m 1 r /A L // FGL CHINESE PAINTING COPYRIGHT 1917 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. FIRST PRINTING DECEMBER 1 92.7. COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A. List of Illustrations The Chinese Dynasties CONTENTS VI 1 ix I. Introduction .i II. Sources of Information. 14 III. Technique.2.8 IV. Early Painters. 41 V. Painters of the T’ang Dynasty. 61 VI. Painters of the Five Dynasties. 79 VII. Painters of the Northern Sung Dynasty: Landscape Artists 88 VIII. Painters of the Northern Sung Dynasty: Other Artists . 108 IX. Painters of the Southern Sung Dynasty. 12.1 X. Painters of the Yuan Dynasty.138 XI. Painters of the Ming Dynasty.151 XII. Painters of the Ch’ing Dynasty.168 Index.185 00 ^ 0 "' LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Watering a Horse, by Chao Meng-fu.8 A Pair of Pheasants, by Wang Yuan.16 Bleak Peaks, by Wen Chi a .zo Weaving, by Chiu Ying, from the Scroll “Noted Women of Antiquity”.36 A Lone Fisherman, Style of Mao Yen-shou.4Z The Emperor Looking over the Landscape from Chung Shan, Style of Ts’ao Fu-hsing.44 A Fanciful Sketch, Style of Wei Hsieh.46 The Old Scholar, Style of The Emperor Ming Ti (Ssu-ma Tao-chi) 48 A Landscape, Style of Ku K’ai-chih.50 Hills of Kuei-chi, by Ku K’ai-chih.56 A Siesta, Style of Chang S£ng-yu.58 A Fisherman, by Yen Li-pen.63 The Presentation of Buddha, by Wu Tao-tzu.64 Snow Scene, by Wang Wei. -jx Thatched Cottage, by Lu Hung-i.74 The Poem of the Fisherman, by Chang Chih-ho.76 A Landscape, Style of Ching Hao.80 Peonies, by Tiao Kuang-yin.84 A Flower Painting, by Huang Ch’uan.86 Mist and Rain on Hill and Vale, by Tung Yuan .... 94 Autumn Hills, by Yen W&n-kuei.96 A Winter Scene, by Su Shih.100 Characteristic Brush Strokes.104 Brushes.106 Brushes (cont.).108 The Five Hundred Disciples, by Li Kung-lin .no One of the “Five Horses,” by Li Kung-lin.114 Vll VIM LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Birds and Flowers, Style of Ts’ui Po . IIb Birds in the Landscape, by Hui Tsung. A Picture Introductory to the Album “Copies of Ancient Paintings. A Mountain Hut, by Li T’ang. . Traveling, an Illustration from Mao Shih, by Ma Ho-chih . . 12-6 A Bamboo Cliff, by Ma Yuan. I2 -^ A Pavilion in the Hills, by Li Sung . • • • • • .130 Wang Hsi-chih Writing on a Fan, by Liang K ai . . . • I 3 ~ Female Dev as Scattering Flowers, by Fang Ch’un-nien . . . 134 Narcissus Flowers, by Chao Meng-chien. A Landscape, in the Style of Mi Fei, by Fang Fang-hu . . .138 The Three Religions, by Chao Meng-fu.* 4 ° Fishing after Rain, by Chao Yung. I 4 2 - The Lion Grove, by Ni Tsan. *44 Washing the Elephant, by Ch’ien Hsu an.146 A Pavilion on the Liang Ch’ang Hill, by Ts’ao Chih-pai . . 148 Bamboo, by K’o Chiu-ssu. A Leaf from the Album of Ching Hsien 150 A Landscape, in the Style of Chang Seng-yu, by Sheng Mou . 151 The Four Stages of the Prunus, by Shen Chou.154 Autumn Wind and Rain, by T’ang Yin.156 The Quiet Retreat of a Scholar, by Wen Cheng-ming . . . 158 A Landscape, by Tung Ch’i-ch’ang.160 A Beggar, by Wu Wei .i6z A Portrait of Lu Yu (a.d. 11x5-12.09), by Ting Yun-peng . . 164 A Landscape, by Wang Shih-min.166 A Landscape, in the Style of Fan K’uan, by Wang Chien . . 168 Colors of Ling-an Shan, by Wang Hui.170 Travelers on Mountain Roads, in the Style of Chiang Kuan-tao, by Wang Hui.17X Prunus Branches, by Yun Shou-p’ing.174 A Landscape, by Wu Li.176 Neighboring Cliffs, by Kung Hsien.178 The Emperor Ch’ien Lung Mounted, by Castiglione and T’ang Tai 180 A Landscape, in the Style of Kuo Hsi, by T’ang Tai . . . . i8x THE CHINESE DYNASTIES Hsia Dynasty B.C. ZZ05-1766 Shang Dynasty 1766-nzz Chow Dynasty 11ZZ-Z55 Ch’in (Ts’in) Dynasty Z55-Z06 A.D. B.C. Han Dynasty 2-2.0~2.o6 Wei Dynasty A.D. ZZO-Z64 Chin (Tsin) Dynasty Z65-4ZO Six Dynasties 4zo-6i8 T’ang Dynasty 618-906 Five Dynasties 907-960 Sung Dynasty 960-1Z77 Chin Dynasty III5-IZ60 Yuan Dynasty IZ77-I368 Ming Dynasty 1368-1644 Ch’ing Dynasty I644-I9IZ Republic of China I9IZ— ix I INTRODUCTION M ORE than three hundred years ago Chang Ch’ou wrote in the Preface to his Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang that he would like to be transformed into a bookworm, and promised that he would not injure any of the manuscripts or paintings in which he lived, but would be contented with mere existence in their company. Such was the delight with which one of the ablest critics of Chinese writings and paintings reveled in his enormous task of separating the good from the bad, the genuine from the false, among the accumulated ink-remains of previous generations. If Chang Ch’ou could have had his wish gratified by becom¬ ing a bookworm, he would not have been of that variety which Emer¬ son placed in contrast with man thinking, for he had a keen mind. His wish was the measure of his appreciation of the worthy writings and paintings that came under his observation. These were the product of man’s soul and were quite unlike the work of man’s hands in bronze or clay or jade. Through these writings and paintings Chang Ch’ou held communion with the spirits of the' great artists and calligraphists who preceded him, and in their unseen world there were no limits of time or space. Although handicapped by birth in an alien country, and by an educa¬ tion whose traditions had their roots in Assyria, Greece, and Rome, the present author has had the rare opportunity, during a residence of thirty- five years in China, of association with practically all of the connoisseurs and critics of his day, who have been faithful guides in the examination of extant specimens of writing and painting and skilful teachers in the accumulated literature which discusses these twin-sister arts. The concur¬ rent study of history, philosophy, and poetry has made possible a point of view which, it is hoped, is as near to that of the native-born student as is i 2 CHINESE PAINTING possible to a foreigner. In these pages dialectic peculiarities due to foreign birth may be detected by Chinese friends, but no one, I hope, will discover views based upon the prejudices of a foreign culture. Chinese writings and paintings must be considered in a class by themselves, surrounded by the literature and civilization of their own country, in order that their artistic appeal may have free course. It is idle to compare them with what has been produced in Western countries, where the surroundings are entirely differ¬ ent. The dagoba which stands on a prominence in the North Lake in Peking would lose all of its attractiveness on Murray Hill, New York. Surround¬ ings and atmosphere are as important in writings and paintings as in architecture. The first knowledge of Chinese artistic productions came to Europe through the introduction of porcelains during the Elizabethan period. Sev¬ eral large collections of the highest grade were assembled in Europe and America during the nineteenth century. Careful attention was given to the study of the shapes, glazes, paste, and decoration of these objects, for it was readily seen that they were superior in every respect to those produced in Western countries. This study of porcelains was not only the easiest but also the best approach to Chinese art. The shapes have proved to be a good introduction to a knowledge of the shapes of early bronze vessels which form the starting-point of Chinese art as it is now understood; the decora¬ tions of porcelain objects with beautiful writing, landscape scenes, human figures, birds and flowers, palaces and pavilions, historical incidents or re¬ ligious subjects, form a good approach to the study of calligraphy and painting. If there had not been a long preparation of the European mind, extending over two centuries, for the understanding of Chinese porcelain, there could never have been the present keen appreciation of the higher artistic productions of China which are now known to be bronze vessels, sculpture, calligraphy, and painting. It is in the free section of the fine arts that differences between Western and Eastern ideals are the greatest. In the dependent section, which includes ceramics, the methods and products of the West are necessarily similar to those of the East. In Chinese ceramics there is a wonderful dexterity of manual construction, together with a keen INTRODUCTION 3 sense of color. These have combined to produce in the Western beholders a strong sense of admiration. One may discriminate between different classes of porcelains, favoring one class more than another, but no one with artistic taste would be so rash as to say that there was nothing in Chinese porcelains to be admired. These beautiful objects need no explanation to lovers of artistic production, and thus form a good introduction to Chinese art. This admiration of Chinese porcelains has been both a help and a hindrance to the serious study of the higher branches of Chinese art. Too often the collector of paintings and bronzes, calligraphy and sculpture, has been content with procuring such specimens as have made an immediate appeal to him. He appreciated them in the same way he had learned to admire good specimens of porcelain, and he was content to leave his judg¬ ment of the intrinsic worth of these higher objects dependent wholly upon the one sense of admiration. In the study of porcelains an admiring ap¬ preciation is all that is required as far as artistic instincts are concerned. The rest is a knowledge of materials and of mechanical processes. One must understand different types of porcelain clay and the process of refining it. He must know glazes and the method of their application; he must under¬ stand firing in kilns; he must, in general terms, understand the secret of the potter’s methods. With an artistic appreciation and with such mechanical knowledge, one may become an expert in Chinese porcelains. As very little has been written in Chinese about ceramics, there is no literature to be studied. It is different, however, when one comes into the realm of callig¬ raphy and painting, bronzes and sculpture. Here one must not only have an admiring appreciation and understanding of mechanical methods, but he must also have a knowledge of the spirit of the people as expressed in its historical development, literary production, and poetic conceptions. There is a vast literature on the higher arts in which there is a critical examination of the works of the great artists, and classifications according to their vary¬ ing ability. This literature must be studied and analyzed in order to correct the vagaries of personal taste and peculiarity. It is not enough, for instance, for one to admire a painting; that is only the first step. If one is to make progress he must go on from this to a knowledge as to whether or not the 4 CHINESE PAINTING consensus of critical judgment in China places this admired painting among those things which should be admired; in other words, whether or not one’s admiration is an evidence of artistic appreciation or artistic igno¬ rance. We are met at the outset with a fundamental difficulty on account of the difference between the civilizations of the East and the West. We of the West have derived all our standards from the civilizations of Greece and Rome. In these art was based upon technique—technique into which an inspired genius had breathed the breath of life. The artist was one who, in addition to his native skill, had received the benefit of instruction in a certain technique which could bring about certain results. Granted that all artists possessed this power, the great genius in any one branch of art was the man who possessed it in common with his fellows, but into whose soul had come a great inspiration which elevated even his technique to a higher position than could be attained by others. In China great artists have been produced in an entirely different way. There has been behind them a common understanding of the culture and traditions of their own country, together with the technical ability of using the brush, which is the instru¬ ment for writing. Upon the basis of a common culture, the man who was to become a great artist was the man of culture blessed also with inspiration. The difference between the way in which artists were produced in China and that in which they were produced with us has consisted in the background. With us, this background is technique; with the Chinese, it has been cul¬ ture. With us, out of the group of those skilled in technique have arisen the inspired artists whose names we delight to honor; in China, out of the group of cultured men have come the artists whose souls have been touched with a great inspiration and whose work has therefore been greater than that of others. Whether in the East or in the West the great artists have always been great because of their special inspiration; the difference between East and West has consisted wholly in the general type out of which the great artists have sprung. Among us, culture has been sought as a valuable addition to the working outfit of a budding genius who had already shown his skill in technique; in China, technique has been learned by those who INTRODUCTION 5 have given promise of seeing great visions and feeling great thoughts during the ordinary processes of obtaining culture. As compared with Greece and Rome, China had a much longer time during which it evolved its artistic life. During this long period China was developing a civilization which, after it became stable, lasted longer than any other that the world has known. In the early civilization of China we find bronze and jade made into vessels and implements which were charac¬ teristic of the best type of their life. Before these bronze and jade objects were fashioned into shape there existed the ceremonial rite of ancestor wor¬ ship in which they were to be used, and the development of these rites into an established custom must have required a period of time extending over many generations. With the Greeks and Romans it was not unusual to have some artistic creation elevated to the rank of objects to be worshiped, but with the Chinese, as far as is known, it was some established custom of ceremonial observations which called forth artistic