a well-related composition.
The remainder of the pictures is almost entirely filled with colorful foliage in
red, pink, white and green blue is used for shading the white leaf areas, and
small colored birch trees are painted over the ink-drawing the latter have no
outlines, but a fine horizontal ink-dot pattern imitating the bark texture. Green
moss spots and many-colored lichens enliven trees and rocks.
tree.
These unusual pictures
recall "mille-fleurs" tapestries or
"horror vacui" and abundant coloring.
In their
secondary
role of the ink-line are archaic features
dynasty the use of lighter trees

;
painting.
We
The treatment
in
front of dark
Persian miniatures
The strong shading and the

which stem from the T'ang
ones
is
a device of tenth century
of the rocks also points to the latter date.
can attribute the paintings to the Liao dynasty (907-1125) and to the tenth
century.
The
Liao empire
was established in Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and

Mongol tribe. They made raids into
parts of North China, by the Khitan, a
China proper as
far as
Kaifeng (then Pienliang the northern capital) which
was sacked in 946. In their sculpture and pottery they continued the T'ang
style, and seem to have done so also in their painting.
Both pictures bear two Mongol imperial seals relating to the period between
1329 and 1340, and others of a seventeenth century Manchu collector.
(Only No.
40
5,
"Deer among Red Maples,"
is illustrated.)
41
,^fc^J^^
v**''
=.#;4i3%^,^.;
mi
7-8
.:-ii<.IW*fiiSi^k***^^''
HUNTERS WITH GREYHOUNDS

HUNTERS WITH EAGLES
Attributed to
Album
leaves
in
Hu Huai
ink
(ca. 930, Five Dynasties, Later
and colors on
silk,
T'ang)
7:
13!4x18J^
in.
(34.2x46.9 cm)
8:
12Xx17%
in.
(32.9x44.3 cm)
Khitan horsemen are hunting with eagles and falcons, an(d with hounds which
they carry on horseback while they scan the horizon for game.
One
of the
eagles has already struck a yellow fox-like animal. Their ponies are very
different
from the blooded horses which Han Kan painted, and
their caparisons.
We
The men wear long coats and
felt
left
thighs.
boots. They have taken off their fur-brimmed
hats to reveal their shaved heads and pigtails.
42
fur skins are
also notice a peculiar brand on the horses'
They are attributed to Hu Huai who himself was

and famous for his pictures of nomad tribal life. He is said to have
used a brush of wolf's hair. His son is reported to have worked in the same
manner. The contour-lines are very fine, the folds moderately angular, with
The
pictures are not signed.
a Khitan
some
The
slight shading.
hills
have a very
composition
of both
Manes and
light outline,
groups
tails
are fuzzed out
the slopes
of hunters is well organized;
sized by leaving the ground around
them
figures and animals and the barely sketched
the attribution.
In
in
hair-fme strokes.
it
is
further
empha-
Fine but firm brushwork on
steppe-landscape frame support
any case, the pictures are no
and can, more precisely, be attributed
They have been
free.
in
in
some wet wash-shading. The
later
to the Liao
than the Northern Sung
dynasty (907-1125).
the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
43
WU AND
THE PARTING OF SU
Attributed to
Chou Wen-chu
LING
LI
(ca. 970, Five Dynasties,
Southern T'ang-
Sung dynasty)
Handscroll
Li
Ling
in ink
was
and colors on
silli,
a brilliant general
the Hsiung-nu or
13^x35%
in
in.
(33.3x89.9 cm)
the wars of the
Huns (second century
B.C.).
Han emperor Wu-ti against
When
at last taken prisoner
by
the Khan, he entered the latter's service, married his daughter and spent the last
twenty years of his
life
the steppe. His friend
in
Su
100 B.C.) to the Hsiung-nu court on a peace mission.

revolted
he
lîiled
and
tried to
Wu
When
was dispatched
(In
Su's fellow envoys
persuade him to enter the Khan's service with them,
several and finally attempted suicide. After he had recovered, the
Hsiung-nu sent him
to the far north to tend
to mal<e a last attempt to
swerve
the tearful parting of the old friends.
Su
Wu
Li Ling was ordered

The picture illustrates
was returned to China
sheep. Later
his loyalty, but failed.
eventually
after nineteen years of captivity.
The
scroll is attributed to
the Nanking region
44
who
Chou Wen-chij,
a painter of courtly scenes from
served the last ruler of the Southern T'ang kingdom
and followed
(961-975)
The
(Kaifeng).
captive patron to the
his
signature, however,
is
doubtless a
Sung court
later addition
at
Pienliang
and neither
the subject matter nor the style of the painting supports the attribution.
other hand, both are close to the paintings by
Hu Huai (Nos.
7-8)
On
the
and point
to the Liao tradition.
Very fine
line
drawing characterizes the expressive faces as well as the

The outlines of the
pattern of the clothes; the fold-lines are not angular.
rocks suggest a Northern

in
color;
compact
Sung
date. Figures
and horses are done
entirely
note the shading of the pink faces and the green horse.
we
initial
group
of the
groom
The
leaning on a furled banner, with the capa-
risoned horses, leads to the dramatic climax of the emotional parting and
is
composition and story-content, by the lonely herdsman

surrounded by sheep and goats. The desolate dunes of the steppe-landscape
provide a loose frame for the figure-composition around which the ground is
then balanced,
in
not indicated.
The
in
old
title
of the painting,
"Herding Sheep", was written by Ch'eng Nan-yiJn
the Yung-lo period (1403-1422).
late thirteenth
The
last
colophon
(907-1125).
It
The
first
colophons are by scholars of the

whom we mention Yu Chi.
and fourteenth centuries, among
was
is
in
dated 1383.
Some
attribute the scroll to the Liao dynasty
the collection of Keng
Chao-chung
(1640-1686).
45
'10
PALACE CONCERT
Anonymous,
Hanging
Five Dynasties (906-960)
scroll In Ink
Ten court
listening
ladies
and color on
silk,
\9%x27y.
In.
(48.7x69.5 cm)
and two maids are grouped around a table making music or
and drinking
heartily.
The
dignified lady with the elaborate headdress,
holding a fan, perhaps represents the empress herself.
dog sleeps under
the table.
The instruments
are,
from
right to
left,
a vertical flute (kuan), lute (p'i-p'a),
mouth-organ (sheng) and clappers (ch'ung-tu). The drinking cups

and the wine bowl seem to be made of porcelain or stoneware; the small
zither fse),
dishes of red and black lacquer; the others as well as the long ladle of silver,
two with gold or gilded rims.
The plumpness of the ladies as well as their make-up, hairdo and costume
put the scene into the T'ang period, as do the furniture and its ornamentation
and the fact that the p'i-p'a is played with its neck held downward. It is
possible, however, that at the Southern T'ang court these traditions still were
preserved.
The
is
lines are fine
and not too angular nor accented, while the
This painting, which

attributed to the
until
recently
(ca. 800).
was given
to the
Southern T'ang period (937-975).
school of Chou Wen-chu (No.
46
overall
emphasis
on color.
9),
It
Yuan dynasty, can be
probably belongs to the
a follower of the T'ang painter
Chou Fang
47
1^
EIGHT GENTLEMEN ON A SPRING OUTING

Chao Yen
Attributed to
Hanging
Eight
scroll In ink
and color on
horsemen on
are grouped
asserts
itself
rock done
vertical
in
in
(died 922, Five Dynasties, Later Liang)

63^^x40%
In.
(161.9x102 cm)
their prancing steeds, crisply
pleasantly
more than
soft,
silk,
in
drawn and
in
brilliant colors,
balanced composition. The landscape frame
the Liao paintings discussed above.
The
large
wet ink contrasts with the sharply drawn balustrade. The
accent of the large trees and the horizontal division by a balustrade
are devices of the Five Dynasties.
Chao Yen was
a native of
Honan and a son-in-law of the Emperor

He was known for his
(reigned 907-912) of the Later Liang dynasty.

of figures
and horses, and
The picture is not signed,

we can assign the painting
i.e.
It
life.
but the attribution

to the Five
seems
plausible. In any case,
Dynasties or the early Northern Sung,
the tenth century.
carries the seals of a mid-seventeenth century collector.
(Illustration
48
for his lavish
cropped
at
top and bottom.)
T'ai-tsu
pictures
te-
%
^.
-S,
'
M^
iiri^
l^r
^
m m'\\
mi-
49
ti^V
12
SNOW ON THE
EARLY
Attributed to
Handscroll
in ink
Chao Kan
and colors on
RIVER
(ca. 970, Five Dynasties, Soutliern

silk,
10%
148X
T'ang)
(25.9x376.5 cm)
in.
we move along a river, back and forth between banks,

and rocks covered with reeds or trees, viewing these always
In unrolling this scroll
among
islets
from an elevation.
The genre element
is
still
strong. Travellers on donkeys
direction in which the scroll unrolls

In
and the
river flows.
move
against the
Fishermen engaged
various activities further enliven the scene. Their boats, rafts and nets are
same as those we can see in use today so are the wheel-barrow, the paper
the
umbrella and the wheel used to raise the
flame of a
sense
of
fire,
humor
near the end,
is
beam
of the net.
The smoke and
rendered with engaging realism. The
lively
with which the fishermen are depicted extends also to the
and even to their donkeys. The lines have a free,

and are not angular; there is no emphasis on outlines. The trees
are realistically painted with soft brushwork; banks and rocks have wet washshading in ink and color. Color washes cover and soften the outlines. The
main color areas are in the yellow reeds, the green of the trees, and the blue
expressions
of the travellers,
natural flow
river,
50
dotted with white specks of snow.
te^-^^
Chao Kan was a native of Nanking who served in the so-called Painting
Academy of the last Southern T'ang ruler, the poet and patron of the arts
Li Yij (961-975). He is said to have been skillful in the rendering of aquatic
subjects.
The
painting
is
not signed.
The
inscription with
title
and attribution was written
by the Chin emperor Chang-tsung (reigned 1190-1208).

plausible.
painting by
Chao Kan
with this
title,
The
attribution
seems
very probably the present
was already in the collection of the Sung emperor Hui-tsung, i.e. before
The colophons, of which the first is dated 1329, include K'o Chiu-ssu,
Yu Chi and many Mongol officials. There are several seals of Emperor Changtsung of Chin and others of the Mongol emperor Wen-tsung whose collection
picture,
1125.
it
entered
in
1329,
and
of
K'o Chiu-ssu (No.
79),
as well as the palace inventory
between 1373 and 1384. The scroll was

Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and An Ch'i (born 1683).
seal of the years
in
the collections of
51
13
TRAVELLERS
Hanging
IN
THE MOUNTAINS
Kuan T'ung
Attributed to
scroll In Ink
and some
(ca. 920, Five Dynasties, Later Liang)

on
light color
up
From
a monastery high
leads
down and across the
in
silk,
56%x22>i
(144.4x56.8 cm)
In.
the mountains, under a towering peal<, a path
where a
river,
approaching a modest
traveller is
hamlet. People are drinking, children are playing; there are pigs
chickens, donkeys and dogs.
The
in their sty,
scale and relative importance of
beings and landscape, however, have changed, and the genre scene
reduced to a
detail of
human
now is
the entire picture.

early type of architecture.
The low, straight temple roofs represent an

is some light color in the buildings.
There
Strong, irregular, partly broken outlines of varying width and with accents of
a pressed-down brush delineate the powerful mountains and rocks.
comma-like accents are used also
short, black
Some
rendered by shaded washes and wash strokes.

are repeated
in
rich black ink.
The
for texture
few
which otherwise
is
of the inner rock outlines
wet, shaded texture strokes and the
way
the trees stand out against a misty background are comparable to the work
of Fan K'uan (No. 18). The mountain tops are strongly three-dimensional and
the picture has depth and distance.
Kuan T'ung,
Changan, was active in Nanking under the Later

He was a pupil of the great Taoist landscapist Ching
a native of
Liang dynasty (907-923).
Hao. Kuo Jo-hsiJ
(ca. 1070) calls
the three masters of landscape.
hardness
of rock
antique elegance
human
his
him (with
forms; a luxurious density

his terraces
in
figures"
read that "most of
(tr.
all
it
Ch'eng and Fan K'uan) one
Li
Kuo mentions as
in
his
combinations
and pavilions; and a
A. Soper).
In
of trees;
autumn
an
lovely peacefulness in
the catalogue of Emperor Hui-tsung
delighted him to paint
of
characteristics "a crystalline
hills
we
and winter forests,
with groups of cottages, river crossings, hermits, recluses, fishermen selling

their catch,
The
mountain hostelries..."
painting
believe that
is
it
Ssu-tao (died
not signed.
We
(tr.
A. Waley).
attribute
it
to
was painted during the tenth

1276), of Emperor Wen-tsung
Kuan T'ung
century.
It
or a follower,
and
carries seals of Chia
(1328-1330),
and
of a
son of the
Ming emperor (fourteenth century), as well as the palace inventory seal

the years between 1373 and 1384. There is a highly appreciative inscription
first
of
by
Wang
1683).
52
To, dated 1625. The painting was
In
the collection of
An
Ch'i (born
53
54
14
TAOIST TEMPLE
Attributed to
Hanging
Tung
scroll In Ink
IN
THE MOUNTAINS
Yiian (ca. 950, Five Dynasties, Southern T'ang)
and colors on
silk,
72%
48%
In. (183.2 x
121.2
cm)
majestic landscape of rounded forest-clad mountains and rocks
covered by clouds which also conceal
all
is
partly
but the curved roofs of the temples
upswept corners. The few human beings on the overhanging path

at the right have, in scale and significance, been reduced much
further than in the preceding picture attributed to Kuan T'ung.
Tung Yiian, a native of Nanking, served as an official at the Southern T'ang
court. With his pupil Chij-jan (No. 15) he apparently was responsible for the
creation of a new landscape style which was to become highly influential during
the Yuan dynasty and following centuries.
The picture is not signed and the attribution Is based upon the inscription of
Wang To (1592-1652) mounted above the picture. Some authorities note differences in spirit and style between this painting and others attributed to
Tung Yiian, and place the picture in a later period.
with their
and bridge
55
'Ig
ASKING ABOUT THE TAO
THE AUTUMN MOUNTAINS
IN
Attributed to Chii-jan (ca. 975, Five Dynasties, Southern
T'ang-Sung
dynasty)
Hanging
scroll In Ink
Two men
and some very
are engaged
in
light color
conversation
the center of the picture.
In
the valley
is
the landscape.
in
It
on
silk,
61%x30Ji
in tlie little
The
real
In.
(156.2x77.2 cm)
thatched lodge half-hidden
subject of the painting clearly
has acquired a somevs/hat abstract character the mountains

;
are built up of rounded boulders, hillocks and
hills,
interrupted by
horizontal
flat
banks and table-lands. The foliage patterns are free and simplified
the scale
The long elegant reeds

The modelling of hills, slopes and rocks which
completed with the help of washes and wet, long
of the vegetation is carefully adjusted to the distance.
are
full
of tensile strength.
have hardly any outlines is

texture strokes.
The nervous splashed and spattered black dots no longer serve
the sole purpose of representing vegetation but are consciously employed for
accent. Sky and water are covered with a light blue wash.
The
priest Chu-jan,
from Nanking, was a pupil
of
Tung Yuan (No.
14).
When
the last Southern T'ang ruler went to Pienliang (Kaifeng) as a prisoner
(in
Chu-jan followed him and entered a monastery. Kuo Jo-hsii (ca. 1070)
writes that he was "a skillful landscape painter, whose brush and ink were
975),
fair
and mostly
rich.
He was good
at
doing misty atmospheric effects, and
high and spacious views of mountains and rivers..."
The
picture
is
not signed.
Ching (1046-1126) which
There also
The
is
painting
It
is
(tr.
A. Soper).
carries a seal of Hui-tsung's chancellor Ts'ai
accepted as authentic by the Chinese experts.
the palace inventory seal of the years between 1373 and 1384.
is
so advanced
in style
that the authenticity of the Ts'ai
Ching
becomes most important for assigning it to the tenth century. It is the

most famous and probably the best of all the existing paintings attributed to
ChiJ-jan. It was in the collection of Wang To's brother Wang Lung (ca. 1650).
seal
56
"'lâat'.
i'
'
"7
J.
'
-.
>
,.,*r'.5
57
'? ii -t
tf
^ T
f,
r-
rt
^ #
o.
I* S.
* M M'k
t\
*^
58
f%
:Â ÎW.!,BI
4 M t
/if:#..ij,M<p
1.
* H *.
;^
i 4\ %
U'
-4-
t^'
Ai
>1
fg
PHEASANT AND SPARROWS AMONG ROCKS AND SHRUBS

Huang
Attributed to
Chu-ts'ai
Five
(933-993,
Dynasties, Later Shu-
Sung dynasty)
Hanging
scroll In ink
colorful
and colors on
pheasant
Is
are chirping and flying
silk,
38% x21X
in.
(99x53.6 cm)
about to drink from a brook while other
lively
birds
among thorny shrubs and bamboo. The somewhat
concave outlines of the rocks are unbroken the rocks are shaded in wet
brushwork; leaves and reeds are strongly outlined.
Huang Chu-ts'ai was the youngest son of the famous bird and flower painter
;
Huang Ch'uan.
at Pienliang
The
picture
(Kaifeng).
is
not signed but has, on an old part of the mounting, an inscrip-
tion written by the
painting
Shu court in Chengtu

worked under the Sung emperors T'ai-tsu and T'ai-tsung
Like his father, he first served the Later
(929-965); later he
is, in
Sung emperor Hui-tsung
any case, no
there are several imperial
later
Sung
with
title
and
attribution.
than the early Northern Sung dynasty.
The
On
it
seals including those of Hui-tsung (1101-1126)
and Li-tsung (1225-1264) and the palace inventory seal
of the years
between
1373 and 1384.
59
^7
FISHING
ON A WINTRY RIVER
Attributed to Li Ch'eng (died 967, Five Dynasties, Later
Chou-Sung
dynasty)
Hanging
on
scroll In Ink
one nearly
66J^ x
40%
In.
man angles from
solitary old
gnarled trees.
silk,
(170x101.9 cm)
his boat,
among
bleak,
waterfall is visible over the mist, in the
snowy crags and
snow-clad mountains
feels the frosty air.
Ch'eng, a descendant of the T'ang imperial family, grew up in Shantung.

Educated as a scholar and poet, he declined all honors and positions and
Li
under the patronage of the Later Chou minister Wang P'o as

Honan where he happily drank himself to death. Kuo Jo-hsu
(ca. 1070) who calls him "a most excellent painter of landscapes with wintry
forests", ranks him among "the three masters of landscape" (with Kuan T'ung
and Fan K'uan). Kuo also points out that in Li Ch'eng's paintings "the atmospheric effects have a sublime openness, the misty woods a pure spaciouslived until 959
a recluse in
ness
And,
his brush-point is distinguished,

"in misty
woods and
and
his
use of ink exquisitely subtle."
level distances, the
wondrous was
first
attained
Ch'eng" (tr. A. Soper).

Li Ch'eng was the founder of an important school of landscape which includes
HsiJ Tao-ning (No. 19), Yen Wen-kuei and Kuo HsI (No. 20), and continued in
North China after the fall of the Northern Sung, under the Chin dynasty.
It was revived under the Yuan by artists such as Li K'an, Ts'ao Chih-po, Chu
Te-jun and T'ang Ti (Nos. 75, 82, 83).
The painting is not signed; it has two poetic inscriptions attributed to the
Southern Sung dynasty. On the other hand the broad wet outlines, the mushy
texture of the rocks, the "baroque" knobs and knots of the trees, the commashaped strong dots emerging from the trees, the dark "abstract" plant in the
right center, the end-hooks of the twigs and bushes all seem to point to a
Yuan date. Mi Fu (1051-1107) already remarked that he had seen only two
by
Li
Li Ch'eng. Of the paintings in the Palace Museum Collecwhich are attributed to the master, this very "painterly" picture is, in our
genuine works of
tion
opinion, the best.
60
It
was
in
the collection of Pi
Yuan
(1730-1797).
61
-)g
TRAVELLERS AMONG MOUNTAINS AND STREAMS

By Fan K'uan
Hanging
and colors on
The composition, dominated

is of majestic simplicity. The
a sense of depth
in silhouette
Sung dynasty)
(early eleventh century,
scroll in ink
is
silk,
My,
BV/, x
in.
(206.3 x 103.3
cm)
by the heavy bulk of the towering mountain,

vegetation
scaled dovirn to the distance, and
is
created by placing rocks ortree clumps of the middle ground
against a very light ink
wosh suggesting
mist. In a similar way,
the foreground rocks are silhouetted against the mountain stream fed by the
bold and simple waterfall in the distance. The roofs of a temple are just visible
above a densely wooded hill they are low with only a slight curve, and two layers
of supporting brackets. A monk carrying a pack is just rounding a corner in
the left center of the picture his straw hat is of a T'ang type still seen in Japan.
;
On
the right two
men
are driving loaded donkeys towards the stream. In scale
and importance, the figures are reduced to insignificance.

Powerful outlines, done in thick, jagged brushstrokes, delineate mountains
and rocks their irregular accents sometimes stick out like hooks. The interior
drawing consists of jabbed dots and innumerable short, wet parallel strokes
;
which vary
in
variety. Plain
accent, color and shape but belong to the so-called "raindrop"
washes
are used for the roofs and the dark background of the
waterfall; the misty areas are gradually
and
skillfully
shaded. The trees again
have strong outlines and wet grey texture strokes. Foliage patterns are differentiated
some
are colored.
Fan K'uan probably was born about the middle of the tenth century and was
still alive in 1026. He was a northerner from Shensi province and a Taoist.
We
most of which he apparently spent in the mounLi Ch'eng before he developed his own manner.
Kuo Jo-hsLJ (ca. 1070) tells us that "K'uan's manner and appearance had an
antique severity; his behavior was rude and rustic; it was his nature to crave
wine and to love the (Taoist) way". Kuo Jo-hsu classifies him (with Kuan T'ung
and Li Ch'eng) as one of the three masters of landscape. "His works include
know
tains.
full
As
little
about his
massiveness
of
a natural simplicity
century)
in
his
alive,
under
(tr.
virile
strength...
people and buildings". Liu Tao-ch'un (eleventh

are real
rocks and ancient trees which thrust
his brush.
goes beyond the surface
beauty"
In
peaks and summits, and general effects of
comments: "They
themselves up,
that
life,
a painter, he followed
finds in him a spirit consonance

and an indifference to ornamental
One
of things,
A. Soper). The signature, hidden
at the
lower right, was discovered
1958 after having been "lost" for at least two hundred years. There
is
the
palace inventory seal of the years between 1373 and 1384. The painting has,
on the mounting, an inscription by Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (1555-1636) with attribution

and title. It has been in the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
62
63
64
19
FISHING ON A
SNOWY
RIVER
Attributed to Hsij Tao-ning

Hanging
scroll in ink
on
lonely fisherman
silk,
(first
66>^x43%
In.
half eleventh century,
Sung dynasty)
(169x110 cm)
under an umbrella angles on a wintry stream; snowy
peaks tower high over the
valley
which fades
Into the mist.
The composition
The painting
leads our eyes diagonally back and forth into the veiled distance.
has good scale as well as depth and atmosphere. The temple architecture
of
is
an early type. Broad, modulated outlines are combined with a delicate

in washes and in long, wet texture strokes which often
The outlines of the foreground and center rocks are
and accented, those of the high peaks more flowing, though
modelling, done mainly

flow into the washes.
more
still
irregular
hesitant.
Hsu Tao-ning was a native of Hopei, and originally an herb-medicine peddler

in Changan. As a painter, he followed Li Ch'eng. He was somewhat younger
than Fan K'uan (No.
18).
"With peaks that rose abrupt and sheer, and forest
trees that were strong and unyielding, he created a special school and form
of his
The
not
own" (Kuo
painting
fall
is
Jo-hsCi, ca. 1070,
tr.
A. Soper).
signed and dated, but the cyclical date chia-shen (1044) does
within the Ching-yu reign (1034-1038).
The
inscription
is
thus shown
to be a later addition.
Hence the
attribution to
Hsu Tao-ning
is
open
to doubt, but
we can accept
the painting as the work of a highly accomplished arlist of a slightly later

period, toward the end of Northern Sung.
The
picture
was
in
the collection of Pien Yung-yij (1645-1702).
65
20
EARLY SPRING
By Kuo
Hanging
Hsi (dated 1072,
scroll in ink
and some
Sung dynasty)
light colors
on
62Xx42%
silk,
in.
(158.3x108.1 cm)
mountain landscape of romantic grandeur the human beingsfishermen

disembarking have become totally insignificant. This is also true of the temple
buildings which have low, slightly curved roofs with straight eaves. Some light
color is used in both figures and buildings. The coiling, writhing masses of
earth and rock seem to move and pulsate with cosmic rhythm. The composition
is fantastic in all-over design but realistic in detail. Broad, wet outlines in a
In this
nervous, modulated brushstroke are balanced by varied wet texture-strokes

in ink values. Bank by bank, the valley
The sense of depth is heightened by
the use of ever lighter shades of ink for more distant areas the impression of
height is increased by masking the bases of the cliffs in mist. The spidery
trees show the influence of Li Ch'eng, but there is less emphasis on the ends
of twigs and dry branches. The ink-blob foliage of the leafy trees seems to be
a new development. Some trees again stand out in front of lighter areas of mist
and washes
on the
left
of
an extraordinary richness
leads us into the distance.
or water. There
executed
in
is
as yet
little
emphasis on pure line-work, and the picture
is
a very painterly fashion.
Kuo Hsi was
Honan province.
a native of
In 1068,
he was
summoned
to paint
a screen for the imperial palace, and subsequently served in the Painting
Academy. A follower
of Li
critics
17), he became the outstanding reprewas without an equal in his time. Contemporary
Ch'eng (No.
sentative of this school and
acclaimed his creativity and spontaneity
in
composition and design,
as well as the dexterity and versatility of his flawless brushwork. Kuo Hsi also
was the author
of the
most important Chinese
value of landscape painting, for him, lay
as
if
The
he were
really in
painting
bears the
in its
treatise
capacity to
on landscape. The
make the viewer
feel
the place depicted.

seal
of
the Chin
emperor Chang-tsung (reigned
1190-1208) and the palace inventory seal of the years between 1373 and 1384.
It
66
has been
in
the collection of Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686).
fe.
V-
*.
-fe
:|
fit
X.
i.
7.
-ii,
;i
67
sriiKrt/iti
21
MARKET VILLAGE BY THE RIVER

Anonymous, eleventh
Handscroll
in ink
century,
and colors on paper,
river
in
the finest of
Sung dynasty
11Xx17%
in.
(28.6x44.1 cm)
landscape provides the setting for an interesting genre scene
line.
barge carrying a trader or traveller
the shore. Similar boats are moored already; laundry
The
one
of the masts.
lers
having a meal
riverside village is alive with
the inn; an old
in
man
is
is
strung on a line from
animated figures two

:
The
a high pole with turning top and streamers indicates a festival.

of a
camel caravan are barely
The
bulky weathered bluff with
Fan K'uan (No.
18)
the
Tung Yuan
right, the
flat
in
at
hills in
There also
Yen Wen-kuei
silhouettes
is
at
the
left,
recalls
the distance, at the
a definite relationship
(ca. 1010), likewise in the
Palace
wave
pattern
may be seen on Yamato-e
paintings of the Fujiwara
Japan. Water and sky are covered with blue washes.
In
the mountains,
some dry brushwork is used in addition to wet ink and color.

The painting bears an imperial seal of the Shao-hsing era (1131-1161) as
as the palace inventory seal of the years between 1373 and 1384.
collection of Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525-1590).
68
boy
where
the right.
scrubby vegetation,
tradition (No. 14).
hill
Collection.
similar
period
pass
bank and the rounded
with a mountain landscape by
Museum
visible in the
its
travel-
talking to a kneeling servant; a
donkey; a gentleman climbing toward the temple by the
driving a
drav^rn
sailing tow/ard
It
was
in
well
the
:T-
I
I
/'
c^
j^'
li
\v
yfTc
iw^y'
.Mi.'raJ
i.i:';i=
22
MANDARIN DUCKS
IN
AUTUMN
Attributed to Hui-ch'ung (early eleventh century,

Album
Two
leaf in ink
colorful ducks, on the
leaves and reeds.
and charm. Pairs
bank
10}i x
10X
in. (27.4 x 26.4
of a rivulet, are
The small world
Sung dynasty)
cm)
surrounded by withered lotus
of the water fowl is depicted with sensitivity
of ducks often symbolize conjugal harmony in China, and

may have such a connotation here.
Hui-ch'ung was a monk-painter from Fukien province who became known
for his paintings of water-birds. The painting is not signed and stylistically
is difficult to fit into so early a period. Some would say it was painted about
the time of Emperor Hui-tsung's Academy or during the early Southern Sung
period. While it is (ess arranged and more freely composed than the Academy's
nature studies, this may be the residue of an earlier tradition.
It carries the seals of a late Sung or early Yuan scholar and of the painter
Shen Chou (1427-1509) and was in the collections of Hsiang YiJan-pien (15251590) and Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686).
they
23
MAGPIES AND HARE

By
Ts'ui
Hanging
Po
(dated 1061,
scroll in ink
The two magpie
Sung dynasty)
and colors on
jays,
silk,
40%
76>^ x
considered by the Chinese to be harbingers of
are scolding a hare which looks up at
wet contours
(193.7x103.4 cm)
in,
of the earth
them with some
surprise.
banl< contrast with the fine hairs of the fur,
with fine drawing of other elements: green outlines for the

lines, partly filled with color, for
double
tree,
of dry,
bamboo;
and
ink out-
reeds and oak leaves; precise drawing,
lines, for the veins of the leaves.
and the rendition
joy,
The broad,
The
soft, knotty
in
contours of the old
rough texture without any formalized stroke
patterns, contribute to the remarkable sense of naturalness that pervades the

picture.
The diagonal composition
is
well balanced,
and conveys an impres-
sion of spontaneity and movement.