expression. Artistic ex¬ pression in Greece and Rome was frequently founded solely upon fanciful imagination, whereas in China it has been founded upon actual experiences of life. Civilization may be used synonymously with culture. Culture is the re¬ finement of mind, morals, and taste, and is a term applied to individuals. Civilization is the orderly conduct of cultured people, those who have been redeemed from the rudeness of a natural or savage life; the introduction of reason into human affairs, the triumph of right over might. It was out of such culture and civilization that Chinese art sprang. Art is best defined by Ruskin as “the work of the whole spirit of man.” In this sense it is more specifically applicable to the aesthetic or “fine arts” in which forms are created for their own sake, i.e., for the delight which they give to the producer himself. It is in this sense of art as defined by Ruskin that it is pos¬ sible to speak of art in China as based upon culture. One of the earliest summaries of the characteristics of early Chinese civilization is given in the Chun Chiu Annals. Here civilization is described as a wonderful galaxy of orderliness, ceremony, good taste, propriety, observation, and intelligence. These great virtues must be considered as 6 CHINESE PAINTING ideals rather than as attainments of early China, but the simple fact that they formed a large part of the thoughts of the men of that time implies a high standard of civilization. It was in conformity with demands of such a civilization that art had its origin. We may therefore in its development look for dignity in grace, strength in freedom, as well as for keen insight mingled with obscurantism. Early Chinese culture was based upon ceremony, the proper regulation of man’s daily life, and upon divination—an attempt to pierce into the mys¬ tery of the natural forces which lie beyond the power and ken of mankind. Ceremony implied respect for something precedent to man as well as superior to his powers. Divination implied the untiring seeking to know the secrets of nature and life which is the real inspiration of a scientific spirit. Cere¬ mony represents stability, while divination on its side suggests restlessness. Ceremony is conservative and backward looking; divination is liberal and peers into the future. The whole growth of Chinese civilization has been a struggle between these two forces, and in this struggle ceremony, i.e., con¬ servatism, has largely prevailed. Together these have produced the style in which Chinese art took root and bore fruit. They have been responsible for the two distinct artistic currents which have flowed down through the centuries of Chinese history, one languid and the other turbid. Art in its highest aspects has associated itself with literature and poetry, and in its freer moods, with the popular beliefs and superstitions of the people. The earliest term used for ‘ ‘ art’ ’ in China is i, and this word is explained as mental ability, skill, and technique. The forms in which this mental ability manifested itself were comprised in the ‘ ‘ six arts’ ’ (liu i). These were ritual, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and calculation. The last one, calculation, meant the calculation of areas. It might also be spoken of as surveying or land-plotting. With this was necessarily associated “drawing plans’’ (>V). Out of this art of calculation or surveying thus grew the draw¬ ing of maps which, it is generally agreed among Chinese critics, formed the basis of drawing and painting. In this early classification of the six arts it will be seen that the two great graphic arts of calligraphy and painting are foreshadowed, if not indeed actually included. If the term “ritual’’ may be INTRODUCTION 7 broadly interpreted, it would include also the utensils used in ceremonial practice which were the great bronze vessels of antiquity. To this term for art (Y) was later added the term shu, which primarily means ‘ ‘ mysterious method. ’ ’ Under the term i shu all artistic products were included. In recent years a modern term (met shu) has been introduced into China from Japan to express the term “art,” or, more specifically, the “fine arts.” This term is not a particularly happy one and is neither as comprehensive nor as specific as the earlier term (j shu), which is the best that can be used to ex¬ press the Chinese conception of art. The term “Chinese art” may therefore be correctly translated as Chung Hua i shu. The use of these two words i and shu, both of which imply technique, shows that Chinese art has never overlooked nor underestimated the im¬ portance of technical skill. It has been quite well understood that genius without skill is abortive. It is a very early saying that “ though a man has genius, if he is devoid of technique his conceptions can only take shape in his own mind, but cannot be put into form by his hands.” While culture has been recognized as fundamental in the training of an artist, it has also been equally perceived that careful training in technique must accompany native talent. There can be no divorce between culture and technique, but in the combination the primary influence is culture and the secondary technique. The Chinese have always recognized that there are certain men of genius who seem to be above all the laws which control ordinary men. They were capable of artistic production without previous technical training such as our Western artists are given. Painters like Mi Fei of the Sung dynasty, Chao Meng-fu of the Yuan dynasty, and Shen Chou of the Ming dynasty were geniuses; and yet every one of these three had been subject in his youth to severe disciplinary training. Each had learned the mastery of the fine- hair writing-brush. The ability to control the arm and hand in the use of this writing-brush is as severe discipline as can be given to probationary painters. This training includes the power of making thick or slender strokes, heavy or light shades of ink, quick turns and graceful hooks, all of which is good preparation for painting. These three great geniuses learned in school control of the writing-brush and acquired mastery over 8 CHINESE PAINTING arm and hand. When they began to paint it was only necessary for them to add to their existing acquirements a knowledge of color and an apprecia¬ tion of form. The first training of an artist and a scholar was identical, both used the same brush, the same ink, and the same type of strokes. Both also had the same cultural background made up of the history, tradi- tions, and literature of their country. It has been the training of this type and the familiarity with the cul- ture of their country which has kept alive the spirit of art among the people. As compared with Greece or Rome, China has had few great monuments, and those which she has had she has always allowed to go into decay. Her best writers have never pointed to certain monuments as evidences of the civilization of their country; they have rather pointed to the spirit of their race as outlined in their books for proof of their culture. Monuments may decay, art objects may be treasured by wealthy people out of the sight of ordinary students, but in the heart of the man who has studied the history of his country and who has learned the use of the writing-brush so as to transmit his own ideas, the fire of culture and of art burns perpetu¬ ally as it did on the vestal altars. This is a peculiar characteristic of the Chinese and explains their indifference to the preservation of their monu¬ ments. They have always believed that the best preservative of national art is found in the hearts of their cultured classes rather than in the work of men’s hands. They consider that art will never die in a country which keeps up a succession of cultured people. The historical development of the expression of artistic impulses in all forms illustrates the principle which has been set forth in the preceding paragraphs, viz., that culture is the basis of Chinese art. We can pass over without detailed examination the earliest expression in the carvings and writings on the carapaces of tortoises and on bones of animals. The speci¬ mens which have been explained by Lo Chen-yii, L. C. Hopkins, and others are full of interest to the antiquarian; but they are only crude primitives in their expression of artistic motives. And yet, even in this earliest stage the association of ideographs and carvings shows that whatever artistic impulse was felt by the producers of these carvings on bone was the INTRODUCTION 9 result of the culture which surrounded them and which sought to give concurrent expression in writing. The earliest artistic expression which compels careful consideration is found in bronze implements and vessels. Decorations of war chariots and carts form the earliest-known specimens. The ends and sides of the shafts were covered with cast bronze richly embellished. The top of the yoke was covered with bronze ornaments surmounted with bells. The end of the axle was also covered. There are extant a few specimens of these decorations of chariots which in all probability are the earliest bronze objects known in China. They were evidently used in beautifying the chariots of princes so as to distinguish them from the common people. They cannot have been used much earlier in point of time than bronze sacrificial vessels. Ancestor worship has been observed in China from the earliest dawn of history. Representing as it does one of the noblest traits of human charac¬ ter, respect for parents, it was to be expected that technical skill and artistic impulse should find their first combination in attempts to produce vessels adapted to the ceremonies connected with ancestor worship. The possession of these vessels was the sign of the seniority of their possessor in the ranks of his family just as in the state only the owner of the vessels used in public ceremonies could be the highest officer. The Nine Tripods used in national celebrations were the property of the emperor and the symbol of his power. The Nine Tripods of the Hsia dynasty were placed by Ch’eng Wang in Chia Ju and were the emblem of his becoming the founder of the Shang dynasty. We know from the Shu King that when barbarian tribes came to acknowl¬ edge fealty to the civilized rulers of China it was customary for them to present bronze vessels in token of their submission. These early bronze vessels exhibit high qualities of technical skill. There was careful selection of the copper used. It is said in Book I of the Shu King that the best copper was found in the western part of the ancient division of Yangchow, which is the present province of Kiangsi. In the Shih King copper was called the “southern metal.” It was a difficult metal to work in, but much better adapted for artistic expression than iron. Great care must have been taken also in the selection of the alloys used with cop- CHINESE PAINTING XO per to produce bronze. In some of the earliest Shang vessels the proportion of tin alloy used must have been as great as 30 or even 40 per cent, bat m none of the earliest specimens that I have seen is there any indication of iron having been used as an alloy. It was the existing colture of the people which led them to choose bronze as a medium of artistic expression, in order that they might obtain the best results. It enabled them also to cast on the surface of their vessels ideographic inscriptions. These inscriptions re¬ veal the contemporaneous culture. They refer to victories in war or the devotion of a son to parents or of a woman to her hnsband. The combina¬ tion of decoration on the outside of these vessels with the ideographic in¬ scriptions on the inside reveals the intimate connection between culture and technique in ancient China. Thus in family, tribe, and nation these artistic bronze vessels were at once the product of the surrounding culture and the symbols of prestige. As the earliest bronze vessels were called into existence use in an- cestor worship, so also jade objects were first used for this same purpose. The ‘‘ five jade objects’ ’ spoken of in the Shu King, Part II, Book I. and those mentioned in Ode V, Book V, of the Shib King, were all used as ornaments for the dead. Jade was also cut into various sizes and thicknesses to be used in producing musical notes for sacrificial occasions. It was from the size and shape of these jade pieces and also from the tones of varying sizes of bronze tripods that the scale of Chinese music was determined. Jade wrought into cups, bowls, musical tablets, or ornaments for the dead was in its earliest uses entirely connected with ancestor worship and thus bound up with the general cultural development. In whatever form bronze or jade was used, the objects produced were devoted to the highest service of civilization as understood by the people of that time. The decorations of jade and bronze were dignified and chaste, thus being in perfect consonance with the purposes for which these objects were intended. The next stage of artistic expression in China was in stone monuments. There was no sculpture proper in which the proportions of all three dimen¬ sions were used. The earliest stone monuments were rn rtltevo or m mtaglio. Human figures, figures ot animals, representation ot clouds and hills and INTRODUCTION ii trees, were the earliest subjects. On the Li Hsi stone dated a.d. 171 there is a suggestion of landscape in which are found trees, water, and a deer. There was no attempt to produce sculptures representing the human figure in ronde-bosse. Something higher than man was depicted. Even the human figures when introduced in the relief sculptures of Wu Liang Tz’ii were those of ancient heroes commencing with Fu Hsi and Nii Kua and coming down through the centuries to Confucius and Lao Tzii. In all of these figures there was an idealization of face and form which agreed with the historical characteristics of the person portrayed. On these early stone monuments were also written inscriptions which served to unite cultural with artistic development. This union was carried out in the earliest paintings which are recorded. In the