Ts'ui Po, a native of
and
birds,
Anhwei province, was known
which he drew without the benefit
for his paintings of fiowers
of preliminary charcoal
sketches.
was summoned to paint a screen for the imperial audience hall,

and subsequently was appointed to the Painting Academy.
The compilers of the Ch'ien-lung emperor's catalogue did not discover the
In
1068 he
signature and date which are hidden
in
the tree trunk, and listed the painting
as "anonymous".
The
painting carries seals of the
Sung emperor
not prior to 1233, and of a son of the
as well as the palace inventory seal of
70
Li-tsung (1225-1264), from a year
Ming emperor (fourteenth century),

the years between 1373 and 1384.
first
71
24
MONKEYS
A LOQUAT TREE
IN
Anonymous, eleventh century (Sung dynasty)

Hanging
and colors on
scroll in ink
A monkey
is
silk, 65'/J x
42>i in. (165x107.9
cm)
swinging from the branch of a loquator p'i-p'a tree (Eriobotrya
japonica) while another sits on the trunk, looking up at him. Their shaded
faces are alive and expressive; the fur

lively
animals are portrayed
in
their
is
done with a very fine brush. The

habitat and behavior, keenly
natural
observed but not sentimentalized or so aloof from

pictures.
Po
The composition
picture (No. 23).
contours; there
is
is
interrelated in a
Rocks and
tree trunk
reality
as
in
the later Academy
manner comparable
to the Ts'ui
have soft rounded or angular
some wet shading and irregular interior drawing, and the

The drawing of the tree relates to tenth
colored leaves have fine ink outlines.

century traditions.
The painting bears a Yuan dynasty imperial seal from a period beginning
It was in the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
72
1340.
25
MONKEY AND CATS

By
Yijan-chi (died ca. 1065,
Handscroll
in ink
The focus
and colors on
sills,
12%x22V^
of this sophisticated
leashed to a post and holding a
lines
The
in
very
leash
is
In.
(31.9x57.2 cm)
and unsymmetrical composition is a monkey

arms another tsitten turned toward
kitten in its
is at
the
left.
animals are portrayed with keen observation
The ground
is
not indicated and they
visible earth by the leash

I
The animals are painted without outfine brushstrokes that make every hair of the fur stand out.
elegantly drawn and slightly shaded, as is the post. The lively
monkey and mewing,
the
Sung dynasty)
seem
of nature,
to float in
of
humor.
and post only.
Yuan-chi was a painter from Hunan province
He
and a sense
space, related to a not-
died shortly after having been
summoned
who
specialized
in
animals.
to the capital by imperial order
composition of "One Hundred Apes".

The painting is not signed, but has an inscription in the handwriting of the
Sung emperor Hui-tsung with attribution and title, as well as several of his
seals. It is recorded in Hui-tsung's catalogue (ca. 1120). The first colophon
in the collections of Liang
is by Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322). The scroll was
Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and Pi Lung (eighteenth century).
to paint a
73
26
NOBLE SCHOLAR UNDER A WILLOW
Anonymous, eleventh
Sung dynasty
Hanging
scroll in ink
century,
and colors on
silk,
25^
his
garden
15%
in.
(65.4x40.2 cm)
gentleman-scholar relaxes
in
with a bowl of wine, on a leopard skin, under
weeping willow. The summer heat, or the

made him slip his
outer garment from his shoulders his head
flush of the wine, has
has sunk on the chest, and the narrowed

eyes express a pensive, withdrawn mood.
The
scroll of
paper
is
poem he
receive the
still
is
blank, ready to
composing
in
his
mind. The personage probably represents

the poet T'ao Ch'ien (Yiian-ming, 365-427)
who
retired
from
official
life
enjoy the
to
pleasures of the country. He became, for

ages, the ideal
later
of
the
independent
gentleman-scholar-artist.
The
self-contained attitude of the figure
Is
emphasized by the curved frame of the

willow tree. The lines of the robe are thin
and not modulated. The contours
trunk recall the outlines used
Sung landscapes
The
The
Sun
in ink
outline with
The leaves
two shades
its
are
of green.
black areas of hat and robe are shaded.

picture has been in the collections of
Ch'eng-tse
(1592-1676)
Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
74
Northern
the texture strokes on
surface are long and hairy.
done
of the tree
in
and
Liang
27
BAMBOO
Wen
Attributed to
Hanging
scroll In Ink
on
single branch of
left
to lower right.
T'ung (died
silk,
52x4i;^
in.
1079,
Sung dynasty)
(132.6x105.4 cm)
bamboo sweeps down

The leaves are done in
in
a reverse "s" curve from upper
several shades of ink; the darkest
tones are used for the upper surfaces of the leaves, the lighter for the undersides and for leaves
stem.
In
in
a further plane of depth.
bamboo
China, the
is
the
Wet shading
symbol par excellence
is
used on the
of
the perfect
scholar-gentleman. Bamboo-painting therefore became a particular hobby of
such men. The similarity of the bamboo-leaf to certain calligraphic strokes

added to its appeal. The bamboo is painted or "written" the way it grows,
from the root to the top and from the stem to the tips of the leaves.
Wen T'ung, a native of Szechwan, became a high official at the capital and
a close friend of Su Shih (No. 115). He is considered the patriarch of bamboo
painting
the
in Ink.
artist.
The
The
painting
is
not signed, but carries a seal with the
they were written by two scholars of the Yung-lo period (1403-1422).

tion
seems
plausible, although
painting actually
painters
who
name
of
laudatory inscriptions on the mounting also speak of him;
is
by
Wen
it
is
The
attribu-
impossible to determine whether the
T'ung or by one
of the great
Yuan dynasty bamboo
imitated him.
75
23
PINES
AND MOUNTAINS
SPRING
IN
Sung dynasty)
Attributed to Mi Fu (1051-1107,
Hanging
scroll in ink
13%x17%
in.
(35x44.1 cm)
simple thatched shelter beside a group of pines
separated from the
is
green and pink peaks by a sea of mist. The heavy color

especially
in
the horizontal black and blue-green dots.
is
applied
in
layers,
The needle-clusters
are depicted with round areas of blue-green color, covering the ink drawing.
Mi Fu (often called Mi Fei) was a well-known painter, calligrapher (No. 117),

antiquarian, official and, especially,
As
critic.
a painter, he
originated an impressionist style of overlaying ink

to obtain soft, misty effects, with
He was rediscovered during
the
little
washes
is
in
said to have
graded tones
use of contour or other lineament.
Yuan period when
his
style
became
very
influential.
The
picture bears a signature
are considered by the Palace

tion
on
the
mounting,
by
and seal with the name
Museum
to
be
of the artist, but
Emperor Kao-tsung
these
The
poetic inscrip-
(1106-1187),
supports the
later additions.
attribution.
The
is
style of the picture
therefore be
The
76
goes back
to Mi Fu, but the particular color
scheme
an innovation of the Yuan period. The question of the actual date must
picture
left
was
open.
in
the collection of
Huang
Lin (ca. 1500).
IK
:^^<
r:^
Hs
&'
f
n'
L,
.^^^
r.^,>*
^^
29
KUO
^'
TZU-I RECEIVING
Attributed to
Handscroll
in ink
Li
THE HOMAGE OF THE UIGURS
Kung-lin (died 1106,
on paper, 12% x 88%
in. (32.3 x
Sung dynasty)
223.8
cm)
The subject of the story is an exploit of the famous and ever-victorious general
Kuo Tzu-i (697-781) of the T'ang dynasty. In 765, he was faced by an invasion
of the Uigurs and another Central Asian tribe, who were numerically far superior
to his forces. He decided to go, without arms and armor, into the camp of
the Uigurs whose leaders once had served under him. When they recognized
him, they dismounted and paid him obeisance. Together they repelled the
other invaders.
The dramatic scene unrolls in a superb composition. At the beginning, on

all is movement and forward thrust. The Uigur horsemen move in,
the right,
from behind a cloud, from above and below the picture, with the speed of
in a raid. The forward movement is arrested by the group of stand-
the wind, as
ing horses
78
and
flying
banners; then picked up again, more slowly, by the
/*^
lO
;L ^^
*^
4i?
'^
f^. f^
[M?
in
't'
^?*,^
S^.
.^3^
*.*'lMfiri
X
dismounted chieftains, kneeling and leaning forward. Their leader
is
knees, while the Chinese general
hand and
helps him
On
all
with the general's steed
calm and
is
next
comes
The first accent is the groom

compact group of dismounted officers
dignity.
the
their horses; then the rest of the escort,
flying as they
Li
fly
owing
on horseback, with banners
on the ramparts of the besieged
Kung-lin (Lung-mien)
history.
on his
rise.
the Chinese side,
and
his flowing robe holds out his
in
Born about 1040
to illness in 1100
was one
in
of the
Anhwei, he rose
and died
in 1106.
city, at
the
left.
most famous painters
in
Chinese
to high official rank, but retired
He was
particularly appreciated for
his figure painting.
The signature may

unlike that of
(No.
4).
The
Li
well be a later addition.
The
style of the painting is quite
Kung-lin as represented by other works attributed to him
original
colophons are
1367 telling the story of the subject.
century scholars; one,
who
died
lost,
The
and there
is
only a postscript dated
seals include those of two fifteenth
in 1457, is
said to have inherited
it
from
his
great-grandfather, the prince of Chin-ning (fourteenth century).
We
can attribute the painting to an unknown master of the Sung dynasty.
79
30
THE ISLES OF THE IMMORTALS

Wang Shen (dated 1064
Atiributed to
Handscroll
The
and colors on
In ink
silk,
Isles of the Immortals,
9%
57
somewhere
Sung dynasty)
or 1124,
in. (24.5 x 145.1
cm)
the eastern sea, belong to an old
In
Taolst legend. According to the Inscription, the
artist
painted what he
saw
a dream.
In
The blue-and-green landscape

back to
Li
Ssu-hsun and
Li
tradition to
Chao-tao (No.
which
2)
belongs goes
this picture
and was very much
alive as late
as Ch'iu Ying (No. 102). Mountains and rocks have no texture strokes, only
angular outline drawing
the trees are executed
in
various greens and browns,
The twigs and branches show the influence of

There are some sparsely placed dots. Long wet wash
with different leaf patterns.
Ch'eng (No.
Li
17).
strokes extend from the banks into the water.
peaks
light
in
wash
blue
In
the
first part,
Wang Shen official,
are visible.
artist
signed and dated
the rather long inscription
mountains near the end. However,
The date on
the painting,
father-in-law
was born
too
The
in
first
its
is
Emperor
painting
hidden on one of the distant
authenticity has been doubted by
taken as 1064, seems very early for a
of the painting, dated 1088,
is
some.
man whose
1124, seems
recorded as having
the seventeenth century.
colophon
is
dated 1127, the third 1137/8; there are also seals of Chia
Ssu-tao (died 1276) and of two scholars of the Yuan dynasty.
and the
115).
1031, but the only other possible date,
in
Another version
late.
existed
if
of
The
and collector was the son-in-law
Ying-tsung (1031-1067) and a younger friend of Su Shih (No.

is
with the fishermen
shore and trees vanish into the mist above which distant
in their boats, the far
label
A further colophon
were written by Tung Ch'i-ch'ang, before 1614. As
for the style
of the painting, the treatment of the misty distance is reminiscent of
Chao
Ling-jang (ca. 1100) while the handling of the archaizing mountain landscape
is
very similar to certain landscapes attributed to Ch'ien HsiJan (No. 68).
The
collector
jang,
The
Chao
scroll
An
Ch'i already pointed out the stylistic relations to
has been
in
Ling-
the collections of Hsiang Tu-shou (late sixteenth
century), Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and
are the seals of Ch'en
80
Chao
Po-chiJ and Ch'ien HsiJan.
To
An
Ch'i (born 1683)
(early sixteenth century).
on the seams
L.#LJtt
81
31
A LITERARY GATHERING
Attributed to Emperor Hui-tsung (reigned 1101-1125,
Hanging
scroll in ink
Twelve men
and colors on
laid with
in. (184.4 x 123.9
and drinking, and
of letters, talking
around a table
72^x48%
silk,
Sung dynasty)
cm)
their attendants are
ceramic and lacquer vessels
grouped
T'ang and Sung shapes,
in
ewers and artificial flowers. On a rock table in the background we see

books and a musical instrument (ch'in) with its cover-wrap. In the foreground, attendants are busy heating the wine and preparing the dishes. The
group is placed under a large mango tree, enlaced by a vine, and a weeping
silver
willow;
bamboo and
rocks complete the garden, which
enclosed by an
is
elegant railing. This composition, using a vertical tree-group and two horizontal banisters connected at right angles
picture follows a
The
model
the center, suggests that the
in
of the tenth century (cf.
figures are well-drawn, especially
in
No.
11).
the hands and faces;
some shading
used. The fold-lines of the garments are moderately angular but mainly
follow the natural flow of the cloth. The trees are carefully built up, leaf by
is
leaf,
with outlines even for the willow tendrils,
The treatment
of the tree trunks
rendering of texture.
The bank
and rocks
is
done
is
in different
soft
in soft
and
outline
shades
and wash.
Hui-tsung (1082-1135) wa,s a weak and unfortunate emperor

life
of green.
delicate, with a realistic
who ended
his
as a prisoner of the Chin Tartars when they conquered the north of China
in 1127.
He was, however,
of rank (No. 118)
dominated the
a great patron of the arts, and himself a calligrapher
and a major painter
of birds
activities of the Painting
and flowers. His favorite subject
Academy which, under
his control, rose
was to maintain until the end of the dynasty.

commanding position
The emphasis now was on literal rendering of the real appearance of things.
to the
it
However, instead
of clinging to a
photographic realism, the court
their subjects to the status of ideal
artists raised
specimens.
The painting bears the cipher of the emperor Hui-tsung and is inscribed with
a poem by him. Since the subject is not among Hui-tsung's known specialties,
it has been suggested that the painting was done by one of the court artists
and inscribed by the emperor. The rhymes of the emperor's verses are employed
also
in
another
poem on
the painting, written by Hui-tsung's notorious minister
Ts'ai Ching.
The picture has been in the collections

Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686).
82
of
Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525-1590) and
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^
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'^'
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-i^
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i^
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,^:
83
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84
^Tt
32
AUTUMN OVER
HILLS
AND RIVER
Sung dynasty)
Attributed to Emperor Hui-tsung (reigned 1101-1125,

Hanging
and
scroll in ink
Wooded
light colors
peaks are seen
the valley and

haze.
The
mist.
Some
its village.
on paper, 38;^
x 21
autumn
rising out of the
The pagoda
of a
temple
53
cm)
mist,
which
is faintly
veils
visible
most
color tinges the
autumn
foliage and
some
is
used
in
of
through the
trees fade into ever lighter shades of ink until they disappear
boats and background peaks. For the most

in
in. (97 x
in
the
the figures,
part, hov\/ever, the picture is
done
shades of w/et ink, with little emphasis on line and contour. The
drawing on tree trunks and rocks is realistically painted. The soft
delicate
interior
outlines of the trunks disappear in washes. The human figures are carefully
and precisely handled. The hazy, atmospheric quality of the whole scene,
sensitively captured, gives a poetic aura to the painting.
The
picture
is
signed with the emperor's cipher and seal, but the style of the
painting suggests a
thirteenth century)
somewhat
and
later date,
this is not
one
probably Southern Sung (twelfth-
of the types of
work usually associated
with the emperor.
The
painting bears the palace inventory seal of the years between 1373-1384
and
later
was
in
85
33
BIRDS
BAMBOO
A THICKET OF
IN
AND PRUNUS
Anonymous,
^^^_^
scroll in ink
W^^^Pf^^
(258.4 X
08.4
The
Sung dynasty
ca. 1100-1125,
Hanging
and colors on
silk,
101%x42%in.
cm)
static birds are
latticeworl<
of
branches and
placed within an intricate
bamboo
and plumage
blooming
stalks,
briers.
tall
Every
detail
of
drawn with an extraordinary refinement, and is the result of
foliage
is
patient observation.
compositions
relationship
is
which perch
in
In
contrast to earlier
Po No.
T'sui
(cf.
23),
no
implied between the birds,

isolation, in their
assigned
places.
The
outline of the foreground bank
is
broad,
wavering and partly broken, of uneven width
the tree trunk has an irregular, soft, knotty
contour.
Bamboo
drawn
thin
in
brier stalks.
tifully
leaves
and
outline as are
The
birds'
reeds
some
plumage
is
are
of the
beau-
individualized.
The painting can probably be ascribed to

some member of the Painting Academy of
Emperor Hui-tsung. The picture bears
Mongol imperial seals of the T'ien-li period
(1328-1329), of the K'uei-chang Ko Academy
(1329-1340)
and the palace inventory seal
of the years
between 1373-1384.
in
the collections of
and
86
his
Sung
Later,
it
was
Ch'iJan (1598-1652)
son Sung Lao (1634-1713).
34
SHRIKE
By
Li
Album
The
An-chung
leaf in ink
exquisitely
Sung dynasty)
(ca. 1110,
and color .on
silk,
10
drawn shrike
is
x 10'/i
in.
(25.4 x 26.9
cm)
perched on a dry twig over outlined bamboo.
and
a sense of perfection, the bird is "distilled"

own, separate reality, in an elegant and timeless
Depicted with crystalline
clarity
from nature and creates
its
arrangement.
Li
An-chung
first
served
in
the Painting
Academy
of
After the defeat by the Chin Tartars (1127), the court
the Painting
Academy was
re-established
in
the
new
Hui-tsung at Pienliang.
moved
to the south,
capital, first at
and
Nanking
later at Hangchow. Li An-chung was an official also of the Hangchow

Academy, where he was decorated with the "Golden Belt".
The painting is signed by the artist, who uses a title he received some time
before 1119 when he was promoted. The remaining half of an official seal
and
carries a date corresponding to 1107-1110.
There also
is
the seal of a Ming
dynasty collector.
87
35
CLOUDS AND MIST
MOUNTAINS
IN
By Mi Yu-jen
(before 1135,
Handscroll
in ink
The rhythmic
on paper, 10%
83%
flow of verdant
Sung dynasty)
212.6
in. (27.2 x
and
hills
cm)
rolling
clouds builds up to a climax
marked by the pagoda on the highest peak, and then ebbs out gracefully. The
sparse details of trees and houses are sketched in the most essential way.
Soft, wet, horizontal dots give accent to the blurred and hazy shapes, produced
by painting with very watery ink on
dampened
paper.
Mi Yu-jen (1086-1165), son of the famous Mi Fu (No. 28), was a scholar-official,

calligrapher and painter.
his father, piling
use of contour or other
88
He painted
up layers
of ink
line.
in
the impressionist style inaugurated by
tones to obtain soft misty effects, with
little
.^'^'
The
painting
is
not signed, but
lias
tions finding this worl< of his in the
The
early history of this scroll
century.
is
painting
is
house
in
which he men-
of a friend in 1135.
cannot be established beyond the seventeenth
representative of the artist's style and the attribution
entirely plausible.
The
the
is
The
a postscript by the artist
picture carries
Hung-wu
two seals attributed

one of a
era (ca. 1368), and
a colophon by
Tseng
Southern Sung period one of

Ming collector (Wu T'ing). There
to the
later
Ti (1162) attributing the picture to Mi
Fu
another
Wu
K'uan (1503); others by Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (1555-1636) and Lou

Chien (1598) several by Ta Chung-kuang (between 1681 and 1684) and Kao
Shih-ch'i (1690). The history of the early inscriptions is confused. The scroll
signed
was
in
the collections of
Ta Chung-kuang and Kao
Shih-ch'i.
89
36
WHISPERING PINES
By
T'ang (dated
Li
Hanging
scroll in
]nV.
IN
1124,
and colors on
THE MOUNTAINS
Sung dynasty)
silk,
powerful rocky mountain dominates
(No. 18).
The same
cm)
x 55 in. (188.7 x 139.8
74X
tlie
way recalling Fan K'uan

way the mountain is crowned
picture in a
tradition is also evident in the
by scrubby vegetation and certain tree groups stand out

the clouds, as well as
in
silhouette against
in
the thin silvery bands of waterfalls
in
front of
somber,
shadowed gorges. The whole composition has been moved closer
to the
observer.
The
texture strokes
show
the most conspicuous change. Fan K'uan's "rain-
drop" dabs have developed into
Li
T'ang's characteristic, somewhat mannered
"axe-cut" strokes which are applied with the brush held
Slender peaks
is
used
in
in light
the trees,
blue and grey rise
some
pink and
brown
in
an inclined position.
the distance. Green and blue color
in
the rocks and tree trunks. Broad,
in
strong, nearly unbroken outlines of slightly varying width and with
sure accents hold
cliffs
Li
T'ang
of
Emperor Hui-tsung
(ca. 1050-1130), a native of

at
some
pres-
and rocks together.
Honan
province, served
Pienliang (Kaifeng).
in
Academy
the
year or two after the exodus
T'ang managed to follow, and was awarded the highest

and honors, including the "Golden Belt". Though nearly eighty, he
to the south (1127) Li

titles
dominated the new Academy and imposed

until
the end of the dynasty.
The
painting
is
his style
on
it
in
a way that lasted
signed and dated (on one of the distant pinnacles).
the seal of Chia Ssu-tao (died 1276) and a Southern
Sung palace
as the palace inventory seal of the years between 1373-1384. Later,

collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
90
It
carries
seal as well
it
was
in
the
91
37
MOUNTAINS BY THE RIVER

By
Li
T'ang
Handscroll
in ink
(ca. 1050-1130,
Sung dynasty)
and colors on
^9%x^3'A
At the beginning
slll(,
hills
from the opposite shore
introduce a slowly unrolling river landscape.
wooded
follow the path threading through the
l^nolls of
We
the foreground. Beyond
a vast expanse of water enlivened by the sailing boats.
The
roofs of the temple buildings are of the early type,
out the pronounced curvature that
Sung and
later paintings.
There
and green on the rocks and

color for the
92
(49.7x186.7 cm)
of the scroll, a spit of land extending
and some distant blue

is
in.
more
is
is
flat
and
straight, with-
characteristic of temples in Southern
blue color on the roofs and yellow, brown
cliffs;
distant trees, with
the richly varied foliage patterns are
some
ink for the foreground ones.
in
Tree
trunks and rocks have strongly drawn contours which are slightly
modulated
and have longish sections. At the same time, the graded washes, the feathery
drawing of foliage, the concentration on mass and texture, soften the
whole
and give it a more painterly aspect. The texture strokes are of the same
"axe-
cut" pattern we recognized on the previous picture, but less formalized

or
mannered. The whole mountain landscape is tightly built up and richly shaded
in ink and color, contrasting with the unlimited
space of water and sky behind.
Boats with their masts and ropes are freely drawn, without a ruler. The
waves
are done
drawn
The
in
in
painting
has been cut

is
an archaizing fish-net pattern with the right side of each wave
a double line.
is
not signed an entire section including the signature probably

and made into a separate scroll. The artist's hand, however,
off
unmistakable
in all details.
long appreciation by
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang is dated 1633; a colophon by the

who later owned the painting was written in 1660.
the collection of Sung Lao (1634-1713).
painter Ch'eng Cheng-k'uei
The
scroll also
was
in
93
38
TEMPLE BY THE CLIFF PASS

By Chia Shih-ku
Album
In
leaf in ink
(ca. 1150,
and color on
a scene of dusk, a
silk,
Sung dynasty)
\0y, x
dense group
10%
in.
(26.4
of pines
which two bearers approach from the
right.
x26 cm)
firs surmounts the rocky knoll

Temple buildings are visible in the
and
distance behind the trees. Using a device very popular during the Southern
Sung
period, the composition
is concentrated in one corner of the picture

empty space, broken only by a single distant hill painted in
dilute blue-grey wash. The format of the album leaf fits the new tendency
toward a more intimate character in the landscape. Stylistically, the painting
is very close to Li T'ang (Nos. 36-37), but the rock texture is elaborated in a
more mannerist way, with furry growths of long grass adding to the feeling
of density and compression.
while the rest
is
Chia Shih-ku, a native of Pienliang (Kaifeng) served as an
Academy
The
at
painting
Hangchow
is
signed.
official in
the Painting
during the Shao-hsing period (1131-1161).

It
carries an official seal, probably of the Yiian dynasty
the palace inventory seal of the years between 1373 and 1384; and another
official seal of
94
the Ming dynasty.
39
CAT
By
Li
Album
Ti (dated 1174,
leaf in
color on
silk,
Sung dynasty)
9%
9%
in.
(23.6x24.1
This portrait of a ginger colored cat
which seems
to
show
is
cm)
painted
in
an unbelievably fine
detail
every single hair of the animal's fur. In spite of the meti-
culous treatment, the artist has managed to convey the sensuous and feline
charm, the essential character of the cat to a point where the "idea" of a cat
is
actually portrayed.
The
picture
is
signed and dated.
was a native of Honan province. During the Shao-hsing era (1131-1161)

he became Assistant Director of the later Painting Academy at Hangchow,
and was awarded the "Golden Belt". He was apparently still alive in 1197.
Li
Ti
95
4Q
HERDBOYS AND BUFFALOES

By
Li
Ti (dated 1174,
Hanging
Two
scroll in ink
THE RAINSTORM
IN
Sung dynasty)
and colors on
silk,
*T/,xW/,
in.
(120.7x102.8 cm)
herdboys on water buffaloes are rushing homeward, fleeing the sudden

is lashing the old willow tree; one of the boys holds onto
storm. The wind
his hat the other has already lost his, and is about to jump down to retrieve it.
The genre element is rendered with a definite sense of humor.
The buffaloes are carefully drawn in fine brushwork that shows each hair.
The competently painted landscape setting, with its suggestions of murky
atmosphere in sky and ground, captures well the mood of the rainstorm. The
;
foreground bank
is
depicted mainly
in
rocks have stronger, broad contours.

trunks, where
some
washes, with a
light outline,
broad, blunt brush
ink is applied fairly dry.
is
used
while the
for the tree
Dense green covers the weeping
willow.
The
picture
is
signed and dated to the same year as the previous work. The
painting, was written by Emperor Li-tsung

between 1234 and 1264. On the painting are several seals of a son of the first
Ming emperor (fourteenth century), and the palace inventory seal of the years
inscription,
mounted above the
between 1373-1384.
96
97
^
2
S
98
a *i i fit
x f
*
A t ^ * *
-ft
41
CHILDREN AT PLAY
By Su Han-ch'en
Hanging
Two
(first
half twelfth century,
and colors on
scroll In Ink
silk,
77%
42%
Sung dynasty)
In. (197.5 x 108.7
princely children are playing with a toy balance
Another
cm)
made
of jujube fruits.
two mounted archers spinning around, is placed on the

second stool. There is also a small shrine in the form of a stupa, and bowls
made of red lacquer. The eight auspicious symbols ornament a board and the
toy, with
The stools are decorated in silver, imitating lacquer work, in

chrysanthemum and vine pattern. A gold design adorns the red robe,
and the children wear gold ornaments. All these details are delicately drawn,
as are the hair and hands of the children and their lively eyes. The fold lines
tray of the toy.
a stylized
of their robes are moderately angular, with
are heightened
in
The ground
indicated only by
is
angular rock
some
"nail-head" strokes;
some
white.
done
some
long grass around the rock.
The
tall,
shaded washes, and with a few

longlsh texture strokes. The flowers are shaded in pink and white, with very
fine outlines; leaves and stems are executed in the same manner.
The large format used for this genre motif gives the picture a strongly decorais
in
wet ink with
slightly
tive character.
Su Han-ch'en was
a native of the northern capital,
tsung's Painting Academy. Later, he was again an

court under Kao-tsung and
He was famous
was
still
where he served
official
at the
in
Hui-
southern
active under Hsiao-tsung (after 1063).
for his figure paintings,
and especially
for
scenes
of playing
children.
The
painting
attribution.
It
no reason to doubt the traditional
is
not signed, but there
is
the best of several paintings of this subject
Museum which
are attributed to
is
in
the Palace
Su Han-ch'en.
99
42
THE HAN PALACE

Chao
Attributed to
Fan-shaped album
(24.5
leaf
Po-chij (ca. 1150,
(mounted as a hanging
Sung dynasty)
scroll) in Ink
and colors on
silk,
diameter
9'/, in.
cm)
This twilight scene takes place on the day of the Double Seven (seventh day
of the seventh
moon), the autumn
During the night, the legendary
festival.
meeting of the herdsman and the spinning maid (Altair and Vega)
place
In
when she crosses
the Milky
Way
take
will
on a bridge of magpies.
the foreground courtyard, servants and retainers are gathered with oxen
and
carts, saddled
tion, a long
horses and banners. Beyond the temporary, tent-like
parti-
procession of court ladies moves from the lamplit palace through
a natural tunnel in the fantastically eroded rock toward a tower in the upper
Musicians and a sheep precede the empress and her maids, who hold
The
last light is fading,
and they
tall
left.
fans.
ascend the tower to engage in the tramoon. The details of architecture
will
ditional pastime of this evening, gazing at the
and furniture give us a fascinating glimpse
of the material
life
of the
Sung
aristocracy.
Chao
Sung emperor, grew up in

Hangchow where he became a favorite
Po-chiJ, a distant relative of the
but followed the court to
Emperor Kao-tsung (reigned 1127-1162) and a

for his archaizing
T'ang dynasty
The
painting
is
of the subject
(cf.
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang
in
2).
not signed.
account
painter of
He was known
the manner of the
military official.
blue-and-green pictures of palaces
No.
the north,
The archaic
flavor of the
for the attribution to
composition and the nature
Chao Po-chu, which was made
by
above the painting.

However, the picture differs in style from other works attributed to Chao
Po-chiJ. Certain features such as the twisted plum trees and the blue mountains
beyond agree
The
100
picture
(1555-1636) in his inscription
Ma Yuan (Nos.
Keng Chao-chung
better with the school of
was
in
the collection of
51-61).
(1640-1686).
^ê.^.-J'i
101
^ f
^
102
3^
!(*
J t
if in it
It 1$
43
SNOWY MOUNTAINS AT DUSK

Anonymous
Hanging
(twelfth century,
and some color on
scroll in ink
The landscape has the
Sung dynasty)
silk,
40>ix22
In. (102.1 x
intimate character which
55.9
cm)
we encounter
in
compositions
from the same period. The poetic atmosphere is enhanced by

the hazy middle distance animated by a flight of birds. This area shows the
influence of Chao Ling-jang (ca. 1100) while the sparse wet "axe-cut" texture
of smaller size
strokes are
In
(No. 36)
at
in
manner
the
of Li
T'ang (Nos. 36-37). The
fairly
prominent pinnacle
the center, topped by pines, preserves something of the
one
thern
in
side, giving the picture the diagonally divided
Sung
latter time,
period.
as
is
ink
In
T'ang design
The large areas given over

warm and poetic feeling.
is
placed
composition of the Sou-
to mist also are a feature of the
the
The banks have

darker
Li
the tradition of Fan K'uan (No. 18). But the tallest mountain
light,
slightly
the distant vales.
Some
hesitant contours; the
color (green and brown)
washes over sky and water make the white
wash shading turns

in
the trees, and the
stand out
hills
in
delicately
handled contrast.
The temple
Japan they are nearly straight,

slope, and the characteristic
outer reinforcements appear above the principal rafters which terminate, at
both ends of the ridge, in bird-headed finials facing inward.
The painting has been in the collection of An Ch'i (born 1683).
roofs remind us of the Toshodaiji
with only the suspicion of a curve
in
the
in
downward
103
44
BREAKING THE BALUSTRADE

Anonymous
Hanging
(twelfth century,
scroll in ink
and colors on
silk,
Sung dynasty)
68>$ x
40X
(173.9x101.8 cm)
in.
The painting illustrates an edifying historical anecdote concerned with the

Han emperor Ch'eng-ti (reigned 46-5 B.C.), his loyal magistrate Chu YiJn,
and the marquis Chang Yii of An-ch'ang. Chu YiJn's indignation against the
and insincere marquis overcame his prudence, and he asked permission to put him to death with the Imperial sword. The emperor, outraged
by this arrogant demand, ordered instead that Chu YiJn himself be beheaded,
flattering
and asked to be killed on the spot, as another

The emperor was moved by Chu's
courage, and by the pleas of his general, Hsin Ch'ing-chi; he relented,
cancelled the death sentence for Chu, and commanded that the balustrade,
broken in the scuffle, be left unrepaired as a memorial to the event.
The tense and dramatic scene is shown in a well interrelated composition:
but
Chu clung
loyal
to a balustrade
subject had once been executed.
the pleading
official in
the foreground center between the static group of the
scowling, booted emperor and his attendants including the cringing
Chang
Yii
and Chu YiJn struggling against two officers on the left. The
trunk and branches of a tall pine frame the main group at the right both groups
are reinforced by large ornamental rocks.
Some white heightening is used along the fold lines of the robes which are
on the
right,
and rather angular, with small "nail-head" ends. The fantastic rocks have
concave contours the cavities are shaded in black and grey.
Bamboo and other leaves have ink outlines the feathery green needle clusters
are done in color only. Some long, wet texture strokes are used in the shading
fine
irregular, broken,
of the bank.
104
ilVi"
*-
105
..:.^^1?!'-saiM:..
V
K
>
m
-.^-
'^^
A. I *W
tS:
^<^'~<^
45
BUDDHIST IMAGES
By Chang Sheng-wen
Handscroll
In ink,
(inscribed in the year 1180,
colors and gold on paper,
12x635%
in.
Sung dynasty)
(30.4x1881.4 cm)
at one time cut up and made into an album; later It was remounted as a handscroll. Consequently, some parts are missing while others
This scroll was
have been wrongly placed.

first scene depicts an imperial procession. The emperor, wearing a tiaracrown and carrying incense burner and rosary, is surrounded by officials,
priests, umbrella and standard bearers and barefooted warriors. Identified by
The
like
his reign
name
Li-chen, he
is
Hsiian-tsung (personal name: Tuan Chih-hsing)
Kingdom of Yunnan from 1172 to 1200. The

numerous scenes following show the Buddhist pantheon in which the Bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara, in his many aspects, plays a prominent role. The Sixteen
who
ruled over the later Ta-li
Arhats and the Sixteen Patriarchs
of the
Ch'an (Zen) sect are also depicted.
Portraits of the Sixteen Great Kings (Devas) form the
The
plate illustrates the
Buddha
end section of the

enthroned
of Healing (Bhaisajyaguru),
scroll.
in
the
center of a group of Bodhlsattvas, disciples and guardian kings.

In
to
some
of the sections, the attendant figures
represent historical
(Yunnan).
106
wear
local
costume and seem

of Nan-chao
personalities from the earlier history
Some charming
genre elements are apparent
in
the Hariti scene,
The ink landscapes in

The heavenly landscapes are
more stylized and archaizing the figures are directly descended from T'ang
painting. The delicacy of the lines and the refinement of the faces are enhanced
by the many subtle shades of color. We also notice the technique of applying
finely cut gold strips, known in Japan as kirigane. While the gentle faces
and the elaborate festoons and ribbons show contemporary influences, the
with a mother nursing her baby and children playing.
the background
show
the mountains of Yunnan.

;
painting really
an exquisite end product of T'ang
is
art,
kept alive within the
archaism. There are interest-
religious tradition,
and not a conscious
intellectual
ing parallels with
Japanese paintings
of the late Fujiwara period.
The
was
painting
is
painted by the otherwise
monk
called Miao-kuang who tells us that

unknown Chang Sheng-wen. The inscription
inscribed by a
dated 1180 during the reign of the king
who
it
is
leads the procession at the begin-
ning of the scroll.
Miao-kuang's inscription
who
is
followed by a colophon of
mistakenly interprets the date as 1240.
1378, 1379,
and
The
Sung
Lien (1310-1381),
next colophons are dated
1459.
107
46
THE RED CLIFF
Wu
Atiributed to
Handscroll
in ink
Yiian-chih (ca. 1195, Chin dynasty)
on paper,
20x53%
in.
(50.8x136.4 cm)
The picture illustrates the famous prose-poem by Su Shih; for a copy of the
poem in Su Shih's own calligraphy, see No. 115. Su tells of embarking with
two friends in a small boat on the Yangtze River, one moonlit night in autumn
and drifting past the Red Cliff. One of the friends plays a melancholy air on his
flute when Su asks the reason, the friend reminds him of a great battle fought
there eight centuries before. They sip wine and muse on vanished glory as the
;
night passes.
In
the picture, the poet's boat
towering
right,
cliffs,
the river
is
just passing a
bend
of the river
beneath the
which continue toward the left, over mist and rapids. On the
widens and calms, leading us into the far distance. The moun-
tains are outlined in broken wet strokes, sharply accented. In addition to
some
and irregular, wash-like texture drawing there is much

diagonal hatching which reminds us of western ink-drawing. The distant hill-
long, wet texture strokes
108
W^-
:^
^*M?^-*
'^^||i^
tops and rocks are done
in
a reserve of the texture stroke
technique which uses
an ink wash leaving stroke-like areas blank and untouched. The variety of ink
tone used in the trees adds to the sense of depth. This very painterly picture,
done
entirely in
wet
ink,
conveys a strong sense
sphere. There are memories of

twisted, gnarled pines, and of
Li
of
space, depth and atmo-
Ch'eng and Kuo Hsi (Nos. 17, 20) in the

T'ang (Nos. 36, 37) in the shrub-capped cliffs
Li
and the silhouetted tree groups surrounded by dense grass. Altogether, however, the landscape has become more poetic and emotionally appealing, in a
development which seems to parallel that

picture is not signed. Attached to it is
The
by the Chin calligrapher
Yuan-pien attributed the
in
the south.
of the Red Cliff poem written

Chao Ping-wen, dated 1228. The collector Hsiang
painting to Chu Jui, an artist who worked at both
a
copy
the northern and southern Painting Academies. Recently, the writings of the
Chin scholar Yuan Hao-wen (1190-1257) yielded

painting of the
Red
Cliff
the poem, written by
by
Wu
a notice that the writer
saw
YCian-chih to which a calligraphic version of
Chao Ping-wen, was attached. The
painting has since
been attributed to the amateur painter Wu YiJan-chih, a prominent scholarofficial of the 1190's, who worked under the Chin Tartars in the north of China.
The scroll was in the collection of Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525-1590), who tells us
In
a postscript that he paid 150 taels
(ch/n) of
gold for
it.
109
110
47
SNOW
CLEARING AFTER
Anonymous
Hanging
On
the
scroll in ink
left,
IN
(twelfth century,
and some
THE MIN MOUNTAINS

Sung dynasty)
on
light color
high mountains
a group of temple buildings.
in
silk,
fantastic
The
45>i x
39%
in. (115.1 x
100.7
cm)
shapes enclose a misty gorge with

widens as it leads us diagonally
river valley
surmounted by distant hilltops a splendid tree group balances

Two horsemen and their servants have just crossed the
foreground bridge, coming, perhaps, from the house over the brook.
Mountains and rocks have strong, broad outlines. The whole picture is very
painterly, done in wet-brush shading and texture strokes with strong ink values
in the style of Kuo Hsi (No. 20). The waterfall disappearing into mist and some
into a hazy plain,
the composition.
details of rocks
and trees are related to the painting attributed
(No. 17). There also

(No. 19), especially
the picture
is
is
in
to Li
Ch'eng
a similarity to the painting attributed to Hsii Tao-ning
the diagonal composition. Here, a
much
larger area of
given over to the hazy void, and the rocks and other details are
much more "baroque". The temple architecture is of an early type, with completely straight roofs. The picture belongs to the northern tradition of Li Ch'eng
and Kuo Hsi which in the Southern Sung period had declined to the status
of a minor local tradition, carried on chiefly in the north under the Chin. The
title
referring to the
Min mountains
in
Szechwan need
not be the original one.
Ill
48
WEN-CHI'S RETURN TO CHINA

By Ch'en Chij-chung
Hanging
scroll in ink
(ca. 1205,
and colors on
silk,
Sung dynasty)
58x42%
in.
(147.4x107.7 cm)
Lady Wen-chi was the daughter of a well-known scholar of the second century.
While on her way to Kansu, she was taken prisoner by Hsiung-nu raiders and
spent twelve years
picture she
in captivity in
shown
Mongolia before she was ransomed.
parting from her Hsiung-nu
husband and her

Chinese emissary and his escort are waiting. Wen-chi and
her husband, seated on a richly patterned rug, are about to share a last drink
which is poured from a golden phoenix-ewer. The children are clinging to their
In this
is
children, while the
mother, and refuse to listen to the entreaties of a nurse who wants to lead
them away. At a little distance, the Chinese envoy is seated on a separate rug,
attended by his Chinese and Mongol entourage. The well-drawn group of
saddled horses
In
which
in
a laden
the lower left is balanced by another group in the upper right.

camel stands out. The Hsiung-nu are depicted in the robes,
boots and hairdo of the Mongols contemporary with the artist, who soon were
conquer the North and, eventually, all of China. The gold ornaments of their
to
costumes are applied
in cut gold-strips (Japanese: kirigane); the caparisons

ponies are also richly decorated viz. the golden goose on the one in
the foreground. The bundles carried by the camel are wrapped in rugs of the
same geometric design as the one the couple is seated on. Robes, arms and
of the
ponies, as well as the whole subject and
its
setting
frame, recall the earlier Liao tradition (Nos.7,8,9). The

in
a sparse landscape
tradition is evident
the way the Mongols and their horses are drawn, with angular, accented fold-
lines
and
in
somewhat
stiff
postures.
The flowing robes
on the other hand, represent the tradition

trees that of the Southern
and 1204; he specialized
The
painting
is
of the
Chinese envoy,
of Li Kung-lin (No. 29)
and the gnarled
Academy. The
emotions which underlie the subject.

Ch'en ChiJ-chung became an official
112
in
same
lively
faces express the conflicting
at the Painting
Academy between
Mongol horsemen and camp scenes.

not signed, but the attribution seems entirely plausible.
in
1201
%ir
^^
^ if, W'M
9Tl4l
*f
'sf**A
-^^,
113
49
LOHAN
By
Sung dynasty)
Liu Sung-nien (dated 1207,
Hanging
One
scroll In ink
and colors on
silk,
46x22
of the legendary disciples
of the
(Stewartia pseudo-camellia) while his
from one of a pair
of
monkeys.
in.
(117x55.8
cm
Buddha leans against
young acolyte
Two
is
deer standing
a sha-lo tree
just receiving a
in
peach
front are looking up
affectionately.
The
picture
is
one
of a set of three
originally, there
were probably more paint-
ings depicting the whole series of Sixteen (or Eighteen) Lohan or Arhats.
The shaded, broad leaves, the tangled branches and knotty trunk of the tree;
the way the Arhat leans on
composed around him all suggest an earlier prototype,
probably of the tenth century. The same tradition is evident in the corresponding
section of the Chang Sheng-wen scroll (No. 45).
Liu Sung-nien was a southerner, a native of Hangchow. He served in the
Hangchow Painting Academy as a student (about 1180), then as an official
the archaic arrangement of the deer and monkeys

the tree, which
(after
1190),
is
and received the "Golden Belt" under Emperor Ning-tsung
(reigned 1195-1224).
The
painting
is
signed and dated.
the early fourteenth century.
114
It
bears two seals of a Mongol princess of
}l
115
50
KNICK-KNACK PEDDLER
By
Li
Sung
The three
Sung dynasty)
(dated 1210,
Fan-shaped album
leaf in ink
and
tiny characters
light colors
on the
The astonishing
matched by a most
(25.8x27.6 cm)
draftsmanship,
in
the finest of lines,
little
one
of the children
The peddler
is
lool<s
help himself to the
boy wants to follow this example and beckons to
demands the attention of their harassed mother,

The mother patiently nurses the baby who reaches out for
toy without interrupting his suckling. The fitth brother contentedly munches
fruit which, judging by his sly glance, also came from the peddler's load,
his brother
tugging
a
who
In.
characterization of the figures.
warily over his shoulder, watching
merchandise; another
10^x10%
meaning "Five Hundred Articles", refer

number of objects drawn in the peddler's
display of
lively
silk,
tree,
with understandable pride to the
pack.
on
at
her
forcefully
skirt.
while yet another offspring, not empty-handed either, just appears behind the
pack
Li
at the right.
Sung was born
in
the south,
in
Hangchow, where he
carpenter before he was adopted by an older

himself a
member
of the Painting
Academy
in
Academy
started his
painter.
life
as a
He became
which he served under three
emperors, Kuang-tsung, Ning-tsung and Li-tsung, approximately between 1190
116
and
1220.
The
painting
is
signed and dated.
It
was
in
the collection of
An
Ch'i (born 1683).
4,
51
1*
THE HANGCHOW BORE

By
Li
Sung
(ca. 1210,
Fan-shaped album
leaf In ink
From the terrace
IN
MOONLIGHT
Sung dynasty)
and colors on
silk,
8%
8%
an elegant pavilion, placed
of
in.
in
(22.3x22 cm)
one corner
several ladies are gazing at the bore roaring up the river.
moon.
the mouth of the Ch'ien-t'ang
of the
composition,
in
the
f\o\Ns into the
bay
boat sails
distance, under the
The scene
of
is
which
river,
Hangchowr.
The "one-corner" composition,
the distant blue ridge, the transparent, angular
trees, the romantic moonlight
mood
the Ma-Hsia school. The double
of the picture
line
all
are characteristic of
wave pattern (No.
37)
survives
in
an
altered, freer form.
The eaves of the pavilion are turned up at the corners with the pronounced
movement characteristic of the south and decorated with the imperial emblems,
dragons and phoenixes.
Sung, who also was famous for his architectural

poem, by Yang Mei-tzu (Elder Sister
Yang), the sister-in-law of Emperor Ning-tsung (reigned 1195-1224): "Leave
word not to lock the double doors the nightly tide is waiting to be viewed
The
painting
paintings.
It
is
signed by
is
inscribed, with a short
Li
under the moon".
The
painting
was
in
the collection of
An
Ch'i (born 1683).
117
w.
/'
52
ON A MOUNTAIN PATH
By Ma Yuan
Album
leaf in ink
and
IN
ca. 1190-1225,
(fl.
light colors
on
SPRING
Sung dynasty)
silk,
10}ix17
(27.4x43.1 cm)
In.
scholar, followed by his servant carrying a ch'in (zither), walks on a path
along a stream bank
blown willow.
wild flowers
he stops for a
verse couplet
dance
in
moment
to
watch two orioles
written at the right
"Brushed by
Is
a distillation of
mood, everything
to the production of a well defined effect. Everything that
been eliminated from the composition

artist
envelops his subject
in
In
Is
is
in
it
subservient
not essential has
order to stress the poetic mood. The
diagonally divided composition of the
but the subject
the wind-
his sleeves,
an aura of feeling with an extreme economy of
means, relying upon the emotional associations

power of the emptiness surrounding them.
The
in
the wind; fleeing from him the hidden birds cut short
songs". The picture
their
is
brought closer, the
Li
of the
images and the evocative
T'ang school (No. 38) is used,

narrowed. The majestic
field of vision
and awesome aspect of nature in the Northern Sung landscapes has given
way to a tamed and idealized poetic frame. The wet "axe-cut" strokes also
show the influence of Li T'ang (No. 36), but there is now more stress on
angularity, especially in the fold lines of the robes which have been called
"rat-tail" lines.
the fourth generation member of a family of painters which

came from Shansi province; he probably lived from about 1150 to
1225 and, like his ancestors, served in the Painting Academy, where he eventually was awarded the "Golden Belt".
Ma Yuan was
originally
118
He and Hsia Kuei (No.
57) were the outstanding representatives of a school

Chinese landscape painting which became most popular in Japan and,
chiefly by way of that country, most familiar to the west. The works
of their
followers carried to Korea and Japan and imitated there, eventually created
the standard occidental image of Chinese painting. Most Chinese critics, by
contrast, have admired the productions of the Ma-Hsia school only moderately,
of
preferring the landscapes of the preceding Northern
Yuan dynasty. The
painting
is
Sung and
written by a member of the imperial family.

The album was in the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao
53
of the following
signed; the poetic inscription probably was

(1620-1691).
THROUGH SNOWY MOUNTAINS AT DAWN

By Ma Yuan
Album
leaf In ink
(fl.
ca. 1190-1225,
and white on
silk,
10%
Sung dynasty)
x ^5'/. in. (27.6 x
40 cm)
An
old man is seen driving two donkeys, loaded with charcoal and firewood
he carries a dead pheasant hanging from a pole. A few trees with angular
branches, several rocks and some masterly "axe-stroke" texture on the slopes
provide the essentials of a landscape frame which otherwise consists of
snow
and cold.
The
painting
is
signed; the album was
in
the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao
(1620-1691).
119
54
APRICOT BLOSSOMS
By Ma Yiian (f1. ca. 1190-1225, Sung
Album
and color on
leaf in ink
silk,
10 x
branch of blossoming apricot
W/,
dynasty)
in. (25.8 x 27.3
cm)
placed against the void "leaning", as the
is
original caption says, "against a cloud".
The essence
or spirit of the flowers
way which perhaps inspired the attribute hsien (immortal)

the caption. The branch grows out of a corner of the picture, leaving the rest
Is
caught
in
the surface to space,
The
attention
and
lifted to
In
is
in
a composition similar to the landscapes of this school.
concentrated on a small segment of
a higher plane,
where
reality
which
is
idealized
represents and evokes the whole of nature
it
Spring.
The
painting
is
signed by the
artist
and inscribed with a verse couplet by Yang
Mei-tzu (see No. 51): "Meeting the wind, they offer their artful
from the dew, they boast
The
120
in
of
painting
was
in
their pink beauty".
the collection of
An
Ch'i (born 1683).
charm ,wet
55
PLAYING THE LUTE
Attributed to
Ma
IN
Yiian
(f1.
MOONLIGHT
ca. 1190-1225,
Sung dynasty)
Hanging
scroll in ink
and
light
colors on
silk,
44 x 21
in.
(111.5x53.1 cm.)
The typical "one-corner"composition shows

a scholar playing the yuan-hsien, a lute-like
instrument similar to the
p'i-p'a, in front of
his simple, thatched lodge,
under bamboo
and rocks, above a stream.
him company. At the
right, a
crane keeps
clouded
moon
shines over distant hilltops.
The
tion
painting
seems
is
not signed, but the attribu-
plausible.
The
seals of a son of the
picture has several
first
Ming emperor
(fourteenth century), and the palace inventory seal

It
is
of the years
between 1373-1384.
the best and earliest of
paintings
Palace
attributed
Museum
to
all
the large
Ma Yuan
in
the
Collection.
121
f k
-^
i-
i'
il
^1
^5.
Jl
>^
1^1
^f^
*i
'i*
;^-
:*j^
i.^-
^!L
^^
1^
^-^
'4:
^l
Â
'I-
-fe
14
,^
'il
i^
if
.fe
Ufl
*L .^
.^ .-^
-J'T
1^
-t
*'
''^t
-i^
15^
4 ^
f.i
Ifl
'
;^.
^'
'i^
z'*^;
122
55
BANQUET BY LANTERN-LIGHT
Anonymous
Hanging
An
(ca. 1200-1225,
scroll In ink
Sung dynasty)
and some color on
imperial banquet
sillt,
being served
is
44x21
in
In.
(111.9x53.5 cm)
the spacious
courtyard, surrounded by gnarled prunus trees
performing a lantern dance. Behind the
bamboo
the dusky
The poem
but no guests are
fiali,
attendants seen through the curtains.
visible, only four
hall,
in
In
the foreground
blossom, sixteen
tall,
girls are
angular pine towers over
grove. Far away, blue hilltops rise above the mist.
inscribed at the top by an unidentified writer reads:
Back from court, pages proclaim imperial summons

Father and son, serving together, are honored to attend a banquet.
:
Wine
is
offered
Music
is
heard
in
in
Of prunus buds
To
K'uan's goblet, we pray for great blessings
in
Han palace, we
are stirred by joyful sound.
precious vases, a thousand branches are opening
colored lanterns of jade and coral, ten thousand lamps are shining.
In
the
feel the
urge for verses,
it
cloud bank holds back the
is
said
rain,
we must wait for rain

poem is in fact complete.
;
but the
K'uan (died 102 B.C.) was a poor scholar who made
laborer. Eventually, he
reference to the rain
in
became
his
living
as a farm
a high official and reformed the calendar.
relation to versifying is taken
The
from a poem by Tu Fu
(712-770).
The
picture
is
not signed, and the seal under the long poetic inscription
legible. Every detail of style
(No. 52) to
of Liang
whom we
and composition points
can attribute
this painting.
It
to the
hand
has been
in
of
is
not
Ma Yuan
the collection
Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
The Palace Museum owns another somewhat

has an interpolated Ma Yuan signature.
later version of this picture
which
123
57
PURE AND REMOTE VIEW OF STREAM AND HILLS

By Hsia Kuei
Handscroll
In a
in ink
(fl.
ca. 1190-1225,
on paper, 18%
continuous diorama
390
in.
of river
Sung dynasty)
(46.5 x 889.1
cm)
and mountain scenery the changing motifs
merge into one another as do the parts of a symphonic composition. The

amazing variety of ink values moves from the subtlest washes to the richest
black. The brushwork is equally brilliant: dry strokes applied with a slanting
brush for the rock surface; the foliage done with a split brush; the figures
and buildings drawn in a line that is firm, but not stiff. Spontaneous staccato
strokes and splashed dots of a tremendous power are balanced by misty areas
which are handled in a tender and poetic way. The eye is led in and out, from
solid to space and back, each segment existing in itself as a brief, crystalline
visual statement. This scroll is, perhaps, the supreme masterpiece of the
whole Ma-Hsia school.
Hsia Kuei, a native of Chekiang province, was the outstanding painter of this
school, probably surpassing Ma Yuan (No. 52). He served in the Painting
Academy under Emperor Ning-tsung (reigned 1195-1224) who awarded him
the "Golden Belt". Contemporary and later Chinese critics have commented
on the glowing richness of his ink, the originality and boldness of his brushwork, and the terseness of his abbreviated compositions.
The
painting
sistency of
is
its
is
not signed, but the brilliance of
style
seem
The
who was
a seal of the prince of Chin-ning (fourteenth century).
dated 1378. The next was written by a poet-ofFicial

prince of Chin-ning and a friend of the painter
scroll
124
execution and the con-
its
to justify the attribution to this great master.
was
in
the collection of
Sung Lao
Wang
(1634-1713).
first
There
colophon
is
a prot6g6 of the
Fu (No. 91). Later, the
'
;f
i^
J^
'^
-^^
i'
.-^j?'
^^'^
J
-.-^J!
125
58
CONVERSATION UNDER THE

Attributed to Hsia Kuei
Album
Two
leaf In Ink
and color on
silk,
PINE-CLIFF
ca. 1190-1225,
(fl.
^0%x^5'/,
In.
Sung dynasty)
(27x39 cm)
gentlemen are conversing on a steep bank beside a stream. Above them,
pine-trees are hanging from a towering
cliff
which disappears
The "one-corner" composition, the angular branches,
into the haze.
the "axe-cut" strokes
and shaded washes, the delicate atmospheric effects, all are typical of the
Ma-Hsia school.
The painting is listed as "unsigned"; there is, however, an obliterated and
illegible
signature at the
The album was
126
in
left.
59
FRAGRANT SPRING: CLEARING AFTER RAIN

By Ma
Album
Lin (ca. 1246,
leaf In ink
Trees,
and
Sung dynasty)
light colors
bamboo and
on
silk,
^0%K^6y,
in.
(27.5x41.6 cm)
growing
in disorderly profusion on the banl<s

marshy ground and among the trees. An aged
and twisted prunus tree, growing from between rocks, puts forth new buds;
the exuberant regeneration of plants in spring is revealed as an unruly and
saddening force, and no effort is made to idealize and tame it. The canons of
academic composition are neglected in a manner which seems to anticipate
developments in the Yuan and later dynasties.
briers are
of a stream. Mists drift over the
The
Ma Lin, son of Ma Yuan (No. 52), who followed the

Academy. Perhaps it is a fragment of a handscroll expresa series of seasonal moods, which would have bearing upon the composiThe title has been inscribed by Yang Mei-tzu (see No. 51). "Fragrant
painting
Is
signed by
family tradition in the
sing
tion.
Spring"
in
is
Chinese
a poetic term referring to the flowering climax of this season, which,

literature, nearly
always has the connotation of nostalgia for the
fleeting character of beauty.
The album was
in
127
60
LISTENING TO THE WIND

By Ma
Hanging
Lin (dated 1246,
scroll in Ink
IN
THE PINES
Sung dynasty)
and colors on
silk,
89y,x*3y,
In.
(226.6x110.3 cm)
The "romantic" emotional relationship between man and nature, favorite

subject of the Southern Sung Academy and most familiar from small and
intimate compositions, here is expressed in very large size. The scholarly
aesthete, somewhat self-conscious, sits in a tense listening pose, casting a sly,
sideward glance at his boy attendant. The elegant lines of the rocks, stream
and distant mountains, the refinement
of
form
the twisted and gnarled pine
in
trees with their long, wild texture strokes, belong to a world which exists
within his mind.
He
is
surrounded,
in
the picture, not by nature
a projection of his emotional response to
The
painting
indicates that
one
is
it
signed: "Painted by (Your Majesty's) servitor
was painted
of his seals gives
for the
128
painting
was
in
but by
Ma
Lin",
which
emperor. Li-tsung himself wrote the
us the date. There also
is
a palace seal of the
emperor.
The
itself,
it.
the collection of
Sung Lao
(1634-1713).
title;
same
51
WAITING FOR GUESTS BY LAMPLIGHT
Ma
By
Album
As
Lin (ca.
leaf
1246, Sung dynasty)
ink
in
and
twilight falls
entrance to a
colors on
9^4 x 10
silk,
in.
(24.8 x 25.2 cm.)
a palace courtyard, a nobleman
in
Servants
pavilion.
outside
stand
at the
sits
ready
to
light
candles along the path between flowering hai-t'ang (cherry-apple)

trees.
Color is used with unusual effectiveness in imparting the
moment: a yellow moon in a dusky blue-green sky,

a glow of yellow lamplight under the eaves, pale green
feeling of this
blue
hills,
and
leaves
The
given above follows the Chinese label but does not seem
title
apply
to
blossoms on the trees.
violet
a banquet could hardly be held com-
to the painting:
fortably
such a
in
small
and
building,
the
nobleman
dressed
is
too informally to receive guests.
because of
labeled
The picture was probably misresemblance to the anonymous painting,
its
No. 56, which does in fact depict the preparations for a night
banquet. A very convincing suggestion, made by Dr. Li Lin-ts'an
of the National Central
Museum,
is
that this
is
Ma
version
Lin's
of a composition recorded as having been painted by his father
Ma
Yuan,
illustrating
"Fearing that
in
in
a couplet:
the depth of night the blossoms will close
sleep.
He has
tall
silver
candles burned,
to
light
their
fragile
beauty."
Such a theme must have suited the

in
these
brief,
it
last
spirit
of the
declining decades of the dynasty:
suggests,
we must
light
candles and
Hangchow
since
make
life
the
court
is
too
most of
the hours of darkness.
The painting bears the same signature as the preceding; there is

also the fragment of a palace seal.
It has been
in the collection
of
An
Ch'i (born
1683).
insert at
page 128
129
rf%>
ô!^l|<:
<n
C^
.-.-:2'
62
CLOTHES FOR THE WARRIORS

By Mou
Handscroll
in ink
(dated 1238-1240,
Sung dynasty)
on paper, 10Xx185
in. (27.1 x
266.4
cm)
The scroll illustrates a poem by Hsieh Hui-llen (397-433). Ladies are washing,
mending and sewing clothes for their absent husbands, as winter is approaching. The figures are carefully drawn with a soft, sensitive brush, in groups that
are well interrelated and spaced. The angular lines of the folds are softened
and subdued postures and robes move in a gentle and elegant rhythm. The
;
drawn faces are full of expression. Straight lines and right angles of
architecture and furniture provide a contrasting frame for the melodious flow
of the figure composition. Large ink landscape screens are imbued with the
same poetic and gently sad mood that is expressed in the figures the painting
on the second screen shows the influence of Chao Ling-jang.
In a consciously archaistic manner the ground is barely suggested by a few
light wash strokes the chrysanthemum bushes in light and dark ink are placed
in a manner reminiscent of the early Yamato-e painting of Japan. The archaizing aspect extends to the costumes and to details such as the T'ang style
finely
130
ftkûft<*4.^
yy-
^^
\>^;Y"t:"""^'''
'*\-.*
f
xsir^-
r"<?C^ ^
scissors and valise.
The
leaves have fine brush outlines
broken and accented contours

in style, firmly
drawing
in
is
filled
within the tradition of
marked contrast
the tree trunks, softly
The painting belongs,

Kung-lin (No. 29). The cool and chaste
with shaded washes.

Li
to the
style
of the
contemporary Academy
painters.
Mou
I,
he
Szechwan, was a scholar and amateur painter who came

under Emperor Li-tsung (reigned 1225-1264). The text of the poem
a native of
to the court
illustrates is inscribed, at the
a friend of the artist and the
which he
tells us that the scroll was begun in 1238 and finished

colophons are by scholars of the Hung-wu period (1368-1398),
being dated 1391 a later one has the date 1422.
artist follows, in
in 1240.
The
the third
The
in
end of the painting, by the scholar Tung Shih,

owner of the painting. A postscript by the
first
scroll
first
was
in
the collections of Kao Shih-ch'i (1645-1704)
1689 for 140 taels (gold), and of
An
who acquired
it
Ch'i (born 1683).
131
63
A SAGE
By Liang
Album
K'ai (ca. 1250,
leaf In Ink
The grotesque
on paper,
Sung dynasty)
19^x10%
In.
(48.7x27.7 cm)
one
figure probably represents
sages
of the legendary
of the
Buddhist Ch'an (Zen) sect, such as Pu-tai.