Cheng Kuan Kung Ssu Hua Shih , written by P’ei Hsiao-yiian of the T’ang dynasty, the first paintings mentioned are ascribed to Yuan Chih of the Chin dynasty. There were two paintings by this artist. The subject of one of these is “Chuang-tzu and Black Vultures,” referring to the well- known tale of the philosopher, Chuang-tzu, of the fourth and third cen¬ turies b.c., who replied to the fears expressed by his disciples when he was about to die that his body would be eaten by the vultures if he were not given a great funeral. ‘‘Above ground I shall be food for vultures; below ground I shall be eaten by worms. Why rob one to feed the other?” The other painting was of ‘‘Pien Ho and His Gem.” This refers to the well- known tale of Pien Ho of the eighth century b.c., a native of Ch’u. He found on the mountains a stone which he considered to be pure jade, and presented it to his prince. Attendants of the prince declared it to be false, and the prince sentenced him to have his left foot cut off as an impostor. Later when the prince came to the throne, Pien Ho again presented the stone, which was for the second time declared to be false, and he was con¬ demned to lose his right foot. Nothing daunted, he presented it a third time, declaring that he had no regret at losing his two feet, but only at having a genuine stone pronounced false. When it was finally tested it was discovered to be a real gem. These two earliest paintings are thus seen to have had for their subjects incidents which were characteristic of the cul- T „ CHINESE PAINTING X j* tural development of the nation. We have no record of the way in which the artist treated these subjects, but the paintings were probably crude as compared with later productions. From our present point of view they might even be regarded as grotesque just as Chinese looking at our earliest pictures of the crucifixion and the birth of Christ regard them not as primi¬ tives but as grotesque. In both cases the reason for such opinions is a lack of familiarity with the theme depicted. The significance of the scenes must be understood in order to feel their emotional appeal. The disregard of death shown by Chuang Tzu and the plucky determination of Pien Ho not to be put in the wrong even by a prince stir the emotions of Chinese familiar with the tales just as Westerners are moved by the paintings of scenes with which they are familiar. Han Tsung-po of the Ming dynasty places the earliest known painting of his time as belonging to the Wu dynasty. It was by Ts’ao Fu-hsing He says further that paintings as known in his time could be classified under the headings of Religious Paintings, Human Figures, Landscape, Measured Pictures, Fruits and Flowers, Birds and Beasts, Insects and Fishes and Imaginative Paintings. He speaks of the following great masters of religious paintings: Ku K’ai-chih, Chang Seng-yu, Wu Tao-tzii. Noted painters of human figures were Chan Tzu-ch ien, Yen Li-pen, Chou Fang, Li Kung-lin. Noted masters of landscape painting were Ching Hao, Kuan T’ung, Tung Yuan, Chii Jan, Yen Su, Chao Meng-fu, Huang Kung-wang, Wang Meng. Noted men in measured paintings were Wang Wei, Li Ssu-hsiin, Yin Chi-chao, Kuo Chung-shu. Noted painters of flowers and fruits, birds and beasts, were Pien Luan, Huang Ch’iian, Han Kan, Tai Sung. Painters of insects and fish and imaginative paintings were Ku Yeh-wang, Teng Wang Yiian-ying, Hsu Hsi, I Yuan-chi, Cheng Ch’ien, Mi Fei, Kao K’o-kung, Ni Tsan. These illustrations taken from the art development of China, few as they are, are sufficient to show the dependence of artistic productions upon na¬ tional culture. The most serious charge that can be made against art which has such a basis is its inherent tendency toward pedantry. This, however, is not the fault of the art, but of the civilization from which it springs. There INTRODUCTION *3 has always been a tendency in Chinese civilization to glorify the past at the expense of the present. National events have run smoothest when in a fixed groove. Not infrequently this has caused stagnation of thought, and for generations new ideas have been tabooed. This characteristic has been reflected in art products. New painters have produced subjects made fa¬ miliar by their predecessors; calligraphists have found their chief glory in being able to imitate the writing of great masters. Porcelain has imitated the shapes and decorations of ancient bronzes. This tendency has not en¬ couraged originality in artists, but, on the other hand, it has been the chief factor in preserving such a uniform development of artistic product as has never characterized the work of any other nation. All artistic products are distinctly national. They need only to be seen to be recognized at once as Chinese. Later generations have copied earlier ones, but their work has always been confined to the masters of their own country. They have not gone to the outside world for inspiration or for methods. Their national culture has been a never failing source of artistic stimulus. Wherever man has evolved for himself a civilization, art has claimed its portion. In a highly developed civilization such as China has had for more than two thousand years art has flourished by the side of literature. The simple fact that it is only in recent years that we of the Western World have begun to realize the importance and the extent of China’s art product does not in any way reflect upon its worth. It is only another indication of the ease with which intercommunication breaks down the artificial barriers, separating those who in different parts of the world have been developing noble ideas into some form of art, and who, at the same time, have not been privileged to see one another’s work. To the Chinese their paintings have the mystery of the soul-world. Is it any wonder that they are a mystery to a Westerner unfamiliar with Chinese civilization? SOURCES OF INFORMATION y w n^HE earliest catalogue of Chinese paintings, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, was prepared during the first half of the seventh JL century a.d. by P’ei Hsiao-yiian. Pei’s book is called “ A Record of the Public and Private Collection of the Emperor Cheng Kuan” (Cheng Kuan Kung SsuHua Shih'), although in reality it is a record of the Imperial Collec¬ tion of the Sui dynasty (a.d. 589-618). Cheng Kuan is the reigning title of the second emperor of the T’ang dynasty, who is more frequently spoken of as T’ai Tsung (a.d. 6x7-50). It was during the reign of this illustrious monarch that groups of scholars under imperial patronage reproduced copies of the writings and paintings of previous dynasties, thus preserving the priceless records for future generations. P’ei gives a list of two hundred and ninety-three paintings that were in the Imperial Collection of the Sui dynasty and remained down to the reign of Cheng Kuan. The catalogue gives first the name of the painting, then that of the artist, and indicates how many of his paintings were included in the public collection of the Sui dynasty. In addition to these two hundred and ninety-three paintings P’ei mentions forty-seven well-known temples where there were mural decora¬ tions by noted artists. The first mentioned is Wa Kuan Ssu in Nanking where there were paintings by Ku K’ai-chih and Chang Seng-yu. The last temple mentioned is Pao Ch’a Ssu, located at Hsi-an and built during the Sui dynasty. Here there were paintings by Cheng Fa-shih and Yang Ch’i-tan. The great collection of paintings brought together by the emperors of the Sung dynasty is described in the ‘‘Hsiian Ho Collection of Paintings” (Hsiian Ho Hua P'u ). This collection is called Hsiian Ho because it was lodged in the Hsiian Ho Palace and not, as has been erroneously claimed, after one of the reigning names of the Emperor Hui Tsung. There are good grounds for believing that the original lists contained in these volumes were 14 SOURCES OF INFORMATION 15 prepared by Mi Fei. Although it owes its present form doubtless to some later scholar as discussed in one of the subsequent paragraphs of this chap¬ ter, this book must be accepted as a fairly accurate list of the large number of paintings collected by the Sung emperors. It classifies paintings under the following headings: ( a ) religious pictures, of which there are four grades of excellence; ( 'b ) human figures, of which there are three grades; (c) palaces; (cT) dragons and fishes; ( 7 ) landscapes, of which there are three grades; (f) animals, of which there are two grades; (g) birds and flowers, of which there are five grades; (A) bamboos; and (i) vegetables. The earliest painter men¬ tioned is Ts’ao Fu-hsing of the Wu dynasty, about a.d. 150. It was probably in reference to his being the earliest painter mentioned in this collection that Anderson in The Pictorial Arts of Japan refers to him as ‘ ‘ the first painter whose memory has been rescued from oblivion.” The great painting by this artist was called “The Military Tally” (Ping Fu T’u). This painting is referred to as having been in the collection of Chao M£ng-fu of the Yuan dynasty, and is now in the collection of the family of Ts’ai Po-hao, former Taotai of Shanghai. Although this cannot be considered to be the original painting, there is no reason to doubt that it faithfully preserves the style of this early artist. The Western Chin dynasty (a.d. 2.65-313) is represented by Ku K’ai-chih and others. None of the important artists of the Five Dynasties, the T’ang or the Sung dynasty, is omitted, so that this book is most useful in recording the early artists of China as well as the names of their paintings; but whereas it is an accepted standard for knowing the names of artists, it cannot be followed slavishly as to the names of paintings, for it is well known that, with the exception of names which are taken from historic incidents or places, it has been the custom of successive owners of paintings as well as of authors of books to change the names of paintings to their own personal tastes. An illustration of this is the famous painting of Wang Ch’i-han which is known both as “Reading” (K’an Shu T’u) and as “ Picking the Ear” (T’iao Er T’u). In contrast with this such well-known names as “The Instructress,” painted by Ku K’ai-chih, “The Eight Steeds of Mu Wang” (Mu Wang Pa Chun), “The Nine Songs” (Chiu Ko T’u), are the same throughout the whole story of Chinese art. L_7 CHINESE PAINTING In addition to the Hsiian Ho Collection there are also records of a great private collection owned by Mi Fei. There are two lists of this collection: one given by the Shan Hu Wang, and another given by the Ch'ing-ho Shu,Hua Fang. This collection was a very important one and contained not only examples of early painting, but also representative specimens of the immedi¬ ate predecessors of the illustrious author and painter. The famous Su family of Jun-chow also had a notable collection, and its records furnish additional information of great value concerning early Chinese artists. At the opening of the Yuan dynasty there were two great collections: that of Chia Ssu-tao and that of Chao MSng-fu. The collection of Chia Ssu-tao was very large and contained several early paintings, the earliest of which was a picture by Wei Hsieh, of the third century a.d. The subject of this painting was taken from the Book of Odes. Chia’s collection also con¬ tained the scroll “Reading” by Wang Ch’i-han. Chia Ssu-tao was a careful collector, and any extant painting which bears one of his seals (such as Yiieh S6ng) has presumptive evidence in its favor. The collection of Chao Meng- fu, including the paintings collected after his return from Yen in a.d. 1x35, was only second to that of the Hsiian Ho in variety and importance. It con¬ tained “The Military Tally” (Ping Fu Tu ), by Ts’ao Fu-hsing, to which reference has already been made; one by Lu T’an-wei; and one by Wei-ch’ih I-seng. It is interesting to note that this collection contained a copy of” The Instructress” by Ku K’ai-chih, made by the famous artist Li Kung-lin. There are records of thirty-three other collections of the Yuan dynasty. Some of these, though small, contained important paintings. For example, the collection of Ch’iao Ta-chih had a painting by Wu Tao-tzu, one by Li Ssu-hsiin, one by Wang Wei, and one by Chang Hsiian. The collection of Ssu-ching Te-yung had the important painting of “The Heavenly King,” by Wei-ch’ih I-seng, now in the Freer Museum. The collection of Chang Ch’ien-shou contained the painting “Looking at a Tablet” (Ydan Fei Tu), which is now in the possession of Mr. Ching Hsien, Peking. The collection of the artist Ni Tsan had only a few paintings, but one of these was by Chang Seng-yu, and another was “The Birth of Buddha,” by Wu Tao-tzu, a wonderful scroll also owned by Ching Hsien, Peking. A PAIR OF PHEASANTS, BY WANG YUAN SOURCES OF INFORMATION 17 During the Ming dynasty the largest and most important collection was that made by Yen Sung of Fen-i who died a.d. 1568. This collection was divided into three parts: hanging pictures (chou), scrolls ( chiian ), and al¬ bums ( cheh ). The earliest hanging pictures in this collection were two paint¬ ed by Wu Tao-tziL There were ten pictures by Li Kung-lin, thirteen by Mi Fei, and five by Chao Po-chii. These are mentioned as examples to show the wealth of this collection. Among the scrolls owned by Yen Sung were two by Ku K’ai-chih: one a portrait of Wei So and the other views in the garden of Wang Hsi-chih. In this collection the scroll “ The Instructress” is not credited to Ku K’ai-chih but to an unmentioned artist of the Chin dynasty, thus assigning it to the same period as other collections but omitting the name of the artist. Two early scrolls of this collection have been exhibited in the Government Museum, Peking: one “The Thatched Cottage” (Tsao Tang Tu ), by Lu Hung, and “Tribute Bearers” (Chih Tung T’u ), by Yen Li- pen. It contained also scrolls by Li Ssu-hsiin, Chou Fang, Han Kan, Chou Wen-chii, two copies of “Reading” QK’an Shu Tu), six copies of “The Nine Songs” by Li Kung-lin, two copies of a reproduction of “The Lo-shen God¬ dess” by Ku K’ai-chih, as well as a large number of other