Very roughly and loosely painted with a brush heavily loaded with
picture
the only representative of the "splashed-ink" technique
is
Museum
in
ink, this
the Palace
Collection. Broad, scratchy, wet strokes are allowed to flow into
washes or wet areas in an only partially controlled process. The

the belt adds an accent to the diagonal, forward movement.
Liang K'ai, a pupil of Chia Shih-ku (see No. 38) and a follower of
rich black of
Li
Kung-lin
became an official in the Painting Academy between 1201 and 1204 and
eventually was awarded the "Golden Belt". He left the court and the Academy
at Hangchow for the solitude of a nearby Ch'an monastery, the Liu-t'ung-ssu.
The rough and abbreviated style of this painting would put it into the second
(No. 29),
or Ch'an phase of his artistic activity.
The
132
painting
is
signed, but the signature and also the style are slightly different
but one of his works preserved
from
all
"Old
Man
with a Bottle", formerly
in
in
Japan, the exception being the
the Sakai Collection.
64
A GENTLEMAN WITH HIS PORTRAIT

Anonymous
Album
(ca. 1100-1125,
leaf in ink
and colors on
gentleman-scholar
sits
Sung dynasty)
11J-ix11 in. (29x27.8
silk,
on
his k'ang (dais)
cm)
front of a large screen
in
on
which are painted ducks among reeds on a marshy bank. Suspended from the
top of the screen is a hanging scroll with the portrait of the gentleman himself.
An
attendant pours wine, and the kettle
brazier
in
the background.
On
books, scrolls and a ch'in

antiques or porcelain vessels
(zither);
;
(365-427), or else the author of the
how
the personage
picture of the milieu
is
in
to
being heated
in
a lotus-shaped
at
the
left,
three boxes
may contain
a flower stand occupies the foreground.
been suggested that we have here an

of
is
the other side of the couch, on a side-table, are
ideal portrait of the poet
Book
of Tea,
It
has
T'ao Ch'ien
Lu Yu (died 804). Regardless
be identified, the painting gives us an intimate genre
which the paintings we are describing were produced
and appreciated.
The
painting
is
not signed. There are seals accepted as genuine by Chinese
Cheng-ho (1111-1118), Hsuan-ho (1119-1125) and Shao-hsing

The river scene on the screen is of the type painted by
Southern Sung period followers of Chao Ling-jang (ca. 1100). The fold-lines
in the garments of the two figures, however, do not show the pronounced and
accented angularity associated with the Southern Sung Academy. All this
would seem to warrant an attribution to the early twelfth century. On the other
authorities of the
(1131-1162) eras.
hand, a certain feature of the mounting of the portrait hanging scroll appears
to
suggest an early Ming date.
133
65
THOUSAND-ARMED KUAN-YIN
Anonymous
Hanging
(thirteenth century,
scroll in ink
and colors on
silk,
Sung dynasty)
69^^x31%
(176.8x79.2 cm)
in.
The Bodhisattva Avalokite^vara (Chinese: Kuan-yin)

sand-armed and thousand-eyed" aspect. The halo, in
the bo-tree,
is filled
with the innumerable
hands and
ponding dhyani-Buddha (an esoteric Buddha
is
shown
in
the "thou-
the shape of the leaf of

attributes.
The
corres-
Amitabha floats
above the many-headed crown. Above the halo we see a Buddha enthroned,
accompanied by five seated figures on either side probably the ten dhyaniBodhisattvas.
The
lotus throne of Kuan-yin
is
of meditation)
supported by four
the Four Heavenly Kings are standing right and
who have emerged from

ones on the
scroll by
134
in
some
Chang Sheng-wen (No.

in
Demon
Kings
while eight Dragon Kings,
the waves to worship, are seen
Iconographically, these images differ
and the crown as well as
left
in
the foreground.
respects from corresponding
45), i.e. in the
shape
the attributes and attendant figures.
of the halo
66
THE TATHAGATHA PREACHING THE LAW

Anonymous
Hanging
(thirteenth century,
scroll in ink
and some
Sung dynasty)
light colors on
silk,
74 x
43%
in. (188.1 x 111 .3
cm)
Buddha, with a flaming round halo, is seated upon an elaborate lotus throne.
At his sides, we see two heavenly kings or guardians, two disciples (Arhats)
and two Bodhisattvas standing next to an Incense burner and offering flowers
to the Buddha. All the accompanying figures wear round halos and stand
on lotus flowers. The round faces and twisted figures still show T'ang
traditions of the Wu Tao-tzu school, as does the shaded ink wash on halo and
clothes. The details of the brocade robes and of the throne ornaments recall
Japanese religious paintings of the Kamakura period, i.e. of the Takuma school
(thirteenth century). The drawing is unusually lively and strong and makes this
scroll
one
of the best
remaining examples of
late
Sung Buddhist
painting.
135
67
THREE WINTER FRIENDS

By Chao Meng-chien
Album
The
leaf in ink
(1199-1295,
on paper, 12X
"three friends
in
21X
in.
Sung-Yiian dynasties)
(32.2 x 53.4
cm)
bamboo and
the cold season", branches of pine,
soming prunus, are gathered
in
blos-
an elegant spray. Both subject and style
Yuan dynasty literati painters, who

Yuan painting some decades later.
Chao Meng-chien, a distant relative of the Sung emperor, rose to high
official rank in the late Sung administration in 1260, he became president of the
Han-lin Literary Academy. When the dynasty fell, he retired from public life
and, unlike his younger cousin Chao Meng-fu (No. 69), refused to serve the
typify the taste of the late
opened the way
for the
Sung and
full
early
maturity of
Mongols.
The
painting
tion of
136
is
not signed but has two seals of the
Hsiang Yuan-pien (1525-1590).
artist.
It
was
in
the collec-
68
SQUIRREL ON A PEACH BRANCH

By Ch'ien HsiJan
Handscroll
in ink
Sung-Yuan dynasties)
(ca. 1235-1301,
squirrel is leaping onto a
10%x17%
in.
(26.3x44,3 cm)
branch that bears ripe peaches
have not yet gained a firm hold. The animal

strokes.
Twigs and leaves are done
leaves are drawn
The
texture of the bark
in
drawn
in ink,
rendered
is
in
its
hind feet
with fine brush
color, without outline; the veins of the
The pink-cheeked peaches have
color.
in
is
color
in
fine color contours.
a characteristic technique which
leaves white rings or stripes blank and untouched, thus giving the effect of
the glossy areas typical of the bark of peach and
Ch'ien HsiJan, a native of

official.
After the
fall
in
of the dynasty,
with his friend and pupil
under the Mongols.
Wuhsing
A man
some
other
fruit trees.
Chekiang province, was a scholar and

he
retired
Chao Meng-fu (No.
69)
from public
life
who decided
of cultivated taste also in poetry
and broke
to take office
and music, Ch'ien
HsiJan as a painter developed an archaizing style based upon models of the

tenth century (for animals and flowers) and of the middle
The
is
painting
is
not signed but bears two seals of the artist.
dated 1581. The scroll was
in
the collection
of
Chu
Sung period.
The first colophon
Chih-ch'ih
(Ming
dynasty).
10
..
:f!
T5V
137
go
AUTUMN COLORS ON THE CH'IAO AND HUA MOUNTAINS

(dated 1295, Yiian dynasty)
By Chao Meng-fu
Handscroll
in ink
and coiors on paper,
The two oddly shaped

above a
flat,
marshy
dition (No. 14), as
uy.xXy,
in.
(28.4x93.2 cm)
famous landmarks of Shantung province,

The compositional plan recalls the Tung Yiian
rise
ground-lines and the miniature figures.
The
hills,
plain.
do the
v>/avy
disregard for correct size relationship
is
tra-
another conscious archaism; so are
the stylized, feathery reeds and bamboos.
The
trees are drawn
in
a loose,
almost sketchy way and with a marked disregard for outward beauty and charm.
The romanticism of the Southern Sung Academy landscape has been replaced
by a cool and intellectual mood, an austerity that harks back to the spirit of
The graded washes have disappeared, and there is little sense
the antique.
of
space and no atmosphere. The use of blue (in addition to Ink) for the mounhandled in a very individual manner, relates the picture to
tains, although
the "blue-and-green" landscape tradition (No.
2).
Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322) was a scion of the Sung imperial family, a relative
of Chao Meng-chien (No. 67) and a younger friend of Ch'ien Hsiian (No. 68)
like the latter, he was born in Wuhsing (Chekiang). A brilliant scholar, artist
and official, Chao first went into retirement after the Mongol conquest (1276),
but ten'years later he responded to an appeal by Khubilai Khan for scholars
He made a distinguished career
to join his court.
the administration and
in
was
awarded the highest academic honors (he ended as one of the presidents
of the Han-lin Academy), but some more conservative Chinese scholars, such
as his former friend Ch'ien HsiJan, broke with him, regarding him as a collaborator.
For a
brilliant painting of
rocks and
bamboo see No.
a handscroll by his wife, Lady Kuan.
calligraphy also
The
picture
friend
The
Chou Mi
first
is
included
in this
(1232-ca. 1308), a well
artist tells
known
(1344),
ch'ang (1602,
(1662)
It
a,
us that he painted
it
for his
poet, writer and connoisseur.
comments
by
Chang
Yij
(No. 86) and
were written by Fan Kuo (1329), Ch'ien P'u (1446), Tung Ch'i1605, 1629, 1630) who had first seen it in 1582, Wu Ching-yun
and Tsao Jung.
has been
(1498-1573),
in the collections of Ou-yang Hsuan (1273-1357),

Hsiang Yuan-pien (1525-1590), Chang Jo-ch'i (ca.
Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and Na-lan Hsing-te (ca. 1710).
138
which also contains
Chao Meng-fu's famous
colophon, dated 1297, was written by Yang Tsai, a scholarly friend
of the artist. Others, containing poetic
Yu Chi
90
of
exhibition (No. 120).
signed and dated; the
is
An example
Wen
P'eng
1640),
Liang
>i
4q
/.
-*-
f.
-*;
ic
/H4-\ ! ^^!
139
70
VERDANT PEAKS ABOVE THE CLOUDS

By Kao K'o-kung
Hanging
scroll in Ink
(inscribed 1309, Yiian dynasty)
and color on
^^y,x^2y,
silk,
in.
(182.3x106.7 cm)
of the mountain landscape with its rounded hills is softened by

the effects of clouds and mists; the foreground trees are sketchy and rough.
The majesty
Bold horizontal dots suggest vegetation on the distant hilltops.
Kao K'o-kung, who was born about 1245 and died in 1310, was the son of a
whose ancestors had come from Turkestan.
Beginning his official career in 1275, he rose to high government posts in the
administration, serving as Minister in the Board of Punishments, and Civil
scholar from Tatung (Shansi)
Governor
of
two provinces. The
latter position
was always
held,
under the Yiian
dynasty, by a non-Chinese, even though the actual head of a province
was
the Mongol Military Governor.
As
a painter,
and
later
Kao
worked
in
revived the tradition of Mi Fu
the style of
Tung
and Mi Yu-jen (Nos.
28, 35)
Yiian (No. 14). Both influences are clearly
in this picture. Like the landscapes of Ch'ien HsiJan and Chao

Meng-fu, his are the product of an attempt to create, out of a mixture of old
styles and sheer originality, something that satisfied both the archaist taste
apparent
and the expressive needs
of his
own
time.
not signed, but bears two contemporary Inscriptions, attributing it to him, by the scholar-official Teng Wen-yiian (1258-1328) and the painterofficial Li K'an (1245-1320) the latter is dated 1309. There are also two inscrip-
The
painting
is
tions by
Wang
To, dated 1646. The picture has been
Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and
140
An
Ch'i (born 1683).
in
the collections of Liang
'^^
141
'
71
?''{
A,:
'f
CLOUDY MOUNTAINS
Anonymous
Hanging
(early fourteenth century, Yiian dynasty)
scroll in ink
The composition
and
Is
light color
on paper,
22Xx13X
in,
(57x35.3 cm)
very similar to that of the preceding item, but
Is
smaller
and considerably simplified. The fungus-like clouds

are shaped with graded washes, without outlines. Hills and rocks are done
in grey wash, with a few vertical strokes and well-placed blunt, rounded dots.
The trees are rough and sketchy, blobs of dark over light ink indicating the
in
scale, softer in effect,
foliage.
In
addition to blue color on the distant peaks and sky, the ink areas carry an
all-over bluish tone
houses.
The
In
some
painting
is
tradition of the
It
142
has been
in
which
is
parts, white
not signed.
two Mi (Nos.
It
balanced by pink-buff washes
may have been mixed

evidently
the bridge and
a painting of the Yiian period, in the
and belongs to the school of Kao K'o-kung.

Hsiang Sheng-mo (1597-1658).
28, 35),
the collection of
is
in
with the ink.
72
DUCK ON A RIVERBANK
By Ch'en
Hanging
Lin (dated 1301, Yiian dynasty)
scroll In ink
and some color on paper, My,x18y,
The strong contours
of
In.
(35.7x47^ cm)
bank and leaves and the broad, wavy
with the fine brush detail of the upper wing feathers.

is
found
in
the
inl<
tone and
very rich pictorial texture.
in
w/aterlines contrast
The same wide
the brushworl<, wet and dry,
Some
color
is
all
variation
resulting in a
applied to the eye which looks at us
with a quizzical expression.
Ch'en
Lin
was the son
of
an
official
This picture, however, places him
in
at
the
Hangchow
Painting
Academy.
quite a different group, that of the Literati
Chao Meng-chien (No. 67) in the strong,

Chao Meng-fu (No. 90a), in other features.
inscribed by Chao Meng-fu (No. 69) who tells
Painters: note the resemblances to

outlined grasses and flowers, and to
The
painting
is
not signed.
It is
us that Ch'en Lin did this picture "in play", and that
generation cannot reach him.
An
inscription by the
all
the painters of that
contemporary poet Ch'iu
in the autumn of 1301 Ch'en

Chao Meng-fu and produced this picture for him, "bringing
Ts'ui Po and Ai HsiJan back to life". The reference to Ts'ui Po (No. 23) is
understandable when we compare the outlines of bank and leaves. Like Ch'ien
HsiJan and Chao Meng-fu, Ch'en Lin turned to an earlier tradition, disavowing
the preceding Southern Sung period.
There also is a poetic Inscription by K'o Chiu-ssu (No. 79). The painting was
In the collection of Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686).
Yuan, mounted above the painting, states that

Lin visited with
143
73
DRAGON-BOAT REGATTA
By Wang Chen-p'eng
Handscroll
in ink
The Spring
on an
on
silk ,12 x
(dated 1323,
96
in. (30.2 x
Yuan dynasty)
243.8
cm)
Festival is being celebrated in the traditional
artificial
dragon-boat regatta
lake near Kaifeng, the old capital of the Northern
Sung. Along
the shore are a group of splendid palaces and pavilions, reaching out into the
water.
Men standing on
the dragon-prows of the boats swing banners with
each other's flags, as in a kite

game. At the goal, strings of cash and rolls of silk hang from a pole.
A large dragon-shaped pleasure-boat, carrying a storied pavilion, is propelled
by many oarsmen. Tumblers and acrobats perform on other boats; birds are
being set free in the background, while a religious ceremony takes place in the
large building at the end. The roofs, supported by double and triple brackets,
are slightly curved, with the corners swinging strongly upwards. Roofs, walls
and boats are carefully shaded in wet ink as are trees and rocks. Very fine,
accented outlines delineate figures, architectural details and plants. Like the
Knick-knack Peddler (No. 50) of Li Sung, who himself specialized in the fine-line
architectural drawing called by the Chinese chieb-hua or "boundary painting",
flying streamers, apparently trying to catch
flying
this is essentially a tour-de-force of meticulous draftsmanship.
meticulousness seems more an end
in itself,
But here the
and the forms have less
and individual characterization.

Wang Chen-p'eng was a well-known architect and painter
of solidity
of architectural
was Battalion Commander in a unit guarding the water

transport (on the Grand Canal) of tribute rice to the capital. The painting is
signed and has, on the same piece of silk, a long inscription by the artist
which contains the date and the dedication to the emperor's sister. He refers
to another picture of the same subject which he painted in 1310. The latter and
also two more versions are in the Palace Museum Collection, and at least two
others are known to exist. So far it has not been possible to determine which,
subjects.
if
He
also
any, of these scrolls are by the hand of the master.
There are seals with
titles
or
names
of the
emperor's
sister, of the prince of
Chin-ning (fourteenth century) and of his great-grandson, as well as of a

sixteenth century scholar.
144
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145
74
DWELLING
IN
THE FU-CH'UN MOUNTAINS
By Huang Kung-wang (dated

Handscroll
In
ink
on paper, 12%
x 251
1350,
in.
Yuan dynasty)
(33x636.9 cm)
panorama of the Fu-ch'un mountains, west of Hangchow, unrolls

magnificent symphony. Beginning with a vast expanse of river scenery,
we move into the mountains and hills, then back to areas of river and marsh
which are terminated by a high conical hill, and finally come to the end of our
An
ideal
in a
wandering as the landscape ebbs out beautifully and melodiously in the distant
ink-wash hills over the water. The entire design was laid out in dilute ink and
then finished with successive applications of darker and drier brushwork.
Sometimes shapes were slightly altered, contours strengthened, texture

strokes or tree groups added here and there. Finally, the dots were distributed
as nearly abstract accents. In parts, the ink may have been mixed with white
color. Buildings, tree limbs
nature
Huang
and foliage are reduced
to the simplest
translated into terms of brushstrokes and ink-values.

Kung-wang (1269-1354), a native of Chekiang province,
forms;
is
was a man
of
great learning, devoted to the arts of music, poetry and painting. As a painter,
he worked in the tradition of Tung Yuan and Chii-jan (Nos. 14, 15). Owing to an
he lost his position as a junior clerk in the Court of Examiners.

Afterwards, he became a Taoist priest and opened a School of the Three
irregularity
146
I.
-J^'V
Doctrines
in
in particular
In
Soochow. He spent the
rest of his
life in
the
hills
near Hangchow,
the Fu-ch'un Mountains.
his inscription at the
end the artist tells us that after having laid out the
one burst of creation, unconscious of fatigue, he worked on
and on, whenever the mood was right, during the three years
entire design in
the picture
off
from 1347 to 1350, when he

Taoist friend,
finally decided it was finished. He painted it for a

Wu-yung Shih "Master Useless" with whom he was then
staying.
The colophons were
Wen
Chou
P'eng
in
written by the painters
1570, by the poet-critic
Wang
Shen Chou (No.

Ch'ih-teng
in
94) in 1488
and
1571, the painter
T'ien-ch'iu (1514-1595), the painter-critic
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (1596), the

Tsou Chih-lin (ca. 1625), and others. The scroll was owned by
Shen Chou (who made a free copy of it), by the Ming dynasty bamboo-painter
poet-collector
An
Shao-fang, by
Wu
Chih-chu, by
Shih-ch'i (1675-1740) and by
An
Wang
Hung-hsCi
(1645-1723), by
The original opening passage of the scroll has been cut off. The
was badly burned when the dying collector Wu Chih-chu threw it
it
Kao
Ch'l (born 1683).

story
Is
that
into the fire.
147
y5
CLEARING AFTER
By Ts'ao Chih-po
Hanging
scroll in ink
SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN PEAKS
(dated 1350,
Yuan dynasty)
on paper. 51%x22>i
Majestic, snow-clad mountains rise
brushstrokes give
some
in.
in
(129.7x56.4 cm)
a simple, rhythmic composition. Very dry
texture and shading to the slopes.
The sky and water
are covered with light grey wash, leaving only a narrow rim along the banks.
Gnarled foreground trees belong to the

19, 20) while the sloping
neatly
bank
recalls
Li Ch'eng-Kuo Hsi tradition (Nos. 17,

Huang Kung-wang. The buildings are
drawn with straight roofs and prominent eaves. An atmosphere
loneliness and serenity
is
perfectly expressed
In
of
this consciously simplified
landscape.
Ts'ao Chih-po (1272-1355) was a native of Huating (Kiangsu). Like his friend
Huang Kung-wang, he abandoned his official position in order to devote
himself to Taoist studies and painting.
The picture is signed by the artist. Another inscription by his friend Huang
Kung-wang (No. 74) gives us the date and tells us that the painter then was
seventy-eight years old, or three years younger than Huang himself.
The painting was in the collection of Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686) and his
son, and of a Manchu collector.
148
fs
47
Sfl
149
76
THE OLD FISHERMAN

By
Wu
Hanging
Chen (dated
on
scroll in ink
dynasty)
1342, Yiian
silk,
69%x3T/,
in.
(176.1 x 95.6
cm)
very simple river landscape, seen by moonlight,
painting.
The
man
old
sitting in
the
bow
of a boat
is
the real subject of this
rowed by
not a true rustic, but an amateur fisherman and nature lover.
by a calm expanse of
his attendant is
He
is
surrounded
broken by a few strong reeds and rocks, framed
viâter,
by a tree-group and some modest hills. The entire painting is done in broad,
wet strokes and sensitive washes of varying ink shades powerful vertical dots
accent the soft rhythm of hills and boulders.
Wu Chen (1280-1354) was a poor and unsociable eccentric who made his
;
living first
as a diviner and
by painting not selling, but giving away his
later
paintings to friends and receiving presents

post, but lived the
life
of a Taoist recluse.
he followed Chii-jan (No. 15)
in his
in return.
An
He never
held any official
outstanding poet and calligrapher,
landscape paintings. (For another landscape,
see No. 90d).
The
picture
is
Blue
poem
signed and inscribed with a melancholy
The west wind blows,
press on the
hills
by the artist:
with soughing sound, beneath the leaves of trees

river
shore, ten thousandfold
in
depth.
Against the sorrow of old age, the pleasure of rod and line
How often, in plaited-grass coat and hat, have waited through wind
I
and
The
rain
fisher lad claps his oar, heedless of west or east;
His song goes forth to the ripple of waves, wind
The
night
is
Clouds disperse, the sky
The
150
picture
was
in
in
the tassels of reeds.
deep; behind the boat, fish break the surface, plash;

is clear,
the collection of
the misty waters stretch on.
Keng Chao-chung
(1640-1686).
1
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pi
^>>$
ii
5-
a^."*'*V^"
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*..iii-*Sii^^'.^
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151
-^
mrs
78
BAMBOO GROVE
Attributed to
Handscroll
On
in ink
Kuo
IN
SNOW
Pi (1280-1335, Yiian dynasty)
on paper, 12%
57%
in.
the banks of a brook, next to
arranged
In
(31 .8 x 145.2
some
cm)
bamboo
down by the
bamboo stalks
rocks and an old tree, clumps of
a rhythmic and melodious composition are weighted
snow. Like the ideal scholar-gentleman in adverse times, the

bend but do not break. Sky and water are covered with grey ink-washes,
leaving the snowy areas white; stems and leaves of the bamboos are sensitively and elegantly drawn in wet ink. Everything combines to produce a
poetic and contemplative
Kuo
Pi,
(No. 28) and
became
well
known as a
ced by Chao Meng-fu (No.

in
mood.
a native of Kiangsu, painted landscapes
69).
a Taoist temple near his
in
the tradition of Mi Fu
bamboos. He also was influenthat he executed many wall paintings
painter of
We are told
home town.
The signature may be interpolated, and the painting, which seems unrelated
known style of Kuo Pi, a work of some other Yuan dynasty artist, more
accomplished in some respects than Kuo himself, and working perhaps a
generation or so after Kuo's time. The attached colophons are by Teng Wenyuan (1258-1328), Cheng Yuan-yu (1292-1364), Yii Chi (1272-1348), Kao Ch'i
(1336-1374) and Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (1555-1636); however, none of their seals
to the
appear on the painting.
153
79
BAMBOO AND CHRYSANTHEMUM

By K'o Chiu-ssu
Hanging
scroll in ink
Yuan dynasty)
(1290-1343,
on paper, 49%
29%
in.
(126.3 x 75.2
cm)
elegant bamboo, flanked by a chrysanthemum and some thorny twigs rises

above a grassy rock. Long, wet, grey strokes give texture and shading to the
rock and indicate the ground. The lines that depict the grass are full of tensile
strength. The flower is painted in grey Ink, with black veins on the leaves;
An
the twigs are grey with black thorns, the small berries are outlined.
bamboo
dark shading marks the joints.

is
The
leaves are black on the top surface, grey on the reverse side. Wet,
The
entire picture is
done
in
wet ink the bamboo

;
painted with spontaneity and strength from root to top and from the stem
to the
leaves just as bamboo grows.
few
large,
horizontal dots accent
the rocks.
K'o Chiu-ssu, son of a scholar from Cheklang, was a
man
of letters
and an
and keeper of the imperial collection he was

much favored by the Yuan emperor Wen-tsung. The ensuing jealousies
brought about his downfall, and he spent the rest of his life in retirement in
Kiangsu. He was one of the outstanding bamboo painters of his time, much
appreciated by his friend Ni Tsan (Nos. 84, 85).
academic
official.
As
librarian
The painting Is signed by the artist; he painted it for a high Mongol dignitary
whose seal is also on the scroll. There Is an inscription by Yu Chi (1272-1348).
The picture was in the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
154
155
jffsbfif^.
80
BOATING
IN
AUTUMN
By Sheng Mou
Handscroll
(ca. 1350, Yiian dynasty)
and colors on paper, 9%
in ink
colorful tree
43%
in. (24.7 x 111
cm)
group with red vines hanging from gnarled branches, leads
our eye to the boating gentlemen who,
we may presume,
are busy exchanging
poetry. Distant blue hills rise over the haze on the water.
takes us back to the green shore where trees,

to a
hills
A flight
of waterfowl
and distant peaks continue
harmonious ending.
Every tree, every leaf
is full of
same loose "hemp-fibre"

Sensitively placed dots
character and
vitality. Hills
and rocks show the
veins that appear on the hanging scroll (No. 81).
enhance the rhythm
of this lovely
and serene autumn
scene.
Sheng Mou, the son

Ch'en
in
the tradition
The
156
from Chekiang province, was a pupil of

and contemporary of Wu Chen (Nos. 76, 77). He painted
of Tung Yiian and Chu-jan (Nos. 14, 15).
signed by the artist. There are eight contemporary inscriptions
of a painter
Lin (see No. 72)
painting
is
of
which the
is
dated 1361.
last,
by the painter Wei Chiu-t'ing, an old friend of the
artist,
81
NOBLE SCHOLAR
AN AUTUMN
IN
GROVE
By Sheng Mou
Hanging
(ca. 1350, Yiian dynasty)
scroll In ink
53y.x23y.
in.
and some color on
silk,
M'%
(135.3x59 cm)
This simple but powerful landscape compobreathes an
air of serenity.
tary scholar's red
gown provides
sition
The
soli-
a strong
color accent over the naturally flowing lines
which set him
shades
varied
off
from the wet brush ink
foliage
formalized
is
short-hand patterns
in
different
long, elastic reeds are
of tensile strength.
full
The dense and
of the landscape.
sensitively handled
area of mist and clouds, allowing a glimpse

of
marsh and bushes, leads
and
strokes.
The
wet texture
naturalistic proportion of the
figure in relation to the grove

of a
to the clear
solid peaks, with their long
number
works
of features
another
is
the
and
in
hills is
one
Sheng Mou's
blue
hills
in
the
previous painting (No. 80) that are carried

over from the preceding
nervous
line
used
for tree
Sung
period.
The
and rock contours
gives a kind of vibrancy to the brushwork,
which contrasts with the sense of repose

general
in
Yiian paintings.
signed by the
The
painting
is
artist.
157
82
MUSIC UNDER THE TREES

By Chu Te-jun
(ca. 1350,
Hanging
and some
scroll in ink
Three gentlemen are
Yuan dynasty)
light colors
sitting
on a
the ch'in (zither) and singing.
An
on
silk,
river
48x22%
in.
(120.8x58 cm)
bank under a group
of trees, playing
attendant, scooping water for tea, turns
song of his master; a fisherman in his boat has stopped workand enjoys the concert. The trees stand out in silhouette against the
expanse of the water over which a flight of birds leads us to the far bank with
its sketchy hills and trees. The whole painting is done in wet brushwork.
Banks and rocks, trees and twigs strongly resemble the style of Kuo Hsi
(No. 20). The broad, flowing contour of the banks, the elastic bending reeds,
to listen to the
ing
the spongy texture strokes of the rocks are characteristic of the

of rendering that
Yuan manner
Northern Sung tradition.
Chu Te-jun (1294-1365) was a native of Honan and an outstanding man of

letters. Upon recommendation by Chao Meng-fu (No. 69) he became Commissioner for Confucian Studies with a Government-General
in
Manchuria. After
he retired from public life and lived

in Kiangsu. As a painter, he followed the tradition of Kuo Hsi, and also was
influenced by Chao Meng-fu. Both elements are visible in this painting.
the murder of Emperor Ying-tsung
The
picture
is
signed by the
fourteenth century writer.
158
in 1323,
artist,
and there
is
a poetic inscription by a
^
'-li.j
.u^^^:^^
''a^
-^
159
g3
FISHERMEN RETURNING ON A FROSTY BANK

By T'ang
Hanging
scroll in Ink
clump
The
Ti (dated 1338,
and colors on
of gnarled pines
Yuan dynasty)
silk,
56%
35%
in. (144 x 89.7
cm)
and various deciduous trees dominates the
returning fishermen, carrying their gear, are extremely lively in
picture.
movement
and expression. Dry and wet ink, in varying shades, is used in combination
vi/ith color some blue-green on the needle clusters and pink on other leaves.
The banks are outlined and shaded in a typical Yuan manner; the interior
drawing has the same somewhat tangled and mushy aspect that we noticed
with
Chu
Te-jun.
The
trees again are
in
the tradition of
Kuo Hsi (No.
20),
but
the exaggerated dry twigs and branches as well as the "baroque" knobs and
knots of the tree trunks are contemporary
T'ang Ti (1296-1340) was a native

first literary
of
traits.
Wuhsing
in
Chekiang. Already after his
examination, he was appointed magistrate.
We
are told that he
was a Confucian scholar of some renown. As a painter, he studied the works

of Kuo Hsi and was a disciple of Chao Meng-fu (No. 69). He Is known to have
executed wall paintings
The
in
the imperial palace.
picture is signed by the artist.
years between 1373-1384 and later

(1620-1691).
160
It
was
has the palace inventory seal of the

in the collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao
161
84
,
'-f
'-
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:-i:
ill
'4-
0. jrt.--
MOUNTAINS SEEN FROM A RIVER BANK

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I ^t
By
Tsan (dated
Ni
1363,
Yuan dynasty)
jt
Hanging
on paper, 37X
scroll in ink
17X
in- (94.7 x
43.7
cm)
*|"
-^'i:^.->,^From
a rocky
shore with two trees, some bushes and an empty
we gaze across
river. The distant mounThe composition, although

simple and sketchy, has depth and perspective. The distant
bank with Its small trees and the shadow lines extending Into
the water recall the work of the artist's olderfrlend Huang Kungwang (No. 74), as does the very abbreviated and simplified
rendering of nature. Some white may have been mixed with
thatched shelter,
the
tains rise abruptly from the far shore.
is diluted to a variety of light and soft tones.

There are some long texture strokes done in both wet and dry
brushwork, and a few flat, horizontal dots. Most of the details
the ink, which
g3^^T--'-.-
i..-.
----
are executed
in
dry brush over lighter wet strokes.
and austere quality

sensitivity
which
of this
landscape
Is
The
lonely
expressed with a noble
reflects the character of the artist.
Tsan (1301-1374), son of a wealthy merchant family of Wuhsi

(near Soochow), was a bibliophile and collector, "amateur"
poet and painter. He also was an eccentric, almost morbid
Ni
in
his passion for cleanliness
The
lonely,
obviously
from any
is
cool
and horror
of
and chaste atmosphere
human
of
his
vulgarity.
landscape
an expression of these Inclinations. He kept aloof
official
of the rebellions
commitment. Sensing the imminent outbreak

and disorders which eventually put an end to
the reigning Mongol dynasty, he distributed his property
among
and friends and lived for many years on a small houseboat, wandering up and down the streams and lakes of southeastern Kiangsu, or lodging In temporary abodes. He wore
relatives
the yellow cap of a Taoist priest and rustic clothes,

to conceal himself
among
in
order
the poor country folk.
The painting is signed and inscribed with a poem by the artist

who presented it to his friend, the painter Ch'en Ju-yen. There
also are poetic inscriptions by three contemporaries.
been
in
Pien Yung-yii (1645-1702).
162
It
has
the collections of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and
85
MOUNTAIN SCENERY WITH RIVER

LODGE
By
Tsan (dated
Ni
Hanging
Yuan dynasty)
1372,
on paper, 37%
scroll in ink
17%
in.
(94.7x43.7 cm)
Once more,
few trees and a simple thatched
lodge are placed on a rocky shore
foreground, and mountains
in
the
beyond the
rise
vast expanse of water, interrupted by spits
and rocks.
of land
The same general compositional pattern

was used by the artist for most of his landscapes.
Its
elements are loosely spaced, and
same economy
the
detail.
of
There are few
means
is
applied to
dots; otherwise,
flat
the painting consists of dry brushwork over
wet strokes done
a sketchy, seemingly
in
manner which conceals its strength

and discipline. The ink, perhaps mixed with
white, is soft and silvery in tone. The forecareless
ground hut again

at
an occasional
mood
austere
is
empty, and only hints
visit
by
breathes
some
recluse.
through
An
cool,
grey day.
The
painting
dedicated
of
his
it
is
signed by the
to a Taoist physician
artist
who
and recluse
acquaintance. He also inscribed
poem.
was in the
it
with a lengthy
The picture
Chao-chung
collector.
collection of
(1640-1686) and of a
Keng
Manchu
'^-m
163
i 4
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Ik
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86
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"
PORTRAIT OF
Nl
TSAN
Anonymous
(ca. 1340, Yiian
Handscroll
and colors on paper, 11%x24
Ni
Tsan
in ink
is
shown
dynasty)
in.
time (before 1341)
at a
(28.2x60.9 cm)
when he
still
lived
surrounded by
books and antiques in his immaculate study, which he called

"Pavilion of Pure Solitude". Bronzes and ceramics are lying on a side table,
a bundle of scrolls on the k'ang (dais). A servant boy holds a feather broom,
ready to dust at any moment, while a lovely girl carries a bowl and a container
his beloved
of water for the

is
master to wash his hands. The
about to write a poem
he looks
artist,
at his portraitist,
holding brush and paper,
somewhat
self-consciously.
Behind him, a typical Yuan landscape adorns a large screen.

The painting is not signed. It has a long inscription by the famous Taoist
(1277-1348) who also was a friend of Chao Meng-fu (No. 69).
There are several colophons by well-known critics and artists who saw the
painting in the collection of Chang Feng-i between 1559 and 1568. Later, it was
Chang Yu
in
164
the collection of
Sung Lao
(1634-1713).
87
i-
AUTUMN MOUNTAINS
By Chu Shu-chung
(dated 1365,
Yiian dynasty)
Hanging
scroll in
ZlYjXWy,
in.
inli
and
colors on paper
light
(69.5x26.4 cm)
range of piled-up peaks, seen
eye view,
zigzagging
distance.
higher
The
The clouds
and
higher
pattern of the peaks
ed by the trees
bird's
in
out of a sea of clouds,
rises
in
into
is
the
repeat-
the misty middle distance.
are set off by light grey
washes
and perhaps blue may have been
white
mixed with
parts
ink, in
buff-pink
washes
are used to color the peaks and light blue

for the
Strong, rounded dots give
trees.
accent to the nearly abstract composition.
No
dry
brushwork
is
used
wet inks and
combined in strong shading

which produces an effect of great depth and
colors
are
gives monumentality to the small picture.
The
style of the
painting
is
derived from
way of
Kao K'o-kung (No. 70).
Chu Shu-chung was a Confucian scholar
that of the
two Mi (Nos.
28, 35) by
and poet from Kiangsu.
The
painting
is
signed by the
artist.
165
88
THATCHED LODGE
AUTUMN
IN
By Wang Meng
(died 1385,
Hanging
and
scroll in
mountain
steeper as
it
inli
Yuan dynasty)
light colors
moves
on paper, 48J^x21%
slopes running
cinain, its
HILLS
down
(123.3x54.8 cm)
in.
to a river shore,
becomes ever
into the distance, culminating in a nearly perpendicular
among
peak. Cottages and lodges are half hidden
the foreground trees and
rocks; a fisherman w/atches his net, another angles from a boat, a scholar
reading a scroll at his w/indow.
The composition
is
organized
in
is
a sv\/eeping
curve leading into the distance.
Dry brush texture strokes over

leaves
light
washes
grey
vary with wet ink areas of
Dry black lines reinforce the tree trunks and outline the
different shades.
huts and figures are drawn with precise, dry lines.
On mountains and
banks, broken, short, dry brushstrokes form the outlines, sometimes becoming
rows
of dots.
The
extraordinary richness
use of color. Blue
other trees, tan on the roofs, brown
both getting lighter
in ink
values
in
becoming
well scaled
is
sparse and firm ink dots are
lighter in the distance.
detail,
the pictur-e
perfectly unified through the rhythmic flow of lines
masses. The technical
size of the
more
is
clearly organized
and the balance
and
of the
subdued by the sensitive use of ink and

more serene and less austere than in the landscapes
brilliance is
The mood
Tsan (Nos.
of Ni
The
down.
Despite the exuberant richness of
color values.
of
the distance. Color dots are used on the mountain
in
for accent, also
distant vegetation
matched by the subtle
the reeds alternating with ink strokes,
slopes which are modelled by their accumulation
used
is
used over willows and bamboo, pink for the foliage
is
84, 85),
is
which technically as well represent a
radically different
approach.
Wang Meng was

law secretary
hill
in
nephew
of
Chao Meng-fu (No.
69).
Having
first
served as
near Hangchow,
when
the disorders began which led to the
fall
dynasty. Under the Ming, he once more entered public service and
prefect of a district
1380,
Crane"
a provincial administration, he retired to the "Yellow
in
Shantung. After the
Wang was thrown
looked at paintings
in
fall
of the
of the
became
mighty Hu Wei-yung
in
once had
he died of cold and
into prison for "guilt by association", as he
Hu's house. After
five
years
in jail,
hunger.
The
painting
(1525-1590).
166
is
signed by the
artist.
It
was
in
the collection of Hsiang Yuan-pien
167
39
IMMORTAL MOUNTAINS AND LUMINOUS WOODS

By Fang Ts'ung-i (dated
Hanging
scroll in ink
dynasty)
1365, Yiian
and colors on paper, 47}^
22X
in.
(120.3x55.7 cm)
The rugged mountain thrusts powerfully upward from a river valley, seeming
more like a living thing in motion than a static mass. The magnificent pines,
painted with violent slanting strokes, add to the impression of force and unrest,
as do the writhing foreground trees. Strong, splashed slanted dots continue

this
movement on
the foreground banks and on the slopes and ridge of the
mountain. Blue may have been added to the
and
cliffs.
ink, especially in
Sky and water are covered with
well-drawn roofs
is filled
T'ang (Nos.
18, 36),
light
blue washes.
in
manner
in
Kiangsi.
picture
is
recalling
As
of his
a painter he followed Mi Fu
signed by the
dated by way of an obscure
artist
who
literary
painted
quotation,
life
in
sil-
Fan K'uan and
while the brushwork reminds us of the two Mi and of
K'o-kung (Nos. 28, 35, 70).

Fang Ts'ung-i was a Taoist who spent most
temple
The gorge above the
with mist against which the towering pines are
houetted, leaning toward the void,
The
the trees and dots,
the shady recesses of the peaks which contrast with the tan slopes and
in
LI
Kao
the Shang-ch'ing
and Kao K'o-kung.

it
in
and
is
the year 1365. That year
is
for a Taoist friend,
one of "great calamity" Chu Yuan-chang,thefounder

of the Ming dynasty, had made himself King of Wu and had risen against the
Mongols, and death, destruction and famine were rampant.
The painting was in the collection of Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686) and of a
further characterized as
Manchu
168
collector.
169
90
COLLECTIVE HANDSCROLL OF YOAN DYNASTY ARTISTS

The
An
a.
was formerly in the collections of Hsiang YiJan-pien

Chao-heng (f1. 1630-1647), Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691) and
entire scroll
(1525-1590), Li
Ch'i (born 1683).
ROCKS, BAMBOO AND DRY SHRUBS
By Chao Meng-fu
Handscroll
in ink
(1254-1322)
on paper, W/,%Ziy,
in.
(25.9x69.2 cm)
drawn with a flowing movement that continues

even where the brushline breaks (to produce what is called In calligraphy the
"flying white" stroke), and the long veins that are laid, along with some dry
strokes, over grey ink-wash on the rock surfaces, contrast with the crisp
drawing of bamboo and grass in deepest black. A few long strokes, wet and
The broad contours
dry, indicate the
of the rocks,
ground. Neither the rocks nor the stubby bare tree
with any air of beauty or elegance.

is
one
BAMBOO GROVE
By Kuan Tao-sheng
Handscroll
Clumps
in ink
of
IN
on paper, 9;^
in a
which
is
is
depicted
signed by the
artist,
artist,
see No.
69.
MIST AND RAIN
(dated 1308)
x 44>i in. (23.1 x 113.7
bamboo growing on
are grouped
painting,
renderings of this motif, an especially popular one
of the best extant
during the Yilan period. For the
b.
The
cm)
a rocky bank, interwoven with
simple and lovely composition. The
mood
bands
of mist,
of the picture is
tender and poetic. The rounded rocks recall Chao Meng-fu (No. 90a) but are
more
softly
84, 85).
some
170
flat dots remind us of Ni Tsan (Nos.

and the well written inscription have, according to
been added by Chao Meng-fu.
rendered; the freely spaced
The
critics,
crisp grasses
Kuan Tao-sheng
(1262-1319)
was
right.
She has signed the
painted
in
picture,
Chao Meng-fu (No. 69) and a

bamboo and flowers in her own
the wife of
respectable poet and painter especially of
and added a note informing us that
it
was
a boat on Lake Pilang, for another lady of high position, probably
her sister.
LODGE ON THE RIVER BANK
c.
By
Ni
Tsan
Handscroll
(1301-1374)
in ink
on paper, 10x28>i
In.
(25.4x71.6 cm)
an extremely simple composition, a distant chain of
hills is
separated by
a river from a lodge on the rocl^y foreshore under a few trees.
Done mainly
In
dry brush over wet outlines and washes, the painting
in
Some
nature.
The
is
By
Wu
Handscroll
may have been mixed
inscribed with a
on paper,
in
by the artist (No. 84).
1336)
10%x35%
mountain peak stands
fall
poem
AMONG MOUNTAINS
Chen (dated
in ink
with the ink. Sparse dots, flat on
round on the trees, give the necessary accents.
A MOUNTAIN
d.
white
hills,
painting
example
a fine
"abbreviated" way of rendering a cool and intellectual vision of
of the artist's
shore and
is
rhythmic flow.
in
in.
(26.4x90.7 cm)
the center of a ring of lower
dense forest
of
fir
hills,
which
rise
trees lies at the foot of the
Broad wet outlines and washes are overlaid with darker strokes
in
and
hills.
which the
ink possibly is mixed with white. Strong, blunt, vertical dots in rich black ink
accent the soft and melodious movement of the composition. This very relaxed
and unassuming picture

tion" of nature.
It
is
is
perhaps the best example
signed and dated by the
artist
of
Wu
Chen's "abstrac-
(No. 76).
171
QQ
SPRING HILLS AFTER RAIN

By Ma Wan (dated 1366)
e.
Handscroll
in
Ink
on paper,
10%x40%
In.
(27x102.5 cm)
Verdant mountain scenery opens toward a marshy
winding around
river
bamboo grove. The mountains rise again to steep cliffs; further down the
slope we see a splendid lodge built on a high stone masonry foundation.
Distant
hills in
grey and black
however, the style

of
such
washes recall Wu Chen (Nos.

Huang Kung-wang (No. 74)
closer to
is
masters as Chu-jan (No.
earlier
76, 90d)
altogether,
with distant echoes
and Chiang Ts'an.
15)
Yang Wei-chen (1296-1370) as a painter he

was a follower of Huang Kung-wang, without, however, sharing the latter's
economy of means. At the beginning of the new Ming dynasty, he became
prefect of a district in Kiangsi. The painting is signed by the artist.
Ma Wan
studied the classics with
Lu yO brewing tea
By Chao Yiian (fourteenth century)
f.
Handscroll
Lu
We
Yij
In Ink
and
(died 804)
see him
light colors
on paper, 10%
sitting in a
in. (27 x
come from Hupeh
for his
and washes
Wang Meng
a style recalling
dots accent the distant
Chao Yuan, a native

Ni Tsan (No. 84). At
"Book
of
Tea".
province.
;
comma-shaped
Dry brushstrokes overlie wet strokes
resilient.
summoned
cm)
trees are abbreviated to free foliage patterns
grass and reeds are strong and

in
78
thatched lodge while his servant boils the water which
should, according to Lu's work,
The surrounding
30%
was a T'ang dynasty hermit famous
(No. 88). Strong and free vertical
beyond the vast expanse of water.

Shantung who resided in Soochow, was a
hills
of
the beginning of the
to the court by the
worthies of previous dynasties.
Hung-wu
emperor and ordered
Chao
friend
period (1368-1398) he
of
was
to paint portraits of the
either refused or otherwise incurred the
wrath of the emperor and was executed.
A ^<i"- ^%
h- -i
4f
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it ft
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111
1 î
n ^
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172
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ON A
g.
By
THE RIVER
CLIFF BY
Lin ChiJan-a (dated 1373)
Handscroll
In ink
on paper, 10% x24%
(25.8x61.5 cm)
in.
are conversing on a cliff overhanging a river bank, v\/hile a

approaching from belovK. Tree-clad hills rise across the river and out
of the clouds In the distance. A fisherman is returning home in his boat.
The rich variety of ink values and the very freely painted trees add a particular
Two gentlemen
third is
charm
to the painting.
was a disciple of the Taoist Fang Ts'ung-i (No. 89) and of the
Chang Shuai, and a friend of the painters Ni Tsan and Chao Yuan (Nos.84
and 90f). He is supposed to have studied the style of Kuo Hsi (No. 20), and
some trace of that perhaps shows In the outline of the foreground cliff. The
Lin ChiJan-a
poet
Inscribed and signed by the artist,
painting
is
memory
of a
who
tells
us that he did
it
in
day when Ni Tsan and Chao Yuan exchanged paintings and poems
with the recipient of this picture.
h.
SCHOLAR APPROACHING
By Chuang
Handscroll
HIS LODGE
Lin (fourteenth century)
in ink
and some
light color
on paper, W/,x25y,
simple thatched lodge by a brook
ing the bridge. Loosely painted in
dry brush overlay, the poetic scene
in.
(26.2x65.4 cm)
approached by an elderly scholar crosswashes and broad wet strokes with some
is
is
a typical work of the literary taste of the
Yuan dynasty. Blue and white may have been mixed with the ink; some pink Is
added to the face.
Chuang Lin lived at the same place in Kiangsu as Kuo Pi (No. 78).
The painting has a poetic inscription by the artist who tells us that he was
inspired by a painting of ChiJ-jan (No. 15). There
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang
is
also an Inscription by
(1555-1636).
?,
m ih
^#
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It
i '11 1
4-
HjLi-
-rJ^'^Wv4,
B.:,;i-,
173
A
'^
p%.
ff^
174
91
LITERARY GATHERING
By Wang Fu (dated
Hanging
scroll in ink
and
1404,
A MOUNTAIN LODGE
IN
Ming dynasty)
light colors
on paper,
51%x20X
in.
(129.5x51.4 cm)
A thatched
lodge surrounded by trees is perched on the rocks over a waterfall.

Three scholars are seated inside, and more guests are arriving on foot and by
boat. The river winds through a steep gorge, sending up mists in the middle
distance which set off the trees around a temple, in the manner of Fang Ts'ung-i
(No. 89). Beyond rise steep
Painted mainly
in
cliffs,
with distant blue peaks
in
the background.
dry brushwork laid over wet strokes and washes, the powerful
mountain landscape
recalls the
work
of
Wang Meng and Sheng Mou
(Nos. 88,
80). Elastic
grasses and reeds, strong simplified trees, rugged, veined moun-
tains blend
in
a wild
and powerful setting
for the scholarly
exchange
of poetry
and music.
Wang
who,
Fu (1361-1415) was a poet-painter from Wuhsi (Kiangsu), an eccentric
like Ni
(1403-1422)
Literary
Tsan, hated the
Academy
he received the
in
and powerful. But during the Yung-lo period
title
made
member
of
the Han-lin
respect for his eminence as a calligrapher. Subsequently

of Imperial Secretary.
bamboo in the manner

The painting is signed by
artist Hu Yen (1361-1443).
of
rich
he was called to the court and
Wang was
also a renowned painter
T'ung and Wu Chen (Nos.

the artist. There is a seal attributed
of
Wen
27, 77).
to the scholar-
175
92
RETURNING LATE FROM A SPRING OUTING

By Tai Chin
Hanging
(ca. 1430,
scroll in ink
Ming dynasty)
and some
light colors
on
silk,
66y,x32y,
in.
(167.9x83.1 cm)
servant carrying a lantern hurries to open a gate, outside which a gentleman
is
waiting. Other attendants hold his
donkey and carry
angular pines tower over the gate. Evening mist

return along a dike to their hut
among
is veiling
his provisions.
the willows where a
the distance, a temple tower and verdant
Tall,
the valley, and farmers
woman
is
feeding
above the mist.

The sensitive graded washes and flamboyant "axe-cut" strokes are derived from
Ma Yuan and Hsia Kuei and their school (Nos. 51-61) so is the emphasis on
atmospheric values. At the same time, a more decorative quality and a more
chickens.
In
hills rise
descriptive and narrative character has replaced the intimate and
sceneries of the Southern
Sung Academy
Tai Chin (ca. 1390-1460), a native of Chekiang,
was
called to the court In the
Hsuan-te reign (1426-1435) by Emperor Hsiian-tsung, who was
amateur painter. Through jealousy
evocative
style.
of other court officials he lost the
favor and returned home, where he tried to
make a
living
himself an
emperor's
as a professional
painter. He died in poverty.

The Ma-Hsia style of the Southern Sung Academy had remained alive as a local
tradition in Chekiang. This style was revitalized by Tai Chin who therefore
came to be regarded as the founder of the Che school.
The painting is not signed, but is the best of the Palace Museum paintings
attributed to Tai Chin,
by the artist.
176
and agrees
in
style with
signed and accepted works
177
178
93
WILD GEESE AND PEONIES

By Lu Chi
Hanging
(ca. 1500,
and colors on
scroll in ink
IN
silk,
69%
Reeds and tree-peonies grow on
One is
moon. The front
MOONLIGHT
Ming dynasty)
x 42 in. (177.2 x 107.3
profiles of the
where four wild geese have

where autumn mists veil the full
a rocky bank
calling out over the water
alighted.
cm)
two nearest geese are heightened by the
skillful
treatment of the white neck and breast feathers. Delicate graded washes pro-
duce subtle atmospheric effects of moonlight and mist, and the colors are
skillfully shaded and subdued. This poetic picture is a splendid example of the
decorative academic art of the period.
LiJ Chi, a native of Ningpo (Chekiang), studied bird and flower painting under
painter named Pien Wen-chin. During the Hung-chih period
was summoned to the court by Emperor Hsiao-tsung and was
made Commander of the Guard of the Gold Embroidered Robes, a very high
another
Academy
(1488-1505) he
honor.
The
painting
is
signed by the
artist.
179
94
LOFTY MT. LU
By Shen Chou (dated
Hanging
scroll In ink
and
1467,
Ming dynasty)
light colors
on paper, 76>^x38%
grandiose view of this famous mountain
picture with writhing

trees, over
which the high peaks
of ink values is
the
cliffs
and moving shapes
in
In.
and peaks. The color helps
fills the huge

and rocks, clouds and
Kiangsi province
of slopes
rise in the distance.
enhanced by the subtle use
(193,8x98.1 cm)
The
extraordinary richness
and some of
dense and complex compo-
of colors in the trees
to organize the
tion of
The woolly texture strokes, in particular, place the painting in the tradiWang Meng (No. 88) which here, however, is handled in a highly indi-
vidual
manner. Strong accent dots are scattered over the mountain top and
sition.
the foreground rocks from which a scholar gazes over the
Shen Chou
river.
was born into a distinguished and well-to-do family of

Soochow scholars and artists. He did not seek an official career in government,
(1427-1509)
but chose a quiet life devoted to his interests in poetry, painting and calligraphy,
and to his mother who lived to be almost 100 years old. Shen enjoyed the
friendship of the most outstanding scholar-officials of his time. In his art as
well as in his
life
the contrast with the academic painters of the
such as Tai Chin and
Lij
Che school
Chi (Nos. 92, 93) could not be greater. He studied and
followed the tradition of the great Yuan dynasty landscapists and through the
latter, of
Tung
Yiian and Chij-jan (Nos. 14, 15).
who then was 40 years

He painted it for the birthday of his teacher Ch'en K'uan, grandson of
the Yuan dynasty painter Ch'en Ju-yen. It has been in the collections of Keng
Chao-chung (1640-1686) and An Ch'i (born 1683).
The
old.
180
painting has a long poetic inscription by the artist
181
95
WALKING WITH A STAFF

By Shen Chou
(ca. 1500,
Hanging
scroll in ink
An
man walks
old
water, bare
Is
hills
Ming dynasty)
on paper, W/,xiS,y,
clearly that of Nl
Tsan (Nos.
to the flat dots scattered over
in Ni
The
artist
himself is something not to be seen
of the earlier painter
more mellow and serene.
The painting has a poetic inscription by the artist.

It was in the collection of Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686).
182
is
and the long, somewhat wavy lines covering

from Ni Tsan's texture strokes. Also, the figure
scholar perhaps the

is
and simple picture
from the basic composition elements
mountains and rocks. However, the whole
Tsan's landscapes. The austerity
the atmosphere
style of this great
84, 85),
tightly knit,
the slopes are quite different

of the elderly
(159.1x72.2 cm)
over a dam, out of a grove of trees. Beyond an expanse of
rise to the sky.
more compact and
in.
has vanished and
-^
J3 ^>
t i *
^^^
>tW^
4y
183
gg
STUDIES OF FLOWERS AND ANIMALS

By Shen Chou (dated
Album
The
of sixteen leaves In Ink
1494,
Ming dynasty)
on paper,
13%x22X
In.
(34.7x55.4 cm)
album depict a magnolia branch,

cockscomb,
chrysanthemum, crab and shrimp, oyster and clam shells, a crab, pigeon,
cock, duck, cat and donkey.
The brilliant display of brushwork, based upon keen observation of nature,
shows the great and eclectic artist at his best. Quite different from the animal
and flower paintings of the Sung Academy or from the bamboo studies of the
Yuan literati, they illustrate a fresh and more informal approach to nature and
an
lively
iris,
and spontaneous studies

(hemerocallls), lotus and
lily
In this
frog, a grape-vine, amaranth,
self-expression.
The album has
a poetic inscription by the artist in which he expresses
his
He was then 67 years old.

Chu Chih-ch'ih (seventeenth century); Li
It has been
in the collections of
Chao-heng (seventeenth century, son of Li Jih-hua 1565-1635); Keng Chaochung (1640-1686); An Ch'i (born 1683); Kao Shih-ch'i (1645-1704).
satisfaction with this work.
184
:.^
185
97
SPRING
IN
KIANGNAN
By Wen Cheng-ming (dated

Hanging
n -...
and
scroll in ink
scholar
is
boating
among
south of the Yangtze
1547,
Ming dynasty)
41%x12
colors on paper,
llgtit
river.
In.
(106x30 cm)
the many waterways of the region

The peach blossoms are out and
the elegant willows, beside blue juniper trees, are covered

-/Mt*rJUt_.
~-.-^
The splendid high foreground
with the light foliage of spring.
trees, with their delicate
and individual
axis to the composition
which
beyond the horizontal planes
foliage, give a vertical
echoed by the distant hill

banks and islands. Light blue
is
of
dots are scattered over the banl<;
blue reeds alternate
light
brown ones. Carefully and sensitively done in light graded

shades of ink and color, this lyrical scene conveys a poignant
mood.
Wen Pi or Wen Cheng-ming (1470-1559) belonged to a Soochow
family of scholar-officials descended from the Sung dynasty
with
national hero
in
Wen
T'ien-hsiang
his father served as prefect
member
some time
Chekiang. Cheng-ming himself became a
Academy and
Literary (Han-lin)
served for
and editor
capital as a compiler
life
in
the
of the official history of the
preceding dynasty. But he soon returned

the rest of his long
of the
home and devoted
to poetry, calligraphy
(For a specimen of his calligraphy, see No. 121
.)
and painting.
He was
closely
associated with the outstanding artists and scholars of his day,
who admired him
for his
austere character.
As
by Shen
Chou
work as
As
tradition
a painter he
of the
and
was much influenced
(No. 94) but his loyalty and friendship also
extended to T'ang Yin (No.

plary.
well as for his noble
a young man, he
whose
99)
worked
in
life
different
was
far
from exem-
manners,
all
in
the
Yuan masters. His descendants include
number of prominent painters and calligraphers.

The painting has a poetic inscription by the artist who was
It
guished by
as his "fine" style. The picture was
critics
collection of
186
an excellent example of what
then 77 years old.
is
Keng Chao-chung
(1640-1686).
is distin-
in
the
98
OLD TREES BY A COLD WATERFALL
By Wen Cheng-ming (dated
Hanging
scroll in Ink
and colors on
dense and tangled mass
junipers climbs to
waterfall,
tlie
dropping
1549,
silk,
Ming dynasty)
76y,x23'/, In. (194.1 x59.3
and writhing pines and
of twisting
top of
tlie tall,
over the
rocky
cm)
narrow picture.
cliff
comma-like grasses, cuts the composition
between
like
simple
hanging,
a sabre.
The
and light touch of the preceding picture is here replaced

by boldness and forcefulness in a brilliant display of calligraphic
brushwork. Open space has been drastically reduced to a tiny
delicate
corner at the top of the picture.
The
painting
It Is
Inscribed by the artist
is
a splendid example of
who was
Wen's "rough"
style.
then 79 years old.
187
gg
FIGURES
T'ANG STYLE
IN
By T'ang Yin
Hanging
(1470-1523)
scroll in Ink
and colors on paper, 58Xx26
In.
This illustrates a story of the T'ang period.
courtesan
in
Tuan-tuan,
Li
which he spoke
a scroll,
is
who
It
concerns the beautiful Yangchow
on a poet and was presented with a poem
peony". The poet, who grasps

The courtesan, holding a white peony, stands in
of her as "the walking white
just getting up.
front of him
called
(149.3x65.9 cm)
her maid
is
carrying a pot of wine. Both the poet and the maid
are gazing at the beauty with her flower.
wide screen with bamboo, rock and dry tree painted on
k'ang (dais); two
design of rocks and
more screensone a two-panel
waves protect
this corner of the
it
stands behind the
folding
screen
with
garden from the wind
and indiscreet eyes. An angular flowering tree reaches over the screens; a
mushrooming garden rock and tree peonies adorn the foreground. The angular
drawn figures. The artist, like

more interested in lines and their rhythm than in
anatomic realism. Make-up and costume are those of the T'ang dynasty.
T'ang Yin was the son of a small Soochow merchant, but enjoyed the protection of the father of Wen Cheng-ming (No. 97) whose house was the center
of the local artistic and scholarly society. He passed the provincial examinations brilliantly, and also the state examination in the capital which determined
a scholar's government career. After the last examination, however, it became
known that a rich fellow-student and friend had obtained advance information
of the subjects through bribery. T'ang was involved in the scandal, although
perhaps innocently, and his chances for an official career were ruined. His
poverty forced him to live by his paintings his sense of depression drove him
into a life of drink and dissipation in the taverns and pleasure houses of
Soochow, interrupted by periods of seclusion and Ch'an meditation in Buddhist
monasteries. Thus he became a romantic figure about whom many admiring
stories were told.
The painting is inscribed by the artist, who was especially famous in his day
lines of the furniture contrast with the freely
other Chinese painters,
is
as a painter of beautiful
women.
189
*^
-jQQ
WHISPERING PINES ON A MOUNTAIN PATH

By T'ang Yin
Hanging
In
(1470-1523,
scroll in ink
and
Ming dynasty)
light colors
on
slllt,
76>Jx40%
In.
(194.5x102.8 cm)
a majestic landscape setting, a scholar, followed by a servant carrying
a zither, has stopped on the bridge under a magnificent group of twisted

pines, hung with tangled creepers. Mountains and rocl<s are done in graded
and markedly contrasting washes, and long wet texture strokes; the trees are
drawn with knowledge and care. The foreground rocks are strongly outlined
and modelled with bold black "axe-cut" strokes. "Broken-ink" dabs are used
for the distant vegetation on the mountain top; freely drawn curving lines
animate the water. The monumental landscape follows,

as
in
in
details of drawing, the tradition of Li
in
the landscape styles of T'ang Yin and his teacher
composition as well
which was revived

Chou Ch'en. The bold
T'ang (No.
36)
and free execution, full of verve, is typical of the artist's period and school
which is closer to the Che School academicians such as Tai Chin (No. 92)
than to Wen Cheng-ming and the other gentlemen-painters of the Wu school,
and very far removed from the intellectual climate of the great Yuan masters.
The
painting has a poetic inscription and dedication by the artist.
It
was
in
the
collection of Liang Ch'ing-piao (1620-1691).
191
^Q'l
SECLUDED FISHERMEN ON AN AUTUMN RIVER

By T'ang Yin
Handscroll
and colors on
In Ink
Ming dynasty)
silk,
^^%x 138%
In. (29.4 x 351
group of pines and other trees growing on a
to the river,
In
(1470-1523,
and
to the first of the
cm)
rocl^y
shore introduces us
amateur fishermen who are boating on
Autumn
a thatched lodge two gentlemen are chatting and drinking.
it.
leaves
on the water. Further along, two other scholars have stopped their boats
float
by a waterfall
other
one
Is
playing the flute and dangling his feet
in
the water; the
By a rather elegant lodge an old

watching from a terrace over the
lêeping time by clapping his hands.
is
gentleman walks
in
water, while a third
the garden
is
another
is
angling from another boat.
final tree
group brings us
back to the shore.