scrolls by this same artist. Among the album paintings of this collection there were twelve volumes of early and later paintings which doubtless contained many fine examples of small-sized pictures. When Yen Sung was dismissed from office in 1562. his property was confiscated and his collection scattered, although a large portion of it was retained by the Emperor Wan Li. On account of the infamous character of Yen Sung later collectors have frequently cut out the seals of ownership placed upon pictures belonging to this collection as if owners were ashamed to have in their possession anything which had been the property of this wicked man. Another notable collection of the Ming dynasty was that of Wang Shih- ch£ng (a.d. 1516-93). He was a contemporary of Yen Sung but lived much longer. The earliest picture in this collection is “The Eight Steeds," by • Shih Tao-shih of the Chin dynasty, fourth century a.d. “The Sixteen Lohans,” by Li Kung-lin, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is one of the scrolls from this collection. Probably its most valuable paintings l8 CHINESE PAINTING were those of the Yuan and early part of the Ming dynasty. Wang Shih- cheng was a scholarly critic, and his judgment upon these artists from whom he was separated by only a short period of time must be treated with great consideration. There were many other collectors in the Ming dynasty, such as Shih Ming-ku, Shen Chou, and Tung Ch’i-ch’ang, the last two being themselves great artists; the Hsiang family, of whom the best critic was Hsiang Mo-ling; and Han Tsung-po, into whose collection the scroll ‘ ‘ Read¬ ing” had fallen after the dispersal of Yen Sung’s collection. During the late Manchu dynasty the first great collection was that made under the patronage of the Emperor Kang Hsi. Its contents are recorded in the written manuscript called Ta Kuan Lu. The earliest picture mentioned is that of‘‘The Instructress,” by Ku K'ai-chih, and the description answers in every respect to the scroll now in the British Museum. The next oldest pictures are one by Chan Tzu-ch’ien, and the other ‘‘The Heavenly King,” by Wei-ch’ih I-seng, from the Yuan dynasty collection of Ssu-ching T£- yung. The earliest T’ang pictures are by Yen Li-te and his brother, Yen Li-pen, whose ‘‘Tribute Bearers” from the collection of Yen Sung had al¬ ready found its way into this Imperial Collection. There were also the scroll ‘‘The Birth of Buddha,” by Wu Tao-tzu, and many other paintings of the T’ang and Five Dynasties. This Imperial Collection was added to during the reigns of Yung Ch£ng and Ch’ien Lung. Its contents are fully described in Shih Ku Tang and in the two well-known books Shih Chit Pao Chi and Hsi Ch’ing Tsa Chi. Another great collection of the Ch’ien Lung period was that made by the Korean, An I-chou, and fully described in his book ‘‘Ink Remains” (Mo Yuan Hui Kuan). The property of this man was confiscated, and most of his valuable paintings were absorbed into the Imperial Collection. Knowledge of Chinese paintings is not confined to lists of great collec¬ tions. The ‘‘Treatise on the Hsiian Ho Paintings” (Hsiian Ho Hua P'u ) gives a biographical sketch of artists as well as a list of their paintings. There is no attempt to criticize or to make estimates of the comparative merits of artists other than to grade them into higher and lower classes. This “Treatise” of the Hsiian Ho contains twenty volumes. It does not SOURCES OF INFORMATION 19 bear the name of its author, though it has been generally supposed that together with the “Treatise on Hsiian Ho Writings” (Hsiian Ho Shu Fu) it was prepared during the reign of the Emperor Hui Tsung. This is an erroneous opinion, for it is stated in Volume III of Yen Chi , by Cheng Piao, that it was in a.d. 1301 that the collection of the Hsiian Ho writings into twenty volumes was made by Wu Wen-kuei. It would have been easy for Wu Wen- kuei to prepare this book from the records of the imperial household of the Yuan dynasty and of the governing classes. These records were handed over to the Yuan dynasty by the preceding Chin dynasty into whose hands they had fallen upon the defeat of the Sung dynasty at K’ai-feng. Several critics have mentioned the fact that writings and paintings which bear Hsiian Ho seals are not included in the “Treatise.” This is probably due to the insuffi¬ ciency of the records available to Wu Wen-kuei as it must have been inevita¬ ble during the siege and pillaging of K’aif-eng that part of the records were destroyed. There can be little doubt that though this “Treatise” was writ¬ ten by Wu Wen-kuei, or by some author during the early years of the Ming dynasty as claimed by some authorities, it contains the best available list of the paintings included in the collection of the Sung dynasty. “The Ch’ing-ho Collection of Writings and Paintings” ( Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang ) is a standard authority. It was written during the Ming dynasty in 1616 by Chang Ch’ou but remained in manuscript until 1763 when, during the reign of Ch’ien Lung, it was first published. The name of the book, Shu Hua Fang, translated literally means “The Boat of Paintings and Writ¬ ings,” referring to an incident in the life of Mi Fei when he spent a day on a boat with some literary friends examining specimens of painting and cal¬ ligraphy. This day was made memorable for all time by the well-known poem of Huang T’ing-chien. In this book ( Ch’ing-ho ) the author describes only paintings and writings which he considered to be genuine. His descrip¬ tion of the style of the artists is accompanied with details as to the quality of the silk or paper used. He quotes the annotations and comments made by various authors concerning the paintings which he mentions, describes the seals which were impressed upon the surface by various owners, and as far as was known to him gives a list of those in whose possession the painting so CHINESE PAINTING was found. Before the time of publication other books had been written, such as Shan Hu Mu Nan and Tieh Wang Shan Hu, by Chu Ts’un-li of the Ming dynasty, and Shan Hu Wang, by Wang K’o-yii. The Shan Hu Mu Nan is valuable, not only for its painstaking scholarship, but especially for the reason that the author had at his disposal the carefully selected collections of Wen Cheng-ming, Wen Chia, Wang Ch’ih-teng, and Wang T’eng-ch’eng. The Tieh Wang Shan Hu, which bears the name of Chu Ts’un-li as author, was in reality the work of an unknown author whose manuscript was dis¬ covered by Chao Ch’i-mei and handed over to Chu Ts’un-li for compilation and emendation. It is divided into ten volumes treating of calligraphy and six of paintings. Another important book was ‘ ‘ Summer Vacation Rec¬ ords” (Hsiao Hsia Lu ), by Chiang Ts’un, to which further reference will be made. The publisher of the Ch’ing-ho Collection was able to use these books to verify and correct the manuscript which had been left by Chang Ch’ou with the result that the Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang is without doubt the most reliable criticism of early paintings that has yet been pro¬ duced. “The Collection of Writings and Paintings of the Wang Family” (Wang Shih Shu Hua Yuan ) was prepared by Wang Shih-cheng (a.d. 1516-93), dur¬ ing the reign of the Ming Emperor Wan Li, but was only published a generation later by Wang Ch’ien-ch’ang. Wang Shih-cheng was a keen critic of the paintings and writings of his own family, and he also had access to the collection of Yen Sung. In addition to chronological lists of calligraphists and painters he quotes verbatim the annotations and com¬ ments of others on their works. He also quotes what all earlier authors have written on both subjects, commencing with the “Record of the Public and Private Collection of the Emperor Cheng Kuan,” to which reference has been made in the first paragraph of this chapter. This work of Wang Shih- cheng is an encyclopedia of all available information concerning writings and paintings down to the latter half of the Ming dynasty. As far as I have been able to verify them his quotations from earlier books are remarkably free from errors, and this is due to his owning a very large collection of books and thus not needing to depend upon the statements of others. BLEAK PEAKS, BY WEN CHIA SOURCES OF INFORMATION 21 The Cyclopedia of the Writings and Paintings of the P’ei Wen Library’ ’ (Pei Wen Chai Shu Hua P’u) was prepared under the orders of the Emperor K’ang Hsi and was published in 1708. This scholarly work claims to be a compilation from 1,844 different sources. It contains 100 chapters ( chiian ). Of these, 10 are devoted to discussions of calligraphy, 8 to discussions of painting, 48 to biographies of writers and painters, 21 to annotations and comments (t'i pa), 3 to critical estimates, and 10 to lists of famous collec¬ tions. It is a valuable repository of information, but there is nothing to guide one in its use. Quotations are made from all sources without any indication as to their relative value or reliability. Varying opinions are given equal prominence. This book is, in fact, a detailed record of what others have written of manuscripts and pictures but is not a critical dis¬ cussion of them. “The Record of Wonderful Sights” (Ta Kuan Lu) was prepared in manu¬ script form during the reign of K’ang Hsi, and has only in recent years been printed. It is a compilation by a group of scholars assembled by the Emperor. It describes the important writings and paintings of the Imperial Collection as is evident from its name, which is derived from the famous writing, Shun Hua T’ieh. The stone on which this t'ieh was engraved was found in a dilapidated condition by Ts’ai Ching during the reign of the Sung dynasty emperor, Hui Tsung, who caused it to be replaced by a new stone on which a revised copy of the script was cut. This stone was set up in the T’ai Ch’ing Palace and became known as the “Wonderful Sight of the T’ai Ch’ing Writing” (Ta Kuan T'ai Ch'ing T’ieh). The name of this writing was abbreviated to Ta Kuan T’ieh, by which it has since been gener¬ ally known. It was in memory of this “wonderful sight” that the name of Ta Kuan Lu was chosen for the book describing the treasures of K’ang Hsi’s palace. This book was prepared with scholarly care. It records the size of each painting, states whether it was done on paper or silk, describes the subject presented by the artist, transcribes the seals impressed on the surface, and quotes annotations and comments made by observers or owners. As this book has only been preserved in manuscript it is necessary to confirm its quotations from other sources, but as a record of its period it is of great value. aa CHINESE PAINTING “The Notes on Writings and Paintings of Shih Ku T’ang” (Shih Ku Tang Shu Hua Hui K'ao ) was first published during the reign of K’ang Hsi in a limited edition. Copies were very rare until recently a reprint has been issued by the Commercial Press. These notes were prepared by Pien Yung- yii with the assistance of his son and nephew. Thirty chapters of this book treat of writings, and thirty of paintings. The Introduction of the former was written by Ch’ien Tseng; and of the latter, by the celebrated scholar Pan Lei (a.d. 1646-1708). The explanatory Preface by the author is a valu¬ able discussion of the chief characteristics of good specimens of calligraphy and painting. A detailed list is also given of all the authorities from which quotations have been made. It is a valuable authority on paintings to the end of the Ming dynasty. The above-mentioned three books, viz., “The Collection ofWritings and Paintings of the Wang Family,” “The Cyclopedia of the Writings and Paint¬ ings of the P’ei Wen Library,” and “The Notes on Writings and Paintings of Shih Ku T’ang,” contain all of the early brochures and comments on paint¬ ings. What Ku K’ai-chih or Kuo Hsi said about landscape may be found in these volumes. They also contain such well-known pamphlets as the “Fa¬ mous Pictures of Antiquity” (Li Lai Ming Hua Chi'), by Chang Yen-yuan; ‘‘ Famous Paintings’ ’ (Wu Lai Ming Hua Pu T), by Liu Tao-ch’un; ‘ ‘ Observa¬ tions on Paintings” ( L’u Hua Chien Wen Chih), by Kuo Jo-hsii; ‘ History of Painting” (Hua Shih), by Mi Fei; and “Development of Painting” (Hua Chi), by Teng Ch’un. Everything said about paintings and calligraphy by earlier writers has been faithfully preserved in these three books. “Summer Vacation Records of Chiang Ts’un” (Chiang Ls'un Hsiao Hsia Lu), written by Kao Shih-ch’i (a.d. 1645-1704), also belongs to the K’ang Hsi period. The author was a distinguished litterateur who was in high favor with the court and had excellent opportunities for examination of original sources. His work is an authority on the limited number of paint¬ ings and writings mentioned by him. It gives careful details of the dimen¬ sions, material, and quality of paintings, together with facsimiles of the seals found on them. This book is much more reliable than the “Summer Vacation Records of the Keng Tzu Year” (1660) (Keng Lgu Hsiao Hsia Chi), SOURCES OF INFORMATION 2 3 written by Sun Ch’£ng-tse, the errors of which were noted in a book written by Ho Cho in 1713. Later editions of this work incorporate the emendations of Ho. There is another book of “Summer Vacation Records” which be¬ longs to the year hsin ch'ou and is called Hsin Ch'ou Hsiao Hsia Lu. It is also inferior to the masterly work of Chiang Ts’un. “Ink Remains” (Mo Yuan Hut Kuan), by An I-chou, was reprinted by the late Tuan Fang during his retirement in Peking after having been viceroy of the metropolitan province of Chihli. The author was a Corean salt mer¬ chant, resident in Tientsin, who had acquired a good education in Chinese literature. He was a close friend and protege of the statesman Ming Chu, who was a favorite of the Emperor K’ang Hsi. This friendship finally brought An I-chou into trouble, and his property was confiscated. His collection of writings and paintings, which was one of the best ever owned by a private individual, was scattered, but later mostly brought together into the Imperial Collection of Ch’ien Lung through the efforts