in a rich and harmonious way. Autumn foliage and fallen leaves
washes of blue-green and red-brown tones help to give substance to
the rocks. The texture of the rocks is rendered by "axe-cut" strokes with a
partly dry "squeezed brush" in the manner of Li T'ang (No. 36). Elsewhere,
Color
is
are red
in
used
a kind of reversed texture stroke technique, the artist has applied darker
washes and wash-like strokes in such a way as to leave lighter areas between them in shapes which resemble brushstrokes.
The drawing is strong but elegant; the poetic atmosphere of the leisurely
scene
is
rendered with precision and taste. Thus, the painting
content than
The
The
painting
in its style to
is
the works of the artist's
inscribed with a
Wang
by the
is
closer
in its
friends.
artist.
is
dated 1523; others are by Ch'eng
Ta-lun, Lu Chih (1496-1576), Ku Te-yu and
Chu Chieh all artists and scholars

whose seal appears on the
first
colophon, by
Ch'ung,
of the sixteenth century, as is
painting.
192
poem
literati
Ho
Liang-tsun,
193
1Q2
WAITING FOR THE FERRY

By
Ch'iu Ying
Hanging
In a
scroll in ink
(first
AUTUMN
half sixteenth century,
and colors on
harmonious and
IN
silk, 61 x
52%
In. (155.4 x
Ming dynasty)
133.4
cm)
well balanced composition, rocky shores
land interrupt the expanse of the river and lead our eyes
to the distance v\/here high
mountains
rise
in
and spits of
a zigzag
movement
above the mist. Red maples alternate
with pines and other trees, interspersed with
bamboo.
In
the foreground
a group of people waiting for the boat; the figures are well drawn, with
is
some
white highlights along the fold-lines. Fine, outlined reeds grow along the bank
the greyish-green rocks with accented contours are modelled with darker
washes and "axe-cut" strokes in the manner of Li T'ang (No. 36). Every detail
is carefully drawn with great precision
yet the whole composition has atmo;
sphere and depth, and breathes a serene
mood
undisturbed by the narrative
element.
man of very humble origin,

Soochow where he worked as a painter's apprentice. He was discovered by T'ang Yin's teacher, Chou Ch'en, who took him on as a disciple.
Ch'iu Ying was a proficient copyist of T'ang and Sung masters and a figurepainter and illustrator, like T'ang Yin. Both were much influenced by Li T'ang,
in whose tradition their teacher Chou Ch'en worked. Ch'iu Ying betrays this
influence particularly in his landscapes. He enjoyed the patronage of the
Ch'iu Ying, a native of the Shanghai region and a
moved
to
collector Hsiang Yuan-pien, and, despite the fact that he
was considered an
artisan, the appreciation of the literati painters of his time.
The
painting bears several seals of the artist.
YiJan-pien (1525-1590) and
194
An
It
was
Ch'i (born 1683).
in
the collection of Hsiang
L 'n
î^
^ -
*&
^0
;.i
-fi
I
ii
#
AU
M.
[^ -A
:)^
#>
u
^.
,f?^-Sr
'H
.,
.^-*
195
:-^f^^
}^2^
196
1Q3
CONVERSATION UNDER FIRMIANA TREES

By
Ch'iu Ying
Hanging
Two
(first
scroll in ink
and
half sixteenth century,
light colors
on paper, llOy,
39%
scholars and their boy attendant stand
in
Ming dynasty)
in.
The
off
In
the foreground, a large
the garden scene giving the conversation
more
privacy.
wash, contrasts sharply with

strong outlines and bold, black modelling.
tree, delicately colored in light blue-green
the dark and powerful rocks with their
Blue
cm)
the shade of an old wu-t'ung
(Firmiana Simplex) tree, beneath a towering rock.
boulder closes
(279.5 x 100
is
used also for some
of the
bamboo. The somewhat mannered lines

Sung Academy.
of
the figures recall the Ma-Hsia school of the Southern
The subject
it
of this painting
as well as
its
rather bold and fluid execution bring
within the realm of the "literary" taste of the period. Every detail
elegance and technical competence which characterizes the
shows
artist's
the
work
regardless of the manner employed.
The
painting
is
signed and sealed.
It
was
in
the collection of Hsiang Yuan-pien
(1525-1590).
197
1Q4
IN
THE SHADE OF SUMMER TREES
By Tung Ch'i-ch'ang
Hanging
(1555-1636,
on paper, 126%
scroll In Ink
mountain landscape
is
W/,
Ming dynasty)
In. (321 .9 x 102.3
cm)
here piled into a powerful and grandiose composition
rounded conical rocks, boulders, and slopes which are echoed in the
conical, simplified pines. Foreground vegetation is done in broad, wet Ink
built of
strokes, along with the foliage of the large tree group
are drawn with strong, sure contours.
the trunks and branches
The reduction
of natural
shapes
nearly abstract pattern corresponds well with the cool and intellectual
of the picture. Classical traditions are discernible, but
to a
mood
have been thoroughly
transformed; here we can trace memories of Tung Yuan, Mi Fu and Kao
K'o-kung (Nos.
14, 28, 70).
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang,
(Shanghai), made
member
home
of a distinguished gentry family
from Huating
Sungchiang (Kiangsu). He was a brilliant

scholar, a prominent official (he rose to be President of the Board of Ceremonies), an outstanding calligrapher (No. 122) and the foremost authority on
painting, both during his lifetime and for centuries after.
The
painting
is
his
artist, who felt inspired by the memory of a

Tung Yuan (No. 14) which had opened his eyes to an
Huang Kung-wang (No. 74).
inscribed by the
painting attributed to
understanding of
198
at
i t
i^
199
m^..Uri
...
105
SIXTEEN SCENES FROM A HERMIT'S
LIFE
By Ch'en Hung-shou (dated 1651, Ming-Ch'ing dynasty)

Album
The
in ink
and colors on paper, B'A
activities of the
11%
in.
(24.3x31.1 cm)
secluded scholarly gentleman, as portrayed
album,
in this
are centered around books and poetry, writing and painting, rubbings and
music, drinking and the enjoyment of nature and of beauty of a flower as

woman. Fittingly, they end with the reading of the Sutras.
well as of a
The
figures are playfully distorted,
in
a highly personal style based upon the
study of T'ang and even earlier painting.

in
The
archaizing element
is
evident
the continuously flowing lines of the robes, unrelated to the body;
fine,
even lineament and the
light
shading
in ink
or color washes.
The
in
the
particular
rhythm of the lines, which seem to have a life of their own, the elegance of
drawing combined with a conscious awkwardness, the exaggeration of the
200
iSiSSi-t*
ugly as well as of the beautiful to a point close to
and sensitive mood all are products

and of his time.
tfie
grotesque, the withdrawn
of the sophisticated taste of the artist
Ch'en Hung-shou (1599-1652), from a gentry family of Chekiang, was a gifted

poet, calligrapher and painter. He accepted an honorary academic title, but
fall of the dynasty, he was associated
became a Buddhist monk.
by the artist, who painted it for Shen Hao, another
refused that of a court painter. After the

with loyalist outlaws and artists and
The album
is
inscribed
poet-painter and kindred

It
was
in
spirit.
the collection of
Chu Chih-ch'ih (seventeenth
century).
201
-|Qg
VERDANT PEAKS
By Wang Shih-min
Hanging
scroll In Ink
(dated 1672, Ch'ing dynasty)
and colors on
silk,
64%
x 39 In. (163.4 x 99.1
majestic landscape of olive-green and brown
cm)
hills
and slopes, rocks and
and spaced, is built up around the river and

over the clouds on which the peaks appear to float. Long, wet Ink strokes
and piled-up horizontal dots are used for texture and modelling clouds and
tree groups, carefully balanced
water have no interior drawing and are
on
line,
especially
in
We
the contours.
left
blank. There
very
little
Chij-jan as transmitted by the great
we
emphasis
Tung
Ch'i-
also see reflections of
Tung
recognize the influence of
ch'ang's "abstract" constructions (No. 104);
Yuan and
is
Yuan masters. There
is
a remark-
able technical consistency throughout the whole picture.
Wang
to a
Shih-min (1592-1680), the oldest of the so-called Four Wangs, belonged
prominent family of Kiangsu scholars. His grandfather had been a Prime
Minister; his father a Compiler
Wang
of Sacrificial
the
fall
in
the Literary
Academy and
a dramatist.
Shih-min served as Keeper of Seals and as Sub-director of the Court
Worship, but
of the dynasty.
retired
He was
because
of
ill
health several years before
a distinguished scholar
and man
of letters,
and
was much influenced by his teacher, Tung Ch'i-ch'ang, and the latter's friends.
He also followed Tung in his preference for the Yuan painters, in particular
Huang Kung-wang (No. 74).
The painting is signed by the artistthen 81 years old who tells us that he
painted it after a picture by Huang Kung-wang. It obviously is not a copy, but
a free creation inspired by the spirit of the great Yuan painter to whom he
pays homage.
202
'(
*-
203
jjf.
204
I'i
ii'o
"107
LANDSCAPE AFTER HUANG KUNG-WANG

By Wang Chien
Hanging
scroll In ink
(1598-1677,
Ch'ing dynasty)
Another landscape
31 x
^5%
in.
(78.8 x 38.8
cm)
Huang Kung-wang (No. 74),

and likewise shows
the influence of Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (No. 104). The details of the execution
illustrate how the same general elements may be translated in a different
way and with a different result. The piled-up flat dots are used more freely and
loosely; foliage patterns are more boldly simplified; contours of tree trunks
and cliffs more roughly sketched. Buff pink, light blue and light green washes
in
the tradition of the great
way
this is constructed in a
similar to the preceding one,
cover rocks and slopes; the highest peak
Wang
was
a distant relative of
at the
is
done
Chien, great-grandson of the scholar-artist
same
place and
Wang
Shih-min (No.
became close
grey and pink.
in
Wang
106).
Shih-chen (1526-1590),
They
lived for
some
time
passed the literary

Kwangtung, under the last
friends. After having
Wang Chien served as a prefect in

Ming emperor. As a painter, he was inspired by exactly the same
Wang Shih-min between him and the latter there was a good deal
examinations,
artists
of
as
mutual
appreciation, as well as influence.
The
painting has a poetic inscription by the artist.
appreciative inscriptions by the painter

critic
Wang Wen-chih
Huang
On
the mounting are highly
Jih-ch'i, dated 1728,
and the
(1730-1802).
205
206
1Q3
COUNTLESS PEAKS AND VALES

By Wang Hui
Hanging
(dated 1693, Ch'ing dynasty)
scroll in ink
and
light colors
on paper, 99y,
This truly monumental landscape
and
style
is
40%
In. (254.1 x
103
cm)
executed with perfect consistency of
quality, in a brilliant display of technique. Carefully
higher and higher above the clouds
modelled peaks
way from vale

From the foreground rocks the river leads us, in a zigzagging diagonal
movement, far into the distance. On the right, a group of temple buildings
are placed on tree-clad hills. Ink and color washes are carefully graded; the
rise
a waterfall threads
its
to vale.
size of the vegetation

to the distant groves.
and
Wang
is
well scaled
Rows
down from the splendid foreground trees

manner reminiscent of Wang Shih-min
of dots, in a
Chlen, accent the contours of the foreground rocks and the far-off
hilltops.
Wang
Hui (1632-1720), son and grandson of professional painters, was accepted
as a disciple by
Wang
Chien and
Wang
Shih-min, and became a diligent
student of the old masters. His copies were famous, and his paintings
in
the
were highly
time. They brought
styles of various old masters, selected in a rather catholic way,
appreciated by the scholarly gentlemen-painters of his
him a considerable fortune. The output

large
It
is
and
of varying quality.
inscribed by the artist
T'ang poem about

in
the style of
This painting
who
tells
of his long
is
and industrious
life
is
of his best.
us that he was inspired by a certain
a waterfall near a Taoist
Tung Yuan and
one
monastery, and that he painted
Chij-jan (Nos. 14,15).
Wang
Hui stamped
it
it
with a special seal which indicates that he himself considered the painting
a masterpiece.
207
109
LANDSCAPE
By
Yijn Shou-p'ing (dated 1678, Ch'ing dynasty)
Hanging
scroll in ink
on paper, 33%
19%
in. (86.1 x
The simple but powerful composition
is
49.4
cm)
balanced by the long poetic inscription
above. Strong and solid trees and rocks are done mainly
some
dry, darker texture strokes
black ink which
is
the inscription, the artist
Tung Yuan and
Washes
of
tells
are used only on the roofs and dis-
us that he painted this picture
Chij-jan (Nos. 14, 15)
of the great
Huang Kung-wang (No.
YiJn
a very rich
in the manner
once more we realize the degree to
these tenth century painters was conceived through the
In
to
wet ink with
in
solitary scholar sits in the lodge overlooking the water.
of
which the style

eyes and works
in light,
are reinforced
also used for the dots and distant trees that have taken on
the appearance of musical notes.

tant hilltops.
some contours
Yuan masters. This
painting
is,
in fact,
closest
74).
Shou-p'ing (1633-1690) came from an impoverished gentry family
Kiangsu. His father was an ardent Ming
in
and the son did not want to

enterthe service of the new dynasty. He studied poetry, calligraphy and painting,
and by selling the products of his art barely managed to support himself and
loyalist,
When he died, the expenses of his burial were met by his intimate
Wang Hui (No. 108). It is said that YiJn gave up landscape painting
having realized that he could not surpass Wang Hui, and thereafter
his father.
friend,
after
specialized
in
the painting of flowers and insects.
The present
painting
him, nevertheless, to have been an accomplished landscapist.
the artist himself,

Yij-shao. Later,
208
It
shows
favorite of
it was acquired by his older friend, the poet-painter T'ang

was in the collection of An Ch'i (born 1683).
.li
it.
"^ v- \ T\
f'
it
*>
1^
'.1-
'
i^.
i-i
^
to
v^
'A"
it
.1^
i'.
J:
--H:,,
j^^-
209
FLOWERS AND LANDSCAPES
11Q
By
Yiin Shou-p'ing and
Album
Wang
Hui (dated
and/or colors on paper, ca. 11%
(12 leaves) in ink
The flower studies
1672,
x 17 in.
Ch'ing dynasty)
(28.5x43 cm.)
depict magnolia and cherry, tree-peony, hemerocallis,
poppy, begonia, and narcissus. Nos. 2-5 are done
any ink; the veins of the leaves are either

artist tells
us
in his
left
inscriptions that the first
in
colors only, without
blank or painted
was done
in
the
in
color.
manner
of
The
Hsu
Ch'ung-ssu (eleventh century). The narcissus flowers in ink are, according

Wang Hui, in the style of Chao Meng-chien (No. 67). Other leaves also
are inscribed by Wang Hui who invokes the memories of tenth and eleventh
to
century artists and of
landscapes by
Wang
2.
Chao Meng-fu
Kao K'o-kung
3.
Li
4.
Fan K'uan
5.
Ts'ao Chih-po
6.
Wang Wei
1.
Ch'eng
Chao Meng-fu (No. 69). The following

done in the manner of
Chao Po-chii (ink and colors)
after
(ink)
(ink)
and colors)
(ink
after
Lu Hung
(ink)
(ink)
All these leaves bear witness to the
to the brilliant
six leaves are
Hui,
skill
of
Wang
wide
Hui. However,
historical
more
knowledge as well as
attention is paid to the general
design and appearance of the model that he evokes than to the more intimate
individual features of style. It reminds us of the manner in which a motif from
in music may be used for modern variations.
album are inscribed or sealed by the artists.
a classical composition
All the leaves of the
^4 *
t f
Jlp
4^ i*
w
ffr
1*
5.
^t !
ti
210
<&
111
landscapes after sung and

yUan masters
By Wu Li (1632-1718, Ch'ing dynasty)
Album
(10 leaves) in ink
and/or colors, IS'/jxIOJiin.
(39.7x26.8 cm)
The album, ostensibly in homageto the old masters whose compositional devices are used or suggested in the
manner of an intellectual exercise, in fact displays nearly everywhere the individual style of the artist himself.
The curiously leaning conical peaks and slopes, derived from Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (No. 104), are quite typical so
is the insistent repetition of rows of flat dots along the contours of rocks and trees in a manner related to the
style of Wang Shih-min and Wang Hui (Nos. 106, 108). The brushwork is crisp and brilliant throughout.
Wu Li was the descendant of a Kiangsu gentry family, a scholar-poet and musician who studied painting under
Wang Shih-min and Wang Chien (No. 107) and became an intimate friend of Wang Hui. Around 1679 he was
converted to Christianity and baptized under the name Simon-Xavier a few years later he entered the Jesuit
order. In 1688, in Macao, he was ordained a priest and took the surname "a Cunha". The rest of his life was
;
devoted to missionary work around Nanking and Shanghai. His friendship with
they hardly
saw each other any more. There
The album
is
inscribed by the artist
is
no trace
of
western influence
there are postscripts by
Wang
Wang
in his
Hui continued, though
painting.
Hsiian (seventeenth century) and Pi Lung
(1781).
211
']']2
AUTUMN MOUNTAINS AFTER HUANG KUNG-WANG

By Wang
Hanging
The
YiJan-ch'i (dated 1707, Ch'ing dynasty)

and
scroll in ink
on paper, 32%
19%
in. (81 .3 x 50.2
cm)
forms and techniques in fresh

once more evident. The dry brush-
painters' tradition of using old
literary
ways and
light colors
for
new
expressions
pictorial
is
strokes which reinforce and model the lighter wet under-drawing, the gradual
accumulation of strokes held together by limited areas of wash, the subtle

color scheme, are
modern and
all
derived from the Yiian painters, but employed
individual way.
The weightiest masses
have been shifted back to the middle and
Wang
outward likeness
more
The rows
Rocks and mountains

manner recalling Tung
106) but even further removed from
repeated flat dots have become a
of
in
painterly device; the accent dots are placed in a highly arbitrary way.
cool rhythm
moves through the arrangement
water), which are held
Wang
Wang
his
masses and space
(including
"Four Wangs", was the grandson

He entered the civil service and became
censor, a member, and finally Chancellor of the Literary
last years, he was Senior Vice-President of the Board
Shih-min (No.
turn a magistrate, a
Academy. During
of
a precarious balance.
in
Yuan-ch'i (1642-1715), the
and pupil of
in
Shih-min (Nos. 104,
to nature.
in
landscape
far distance.
are built up by a repetition of abstract shapes
Ch'i-ch'ang and
of this imaginary
last of the
106).
of Finance.
He was
highly appreciated as a painter and often
imperial palace.
He
also
was one
of the
summoned
to paint in the
compilers and editors of the encyclo-
pedia of calligraphy and painting commissioned by the emperor.
The
picture
is
212
artist, who once had heard

Huang Kung-wang.
inscribed by the
praise such a painting by
his grand-father
\jt fi
213
^1^1
113
EULOGY ON PIED WAGTAILS

By the T'ang Emperor Hsiian-tsung
Calligraphy
The
seen
in
writer
handscroll form,
is
the
in ink
on paper, 9%
(reigned 713-755)
x 72"/i, in. (24.5 x 184.9
cm)
same emperor, posthumously named Ming-huang, who
is
Emperor Mir)g-huang's Journey to Shu (No. 2).

He was an amateur painter himself, and a distinguished calligrapher, besides
in
the
painting
titled
being a patron of poets and artists. The present work
is in
the Running script
(hsing-shu), with the individual characters quite close to their standard (k'ai)
forms but rendered
The
eulogy,
in
in
more
fluid brush-line.
the form of a prose-poem,
Kuang-ch'eng, presumably a court poet.

relates
how, while he and
his five brothers
was composed by
In
his
were enjoying a reunion
palaces, a flock of a thousand pied wagtails perched
in
is
Wei
signed with a flourish-writing
of
in
one
of the
the trees outside.
poem composed
This sight so touched the emperor that he ordered the
commemorate it.
The calligraphy
a certain
prose preface, the emperor
to
the character ch'ih,
"imperial writing", and furnished with a seal of the K'ai-yiJan era (713-741).
There are also seals
of the
Sung emperor Hui-tsung,
several Ming dynasty
palace seals, and those of a number of private collectors. The noted scholar
Wang Wen-chih
214
(1730-1802) has contributed a colophon.
114
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
By the Monk Huai-su
(dated 777, T'ang dynasty)
Calligraphy in handscroll form,
In Ink
Born
tine
in
725 of a poor family
Buddtiist order early
in
his
on paper. 11*^K295î
In
in.
(28.3x755 cm)
Changsha (Hunan province), Huai-su entered

He was passionately fond of calligraphy, and,
life.
money to buy enough paper for the constant practice required, planted
banana palms and used their broad leaves instead. Eventually he was able
to travel to the capital, Changan, and learn from the great calligraphers of his
day. He died in 785. The essay written here is an account of his development,
with some comments on earlier masters and quotations of praise for Huai-su's
own writing, which his contemporaries called "the calligraphy of the Drunken
Monk."
This work is a rare early example of the "Wild" Draft script (K'uang-ts'ao)
of which the eighth century Chang HsiJ, called "the Sage of the Draft Script"
lacking
and reportedly Huai-su's model, was the all-time master. The characters are
composed with great freedom, and executed with a fluency and fervor that
suggest both the untrammeled nature of the writer and the state of drunkenness
he was probably
Among
the
in
many
when he
wrote.
inscriptions attached to the scroll
is
a record of
its
having
Southern T'ang emperor Lieh-tsu in 940.

There are eleven colophons and short notes by Sung writers, dated from 1010
to 1133, and others by later writers, including the famous collectors Hsiang
been remounted
at the court of the
YiJan-pien (1525-1590) and
Kao Shih-ch'i
(1645-1704). Seals include those of
the Chin emperor Chang-tsung (reigned 1190-1209) and of the palace inventory
of the years 1373-1384.
215
THE RED CLIFF
115
By Su Shih (dated
1083,
Sung dynasty)
Calligraphy in handscroll form, in ink on paper. 9'/uX 101X
The
writer,
most
Su Shih
brilliant
and
(1036-1101), better
versatile
men
in
in.
(24x258.5 cm)
known as Su Tung-p'o, was one
Chinese
of the
history, distinguishing himself in
poetry and prose composition, painting, calligraphy, scholarship, and politics,
among
other fields. Along with several outstanding painters
who were
his close
accomplished a revolution in the theory and practice of painting,

laying the foundations for the wen-jen hua or "literati painting" school. Among
his literary productions, the best known by far is his prose-poem The Red Cliff
friends, he
which most educated Chinese memorize

illustration of
it,
see No.
in
childhood. For a
summary and
46.
This manuscript of the prose-poem was copied by the poet himself.

posttace appended to
it,
In a
prose
he writes that since he composed the poem the year
shown it to more than one or two people. Ch'in-chih (or

Ch'uan Yao-yii, d. 1091, a famous scholar and calligrapher himself) has asked
him for an example of his recent writing, so he has written this manuscript
of the poem to send to him. He asks Ch'in-chih to keep it safely, and not show
it to everyone. He has also composed a second Red Cliff ode, he writes in
conclusion, but his brush is tired, and he can't copy it out now he will send
before he hasn't
it
with a later letter.
The writing is classified as being in the Running (hsing) script which was
Su Shih's speciality among the script styles, but is actually very close to the
k'ai or Standard script. The brushstrokes are full-bodied and sure. The writer
signs with his given name "Shih". The Ming dynasty calligrapher and painter
Wen Cheng-mi ng
has added a few lines that were missing from the text because
damage. His seals are on the scroll, along with those of his contemporary
Chia Shih-tao, his son Wen P'eng (1498-1573), and Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525of
1590).
'iijL
216
-5L
There
is
t- k'
a colophon by
Tung Ch'i-ch'ang
1^
(1555-1636) (No. 122).
^ ^ 4-
--Jii
^^M # ^^
1 *'"-t
116
THE HALL OF PINES AND WIND

By Huang T'ing-chien
Calligraphy
in
handscroll form,
Huang T'ing-chien
Is
(1045-1105,
in ink
Sung dynasty)
on paper. 12"/ii
counted, along
witli
Su Shih, Ml
Fu, and Ts'ai Hsiang,
as one of the four great calllgraphers of the Sung dynasty.
Su Shih, he reached high rank

political
He
excelled
In
at the imperial court,
which, the Chinese maintain.
Integrity,
both the Running and Draft scripts
poem
Is
;
As
a prot6g6 of
and was noted
reflected
In
for his
his writing.
the present scroll
is In
the
Huang composed around the year 1100

on the theme of the Hall of Pines and Wind at Hul-chou In Kuangtung province.
Su Shih had visited this tower, and had made it the subject of a poem of his own.
Huang's calligraphy Is in his usual bold manner and firm brushwork; the
former
style.
The
cm)
x 86'/,e in. (32.8 x 219.2
text Is a
formation of the characters
Is
that
and Interesting without suggesting
original
willful eccentricity.
The
first
colophon
Is
Sung
by an unidentified
writer, dated 1212.
that although the materials used by the calllgrapher

Ideally suited to
defect.
The
(d. 1275),
each other, the quality
scroll
was
later
of
owned by the
phons composed
for
It
by a
number
of
and Ink were not

the calligraphy compensates for this
late
and by the Princess Ta-ch'ang
He comments
brush
Sung prime minister Chia Ssu-tao

Yuan dynasty, who had colo-
of the
noted scholars and
officials, the first
dated 1323. Seals on the scroll Include those of the Ming dynasty painter
Ch'lu Ying (No. 102) and his patron Hsiang YiJan-pien (1525-1590), and the
Ch'Ing collectors Sun Ch'eng-tse (1592-1676), Plen Yung-yu (1645-1702) and
An
Ch'i (born 1683).
217
118
Po^""
By the Sung Emperor Hui-tsung

Calligraphy
The
In
handscroll form
text consists of a
"Executed
in
In ink
on
poem
silk.
(reigned 1101-1125)
10>^x ^0A%
i.e.
gourd-shaped seal
is
satility
is
distinguished for
and
is
signed:
by the emperor during the HsiJan-ho
impressed over
For information about the aesthetic and

calligrapher, he
(27.2x265.9 cm.)
of eight five-character verses,
the Hsiian-ho Palace",
era (1119-1125).
In.
ill-fated
skill
this.
emperor, see No.
and elegance rather than
31.
As
for ver-
he created a special script style known as "slender gold script" (shou-
chin shu) and used
it
for virtually
all
his writing.
The characters
are
composed
and thinning gracefully. Some strokes taper

evenly to points, while the ends of others are emphasized by thick, diagonally
placed accents, where the movement of the brush was reversed before it was
lifted. The shapes of some downward strokes are remarkably like those used
of taut, attenuated lines, swelling
by the Chinese
The
in
painting the leaves of the epidendrum, or Chinese orchid.
result has a special reedy strength
and considerable beauty, although
it
verges on preciousness.
There
is
a short
colophon by Ch'en Pang-yen (1603-1647). Collectors' seals
include those of Keng Chao-chung (1640-1686).
219
i^'l
"^
ii ff
^ ^
1
'^^
Ji,
Ilifit
"
1^
?l
!>-*;* ii
-^
^
'lig
'i
^f
J*
*H
^ *
n
'J^
ii^
<&
-^
'I
ic
^?f
;*
'I
,-i
'z -K -^ ^^
^ 4 ^
i.
-ST
?'
^"
ii
/4
*^
J-
'i
^"^
IMPERIAL ORDER TO GENERAL YO FEI

By the Sung Emperor Kao-tsung (reigned 1127-1162)
Calligraphy in handscroll form
in ink
on paper. 14>j
x 24'/,,
in. (36.7 x
Kao-tsung, the ninth son of Hui-tsung, was the
Sung
period and the one
who
first
61.5
cm)
emperor
re-established the capital at
of the
Southern
Hangchow
after the
north of China had been invaded by the Chin Tartars. Like his father, he
proficient as a poet, calligrapher
and connoisseur, and
connpetent painter as well, although none of his works
As
is
was
said to have been a
in this
medium
survives.
began by studying the style of Huang T'ing-chien

(No. 116), but later turned to the more remote past and imitated Wang Hsi-chih
(321-379). He worked in three of the main scripts Standard, Running, and
Draft and was the author of an essay on calligraphy. The writing of the present
scroll is classified as "Running-Standard" (hsing-k'ai shu); the individual
characters vary considerably in their degree of cursiveness. The name of the
recipient and the emperor's cipher follow the text proper.
The "Imperial Order" is actually in the form of a personal letter sent to Yo Fei
in the field, in which Kao-tsung expresses his gratitude to the general for his
unceasing efforts and endurance of hardships in protecting the now-diminished
Sung territory. Yo Fei (1103-1141) was one of China's greatest military leaders,
and it was largely due to his achievements that Kao-tsung was able to retain
control of the area south of the Yangtze River. Eventually, with a shift in patronage, Yo Fei fell Into disfavor, was recalled, imprisoned and executed. He has
been revered ever since, and those responsible for his death reviled. Part of
the value of this letter for Chinese connoisseurs arises from Its poignant
a
calligrapher, he
associations.
220
?^
^^
'
^^
120
TWO ODES ON THE

By Chao Meng-fu
Yuan dynasty)
Calligraphy
ink
RED CLIFF
(dated 1301,
the form of an album of 21
in
onpaper. Each
leaf
about 11% X
leaves, in
4% in.(27 .2x11.1 cm)
The text consists of the prose-poems by

Su Shih concerned with his two visits to the
Red Cliff. For a r6sum6 of the first, see
No. 46. The second outing tool< place on a
winter night in the following year, 1083. On
this occasion, Su climbs to the top of the
cliff, then descends and embarks once more
on the Yangtze River with
crane
the Red
who recognizes him

he had seen earlier
Chao Meng-fu
is
in
dream
to
in
Su,
as the Taoist immortal

in
the guise of a crane.
known
best
as a painter (Nos.
Chinese
two friends.
Later that night a figure
Cliff.
feathered cloak appears
were
his
over their boat as they pass
flies
90a),
69,
in
the west
but for the
achievements as a calligrapher
his
equally
The
great.
present
scroll
includes a minor sample of Chao's painting,

a portrait of
The
Su Shih mounted as the first
calligraphy
is in
(hsing-k'ai) script
ticular brilliance.
leaf.
the Running-Standard
which Chao used with par-
The
writer's seals follow
both odes, and one seal, reading simply
"Chao",
is
impressed above the
Chao has added

ponding
to
at
February
following note
portrait.
the end a date corres17,
"My young
1301,
friend
and
the
Ming-yuan
me this paper and asked me to

two odes on it. have written them
him in my Pines and Snow Studio, and
has given
write the
for
also
first
made
a portrait of
page."
He signs
Su Tung-p'o on the
with his style (tzu),
"Tzu-ang."
There
is
a colophon by another
famous
calli-
grapher of the time, Hsien-yiJ Shu (12561301), dated
tember
T'ang
Chao
many
7,
1301
in
,
correspondence with Sep-
and others by the landscapist
Ti (No. 83)
I,
and Chao Meng-fu's son

1357. There are
the latter dated
collectors' seals.
221
0:1
fA
^ -^ n V
# i^ fc
^
>^ -^
i?u'
^^
0) ^^
'5-
-?
m^ K ^
MiiWM- f t
123
DOVES ON A FLOWERING PEACH BRANCH
Attributed to
Shen Tzu-fan, Sung dynasty
Silk tapestry fk'o-ssuj
Some
37%
15%
in.
(96x38.5 cm)
uncertainty surrounds the beginning of the tapestry technique
generally agree that
it
was
used
first
in
western Asia and then
the Uighurs of Central Asia about the eleventh century. Earlier
Buddhist sites of Central Asia were probably made

elaborated
this
were continued
Chinese hands the technique was refined and
and variations
of that style
became
medium
for
copying
all
In
were used
it
later.
mass
for sutra covers, robe decorations,
and
the case of wall hangings another trend developed, and
the subjects customarily found
began, but although the traditional Chinese attribution places this piece
are inclined to consider
224
hangings down Into Ming and Ch'ing times.
the tapestry
China, but students of the subject
the early all-over patterns of birds and flowers that covered the whole area with a dense
of rich colors
wall
locally. In
in
borrowed by the Chinese, perhaps from

examples, such as those unearthed in the
later
in
in
It is not clear when

Sung dynasty, westerners
painting.
the
124
LANDSCAPE
Attributed to
Shen Tzu-fan, Sung dynasty
Silk tapestry (k'o-ssu)
Here on a
jutting
31%
x 14 '/n In. (96 x 37.5
cm)
foreground of rock a scholar
is
seated
in
a pavilion sheltered
by two trees. Across the water and beyond a small pine-covered

tain
peak rises from the misty valleys of the surrounding
is in
effect a
seals.
woven facsimile
Again the
of a
islet,
hills.
The
mounpicture
landscape painting complete with collectors'
traditional attribution to
Sung
is
not altogether convincing.
225
125
IMMORTALS
IN
Attributed to an
Silk tapestry (k'o-ssu;
In
A MOUNTAIN PALACE
anonymous
10Vix13'/i.
In.
artist of
the
Sung dynasty
(25.5x41 cm)
a palace surrounded by mountain peaks, clouds, and flying storks, people
The foreground mountains

among which are birds and
are eating and drinking and enjoying the view.

are covered with flowering and fruiting trees
monkeys. Evidently the scene represents a Taoist paradise; and the densely
crowded composition and formal stylization of the mountains, trees, clouds,
etc., true to the tapestry medium in which they are rendered, and quite unlike
a painting, suggest that this piece may well be earlier than Nos. 123 and 124.
226
126
EAGLE ON A PERCH
Attributed to an
Silk
anonymous
embroidery. 42>ix21%
In.
the
Sung dynasty
(109x55 cm)
hunting eagle fastened to
is
embroidered
in
artist of
white and
its
perch with elaborate leash, swivel, and jesses
some
colored silks on a dark blue ground. Seals
are seen around the upper edges and on the mount.
The Sung
attribution
reminds us that the Emperor Hui-tsung (1107-1127) was traditionally famous

for his paintings of eagles, but this embroidery is probably later.
227
127
SMALL BRONZE TRIPOD

Shang dynasty, before
Type
li.
H. 4
in. (10.5
1028 B.C.
cm)
Tripods with hollow legs, the type called

peculiar to that country. This one
tion
and seems closely related
are very ancient
//,
simple but strong
is
in
China and are
in
both form and decora-
both respects to the pottery prototypes of
in
prehistoric times. Cast on the inside are the three characters shu-fu-ting,
"Uncle Ting", the name of the ancestor to
128
whom
the vessel
was dedicated.
LARGE RECTANGULAR BRONZE VASE

Shang
or Early
Type fang
tsun.
H.
Chou dynasty,
17%
In. (45
ca. eleventh century B.C.
cm)
This large vessel for ceremonial wine
is
cast very thin for
patination of the bronze has a curious yellowish

of the metal
brown
its
size,
and the
tinge. Both the quality
and the rather flat character of the relief places it in a small group
on the Shang tradition, may have been made later and far
that, while carrying
to the south of the site of the

style of certain
of a
elements
like
at
of
the crested birds at the four corners recall
Changsha
in
Hunan
and the birds that swoop
each side have triangular heads with bulging
those of the frogs that
and Tonkin a thousand years
228
Shang Kingdom in the Yellow River Valley. The

seems further to support the theory
the design
southern origin for the piece
some that were excavated

downwards in the middle
eyes
in
sit
later.
atop the bronze drums of South China
There
is
no inscription.
229
^29
CEREMONIAL TRIPOD
Chou dynasty, Reign
Type
ting.
H.
20%
in. (53.5
King Hsiian
of
(827-781 B.C.)
cm)
The
only decoration on this vessel is the single band of horizontal scale pattern
around the top of the deep, more than hemispherical, bowl. Two handles stand
strongly on the thick rim, and the vessel
is
supported on three sturdily curved
legs. Inside is an inscription of 497 characters arranged in 32 lines.
This, the longest bronze text to have
come
to light in China, records gratitude
Duke
of
Mao, and the vessel has always

been known as the Mao-kung Ting, the tripod of the Duke of Mao. It was dug
up in Ch'i-shan Hsien in Shensi in the last years of the Tao-kuang reign (1821-
for favors received by a certain Yin,
1850)
and remained
to the
in private
Chinese Government
text of the inscription
that time a
relic of
was
good many
hands
in
first
for
1948 by
about a century before

its last
published
of the leading
in
all
was presented
1896 by
Wu
Shih-fen, and since
Chinese epigraphers have considered
the time of King Ch'eng, the second ruler of the
of the fact that, as is
it
owner, Mr. Yeh Kung-tso. The
Chou
dynasty,
in
it
spite
too often the case, the subject matter of the inscription
provides no solid evidence for dating. Evidently these early scholars were
convinced by the very size of the vessel and by the magnificent long inscription
must have been made in the golden age following the founding of the
In recent decades further study has shown that both the style of the
script and of the vessel itself are those of the second half of Western Chou,
and a period about the time of King Hsiian (827-781 B.C.) seems to be indicated.
that
it
dynasty.
230
231
130
CEREMONIAL BRONZE BASIN

Chou dynasty, Reign
Type
p'on.
The
large shallow basin
D. 25
in. (64.5
of
King
Li (861-827
B.C.)
cm) with handles
Is supported on a broad circular foot flaring outward

base two plain handles protrude from the sides and curve up to above
the level of the rim. Basin and foot alike are decorated with relief designs cast
at the
in
the bold style
known as "Middle Chou".
Inside the basin
is
cast an inscription
of 357 characters in 19 lines.
One
of the great historical
documents
of ancient China, this bronze,
the San P'an, records the settlement of a

states of
vince.
San and Nieh which were
As
usual, the inscription
that the events recorded
probably
in
Sometime
It
lay in
Li
known as
dispute between the feudal
the western part of modern Shensi pro-
undated, but internal evidence indicates
must have taken place
the reign of King
in
the ninth century B.C. and
(861-827 B.C.).
we have no
some two and
was
was brought
clue as to the date, the piece
buried.
a half millennia until
to light
thereafter,
the ground
in
is
territorial
it
the Ch'ien-lung reign of the Ch'ing dynasty about A.D. 1770, and thereafter
passed through the hands of a series of private collectors whom it attracted
not only because of its great size and remarkable condition but even more
by the length and interest of its inscription. The text immediately occupied
in
the attention of antiquarians, and the
modern
script
first
published attempt to render
was made by the celebrated scholar Juan Yuan
chai-cbung-ting-i-chi-k'uan-shih which
first
appeared
in his
in 1804. Five
it
into
Chi-ku-
years later
the Governor of the Kiangnan Provinces (Kiangsi, Kiangsu, Anhui) presented

it to the Emperor Jen-tsung (Chia-ch'ing reign 1797-1820) on his fittieth birthday
and thus it entered the Ch'ing imperial collection. Since then the inscription
has been studied by almost every Chinese epigraphist of any stature, and
may be found in most of the principal books on bronze inscriptions. The text
is also a landmark in the history of western sinology for its publication in 1906
by the Rev. Frank H. Chalfant in his Early Chinese Writing (Memoirs of the
Carnegie
Institute, Vol. VI,
No.
1)
marks the
first
attempt by a westerner to
undertake the translation and interpretation of a document
232
in
archaic Chinese.
131
LARGE BELL
Chou dynasty, Reign
Type chung. H. 27%
in. (70
The instrument consists

shank
at
of a hollow elliptical bell
the lower end of which
upper part
nipples
of King Li (861-827 B.C.)
cm)
each face of the
of
is
surmounted by a
a flange with a ring for
bell are
vertical
suspension. On the
two rectangular areas each framing nine
the horizontal panels between each row of three nipples, and also
in
on top of the
bell
are cast relief designs
in
the "Middle
Chou"
style;
two
coiled dragon patterns appear in the bottom center of each side, and incised
designs and protruding eyes are seen on the ring flange.

in
the center panel are cast 32 characters
are 57 characters
ters
in
Ave
lines.
in
eight lines
in
four lines
and on the back
at
On
the front of the bell
below, on the
lett
side
the lower right are 33 charac-
Taken together these three groups make up
a single inscription
of 122 characters.
There seems
of the bell, but it was known

Juan Yuan who published the inscription and attempted
modern Chinese in 1804. His interpretation of the text led him
to be
no record of the discovery
to the great epigrapher

to render
it
into
and in this he was followed by

more than a century. But since the 1950's such scholars
Kuo Mo-jo and Jung Keng have found various grounds for
the reign of King Li (861-827 B.C.), a period much more in
to place the bell in the early part of the dynasty,
most scholars
as Sun l-jang,
assigning
it
to
for
keeping with the style of the ornament.
233
132
WINGED BEAST
Han dynasty
Carved jade.
This
ward
in
ancient times.
off evil".
carved
cm)
a miniature version of the large winged lions used as
is
dians
L. 6 in. (15.5
in
On
A.D.
purposes has
famous beasts
overlooked
The Chinese
the chest
1774.
133
might be
traditionally
them
poem
p'i-hsieh
tomb guar-
which means "to
of the Ch'ien-lung
emperor
copy made for ornamental

been called Han, the stylistic resemblance to the
this small jade
Liang imperial tombs near Nanking
at the
and although
later
an imperial
Although
as late as the stone lions

it
is
called
is
too striking to be
this is not positive evidence for dating the jade beast

(i.e. in
the sixth century A.D.),
it
does suggest that
than Han.
LEAF-SHAPED CUP
Han dynasty
Carved jade.
Carved
cup
is
of
L. 6 in. (15.5
cm)
brown jade
in
the form of a curled-up lotus leaf with
for rinsing the ink from brushes.

In spite of
of
stem, this
The wooden stand is also in lotus form.

Han and the acknowledged difficulty
after the Han dynasty, we feel that the
the traditional attribution to
dating jade carvings precisely
naturalistic representation of this piece
point to a later date.
234
its
described as a washer, and may have been used on a scholar's desk
and the
realistic
softness of the carving
134
SMALL VASE OF BRONZE FORM
Sung dynasty
Carved jade. H.A'/,
The white jade

sacrificial
in. (11
vessel
bronze
cm)
is
carved
in
of the type chih,
the form of a
Shang dynasty
and the surface
is
covered
with low relief patterns suggesting those found on the ancient
prototypes. Inscribed on the
wooden stand
are two simulated
seals of Hsiang Yiian-pien (1525-1590), and under the stand

is
an inscription dated
in
the eighth
moon
of 1555 referring
to the collection of the T'ing-yCin-kuan. This

of the celebrated painter
Wen Cheng-ming
was
the studio
(Nos. 97, 98, 121)
who owned it at one time. On the side of the stand are the words
Wen Fu chih, indicating that the stand itself was carved by
Wen
Fu.
135
ROUND SHALLOW DISH

Sung dynasty
Carved jade. D. 5}J
The
in. {14
cm)
small dish, described as a brush
washer, has an uneven edge which
upon closer inspection proves to be

little dragons
and phoenixes carved in relief around
the rim. Underneath are the two
the backs of a series of
characters Hsuan-ho, carved

seal style
of that
of
the
and
in
the
referring to the period
name (1119-1126) in the reign

Sung Emperor Hui-tsung.
235
136
LEAPING FISH
Ming dynasty
Carved jade. H. 6><
In. (16
cm)
The
fish is carved in such a way that the body is largely white while the blackish outer crust of the stone has
been used to accent the tail, dorsal fin, horn, eyes, lips, etc. A small hornless dragon clings to the fish's belly.
The accompanying wooden stand
carved to represent waves.
is
No doubt
the whole composition
Is
to be
regarded as the symbol of scholarly success: the carp leaping above the waves.
137
HEAD FOR A STAFF
Ch'ing dynasty, Ch'ien-lung reign (1736-1796)
Carved jade. H. 6
in. (15.5
The carving shows

curling horns.
dated
in
cm)
a rock pigeon on an arching perch which rises from a base in the form of a beast with
socket
the year 1774
is
In
the latter
incised
is
in tiny
designed to receive the end of a
staff.
An
imperial Ch'ien-lung
poem
characters on the perch.
Ever since Han times the Chinese have regarded the carrying of a staff as one of the prerogatives of an elderly
gentleman
and the figure of a pigeon, usually carved
such a
finial for
staff.
in
jade but sometimes cast
because pigeons are omnivorous and appear able
belief that
in
bronze, was the appropriate
Explanations of the origin of this custom are various. Most generally accepted
is
the
to digest everything they eat, the figure of the
pigeon expresses the wish that the old gentleman may continue to enjoy unimpaired digestion with advancing
years.
138
SQUARE VESSEL WITH COVER
White
jade.
H.
5%
in. (13
The square form
cm)
with cylinder-shaped corners terminating
the cover; and the whole thing
is in
Ch' ien-lung-fang-ku telling us that
it
in
small feet has a dragon carved
the shape of an ancient bronze.
was made
in
Ch'ien-lung times
in
On
the bottom
is
in
the round on
inscribed Ta Ch'ing
imitation of an antique.
139
BELT
HOOK
Ch'ing dynasty
Carved jade.
The
L.
brilliant
3%
in. (8
cm)
green of parts of this piece
is
the color
known by the Chinese as
ts'ui,
"kingfisher",
and
is
what
westerners normally expect when they hear the term jade.
Ancient
belt
hooks, or garment hooks as they are commonly called, are known
in
bronze usually embellished
with inlay of precious metals or turquoise, jade, glass, crystal, etc., but almost invariably the part that receives
the hook
is
missing. This eighteenth century version elaborately carved with dragons, gives an idea
may have functioned.
how
they
237
140
DOUBLE VASE
Ch'ing dynasty
Carved iade. H.
Two
4X
in. (10.5
cm)
small covered vases are carved out of a single block of yellow jade without
separation. By
way
dragons are carved
of decoration, small
in
relief
on the
surfaces.
'141
SCHOLARS SEAL
Carved Ch'ang-hua stone. H.
In
3%
In. (8
cm)
the miniature landscape carved on this seal, a boat with three passengers
and a boatman
floats
on a turbulent
Sung dynasty poet Su Tung-po and
river
beneath a towering
companions
cliff.
This
is
the
Red
Cliff on the Yangtze River, an outing that inspired him to write the famous
prose-poem (fu) of that name (see also Nos. 46, 115, and 120). Inscribed on
the seal are some lines about the Red Cliff by an unidentified man who signs
himself "the retired scholar Ch'ang-ch'un", and another inscription dates
the seal in the year 1737 and gives the name of the carver, Shih T'len-chang.
Ch'ang-hua stone comes from the district of that name in Chekiang province
and was highly esteemed by seal carvers for Its color and texture.
238
his
visiting the historic
142
BOWL
Sung dynasty
8%
ChiJn ware. D.
The
In. (22.5
rim of the bowl
cm)
is
cut to resemble the tips of lotus petals and the sides are slightly moulded to match.
thick blue-grey glaze covers the surface,
showing
slightly yellowish
number impressed on the base

represent the best early Chun type.
the rich purple coloring and the
bowl may,
this
in
fact,
where
it
runs thin near the rim. Lacking
that are generally associated with Chiin wares,
143
VASE
Sung dynasty
Ju ware. H.
6^
The shape,
in. (16.5
cm)
imitating an archaic bronze tsun,
hasa high
rounded belly, flaring rim, and four thin vertical

flanges on each section
a fine crackle covers the
greenish blue glaze; incised on the base are the two
foot,
in Sung times; fengname of the pavilion occupied

by one of the concubines of the Sung Emperor Kao-Tsung
who established the southern court at Hangchow and
characters feng-hua, probably cut
hua
is
said to have been the
reigned there from 1127 to 1162.
239
144
VASE
Sung dynasty
J u ware. H.
The
8X
In. (22.5
cm)
vessel of paper beater form
a cracl<led greenish
is
covered with
blue glaze, and the
lip
is
bound in copper; on the base are Inscribed the

two characters feng-hua, probably cut in Sung times
(see No. 143), and around these in radial columns
is
poem of 56 characters
was carved, corresponding
the month between 26 May and 24 June 1778,
an imperial Ch'ien-lung
plus the date

to
when
it
signature and seals.
145
NARCISSUS POT
Sung dynasty
Ju ware.
L. 9 In. (23
The shallow
cm)
oval
flaring sides rests

six buff
dish
with
gently
on four low feet;
colored spurmarks appear on
the base, and the piece
an uncrackied
is
light bluish
covered with
green glaze.
Although described as Kuan yao in an

undated imperial Ch'ien-lung poem
of 56 characters incised
this is believed to
on the base,
be one of the two
of Ju sent as samples to
Chingtechen in 1729 by the Yung-
pieces
cheng emperor with orders

potters
glaze.
240
there
reproduce
that the
this
rare
146
LOTUS BOWL
Sung dynasty
Ju ware. D.
The
rim
is
6%
in. (16.5
cm)
deeply scalloped, and the high sides are moulded into nine corres-
ponding lobes; the greenish blue glaze
is finely
crackled
all
over.
241
147
BRUSH WASHER
Sung dynasty
Ju ware.
L.
5X
in. (14
cm)
shallow oval dish covered
w/ith
a crackled glaze of the color traditionally
described by the Chinese as "egg blue"
the reference, of course,
is
to
duck
eggs rather than chicken eggs.
148
PYRAMIDAL VASE
Sung dynasty
Kuan ware. H.
4J< in. (12
cm)
rectangular vessel on a low foot, this piece consists of three tiers of diminish-
ing size
topped by a short
lip;
the light greenish grey glaze
large irregular crackle; on the base

of 40 characters plus the date
between
242
21
when
it
is
is
covered with
incised an imperial Ch'ien-lung
was carved, corresponding
to the
February and 23 March 1773, signature and two seals.
poem
month
149
SQUARE INCENSE BURNER

Sung dynasty
Kuan ware. W. 5%
in. (15
cm)
Four scrolled feet support this vessel which

with large crackle
was
150
the imperial Ch'ien-lung
incised between 9 February and
11
is
covered with a grey-green glaze
poem
March
of 90 characters
on the base
1785.
FLOWER RECEPTACLE
Sung dynasty
Kuan ware. H. 6%
The
In. (15.5
cm)
slender, beaker-shaped vase
glaze interrupted by a bulging
roll
is
covered with a thick glossy greenish blue
(over a flanged ring ?) near the base
bottom an imperial Ch'ien-lung poem
summer
of 27
characters was incised
on the
in
the
of 1778.
*-fc^
243
151
BRUSH BARREL
Sung dynasty
Kuan ware, H. 3%
Of
cylindrical
In. (9.5
shape with low
blue glaze with
lung
poem
cm)
some areas
foot, this piece is
of large crackle
covered with glossy greenish
on the base
of fifty-six characters inscribed in the
is
an imperial Ch'ien-
month between
2 February
and 3 March 1783.
152
NARCISSUS POT
Sung dynasty
Kuan ware,
L. 9 in. (23
The shallow
light
cm)
oval dish on four low feet, like No. 145,
is
covered with uncrackled
grey-blue glaze of the color described by the Chinese as "sky blue"
poem
of eighty-four characters
the
was on the base sometime
between 26 May and 24 June 1778. The important difference between this piece
145, which is classified as Ju ware, is that the latter shows light buffcolored clay in the six spurmarks while on this piece they are black.
and No.
244
153
VASE
Sung dynasty
Chiao-tan Kuan ware, H. T/,
The vessel
of
in. (18.5
cm)
gourd shape (usually, but redundantly, called "double gourd")
rests on a low, finely cut, black foot; the glaze, described by the
"ash blue", has an even medium crackle
"suburban
altar" of the
all
Southern Sung capital
over. Chiao-tan
at
is
Chinese as
the so-called
Hangchow. Wares
of this type
have been identified by comparison with fragments recovered from the
154
site.
ROUND BRUSH WASHER

Sung dynasty
Chiao-tan Kuan ware, D.
6'/i in.
(15.5
cm)
This shallow dish with straight sides and slightly incurving
base with
five
lip
spurmarks, and no foot; the crackled blue glaze
has a convex
is
the shade
described by the Chinese as "ash blue".
245
^55
*-^^ ^^^
Sung dynasty
Chiao-tan Kuan ware, D. 6y,
The
circular dish,
in. (17.5
cm)
perhaps a brush washer, has
flaring sides and rests on

brown rim; the glaze is pale bluish grey with large
the base is the character chia, evidently numbering the
a low foot with chocolate
crackle; carved
in
piece as one of a series.
Igg
SQUARE DISH
Sung dynasty
Chl Chou ware,
The
W. 5%
has a
foliated rim
design of rams
white,
in. (14
scroll pattern in relief
among clouds
mat glaze
is
Chou was
cm)
in
low
relief
on the flattened top and a moulded
appears
in
the bottom
the greyish
the color described by the Chinese as "ash white"; an
poem
of twenty-eight characters is incised
on the base.
town In southern Kiangsi province that was famous in Sung

times for its white wares and brown wares. Many of the former were copies
of Ting wares from the north, and distinctive white wares like this were also
made in very fine quality. The Chi Chou brown wares often imitated the Chien
wares of Fukien. These two copies of other wares are often described in the
literature as Chi-an or Kian Ting and Kian Temmoku.
Chi
246
VASE
157
Ming dynasty,
Yu-li-hung ware, H.
late fourteenth
12'/, In. (32
century (Hung-wu)*
cm)
This bottle-shaped vase, of the type called yu-hu-ch'un by the Chinese,

glaze, but
Beginning
because
at
of imperfectly controlled firing
is
painted
conditions the design
in
copper oxide under the
came out grey
instead
of
red.
the top, the horizontal bands of decoration include plantain leaves, thunder pattern, fungus scroll,
rocks and plants (banana, orchid, bamboo,
etc.), lotus
panels, and classic scroll around the strongly cut foot.
Ming and Ch'ing porcelains made at Chingtechen under the several reign names whether they
bear the reign marks or not. In this catalogue we have followed the Western practice of assigning them to definite periods only when
they are so marked; unmarked pieces are given approximate chronological dates, and the reign classification of the Chinese follows
Traditionally the Chinese classify
in
ail
parenthesis.
LARGE BOWL
158
Ming dynasty,
Yu-li-hung ware, D.
late fourteenth
century (Hung-wu)
cm)
16'/i. In. (41
Like No. 157 this piece was decorated with copper oxide under the glaze, but here the firing was more successful
and some of the design came out in red inside the rim is a border of fungus scrolls above the main design
of scrolling lotus; on the outside are waves, peony scrolls, lotus panels, and thunder pattern in that order
;
from
lip
to foot.
247
159
TEAPOT
Ming dynasty, early
White ware, H. 4%
In. (11.5
fifteenth century (Yung-lo)

cm)
and around it on the shoulder are three

segmented to simulate bamboo this shade
described by the Chinese as t'ien pai, "sv\êet" or "pleasant"
cap-like cover fits over the opening
small vertical loops

of white
is
the handle
is
white.
160
WIDE BOWL
Ming dynasty, Yung-lo reign
White ware, D. 8%
In. (22
(1403-1424)
cm)
So
thin is the clay in this ware that the Chinese call it t'o-t'o/, "bodiless"
under the glaze the Eight Treasures of Buddhism are drawn in slip in the
technique known as an-hua, "hidden decoration", and

four-character mark of the period
the bowl.
248
is
drawn
in
in
the
same medium the
archaic script
in
the bottom of
161
STEMCUP
White ware. D.
4%
in. (11
Not quite as thin as the bowl,

by the Chinese
who
(1403-1424)
cm)
this
stemcup
is
called pan-t'o-t'ai, "semi bodiless",
describe the tone as t'ien-pai, "sweet white"; the an-hua
decoration inside the bowl consists of two dragons, and the four-character
mark
162
of the period is written in archaic script in the bottom.
STEMCUP
Red ware, D.
6y,
in. (16.5
(1403-1424)
cm)
This deep red glaze which the Chinese called chi-hung, "sacrificial red", was
one
of the great
to imitate
it,
triumphs of the early fitteenth century potter;
although they produced
lang-yao, invariably
fell
some wonderful
short of the early prototypes.
chasing a pearl and the four-character mark
in
reds
In this
like
later
attempts
the K'ang-hsi
cup two dragons
archaic script are drawn
in
the
an-hua technique and remain almost invisible under the glaze.
249
163
MONK'S HAT JUG

Ming dynasty, early
Red ware, H. 7%
Named from
in. (20
fifteenth century (HsiJan-te)
cm)
the shape of
nese ceramics
the color
its lid,
in this
this jug is a type relatively
instance
is
stone red" or "ruby red", by the Chinese today.

lung
poem
Emperor
cut
calls
in
it
the glaze under the base

chu-sha, a term that
now
in
uncommon
called pao-shih-hung,
In
in
Chi-
"precious
the forty-character Ch'len-
the spring of 1775, however, the
translates our
word cinnabar; he
too identifies the shape with that of a monk's hat.
164
BOWL
Ming dynasty, early
Red ware, D. 8%
in. (20.5
cm)
Another example
this
of the red ware called pao-shih-hung by the modern Chinese,

bowl bears an Imperial Ch'ien-lung poem of twenty-eight characters
incised on the base
In
the spring of 1777
in
which the Emperor uses the word
tan-sha, another term used today for cinnabar.
250
165
OCTAGONAL BOWL
Ming dynasty, early
Red ware, D. 6
in. (15.5
fifteenth century (Hsiian-te)
cm)
This bowl, also covered with the glaze currently called pao-shih-hung, has no
mark or inscription but is attributed by the Chinese

(1426-1435) and may well have been made at that time.
'155
to the HsiJan-te reign
STEMCUP
Ming dynasty, early
Red ware, D.
Much
No. 162
glaze
is
like
is
in. (15.5
cm)
in
general proportion, this cup
described as chi-hung, "sacrificial red".
is
also similar
In this
a dragon inside and two dragons chasing pearls
in
that the
case, however, there
among clouds on
the
outside with conventional cloud and scroll forms below. These decorations
are executed
In
a flat bluish grey by
some technique that has yet to be
explained.
251
-Igy
SAUCE POT
Ming dynasty, Hsiian-te reign
Red ware, H. 4X
The
In. (10
is decorated with four rows of

and covered v\/ith a glaze of "sacrificial red".
base is the six-character Hsuan-te mark in under-
small covered pot with spout and handle
lotus petals carved In relief
Underneath on the
glaze blue.
252
(1426-1435)
cm)
vifhite
253
168
SAUCE POT
Ming dynasty, HsiJan-te reign
Blue ware, H.
i'/. In.
This
is
pot
(10
like
the
preceding
respect except that the glaze

of the
shade the Chinese
"clearing sky blue".
169
STEMCUP
Ming dynasty, HsiJan-te reign
Yu-li-hung ware, D.
The
with
small stemcup
three
peach)
bowl
4%
is
in
fruits
is
(1426-1435)
cm)
decorated on the outside
(pomegranate,
apple,
and
underglaze copper red. Inside the
the
six-character
underglaze blue.
254
in. (12
HsCian-te
mark
in
(1426-1435)
cm)
is
call
in
every
dark blue
chi-ch'ing,
170
COVERED VASE
Ming dynasty,
Blue and white ware, H. 14%
The vase
is
In. (36.5
cm)
of the type called mei-p'ing or
"prunus vase". The decoration
underglaze blue, produced by painting on the clay with an

of cobalt oxide
in
lid,
lotus
in
mixture
blossoms
cloud-collar frames on the shoulder, and peony scrolls on the main design.
If
the Chinese attribution of this unmarked piece to the Hsuan-te reign
it
dates from the very end of that period
ed that
171
and water, includes fungus scrolls on the
inl<-like
it
was made
decade or two
and the
later,
possibility
is right,
cannot be overlook-
not far from the middle of the century.
FLASK
Ming dynasty, early
Blue and white ware, H. 11%
in. (29.5
cm)
Vessels of this shape are called pien-hu,

p'ing,
"moon vases". The decoration on
well painted
one
of
"flat
vases", or sometimes yijeh
this piece
is
unusual
in
showing a
landscape which serves as the setting for three Mongolian figures,
whom dances
known only on
to the
accompaniment of flute and tambourine, a scene

in the Topkapu Sarayi museum in Istanbul.
a similar flask
255
"72
FLASK
"I
Ming dynasty,
Blue and white ware, H. 13
In. (33
cm)
variant of the preceding form,
thiis flasl< is still
called pien-hu by the
Chinese
because of its characteristic flatness. Like No. 170 it sits rather uneasily in the
Hsuan-te reign to which the Chinese have assigned it and may v/eW have been
made somewhat
173
nearer the mid-century.
FLASK
Ming dynasty, early
Blue and white ware, H. 9>^
Still

In. (24
cm)
another variant of the pien-hu form, this flask stands on a low flaring foot
and has a bulbous mouth the main decoration of rectilinear panels symmetrically disposed around a central six-pointed star and serving as frames for
;
waves and
floral
and geometric motifs
on the potters of early Ming.
256
reflects the influence of Islamic
designs
174
COVERED GOBLET
Ming dynasty, Hsijan-te reign
Blue and white ware, H.
5%
In. (14.5
(1426-1435)
cm)
This small covered vessel Imitates the shape of

the ceremonial bronze tou of late
Chou times;
the six-character marl^ of the period

in
a horizontal line on
is
written
one side above the main
decoration of scrolling vines.
175
BOWL
Ming dynasty, Ch'eng-hua reign
(1465-1487)
cm)
Yu-li-hung ware, D.
8X
The broad bowl
with slightly flaring rim
in. (20.5
is
deco-
rated on the outside with three fish painted in
underglaze copper red
under the base
six-character mark of the period
in
is
the
underglaze
blue.
257
176
BOWL
Blue and white ware, D.
8%
In. (21
cm)
Inside the slightly flaring rim

with phoenixes flying
among
is
a scroll band, and the outside
lotus scrolls with a
the six-character Ch'eng-hua mark
177
(1465-1487)
is
is
decorated
of lotus panels
below;
written on the base.
BOWL
Blue and white ware, D. T/,
Around the
In. (19.5
(1465-1487)
cm)
slightly flaring rim is a
wave border, and the main design is of

the six-character mark of the period
sea beasts flying over tumultuous waves

is
258
row
written under the base.
17g
STEMCUP
Ming dynasty,
late fifteenth
Blue and white ware. D.
7 in. (18
century (Ch'eng-hua)
cm)
The two mythical animals painted on

dragon
the
latter,
this
stemcup are the
ch'i-lin
and the
quite unlike the normal Chinese dragon, has a proboscidian
snout, small wings, a lotus spray growing from the
tip of the tongue, no hind

and an enormously long and elaborately foliated tail. Dragons of this
small but distinctive family seem to appear most often on late fifteenth century
porcelains; and this fact combined with the superb quality of the pottery, the
feet,
drawing, and the blue on this unmarked stemcup suggest the attribution to
Ch'eng-hua.
179
STEMCUP
Ming dynasty,
late fifteenth century
Blue and wliite ware. D.
Inside this
in. (16.5
(Ch'eng-hua)
cm)
stemcup are egrets
on the branches of
second
6%
fruit trees.
in
a lotus pond, and outside are birds perched
The
quality of the
half of the fifteenth century,
work points
to a date in the
perhaps Ch'eng-hua.
259
180
SAUCE POT
Ming dynasty,
late fifteenth
Blue and white ware, H. 5
The decoration
181
cm)
of this small covered pot with wildly cavorting
tumultuous waves
of the porcelain
In. (13
is
and
related in spirit to that

of the
dragons over
on the bowl No. 177, and the quality
workmanship suggests
comparable date.
SAUCE POT
Ming dynasty,
Enamelled ware, H.
late fifteenth
4%
On
in. (12
cm)
this pot the usual blue and white technique has been supplemented in the
main design where the wave pattern has been incised in the clay, and the
dragons have also been incised and then covered with a green enamel fired
on over the glaze.
260
182
PAIR OF CHICKEN CUPS