of the Tutor, Shen Te-chien (1673-1770). “Ink Remains” is an acknowledged authority among Chinese connoisseurs. The Introduction is a critical review of the development of the art of painting. The paintings mentioned in Shih Chii Pao Chi are arranged according to their location in the various halls of the imperial palace, and not according to the time they were painted or the class of paintings to which they belong. This makes research in this book extremely difficult. Important lists of paintings are found in Volumes VII, VIII, IX, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, and XX. The paintings mentioned in these various volumes do not go back to a time earlier than the T’ang dynasty. There is another account of the collections in the palaces, which is contained in the book Hsi Ch'ing Tsa Chi, together with its supplement on ‘ ‘ The Imperial Academy of Painting of the Ch’ing Dynasty” (Kuo Ch’ao Yuan Hua Lu), and on “An Examination of the Paintings Contained in the Nan Hsiin Hall” (Nan Hsiin Tien T’u Hsiang K’ao). The paintings noted in these volumes are not arranged according to period or class, but in the order in which they were examined by the authors of this book. The contents of the Imperial Collection were checked by a group of sholars in 1912., and I have seen a copy of the catalogue pre- CHINESE PAINTING oared by them. It gives a list of the paintings and writings, which in all ilortant respects fs the same as that contained in the ShA CM Too Ch, and the Hri Ch’ing Tsa Chi. This catalogue adds in some instances the opinion of these scholars as to the quality of paintings, whether they are very good (shang shang) or mediocre ( dung shang) or not genuine (.mi), but COm ^ographies of Painters" (Hua Shih Hui Chum ) was written by P’tng Wen-tsan of Ch’ang-chow, assisted by a small group of neighboring schol- ars. It contains the names of more than 7,500 painters and gives a brie sketch of their lives. The information was gathered from 1,2.66 books, a list of which is contained in the Preface. It is an invaluable manual for the student of Chinese paintings, but must be used with discretion. Many o the statements are taken from local topographies and cannot be accepted as accurate without some other evidence. It does not attempt to give any com¬ parative estimate of the quality of the work of an artist; it simply records the fact of his having been a painter of landscapes, birds and flowers, or figures, as the case happened to be. He may have been an inferior painter none of whose pictures is preserved, but he receives the same notice in this book as the great masters. It was written during the early years of the nineteenth century, but present editions give the names of artists down to about 1855, thus showing that later additions must have been made. There are many other publications of great value, but of minor impor¬ tance when compared with those which have been mentioned in detail in the preceding paragraphs. T'u Hui Pao Chien , by Hsia Wen-yen of the Yuan dynasty, gives the biographies of painters down to his own period. This was supplemented by two later writers: first by Han Ang who added notes on painters down to the Cheng Te period (1506-11); and later by Chou Liang-kung (1611-72.), author of “Records of My Studies of Paintings (T’u Hua Lu), who brought the notes down to the time of K ang Hsi. The Observations of Jang Li Kuan’ ’ (Jang Li Kuan Kuo Yen Lu'), by Lu Hsin-yiian, is the work of a careful scholar and follows the model of ‘ ‘ Summer Vacation Studies,” by Kao Shih-ch’i. Its chief value is in its estimates of the painters of the early part of the late Manchu dynasty, such as the Four Wang. Wu SOURCES OF INFORMATION *5 Sheng Shih Shih is devoted to studies of the Ming dynasty painters, as a recent book by To Chen entitled Kuo Ctiao Shu Hua Chia Pi Lu, published in I 9 II > treats exclusively of painters of the Manchu dynasty. “Writings and Paintings Seen in Wu and Yiieh’’ (Wu Yiieh So Chien Shu Hua Lu) was written by Lu Shih-hua in 1776. In the Introduction the author makes twenty-nine comments on paintings, and these are of great value. They show the critical spirit which is seen throughout this book. A recent book, Hsu Chat Ming Hua Lu , by Pang Lai-ch’en, is of doubtful value in its list ofT’ang and Sung painters. Mr. P’ang is an eminent connoisseur and perfect¬ ly familiar with the literature of pictorial art from which he has acquired an intimate and accurate knowledge of the styles of early painters. He has used this remarkable knowledge in a way which fails to convince me of being justified for, seeing a painting which has the qualifications of paper or silk, ink and style used by a certain artist, Mr. P’ang has not hesitated to ascribe the painting to this artist without any documentary evidence. Whereas one need have no hesitation in accepting Mr. Pang’s opinion that each painting enumerated in the Hsu Chai Ming Hua Lu is in the style of the artist to whom it is assigned, doubt must be reserved as to whether or not it was actually painted by him. Someone else may have painted it in his style. As to the descriptions of Yuan, Ming, and Ch’ing pictures, these are valuable. The supplement, Hsu Chai Ming Hua Hsu Lu, published in 19x5, is devoted to paintings of the Ming and Ch’ing dynasties, and is invaluable to students and collectors. Fortunately there is little necessity of warning readers against poor scholarship or deliberate falsification in this class of writings. ‘ ‘ The Records of the Hung Tou School’’ ( Hung Tou Shu Kuan Shu Hua Chi) is an example of a poor critic. I have been told by persons who knew the author and saw his collection that he seemed to be sincere in his beliefs even though he was sadly misled. There is only one instance of a deliberate forgery of supposi¬ titious writings and paintings. This was done on such a large scale by the author of Pao Hui Lu that it would almost seem to have been meant to be a skit upon the fallible judgment of connoisseurs; but it also contains ac¬ counts of some genuine specimens. a6 CHINESE PAINTING There are many works on the technique of painting such as the Chieb Trf Yuan Hua Chuan, translated in 1910 by Raphael Petmccl. There are books on the painting of bamboos (cbu /«), of prunus branches (m, fu\ and on other similar subjects. To these are related the books on illustrations of ink tablets (mo p'u'j, such as those of Fang Yu-lu and Ch eng Cbun- ang. In these have been preserved many of the best traditions of pictorial art. There arc also many references in various collections of poetry to paintings and artists, but these are usually written in such laudatory terms that t ey are of no critical value. . From the foregoing short epitome of the literature of Chinese pictorial art it will be seen readily that there is a rich supply of descriptive and criti¬ cal information. Unfortunately little of this has been made available to Western students through translations, although there have been many translations into the Japanese language. This array of authorities is suffi¬ cient, however, to convince anyone that there should be no attempt on the part of Western collectors to determine, presumptively in accordance with their own preconceived notions, the age and value of Chinese paintings. It may be safely assumed that every picture of artistic worth has been the object of careful examination by Chinese well versed in their own literature on this subject. It is idle folly to assert that the paintings of a particular period, such as that of the Tang or the Sung or the Yuan, have certain definite characteristics which are sufficient to guide a collector in determin¬ ing the age in which a particular painting was produced, or in suggesting that a painting must have been the work of such and such an artist. Even a cursory reading of the literature of pictorial art is sufficient to show that there was a wide variety in the work of the various periods, and often in that of one artist. Such speculation as to age and authorship is unjustifiable in view of the possibility of confirming conclusions from recognized author¬ ities. The Cho Keng Lu (chap, xviii, p. 7), written by T’ao Tsung-i at the close of the Yuan dynasty, says that “people of the present age judge pic¬ tures according to their own tastes without any reference to traditional standards and without investigation of accepted records. What pleases them is good, and what they do not like is bad. If you ask them their SOURCES OF INFORMATION a 7 reason for considering a painting to be good, they become embarrassed and have nothing to say.” This keen criticism might be made of some modern collectors, both Chinese and foreign. Chinese paintings may be collected according to individual taste, but it must be remembered that such taste has been acquired from occidental sources and therefore that it is frequently in discord with Chinese standards. No nation has ever been so careful in preserving records of its pictorial art as China, and nowhere has there been a better grade of scholarship introduced into the discussion of the merits of various productions. It is not claimed that mere knowledge of these literary records makes one a reliable critic, but it may be safely maintained without fear of successful contradiction that Chinese paintings cannot be accurately judged without a knowledge of these original sources. TECHNIQUE C HINESE paintings are found in three forms. There are hanging pic¬ tures (chou'), scrolls ( chiiati), and album leaves (cheh'). The hanging pictures are of various sizes, consisting sometimes of one whole piece of silk or paper and again being made up of two or three strips pasted together. Scrolls have one unbroken length when the scene depicted is re¬ stricted; when a series of events is recorded there will be frequently found in one scroll several lengths of silk or paper. Album leaves are usually painted on silk, but occasionally paper is used. In shape they are circular, square, or like a fan. This difference in the three forms of Chinese paintings is the usual basis of classification in collections and also in books on pic¬ torial art. In describing paintings it is taken for granted that the painting (t'u) is a hanging picture unless a character meaning that it is either a scroll or an album leaf is added. Paintings are usually found already mounted. I have never seen an un¬ mounted picture except those which had been recently painted by an artist and kept in his own possession. The painting is stretched after moistening, is placed face downward on a smooth lacquer table, and then is backed with layers of thin paper. Original mountings (chieh piao ) are occasionally found on paintings which are two or three hundred years old, but the earlier paintings have all been remounted (huan chiu ) several times. There are fixed conventions as to the space left at the top of a picture compared with that at the bottom and at the sides. The proportion between the top and the bottom is usually as six is to four, i.e., if twelve inches are left at the top, eight inches must be left at the bottom, and two inches would usually be left at the side. The work of mounting has been carried to a high state of perfection in China, and infinite pains taken with every small detail. The quality and shade of silk used at the top and bottom of the picture are care- a8 TECHNIQUE fully selected So as to bring out its values. When a label is placed at the side of the painting it is written with great care by a calligraphist, and similar attention is given to the label on the outside of the picture. The handles of the hanging paintings are chosen so as to correspond with the appraised merit of the painting: wooden handles for ordinary paintings; ivory, cloisonne, jade, silver, or gold being used for the best grade of paint¬ ings according to the taste and means of the owner. Scrolls are handled with meticulous care. In addition to the ordinary attention paid to hanging pic¬ tures, good mounting of scrolls demands that the ends of the cylinder on which the scroll is rolled shall be of jade or some precious stone which will harmonize with the colors of the scroll. The outer covering of silk or bro¬ cade must also be chosen with great care. On the scroll “Home Again,” by Ch’ien Hsiian, the outer covering was made of the finest quality of Sung dynasty tapestry— k’o-ssu. Rare specimens of early brocades are also fre¬ quently found as covers of scrolls. Album leaves are mounted either on the face of album pages or carefully set into thick paper so that the surface of the painting is flush with the surrounding edges. In remounting old pic¬ tures which have blank spaces due to the ravages of moths or mildew, it is customary for the mounter to call to his aid the services of a painter who touches up these spots with ink or colors so that they will not detract from the general effect of the painting. It is always easy to see where these repairs have been made by holding a painting up to the light. It is erroneously thought by some persons that this process of re¬ touching is done solely for venal purposes; the fact is that every good Chinese collector always considers it as an essential part of the process of remounting. In the Sung dynasty Academy of Painting it was not uncommon to have the silk on which the artist painted first backed with a good quality of paper to which the silk was pasted. The silk, being more or less porous and consisting of meshes, allowed the ink to penetrate to the surface of the paper backing. This paper backing was called “soul paper” (hun chih), for the reason that it could receive on its surface the real soul of the artist. Not infrequently the original paper backing has been separated from the CHINESE PAINTING silk, and dealers have succeeded in making two pictures out of a single original, one being of silk and the other of paper. As to the details of artistic performance, paintings are divided into two classes. When the brushwork is delicate and the coloring is exquisite, t is class of work is called “elaborate” (kung-pO- When the motions of the brush are free and easy so that the forms produced are full of life, it is called “spontaneous” (hsieh-t). This distinction of artistic conception is funda¬ mental. As examples of spontaneous work, Wu Tao-tzu and Li Kung- in may be mentioned. These two artists were free, not only in their original conceptions, but also in their style of execution. Wang Wei of the T ang dynasty, Kuo Chung-shu of the Sung dynasty, and Wang Hui of the Manchu dynasty worked in an elaborate style in which the greatest attention was paid to the details of brush strokes and coloring. According to these stand¬ ards, paintings were distinguished for their excellence in composition, pro¬ lific fancy, and facility of execution, from those whose outstanding merits were grace and high finish. The following “ six canons” of painting (liufa) were suggested by Hsieh Ho (a.d. 475): 1. The conception should possess harmony and vitality. 2.. The brush should be used to establish the structural framework. 3. The outline should conform to the shape of the objects. 4. The coloring should be suitable to the varied forms. 5. The perspective should be correctly conceived. 6. The representation should be in conformity with the style selected. The “six necessities” ( liuyao ) were formulated by Liu Tao-ch’un about the middle of the eleventh century. They are as follows: 1. Vitality of conception must be combined with strength, x. Strokes of the brush must be firm. 3. Peculiarities of method should be in accordance with reasonableness. 4. Colors should be harmonious. 5. The brush must be handled with ease. 6. In copying leave out all that is inferior. TECHNIQUE 31 The “three faults” (jan ping) were first presented by Kuo Jo-hsu about a.d. 1100 in his “Treatise on Painting.” They are: 1. A weak wrist, which results in a stupid brush. Equilibrium is lacking; objects have a flat appearance and cannot be represented in relief. 2.. Lack of co-ordination, when the mind and hand are not in accord. Such painting only produces angles. 3. Failure to progress from one point to another. Development is necessary but does not come. Something seems to hold back the brush and prevent free movement. It is customary to divide paintings into san ping, three general classes— shen, miao , and neng. Each of these three is divided into three subclasses— superior, medium, and inferior. This classification was recorded by Chu Ching-hsiian (about a.d. 1000) in his Tang ch'ao Ming Hua Lu, and was later explained by Hsia Wen-yen in his Tu Hui Pao Chien as follows: 1. Shen pictures are those in which the heaven-inspired quality of vitality is found. z. Miao pictures are those in which the brushwork is of a high order, where the colors are harmonious and where there is grace or charm. 3. Neng pictures are those in which strength is found without sacrifice of form. A fourth class (z) is sometimes given, but its use has not been uniform. The usual custom allows only three classes. It has been customary throughout the history of Chinese pictorial art for artists to choose, generation after generation, certain great subjects for their paintings. In religious paintings ‘ ‘ The Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin’ ’; “The Presentation of Buddha”; portraits of Wei Mo and of Ta Mo; “The Eighteen Lohans,” “The Sixteen Lohans”; and “The Five Hundred Disci¬ ples” have been depicted not only in conventional forms, but treated by various artists with a high degree of originality. Among historic figures there have been paintings of Hsi Wang Mu and of Mu Wang, the great heroes of fairyland; of the various heroes mentioned in “The Nine Songs”; of Su Yo-lan, the famous beauty; of Chu-ko Liang and Kuo Tzu-i, famous CHINESE PAINTING 32, warriors; and of Wang Ch’iang, the princess who was sent as a bride to the Turkic chieftain. Among historic places artists have delig te to com¬ memorate the Western Garden (Hsi Yuan); the imaginative garden of Wang Wei called Wang Ch'uan; Ten Thousand Li of the Long River, the name by which the Yangtse is known; scenes on the Hsiao and Hsiang rivers in Hunan Province; lake scenes from the Hsi Hu and the Ta. Hu; noted hills such as the Sung Mountain, the Kuei-chi Mountains, and the Tien-ta. Range. The palaces such as those of the Three Happy Isles, the Ta ing Rung, Wei Yang Rung, Ran Chuan Rung, have been sketched by artists of all periods. When these classical subjects are treated in an original man¬ ner by the artist, even though the subject is a conventional one, the painting is of exceptional value. Frequently copies have been made by later artists of the work of their predecessors. There are three recognized methods of copying. One is a trac¬ ing (mo, or mo miao'), which is done by placing thin paper over the original and thus making a copy. A second process is that of reproduction (ling), in which as faithful a copy as possible is made from an original placed before the artist. The third method is that of interpretation (fang). This is a method which has been followed by many great artists. Yen Wen-kuei and Liu Sung-nien made interpretative studies of earlier landscape artists. Tung Ch’i-ch’ang in the Ming dynasty, Wang Hui and Wu Li in the Manchu dynasty, made noteworthy interpretative pictures of the Sung dynasty land¬ scapists. Wang Hui used both the method of reproduction and of interpre¬ tation. He reproduced the work of Tung Yuan and of Chiang Tsan, and he interpreted that of Chii Jan, Ching Hao, and Ni Tsan. These interpreta¬ tions must not be confounded with copies, for the artists who produced them only painted under the influence of and in reverence for great masters. This method, it will be remembered, was used in Europe by Titian, Rubens, Delacroix, and other great painters who made interpretations of the masters they admired. “The Souvenir of Velasquez,” by Millais, is not con¬ sidered to be a copy of Velasquez, but is a picture of an Infanta done by Millais in honor of the style of Velasquez. This is the way in which many Chinese paintings by later artists in the style of earlier ones must be TECHNIQUE 33 considered. They are not slavish copies, nor are they reproductions; they are interpretations. It is to be taken for granted that China has not been free from the curse of imitations (wet), in which the names of famous artists have been attached to paintings for which they are not responsible. Fortunately it is usually possible to detect these forgeries on account of the abundance of literary references to paintings. During the reign of Ch’ien Lung, when there was an unusually brilliant coterie of talented men con¬ nected with the palace, fanciful sketches were made to which the names of famous artists were attached with signatures made in their style of writing, and with annotations of other famous men also written in their distinguish¬ ing styles. This was a playful practice in which each participant endeavored to excel his associates by proving his ability to imitate various styles of painting and writing. Several examples of such paintings have recently come to light. They are most interesting but should not mislead careful students. One of the most skilful imitators of that period was Wang T’ui- ku, who could duplicate any kind of writing and was himself by no means a mediocre painter. It was not usual until the beginning of the Sung dynasty for artists to add colophons to their paintings, giving the name and residence of the artist together with the date of production. Such signatures are of great assistance in determining the authenticity of paintings, for these can be compared with facsimiles which have been preserved on stones and in manu¬ scripts. They are often forged by later imitators, but can be readily detected by those who have made a careful study of Chinese writing. The addition of annotations on the face or border of hanging paintings and at the end of scrolls also affords help in determining the periods to which pictures belong. These annotations are of two different kinds: one which is ex¬ pository (t'i-pa), and the other laudatory in poetical form ( shih-ko ). The annotations on noted paintings have been collected for many centuries and form a vast literature in themselves. The expository annotations of Mi Fei, Su Shih, Chao Meng-fu, Ni Tsan, Yuan Chio, Tung Ch’i-ch’ang, and Shen Chou add very much to our knowledge of Chinese paintings; whereas poetical comments such as those of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung add nothing. CHINESE PAINTING 34 These colophons and annotations are further certified by seals of the artist or commentator. The identification of seals requires special study, but there arc books available which describe in detail and with facsimiles the sea s of well-known men. . . , • . The necessary equipment of an artist consists of writing-brushes ink and colors, and the paper or silk on which he paints. He has no pa ette. His colors are mixed preferably in his brush just previous to use, otherwise he uses a small porcelain dish divided into compartments. He has no easel, but places his silk or paper flat on a large table, usually sitting at his wor . A dish of water also is always found on his table. When it is esire to ry rolors auicklv, chalk is sprinkled over the surface. This is removed with a duster made of fine fur. The brushes used by an artist are the same as those of the calligraphist. At the present time these brushes are made in eight or ten sizes, but usually an artist does not employ more than five sizes. The fine, delicate brush is made of hairs from sable-skins, and the very large coarse brush is made of bristles from the necks of pigs. Other brushes are made of hair from deer, goats, rabbits, or foxes. Chicken-down is also made into brushes, and one very fine variety is made of the hair of very young children. The introduc¬ tion of the writing-brush, during the Ch’in dynasty, is usually ascribed to Meng T’ien who died 109 b.c. He was a general of the first emperor, Shih Huang, and in charge of the building of the Great Wall. There are many fanciful tales concerning this discovery. One of these is that Ts’ang Chieh, who is the legendary inventor of the art of writing, mixed the tassels of ripe corn with glue and paint, thus making a crude ink for writing; he used the horn of a rhinoceros for a handle, and ivory from an elephant’s tusk as a writing instrument, thus being the original inventor of the brush. In the twenty-fifth volume of the Buddhistic book, Fah Yuan Chu Lin , written by Tao-shih in a.d. 668, it is said that in ancient times a famous immortal desired to preserve his thoughts. He used the skin of his body as paper, his blood as ink, and one of his bones as a pen. Several authorities place the invention of the pen earlier than Meng T’ien. The K'un Hsiieh Chi Wen, written by Wang Ying-lin during the Yuan dynasty, mentions an inscription TECHNIQUE 35 of T’ai Kung Wang in which reference is made to the hair out of which pens are made (hao mao), thus implying that brushes made from hairs were used at the time of T ai Kung Wang, who lived in the twelfth century b.c. The Yuan Shen Ch'i as preserved in various miscellaneous writings states that Confucius used a brush (pi) in composing the Hsiao King. Writing imple¬ ments in ancient times were known by different names. In the kingdom of Ch’u a brush was called yu; in Wu it was called pu-lii; in Yen it was called fu. A reasonable explanation of the conflicting statements as to the dis¬ covery of the brush is that whereas brushes of various kinds were used in ancient times, the present name, pi, was definitely adopted during the Ch’in dynasty, and that Meng T’ien was responsible for calling the brush by this name. Black ink is frequently the only color found in a Chinese painting. It is uncertain when ink was first produced. One of the earliest literary references to ink is that of the poet Ts’ao Chih (a.d. who said “Ink is made of black soot obtained from pine wood.” The process of mixing lampblack with glue and thus producing a thick substance which could easily be cast into molds was probably known at a very early date, though according to the Cho Keng Lu, lampblack (yuyeri ) only came to be used in the Sung dynas¬ ty. Glue was made from the hides of various types of animals, the earliest probably being that of deer. The glue made from donkey hides and mixed with the mineral substances contained in the water of Tung-o Hsien, Shan¬ tung province, is said to be of the best quality. Such glue is called o chiao. It is of the color of amber, is glossy, and has no odor. Ink made in this way is called “glue ink” (chiao mo), or sometimes also “pine-soot ink” (sung-yen mo), and is the kind that is usually found in paintings and scripts previous to the end of the Yuan dynasty. It was also used by Tung Ch’i-ch’ang, Wu Wei, and Fu Shan of later times. It is always jet black and glossy like var¬ nish. It is different from Ming ink (Ming mo), as used by Shen Chou, T’ang Yin, Wen Chen-ming, and Ch’iu Ying, which is lacking in depth of color and is never glossy. These two qualities are also absent from “lampblack ink” (yu mo), which is in general use at the present time. Cakes of ink are made in many shapes and are elaborately decorated with scenes such as are ^5 CHINESE PAINTING found in paintings and with facsimiles of inscriptions by noted writers. Designs and decorations of ink form a branch of art which is fully discussed in the two well-known books, Cheng Shih Mo Yuan and Fang Shih Mo P u. Frequently ink cakes are scented with a delicate perfume. The various colors used by artists have always been mineral, and have been produced by the fine grinding of stones. The Chinese regard color in paintings as a secondary quality, its only function being to make the picture agreeable. They have ranked design above color, and many artists have even gone to the extent of considering color a dangerous obstacle to good work. Their emphasis has been upon composition and strength of brush strokes. When they used colors they took good care to grind these themselves so as to suit exactly their own individual tastes. Painting in oil colors was known at a very early date in China but was discarded not later than the third century a.d. in favor