Enamelled ware, D. y/,
in. (8
(1465-1487)
cm)
This well-known design of cock and hen with chicks beside a rock and flowering
plants
was
outlined
first In
underglaze blue and then,
with the delicate enamel colors
known
to
In
second
firing,
covered
the Chinese as tou-ts'ai, often
mistranslated "fighting colors" but no doubt using the second meaning of
which is "agreeable" or "harmonious". The six-character Ch'eng-hua

mark Is characteristically written in underglaze blue in a double square on
tou
the bases.
183
WIDE BOWL
Ch'ing dynasty, K'ang-hsi reign (1662-1722)
White ware, D. 8
in. (20.5
cm)
So famous were the "bodiless" bowls

they were frequently copied
in later
of the
times. This
Yung-lo reign
Is
decorated again with the Eight Treasures drawn
in
in
Ming that
the an-hua technique and
bearing the six-character K'ang-hsi mark also written
under the glaze
in early
a K'ang-hsi version of No. 160
in slip in
archaic script
the center of the bowl.
261
184
LARGE DISH
Yellow ware. D. 15%
in. (40.5
cm)
This large dish with flattened rim
is
the clay under the pale yellow glaze

with dragons
sprays
185
among
decorated entirely with designs Incised

;
in
the rim and the central area are covered
clouds, and the cavetto
is
filled
with flower and fruit
under the base the six-character mark of the period
is
similarly incised.
COVERED JAR
Enamelled ware. H.
The
262
of
in- (14
cm)
drawn dragon and phoenix are in overglaze iron red while the rest of
is in underglaze blue and tou-ts'ai enamels; the six-character
the period is written under the base.
finely
the decoration
mark
5%
186
SMALL DISH
Ch'ing dynasty, marked K'ang-hsi (1662-1722)
Enamelled ware, D.
The outside
A%
In. (12
cm)
of this dish is solidly
covered with enamels, white for the back-
ground, and colors (green, blue, pink,
Chinese
this
technique
is
etc.) for the
called fa-lang-ts'ai,
flowers and foliage.
and the same term
is
In
used for
enamels painted on copper and for cloisonne. As a result there is some confusion when, in translation, this ware is described as cloisonn6. That word is
properly used only for metal objects on which wire c/o/sons are applied to
On the base is the four-character imperial

mark K'ang-hsi-yU-chih written inside a double square in red enamel implying
that the piece was made under imperial order in the K'ang-hsi reign. But the
technique of making pink enamel which came from Europe does not seem to
have reached China before 1717 when it first appeared in crude form on copper
separate the colored enamels.
grounds. Such a highly refined pink as we see on this dish was not perfected
until later.
For this reason a late Ch'ien-lung date
seems more
likely for extre-
mely sophisticated enamelling of this kind.
187
BOWL
Enamelled ware, D. 6
Solidly decorated
in
In. (15.5
in
cm)
enamel colors on the outside,
this
bowl has lotus flowers
green panels separated by large leaves on a pink ground. The four-character
imperial K'ang-hsi
too
it
mark
is
written
seems more reasonable
on the base as on No.
186, but in this
case
to assign the piece to the latter part of the Ch'ien-
lung period.
263
188
PAIR OF
BOWLS
Ch'ing dynasty, Yung-cheng reign (1723-1735)

Enamelled ware, D.
6'/, in.
The decoration
in
overglaze enamels shows rocl<s, canrielias, prunus, and twelve magpies and
by a poetic couplet
period
is
cm)
(16
black with two simulated seals
In
in
red
is
accompanied
under the base the four-character mark of the
written in blue enamel.
189
PAIR OF
BOWLS

Enamelled ware, D. BY,
In. (16.5
cm)
Here the decoration includes sparrows among bamboo trees again accompanied by poems and seals.
group
of
wares the colored enamels contrast with the white
used on No.
cloisonn6.
186, but here too the
Chinese use the term
The four-character Yung-cheng mark
In
of the porcelain itself instead of the white
fa-lang-ts'ai although the
blue enamel
Is
technique
is
In this
enamel
nothing
like
under the base.
190
PAIR OF
BOWLS

Enamelled ware, D. iy.
cm)
In. (15
Yung-cheng enamelled wares In this group, these two bowls are decorated in monochrome
in sepia enamel and fired over the transparent glaze producing a result
Chinese ink painting. The four-character mark of the period is written in blue enamel on the base.
Unlike the other
rocks and peonies alike are drawn

similar to
191
PAIR OF WINECUPS
Enamelled ware, D.
1J< In. (4.5
of
pair of
ter
cm)
in colored enamels on these two small cups is like that on the

bowls No. 190 a poetic inscription and simulated seals accompany the decoration, and the four-characmark of the period appears on the base in blue enamel.
The decoration
sparrows among bamboos

;
192
PAIR OF WINECUPS
Enamelled ware, D.
1%
In. (4
These small cups are

another favorite
cm)
like
in this
the preceding pair, and the decoration of
period.
The usual Yung-cheng mark
is
mynahs amid
written in blue
bright red
maple leaves
enamel on the base.
is
265
193
TEAPOT
Enamelled ware, H.
4%
in. (11
cm)
a ground pattern of dense sepia floral scrolls are reserved two panels; on
one side are two quail among rice ears, peonies, and chrysanthemums, and
on the other two magpies with bamboo trees, roses and chrysanthemums.
In each panel is a small poem in black followed by a simulated seal in red.
On the base Is the four-character mark of the period in blue enamel.
In
194
TEAPOT
Enamelled ware, H.
On
3%
this teapot the
in. (9
cm)
dense ground pattern
is
done
In
colors, and the reserved
panel on each side of the pot frames a landscape scene minutely painted
blue enamel with a line of poetry and a simulated seal
of each.
The customary four-character mark
on the base.
266
in
in
the upper front corner
of the period is in blue
enamel
195
LARGE VASE
Blue and white ware, H.
cm)
in. (71
Most
of the decoration, finely
blue,
is in
scrolls
with
the Chinese taste
on the shoulder,
Rococo Europe.
China on Europe
a vase like this,
of
Rouen
glaze blue
196
21%
faience.
in
it
and precisely painted
reflect the fact that the
made
Chinese court was
in
touch
in
such an intermingling
of styles that
of porcelain, could easily be taken for a piece
The four-character mark
seal script
deep underglaze
the influence of Europe on China and that of
time resulted
not
in rich,
but certain details, such as the elaborate pendent
In fact,
at this
were
of the period is written in under-
under the base.
LARGE VASE
Ch'ing dynasty, Ch'ien-iung reign (1736-1796)
Blue and white ware, H. 25>i
In. (66
cm)
Hexagonal
in section with tall neck and flaring lip, this vase is finely painted
deep underglaze blue; the decoration, like that on No. 195 which must be
very close to this in date, combines several Chinese motifs with others which
reveal the Chinese knowledge of and interest in designs from contemporary
in
Europe. The six-character mark of the period
in
seal style
is
written in under-
glaze blue on the base.
267
>68
197
LARGE VASE
Monochrome ware,
The shape
H.
17%
in. (45
cm)
based on that of an ancient ceremonial bronze

and two pendent rings are indicated In relief as though hanging
of this vessel is
of the type hu,
from the handles. The
light
grey glaze with stained crackle
is
described by the
Chinese as simulating the Ko ware ("elder brother" ware) traditionally included

In the lists of Sung dynasty ceramics. But It should be noted that In actual
no certainty about the identification of that ware among the Sung
known today. Under the base the six-character Ch'ien-lung mark is
fact there Is
porcelains
written In underglaze blue.
198
LARGE VASE
Monochrome ware,
H.
20%
in. (50.5
The shape
cm)
of this vessel is similar to that of No. 197; there is strapwork in

around the body, and the handles are modelled in the shape of animal
heads. A thick even glaze of the greenish brown color called "teadust" covers
the surface, and the six-character mark of the period In seal style is impressed
relief
in
the clay under the base.
199
TEAPOT
Enamelled ware, H.
5%
ground pattern
finely painted
in. (14.5
cm)
of lotus scrolls in coral red
two reserved panels, one with lotus

imperial
in
200
in
poem. The six-character mark
and gold surrounds
colored enamels, the other with an

of the period is written in red
enamel
seal script.
PAIR OF STEMCUPS
Enamelled ware, H.
The
3%
In. (9
cm)
painting of a pair of quail amid roses and
chrysanthemums
is
particularly
delicate; and the birds constitute a rebus, for the phrase shuang-an ("double
quail")
is
homophonic
with the phrase "double peace".
each cup the four-character mark
in
underglaze blue
aperture of the stem reading top to bottom and right to
is
Under the foot of

around the
written
left.
269
201
VASE
Enamelled ware, H. BY,
Like the pair of
in. (20.5
cm)
cups (No.
192) this vase is also decorated with black
mynahs
dominated by red accents, but in this case the latter is provided

by the prunus blossoms. A poetic couplet in black and simulated seals in red
complete the composition. The four-character mark of the period appears in
in
a setting
blue enamel on the base.
202
VASE
Enamelled ware, H.
This vase
is
6%
in. (17.5
cm)
topped by a bulbous mouth of lobed form, of the type the Chinese
lip. Birds and trees again make up the decorabamboo, peach, and weeping willow providing the setting for magpies
and orioles; and the scene is accompanied by the usual poetic couplet and
simulated seals. On the base is the four-character Ch'ien-lung mark in a double
call "garlic
tion
v\/ith
square
270
mouth", and a short
in
blue enamel.
203
TOOTHPICK CASES
Ch'ing dynasty, eighteenth century (Ch'ien-lung)
Enamelled ware,
L.
3%
Each case slides
in. (9.5
cm) closed
into a sheath-like cover,
and the two parts are held together by a silken cord
fitted with coral
beads, seed pearls, etc. The porcelain enameller reaches the peak of his virtuosity (albeit a peak just short
of
it
decadence
I)
in
these wares where, not content with merely decorating the glazed surface, he transforms
into a realistic imitation of silk
brocade as a setting
for the floral
and calligraphic subjects
in
the panels.
204
TINDER BOXES
Enamelled ware, H. ca.
2%
The Chinese term
huo-lien-tai, literally translated "fire chain
carrying
flint
and costly
made
and
in. (6.5
steel
and
lighters are the
for wealthy noble
cm) average
boxes", describes these elegant cases used for
tinder, the ancient prototype of the pocket lighter of today.
work
of gold-
and aristocratic
and silversmiths and jewelers, so these

clients by the
Nos. 203 and 205) they have displayed their virtuosity
in
most
skillful
porcelain workers
of
the
most elaborate
boxes were
and here again
(cf.
The boxes resemble

gold on one of them
the simulation of other materials.
single-case Japanese inro and the surface texture imitates sharkskin embellished with
is
As
early fire chain
European figures and a Christian church minutely painted In enamel colors. On the base
each the six-character Chien-lung mark is written in the seal script in red enamel.
a landscape with
271
205
THUMB RINGS
Ch'ing dynasty, eighteenth century (Ch'ien-lung)
Enamelled ware, D. ca. ^y,
These ornamental
In. (3
rings
cm) each
made
of porcelain but imitating
wood, stone,
inlaid
bronze, lacquer, etc. represent the last manifestations of an ancient tradition.

In
Asia the bowstring was drawn with the thumb curled under the
fingers of the right
hand and with
its tip
first
held against the side of the third.
protection against the tension of the draw and whip of the cord at the
two
As
moment
thumb of the Asiatic archer was encased in a ring of horn,

some other hard material. The forms varied through the centuries
of release, the
ivory, jade, or
and across the continent from Turkey to Japan and the thick cylindrical type
shown here has been current in Eastern Asia for most of the Christian era.
Elaborate imitations of other materials executed in porcelain were for the most
;
part
used as jewelry by Manchu princes who, in the midst of the elegant luxury
life of Peking, wanted always to be reminded that
and decadence of the court

their hard-riding
272
nomadic ancestors were,
first
and
last,
archers.
SMALL GLASS VASE
206

Enamels on glass, H.
4X
in. (10.5
cm)
Although glass appears to have been known and nnade in China for some two millennia, it never achieved
the artistic or commercial importance in the Far East that it did in the Near East or in Europe. One possible
explanation of this is that the Chinese did not need glass because from very early times they developed such
great
skill
with high-fired ceramic wares, particularly porcelain.
many ways
And
porcelain, which
more durable and more
was unknown
in
Europe
same
purposethe manufacture of vessels for the storage of liquids and for the serving of food and drink. The richly
colored opaque glass that was carved at Peking in the Ch'ing dynasty is known by the name of that city, and
the opaque white glass with delicate painting in enamels on the surface was largely Inspired by the European
contacts that played such an important part in the Chinese culture of the period. The scene on this small vase
shows a woman reading to a child in an autumn landscape, and while the subject matter and the personages
are Chinese they are rendered in a European style of painting that became popular in China at this time. The
until
the eighteenth century,
is in
four-character mark of the period
is
a finer,
written in a double square in blue
versatile material serving the
enamel on the base.
SNUFF BOTTLE
207

Enamels on glass, H. 2%
This small rectangular bottle

in
the
same
in
in. (7
cm)
opaque white glass
style as the painting
is decorated on two sides with a Chinese girl and baske

on the vase No. 206, and on the othertwo sides with landscapes including
European buildings. The four-character mark
of the
period
is
written
in
blue enamel within a double
square on the base.
273
208-209
'*'^"'
^ VASES

Enamel on copper, H. 5%
On
a main
In. (13.5
cm)
background color
of strong yellow for the
body and
lighit
blue for
the neck, these vases are decorated with floral patterns and ornamental scrolls
("Buddha's hand citron", pomegranate, lichee nuts, peaches) together with flowers of the four seasons;
the other has grapes, melons, lotus, and apple blossoms. The eight seal
characters in the medallions with jeweled pendants are read together as a
one carries four
different auspicious fruits
may be rendered in English:

May your longevity be like that of the mountains and the peaks.
May your happiness be as vast as the seas and the heavens.
couplet of good wishes which
The
imperial K'ang-hsi
the bottom of each
and
187, these
century.
274
mark
but as
seem more
in
in
four characters
is
written
in
blue enamel on
the case of the enamelled porcelains Nos. 186
likely to
date from the later decades of the eighteenth
210
TEAPOT
Enamel on copper. W, 6%
In. (16.5
cm)
Like the vases this teapot has a background of strong yellow, but the decoration
consists entirely of chrysanthemums

raised medallions on the four sides.
period
is
written in blue
shown on vines, separately, and in large

The imperial four character mark of the
enamel on the base; but the piece
is
probably
late
Ch'ien-lung.
MA
SQUAT VASE
Enamel on copper. H. 3
In. (7.5
cm)
The decoration here consists
of
peony blossoms and
scrolls densely
disposed
over the strong yellow ground. Again the four character imperial mark of the
K'ang-hsi reign
is
probably an interpolation on a piece
made some
fifty
years
later.
275
212
TALL VASE WITH HANDLES

Enamel on gold. H.
8'/, in. (21
cm)
ground pattern densely covered with floral scrolls, which the Chinese
"brocade pattern", are reserved lour panels in ornamental frames. Around
the neck, between the dragon shaped gold handles are two swallows on apricot
branches on one side, and two birds among plums and bamboos on the other.
The two main panels on the body frame landscapes with European figures and
On
call
buildings.
213
On
the base
is
the four-character mark of the reign.
SMALL COVERED JAR

Ch'ing dynasty, Cti'ien-lung reign (1736-1796)
Cloisonne enamel on gold. H.
The colored enamels
3%
in. (8.5
cm)
are kept from running together by metal wires (cloisons)
soldered to the surface of the vessel; this
is
the true cloisonn6 technique.
ground surrounds four panels on the vessel and

four on the cover In which are painted landscape scenes with European figures.
A coral bead serves as finial, and the four-character mark of the reign is on
On
this piece the cloisonn6
the base.
276
214
EWER WITH CUP AND CUPSTAND
dynasty,
Ch'ing
Ch'ien-lung
reign
(1736-17%)
Champlevi enamel on gold. H. (ewer) 7%
Here the compartments

are sunk
in
In. (19
cm)
enamel
for the
the body of the metal leaving
the raised surface (chomp/eve)

divider; the technique
is
itself
as the
the opposite of
cloisonne. Painted enamel panels depict-
European subjects are reserved on
ing
each piece; a coral bead serves as
ewer
finial
and the four-character

Ch'ien-lung marks are on all three bases.
to the
lid;
215
CHUEH AND STAND
Ch'ing dynasty, Ch'ien-lung reign
(1736-1796)
Cloisonne enamels on copper. H. SV,
This
century
eighteenth
bronze
ceremonial
originated
in
center
the
version
form,
in
of
made
and
in
that
pro-
is
the form of a saucer
which
domical
is
protuberance with three recesses to

the legs of the tripod.
cm)
of
chueh,
Shang dynasty
the
vided with a stand

in
in. (17.5
Such
fit
sets were also
porcelain and both early Ming
eighteenth
known. The
century
fact that
examples
are
form
the chiieh
disappeared from the bronze caster's

repertory about the end
of the
dynasty and only reappeared

materials
later
some
twenty-four
other
centuries
has not yet been explained.
The cloisonn6 enameling on

is
Shang
in
extremely fine
in
quality,
this piece
and serves
as the background for panels framing
enamel paintings
of floral
scenes and
landscapes with European figures. The

four-character Ch'ien-lung
mark
is
in-
cised on the base of both pieces.
277
216-217
TWO
CYLINDRICAL BOXES
Ming dynasty, early

Carved lacquer, 216
D. T/,

In. (18.5
cm)
217: D.9y,\n. (25 cm)
Both boxes have dense peony patterns on the covers and
floral
peony, lotus, mallow, and chrysanthemum on the sides.
In
box
a Ch'ien-lung
is
interior,
been scratched as
The making
and
poem dated
and on the black bases

if
1782 written
in
gold lacquer on the black
of both the six-character
Yung-lo mark has
with a needle.
of these fine early lacquers required an
immense amount
labor. After the sap of the lacquer tree (Rhus vernicifera)
strained, purified
bands Including
the top of the large
and colored by the addition of iron sulphate
of care
had been boiled,
for black, mercuric
sulphide (cinnabar) for red, trisulphide of arsenic (orpiment) for yellow,
etc.,
was brushed on to a light wooden base in many thin layers. When this coating
was complete, the design was carved through, and in the finished product
the layers are clearly visible through an ordinary pocket glass; as many as
fifty, or even more, may be present on the best early Ming pieces. The ground
it
coat on those with
floral
often faded to buff, as a
decoration
is
usually yellow, and this
background color
in
is
revealed,
the deeply carved design. Near the
bottom, in these red wares, a black layer has been inserted, presumably to
warn the carver that he was approaching his lowest level, and this runs like
a topographical contour line all through the design. Lacquers for ordinary
use were made with far fewer layers, and cheap Imitations were (and still are)
made by moulding red paste or by painting a single coat over a design carved
in wood to simulate the early technique. But these latter deceive only the
most unwary.
Many problems remain
Some
to be solved in the dating of early carved lacquers.
thought to be Yuan; but though the names of

two famous Yiian carvers, Chang Ch'eng and Yang Mao, are recorded and
a few superb pieces bearing one name or the other are known, these attributions
are
of the finest pieces are
still
treated with the utmost caution. In the Ming dynasty, tradition holds
that Yung-lo
carved and
marks were scratched with a needle and Hsiian-te marks were

lacquered on gold. But the nature of the
material
makes
it
possible to add both kinds of marks to any piece, and the presence on certain
ones
of
Hsuan-te marks carved and lacquered on top of scratched Yung-lo

of questions that are not easy to answer. Style and
marks raises a number

quality are the
most
reliable
guides
and whether the Yung-lo marks on these
four pieces (Nos. 216-219) were put on
in
that reign or not, this type
accepted as dating from the early fifteenth century
if
not earlier.
Is
widely
''";!'
t-^
V-
279
218
BOTTLE-SHAPED VASE
Ming dynasty, early
6%
Carved lacquer, H.
The shape
a
scrolls
The
cm)
of this vase,
beater form seen

lip is
in. (17
band
of
In
uncommon
in
lacquer, recalls the well-known paper-
the celadons and other wares of the
Sung
dynasty.
On
the
thunder pattern, and the neck and body are covered with peony
among which
are an occasional lotus, mallow, and chrysanthemums.
six-character Yung-lo mark scratched on the glossy black lacquer of the
base may or may not have been written
in
that reign, but the piece
is
undoubt-
edly early.
219
SMALL DISH
Ming dynasty, early
Carved lacquer, D.
5%
In. (15
cm)
chrysanthemum blossoms dominate the decoration of this dish;

among the leaves, stems, and buds while one
smaller flower is seen from the side. Again the six-character Yung-lo mark
scratched in the glossy black base must be accepted with reserve even though
Five large
they are symmetrically disposed
the dish
280
is early.
220
OVAL DISH
Ming dynasty, early
Carved lacquer,
fifteenth century (Hsijan-te)
L. 10 in. (25.5
cm)
The grape and grapevine pattern that entirely covers the surface of this dish
is carved in higher and more uneven relief than that on the pieces with Yung-lo
marks and some details are even undercut. Although it is impossible to be
precise about the date, the free and
lively style of this
design tends to support
the HsiJan-te attribution implied by the six-character mark on the base
problems outlined
221
in
the notes on Nos. 216-217
but the
must not be forgotten.
FOLIATED BLACK DISH

Ming dynasty, early
Carved lacquer, D. 10%
in. (27
cm)
Black lacquer was more
commonly used
in
the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries for pieces inlaid with mother of pearl and other materials, but a
few examples of early fitteenth century carving are known.
member
of that small group, the design of peafowl
In
this typical
among peonies
is
cut
through the many layers of black lacquer to a reddish brown ground. The four
character Hsiian-te mark on the base
it
in
is
may
or
may
not be contemporary; but
worth noting that the peacock and peony pattern appears on porcelain
the fourteenth century and
is
used
all
through
IVIing.
281
222
CIRCULAR DISH
Ming dynasty, Chia-ching reign
Carved lacquer, D. 7%
(1522-1566)
cm)
in. (19.5
fierce five-clawed dragon among clouds in the center and the four small
dragons chasing around the cavetto are carved in red against a ground of
mustard yellow, and the claws and the tips of some of the cloud scrolls are
The
accented
There are four similar small dragons on the back.
in black.
this piece is perfectly consistent with the six-character Chia-ching
In style
mark on
the base.
223
QUATREFOIL DISH
Ming dynasty
Carved lacquer,
L.
10%
in. (26.5
cm)
This distinctive style of carving
Japanese, and the date of

lacquer carver
is
abstract design,
In
by no
in this
is
its first
means
known as
guri, a
appearance
certain.
The
in
effect is achieved by carving
case an elaborate arrangement
lines of uniform width
No doubt
term borrowed from the
the repertory of the Chinese
an
of stylized cloud patterns,
and depth, through alternating layers
of red
and
was done in Ming times, and while accurate dating

has not thus far been possible, it seems likely that it was done In the latter
part of the dynasty. This piece carries no reign mark, and the name Li Chi
black lacquer.
written
282
it
on the base has so
far
thrown no
light
on
its
date or place of origin.
SMALL BRUSH POT
224
Ming dynasty
Carved bamboo, H.
This pi-t'ung,
literally
5%
in. (14
"brusli tube",
cm)
was decorated by carving away
part of the shiny outer skin of a section
bamboo leaving the figures in low relief further details were then carved on both the higher and lower surfaces
as required. The work was done while the bamboo was still green. Carefully controlled drying and staining
were the final stages. Bamboo carving, like lacquer work, was originally and essentially a Chinese art and most
of
of the products
were
articles for
use on the scholar's desk: brush pots to hold the brushes used
or painting, water droppers to wet the inkstone, armrests to give freedom of
A number
of artists in this field are
recorded
and the signature San-sung on
in
writing
to the writing hand, etc.
name of
known about him beyond
carvers working in the Ming
this piece is the given
Chu San-sung who achieved some degree of fame in this field. Little
that both he and his father Chu Hsiao-sung were distinguished bamboo
a certain
the fact
movement
is
dynasty.
225
LARGE BRUSH POT

Ming dynasty
Carved bamboo, H.
6%
cm)
In. (16
Larger and more deeply carved than the
last, this brush pot is decorated with an elaborate and complex scene
T'ung trees (Pawlonia), bananas, and bamboo form the setting for a small
studio which is rendered in some detail at the window is a lady standing by a table with a scroll open before
her. Beside the scroll is an inkstone, and the lady holds a brush in her hand, about to write. A man stands
with folded hands watching her while a servant boy bearing a covered bowl enters by the side door.
composed and carved
with great
skill.
226
WATER CONTAINER
Ming dynasty
Carved bamboo,
L. A'/, In. (11.5
cm)
single withered lotus leaf with a
blossom beside
container for a scholar's desk. Although

a
227
work
of
it
is
it
makes up
this water
unsigned, the Chinese
feel that
such very great refinement must come from a famous hand.
SCHOLAR'S ARMREST
Ming dynasty
Carved boxwood,
L. 6'/, in. (22
cm)
As the form of the armrest the carver has taken a segment of a rotted branch
and carved a spray of prunus blossoms on the hollow side. On the rounded
surface are carved three poems one in seal script, one In the clerical style,
and one in the running hand. Each is accompanied by a signature and simulated
;
seal, but the writers
284
have not been identified.
228
BOAT-SHAPED CUP
Ming dynasty
Carved rhinoceros horn,
L.
^0%
in. (27
cm)
This intricate carving represents the story of Chang Ch'ien, the Han dynasty statesman and traveller, floating
down
the Yangtze River
log) is a
poem
in a
boat that
is really
written by the Ch'ien-lung
inscription of uncertain
no more than a hollow
emperor
in
1782
meaning signed by a man who
at the
log. Inside the
back of the boat
cup (which
is
is
the hollow
written a five-character
calls himself Yu-t'ung.
229
SMALL BRUSH POT
Ch'ing dynasty
Carved bamboo, H.
In
the
with a
while
6%
in. (15.5
cm)
same style as No. 224, this brush pot is decorated

groom holding a rope and watching his charge
it rolls. The carving is signed Wu Chih-fan.
285
230
SMALL BRUSH POT
Ch'ing dynasty
Carved boxwood, H. AY,
The shape
is
cm)
In. (12.5
irregular
lilte
a short log wider at the top
is a gnarled prunus branch

blossoms on it and at the left are small twigs
on the
of bamboo on which perch two parakeets
other side is a pine tree in which are four gibbons
holding peaches of immortality. The pine, the prunus,
and the bamboo are known as "the three cold weather
friends" because they are the three plants that flourish
carved
in relief
on one side
with
In
231
ARMREST
Ch'ing dynasty
Carved
ivory, L.
The armrest
is
of
^^%
in
in. (29.5
cm)
the usual form of a long half cylinder
decorated on the inside with the legendary scene

the
mostly
Eight
in
Immortals crossing the sea, carved
the round.
On
the outside,
in
low
portrayed Shou-lao, the god of longevity.
286
relief, is
winter (see No. 67).
This catalogue was designed and produced by Editions

d'Art Albert Skira, Geneva, Switzerland. Ttie black and
white plates were printed by the heliogravure department
of
Roto-Sadag S. A., Geneva, the color plates by the
Color Studios at Imprimeries Riunles, Lausanne.

Finished the thirtieth day of April,
nineteen
hundred
and
sixty-one.
Color plates engraved by Guezelle & Renouard, Paris.
The black and white
Illustrations
were made from negatives
supplied by the Joint Administration of the National Palace
and Central Museums
in
Taiwan, with the exception
a few that were supplied by Henry B. Beville,
and by the Freer Gallery
Printed
in
of Art.
Switzerland
of
Washington,
^^

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CHINESE ART TREASURES

Anonymous: Noble Scholar under a

Old Trees by a Cold Waterfall.

CHINESE ART TREASURES

Waiting for Guests by Lamplight, by

Lin (ca. 1246,

CHINESE ART TREASU RES

Selected Group of Objects

THE CHINESE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM

THE CHINESE NATIONAL CENTRAL MUSEUM

the United States by

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

The Metropolitan Museum

De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco

President of the United States of America

and Mrs. Kennedy

His Excellency Chiang Kai-shek

and Madame Chiang

Vice President of the Republic of China and concurrently Presiden

Minister of Foreign Affairs

His Excellency Mei Yi-chi

His Excellency George K. C. Yeh

United States of America

For the United States of America:

The Honorable Dean Rusk

The Honorable C. Douglas

The Honorable William C.

The Honorable Henry

for the Republic of China:

United States of America:

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

For the United States of America:

CHARGE OF THE EXHIBITION

The Chinese Palace Museum's collection of objects of art is

the main expanding con-

tinuously over the past eight hundred years.

hensive, with paintings, calligraphies, porcelains and bronzes

dominant features. The

the collection has set standards of evaluation for scholars

fine quality of the objects included

the current exhibition

items of the collection are presented to a foreign public for

Republic of China, the

collection from the former imperial

representation of Chinese art for the study of

to preserve this invaluable collec-

from the scourge

war during the

mean achievement. This has

past thirty years alone has been no

been mainly due to the

Directors and the Chinese Government. Shortly before the out-

break of the Sino-Japanese

treasures from Peiping to Nanking, and later

transported them to the southwestern provinces of Szechwan and

move them to safety, this time to Taiwan. During

the past decade,

mulation of the fmest products of Chinese culture.

to exhibit a choice selection of this

collection in the United States got under way. Frequent visits by

leading American and European authorities on Chinese art to the

Henry R. Luce, Mr. Walter