of water colors, which have been the medium of expression ever since. This is in marked contrast to the history of Euro¬ pean painting which, since the Van Eycks at the middle of the fifteenth century, has been almost exclusively done in oils. Robert Fry in the Burling¬ ton Magazine for June, 19x3, makes the following remarks: “One cannot doubt then that the mere presence or absence in a given period of some par¬ ticular medium may determine the success or failure of certain talents. With such experiences in mind one may speculate, uselessly no doubt, but agree¬ ably, upon what might have happened to the pictorial art of China if the Chinese had ever developed the possibilities of oil painting, and had not confined their pictorial vision within the clearly fixed limitations of gouache upon silk or paper.” The only comment that can be made upon what Mr. Fry has said is that the instinct of Chinese artists led them to prefer the use of water colors for the reason that these form a more delicate medium of expression than painting in oils, and also that water colors lend themselves more readily to the use of the fine brushes which were equally adaptable to calligraphy or painting. Their preference for water colors is explained on the same basis as the choice of bronze in their early history instead of iron as being both more delicate and also more difficult to manipu¬ late. r *m TECHNIQUE 37 The invention of paper is clouded in the same mystery as that of the writing-brush, but it is usually ascribed to Ts’ai Lun of the later Han dynas¬ ty, who rose to prominence during the reign of Ho Ti (a.d. 89-106). Ts’ai Lun used a coarse gauze made of hemp to cover the surface of the paper pulp, and this was called “hemp paper” (ma chib). He also used the inner bark of trees, and this quality was called “grain paper” (ku chili). As hemp is one of the “five grains,” this distinction of two qualities of early paper is probably an after-thought of a later period. Another famous name in the early production of paper is that of the courtesan Hsieh T’ao, of the ninth century, who invented the kind known as “Ssu-ch’uan paper” (shu chien). This variety had three grades known as tse-li, sung-hua, and yu t%u. The tse-li grade is the only kind of which there is any accurate record. This was made in double sheets each of which was four feet wide and six feet long. The earliest paper which I have seen is a specimen of bamboo paper (chub chib). As its name indicates, it is made of bamboo pulp, is thick, and has a rough surface. Over it is a loosely woven silk mesh, which, it appears, was in¬ tended as a protection. The artist, Wei Hsieh, in the fourth century a.d., is known to have used this variety of paper. During the T’ang dynasty there were two kinds of hemp paper used one white and the other yellow. The white variety was used by Wu Tao-tzii, Liu Shang, and other artists of this period. It is thick and has a rough surface which, under the micro¬ scope, plainly exhibits hemp fibers. The Five Dynasties and the Sung wit¬ nessed the introduction of a finer quality of paper called ch'eng hsin fang. It is said to have been invented by Li Hou-chu of the later T’ang dynasty (a.d. 9x3-34). This paper is fine, thin, and has a smooth surface. It is the best quality of paper that has ever been produced in China and was used by Li Kung-lin, Ch’ien Hsiian, and other great artists of the Sung and Yuan periods. The paper of the Ming dynasty, called ta-chien and hsiao-chien, was of inferior quality, but relief from it was found by artists and writers in the introduction of silk-cocoon paper from Corea (Kao-li chien chib). However, this new paper proved to be too glossy to take ink well, and after a brief popularity fell into disuse. The same type of paper that was made in the Ming dynasty is still produced. During the Ch’ien Lung period artists CHINESE PAINTING employed paper made of several thin layers carefully glued together. No matter what variety of paper an artist used it was customary for him to prepare it first by washing it with a weak lye, obtained usually from t e pods of the Gymnocladus chinensis (tsao chia t%u), and then sizing wit Various varieties of silks have been used for paintings. There was a coarse silk known as Mm and divided into two classes, one unsized (*»g), the other sized ( shu ). There was also white silk known as chien; and a thin silk gauze known as ling. Silk was used for paintings more often than paper, which was reserved for script, but some artists used both materials. It is said of Li Kung-lin that he always used paper for original paintings and silk for reproductions of the work of others. Those who had the most per¬ fect control of their brushes, like Mi Fei and Chao Meng-fu, used paper for their best work. The earliest silk was coarsely woven. It is doubtful wheth¬ er or not we have any existing samples of silk anterior to the T ang dynasty, though it is claimed that there are paintings of the Han dynasty done on silk of that period in the Stein Collection of the British Museum, taken from the Tun-huang stone house. I have a sample of this silk, and cannot distinguish it in any way from the coarse silk (seng chiian ) of the T ang dynasty, of which there are detailed descriptions in literature and of which I have an example. This kind of silk was used by Yen Li-pen. There is also another type of T’ang silk which is called lien chiian ( prepared silk ). It is silk which has been beaten on a polished stone with a stick, sometimes covered with silver, until the interstices between the threads are filled and the silk has a continuous surface. This prepared silk was first used by Chou Fang in his delineation of court scenes, and an example of it may be seen in the scroll by him in the Metropolitan Museum. The silk of the Sung dynasty had double strands for both warp and woof, being called shuang- ssu chiian; or the warp had double strands and the woof a single one. The latter was called tan ssu chiian. In addition to this silk, there was a coarser type known as “academy silk” (jiian chiian), on account of its having been especially prepared for the use of the academicians. It was woven into various widths, the widest being seven or eight feet. Many of the surviving TECHNIQUE 39 ancient pictures of China are on this type of silk. They were made in the Sung Academy of Painting and are reproductions of the work of great mas¬ ters. The silk of the Yuan dynasty is practically the same as that of the Sung, with the exception that the double-stranded variety does not seem to have been produced. The Ming dynasty silk has single coarse strands both for warp and woof. It is similar to the coarse silk of the T’ang dynas¬ ty, but more closely woven. It was customary for early artists to size their own silk, but at the present time artists purchase from shops silk that has already been sized. The texture of the various types of silk can be seen from the accompanying illustrations. During the Ming dynasty there was still available quite a large supply of silk and paper made during the Sung dynasty, and it was common for artists of the Ming dynasty to use these materials of an earlier age. In the records of the Imperial Collection during the reign of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung as found in Shih Chii (VIII, x6) examples are given of Ming dynasty paintings which were done on the paper or silk of the Sung dynasty. These details of the materials used have been given as aids in determining the period to which paintings should be correctly assigned. While it is always possible that a picture painted at the beginning of the Ming dynasty may be on Sung dynasty silk and done with Sung dynasty ink, both of which had been carefully preserved, it is obvious that no Sung dynasty painting could have had silk or ink of the later Ming. It is idle to discuss the age of paintings solely on the basis of their style, for the great masters used different styles. Even the quality of work is not a sure guide, for this was never uniform, the same artist frequently having left both good and indifferent specimens. The paper or silk, the ink, the color value of the pigments, must all be given due consideration, along with the signature, seals, and annotations. The aesthetic value may suffice for one who is in¬ different to the origin of a picture, but it is only one of many essentials which must be determined when the question arises as to who painted a certain picture. Then information must be obtained from all available sources, and in this search the quality of paper, silk, and ink is important evidence. CHINESE PAINTING There are two classes of people who are interested in paintings: collec¬ tors and connoisseurs. Mi Fei of the Sung dynasty said that these two classes had a very different approach to paintings. Collectors are usually wealthy persons who desire to make a name for themselves and purchase what is pleasing to them. On the other hand, connoisseurs arc persons with natural artistic ability who take infinite pains to see all that they can. Every paint¬ ing which comes under their observation is carefully examined, and if ey are fortunate enough to be able to secure one they treasure it as a great prize. This critical opinion of Mi Fei, who lived in the eleventh century, commands attention at the present time. Chang Yen-yuan, an earlicrcriac than Mi Fei, remarked that there were those who collected but did not know how to discriminate; that there were those who found pleasure in their possessions, but did not know how to preserve them; that there were those who knew how to preserve them but could not classify them accord¬ ing to their merit. The ability to judge and the capacity to enjoy are, according to Chinese critics, the true tests of a connoisseur. IV T EARLY PAINTERS ^HE origin of painting in China is very remote. It extends back at least into the period of the Chow dynasty several hundred years be¬ fore Christ; but up to the present time no traces of early specimens of this art have been discovered, though carefully preserved historical rec¬ ords give the names of early painters and many details of their works. It began, according to tradition, with map-drawing and extended during the Chow dynasty to articles used in the elaborate ritual of that period. The nine flags (chiu ch't) mentioned in the Chow Li, the vestments and headgear (chiu chang) used in ceremonial observances, the patterns of bronze vessels, the adornment of doors and screens—these all called for pictorial representa¬ tion. In the Ch’in dynasty the plans of the magnificent palaces, such as Wei Yang Kung and Kan Ch’iian Kung, must have called for artists of high ability, and in the Han Dynasty their numbers increased on account of the rapid spread of civilizing influences. The earliest paintings were done on coarse hemp cloth in paint mixed with oils. With the invention of ink, the writing-brush, and paper, the coarser materials were discarded in favor of the more delicate and refined water-color painting which has been in con¬ tinuous use from the Han dynasty down to our times. Pictures by Han artists were frequently reproduced on stone tablets, and it is certain that as these are recovered and the comparison of literary records with them progresses we shall discover some valuable reproductions of the work of early painters. The records of the dynasties of T’ang (a.d. 618-906) and of Sung (a.d. 960-1x80) show that the paintings of the earlier dynasties were frequently copied by famous artists. The purpose of such copying was not only to show an appreciation of the worth of these earlier paintings, but also to preserve their style. It is due to the diligence of these copyists that we now have accurate reproductions of the style of the work of such 4 1 CHINESE PAINTING artists as Ku K’ai-chih of the Eastern Chin dynasty and of Chan Tzu-ch’ien of the Sui. The authenticated specimens of original Chinese paintings which have been known to connoisseurs in China during the late Manchu dynasty only extend back to Li Ssii-hsun (about a.d. 700) of the T ang dynasty, and this date is a safe point of departure for the study of the development o Chinese painting. The traditions, ideals, and canons of the earlier peno s of pictorial art were preserved and transmitted by Tang and Sung artists. It is not at all probable that we should learn any new facts about early Chinese painting even if discoveries of specimens antedating the Tang dy¬ nasty were to be made, for the literary records and the artistic reproductions of this and later periods are fully illustrative of the earlier products. Even the preservation of such early specimens as the paintings of Li Ssu-hsun has been difficult on account of the frailty of the silk and paper on which they have been painted. The earliest painting reproduced is one of Mao Yen-shou who lived during the reign of the Emperor Yuan Ti (48-31 b.c.). This painting was reproduced by the Emperor Hui Tsung of the Sung dynasty in his “Copies of Ancient Paintings” (Hsian Ho Ling Ku ), now in the Imperial Collection of the Manchu dynasty at Peking. The subject of this painting is “ A Lone Fisherman” (Ch'iu Chiang Ch'ing Liao). It represents an old man sitting in a small boat among the rushes holding in his hand a fishing pole on which is a reel. On the narrow neck of land behind the fisherman is a gnarled pine tree at the back of which is a large rock surmounted with bushes. On the opposite side of the river there are several hills with narrow projections of land extending into the river. A flock of ducks is flying over the river in the direction of the fisherman. The inscription on the painting written by Hui Tsung states that this is an interpretation of the style (Jang) of Mao Yen-shou, but gives no information as to the original from which it was taken. It is a fascinating piece of painting, and is a tribute to the belief of the Emperor Hui Tsung that painting had reached an advanced stage at that early period. Historical records give very little information as to the life of this painter, Mao Yen-shou, beyond the legend which narrates his paint¬ ing likenesses of the inmates of Yuan Ti’s palace. It is said that he was in- r J EARLY PAINTERS 43 structed by the emperor to paint the portraits of the palace ladies, and that all of them bribed him to make beautiful representations of themselves, with the exception of Wang Ch’iang, who is also known as Chao Chun. When the barbarian tribes of Hsiung-nu came to court asking for a palace lady who should become the princess of their chieftain, Wang Ch’iang was selected as being the one whose portrait was least pleasing to the emperor, and an agreement was made that she should be sent as a gift from the emperor. Before departing on her long journey she was presented to the emperor, who immediately recognized her beauty as far superior to that of any other of his ladies. The emperor too late tried to detain her, but the emissaries of the Hsiung-nu insisted upon their bargain. With profound sorrow the emperor saw this beauty leave his palace. The journey to her distant home has been frequently painted by noted artists, among whom was Su Han-ch’en of the Southern Sung dynasty in a painting which is recorded to have been in the collection of the Emperor Hsien Feng (a.d. 1851 -62.). The landscape painting of Mao Yen-shou, reproduced by Hui Tsung, is of such high quality and delicacy as might be expected in the work of a nation which had already produced remarkable designs on bronze and jade. These must have been produced from carefully prepared patterns made by skilful artists. As decorations on existing bronzes carry us back two millenniums before the Christian era, it is to be expected that painters in the time of Mao Yen-shou, i.e., the first century a.d., must have been able to produce work of a high order. Hui Tsung lived at the close of the eleventh century a.d. , and his reproduction of a painting by Mao Yen-shou bridges over the wide period of time between the first century b.c. and the present. The cer¬ tainty that this reproduction was painted by the Emperor Hui Tsung, or at least under his orders, is fully guaranteed by the annotation made in the handwriting of the emperor and certified by his seal (Hsiian Ho Tien Pao'). M6ng T’ien’s reputed invention of the brush had been made two centuries earlier than the time of this painter, Mao Yen-shou, so that the implements for executing such a wonderful picture were already at hand. There seems no adequate reason for disputing the possibility of Mao Yen-shou having been 44 CHINESE PAINTING able to do such beautiful work as has been attributed to him by this repro¬ duction of Hui Tsung. , Ts’ao Fu-hsing was a favorite of the first emperor of the Wu dynasty (a.d. 2.VL-J7). The capital city at that time was Nanking, and its beautiful surroundings furnished many pleasure excursions for the emperor, who usually took with him his favorite artist. One day on an excursion to Ch’ing-hsi, west of the city, the emperor saw a dragon coming up from the river and ordered Ts'ao Fu-hsing to paint the scene. The emperor was great¬ ly pleased with the result and highly commended the artist, remarking that as long as there was a path open to the dragon the country would be pros¬ perous, but if the road of the dragon were shut off, miseries would result. A hundred years later this encomium of the emperor was considered to have been prophetic, for during the reign of Wen Ti (a.d. 42 - 4 - 54 ) there was a drought of several months’ duration. Prayers for rain were continually offered, but without avail. At last the dragon picture of Ts’ao Fu-hsing was spread out above the surface of the water, causing a dense mist and bringing rain. So realistic was the work of Ts’ao Fu-hsing considered to be that the efficacy of his painted dragon was as potent as that of a live one. The work of this artist was so highly prized and so frequently handled that it was said by Hsieh Ho of the Southern Ch’i dynasty that no specimens of it could be obtained. This must have been an exaggeration, for from the Sung dynasty down to the present time there are continuous records of reproductions of one picture by this artist called “The Military Tally’’ (Ping Fu Tu). This painting was in the collection of Chao Meng-fu, and later in the collection of Han Tsung-po of the Ming dynasty. It had passed through many hands when I saw it in the collection of Ts’ai Po-hao, former Taotai of Shanghai. In the list of paintings belonging to the imperial palace of the Manchus there is another copy of “The Military Tally.” It is probable that the opinion of T’ang Hou in his Hua Chun is correct when he says that he had seen “The Military Tally” in the home of a friend at Hangchow and that on the painting were an inscription and seal of the Emperor Shao Hsing (Kao Tsung) of the Southern Sung dynasty. T’ang Hou expresses the further opinion that this painting was produced during the latter part of the T’ang OF TS' EARLY PAINTERS 45 or the early part of the Sung dynasty. The copy which I saw in the posses¬ sion of Mr. Ts’ai was on ch'eng hsin t'ang paper of the Sung dynasty type, and it appeared to me to be a copy made during the Northern Sung period. In the beautiful scroll, “Copies of Ancient Painting,’’ by the Emperor Hui Tsung, to which reference was made in a preceding paragraph, there is a painting in the style of Ts’ao Fu-hsing. The subject of the paint¬ ing is “The Emperor Looking Over the Landscape from Chung Shan’’ (Chung Shan Wang Ctii). Chung Shan is the name of the mountain east of Nanking, which is generally known as Purple Mountain. Two figures are standing on the top of the hill looking eastward toward the river out of which the rising sun is showing as a small disk. Halfway down the moun¬ tain is a group of buildings in the usual form of mountain temples. There are a few trees on the surface of the mountain. The rocks seem rugged on account of the peculiar brush strokes which were made with ink well saturated in water. These two pictures are the only remains which we have of this painter whom his successors in pictorial art have regarded as semi¬ divine. The few incidents of his life which are known to us show that he was a lover of nature, and the copies of his paintings which have survived add their testimony to this legend. The records of the Chin dynasty (a.d. z65-42.0) indicate a widened inter¬ est both in calligraphy and painting. In both of these arts this period pro¬ duced great masters whose names are held in the highest veneration. Among these one of the first to attain to renown was Wei Hsieh. He painted por¬ traits and religious subjects. The names of several of his pictures have been recorded, but only two of these survived the ravages of time. One was a picture of “Pien Chuang-tzii Baiting a Tiger” (Pten Chuang-tzu Tz’u Hu), the other, “Notable Scholars” (Kao Shih ), both of which were in the Hsiian Ho Collection. The subjects of these two paintings are historical. Chuang- tzii, who was governor of Pien, was a hero of the Chow dynasty. He was fond of hunting tigers. One day he learned from Kuan Shu-tzii that an ox had been caught by two tigers and was being devoured by them. Kuan advised Chuang-tzii to watch the scene, and told him that the tigers would soon be found fighting each other—that one would be killed and the other ^ CHINESE PAINTING wounded. He could then easily kill the wounded one and thus secure both of the tigers with little exertion. The legend connected with the “ Notable Scholars” is taken from classical sources. This painting has two figures who are placed in a background of landscape. The upper one is that of Ch u K’uang who is mentioned in the Analects as having cursed Confucius; the lower figure is that of Liang Hung. Through their literary accomplish¬ ments these men had risen to high position from very humble origins. It is interesting to find the name of Liang Hung connected with this picture of ‘ ‘ Notable Scholars,” for he is also connected with the ‘ ‘ Tilling and Weav¬ ing Pictures” (Keng Chih Tu). His wife, who was very unattractive, pos¬ sessed great strength and could undertake all forms of heavy work. Hus¬ band and wife assisted each other in tilling and spinning during the day, and in the evenings recited poetry and played on the lute. Their remarkable industry has been a model for all later time. The preservation of early his¬ torical incidents as interpreted by early painters has not only done much to preserve national spirit, but has also contributed to the homogeneity of the mental development of the Chinese people. The painting “Notable Scholars” was copied by Li Kung-lin in the Sung dynasty, and is said to have been well done even though the coarse silk on which it was executed detracted somewhat from its value. T’ang Hou, in the Hua Chien, classes Wei Hsieh as superior to Ku K’ai-chih, and this was the verdict also of other art critics. We can do nothing else than accept these opinions, for neither of his two paintings is in existence as far as is known. The only criterion by which we can judge of his style is the fanciful sketch made by the Emperor Hui Tsung; but if this sketch is a good reproduction of the style of Wei Hsieh, there is not much to admire in his style of painting. He had a pupil, Hsun Hsii, whose work has been highly commended. A landscape painting in the style of Hsun Hsii was made by the Emperor Hui Tsung, and it discloses amuch higher grade of artistic conception than that displayed by his teacher. The Emperor Ming Ti (a.d. 3x4-16) was, according to the Hua Shih of Mi Fei, a painter of no mean parts. The Cheng Kuan Record mentions eight pic¬ tures painted by that emperor, but of these only one, “The Feast of Mu Wang at the Yao Pond” (Mu Tien Tzu Yen Yao Ch'ih ), survived for several EARLY PAINTERS 47 generations. Ming Ti is known in the records of pictorial art by his family name, Ssu-ma Shao, or Ssu-ma Tao-chi. He was a pupil of Wang I, himself a famous artist, and the first of a long line of distinguished painters having the surname Wang. In the collection of Ching Hsien, Peking, is a scroll called “The Two Lights” (Erb Kuan), in which a red sun is setting in the west and a full moon rising in the east. The annotations of this painting claim that it is a copy of an original painting made by the Emperor Ming Ti. The only genuine interpretation of his style that is now in existence is that made by the Emperor Hui Tsung in his “Copies of Ancient Paintings” (Hsiian Ho Ling Ku). In this reproduction of Ming Ti’s style, Hui Tsung depicts what appears to be a scene on the river to the east of Nanking. A scholar is seated in a rude pavilion surrounded by trees behind which high hills stretch up. In his annotation attached to this painting Hui Tsung says that the Emperor Ming Ti in his beautiful sketches of scenery around Nan¬ king equaled in execution the work of the later great landscapists, Tung Yuan and Chii Jan. Although among the early Chinese painters Ku K’ai-chih is not usually ranked by Chinese authorities as the greatest, among foreign students of Chinese pictorial art he stands supreme. This position is accorded to him largely for the reason that early reproductions of his work have survived to our time, and in this respect he stands alone among ancient painters. He was a man of brilliant parts, and the Hsiian Ho Hua P'u credits him with three kinds of unusual ability. It says that he was the greatest painter, the greatest raconteur, and the greatest genius of the early dynasties. Little is known of his life. He was a native of Wu-sih in Kiangsu Province, but the date of his birth is uncertain. In the history of the Chin dynasty it is said that his father, Ku Yiieh-chih, was of the same age as the Emperor ChienWen Ti, who was born in a.d. 3x0. We also know that Ku K’ai-chih was assisted in his early career by Huan Wen and later by Yin Chung-k’an. Ku K’ai-chih was probably born about the middle of the fourth century, and died in the early years of the fifth. The Chin History says that he lived to be sixty- two years of age. It is therefore probable that Ku’s lifetime was from about a.d. 350 to 412.. Another version is given by Wu Jung-kuang in his “Biogra- CHINESE PAINTING phies of Noted Men” (Li Tai Ming ]tn Nien Fu\ who places the date of the death of Ku K’ai-chih as the first year of the Emperor Huang Hsing Qa.d. 467) of the Wei dynasty, the cyclical year Ping-wu, and says that he was then seventy-six. This would make the date of the birth of Ku K ai-c 1 as 191 but this statement of Wu Jung-kuang is at variance with the gener¬ ally accepted tradition that Ku K’ai-chih lived during the Chin dynasty. In accordance with the general custom of assigning a man to the dynasty during which he died rather than the one in which he was born, it is evi¬ dent that Ku K’ai-chih, who is always placed in the Chin dynasty, died as well as lived during that dynasty. Wu Jung-kuang probably postdate by sixty years the death of Ku K’ai-chih as having occurred in the Ping-wu year In addition to his literary accomplishments he was a constant trav¬ eler. He went as far west as the Lii Shan in Kiangsi Province and painted views of these famous mountains. He also visited the eastern part of Che¬ kiang Province which was then known as Kuei-chi. On his return someone asked him about the appearance of the mountains and the water courses of Kuei-chi. Ku K’ai-chih replied that ‘‘a thousand peaks were struggling with beauty; ten thousand abysses were rivaling them with their torrents; the plants and trees covered everything like a rising cloud or like heavy mists.” He chose a wide range of subjects for his paintings. The high qual¬ ity of his famous painting of Wei Mo caused him to be regarded in the Hsiian Ho Collection as pre-eminently a painter of religious subjects. His portraits of famous people were renowned, and his landscape paintings were considered by early art critics to have been wonderful. He left his opinions on painting in a brochure called “Compendium on Painting” (Hua Fing). This essay treats chiefly of the difficulties of painting portraits and animals. It insists upon the necessity of radiant life in the pictures and thus forms the basis of the first of the Six Canons of painting which were formulated at a later period. The essay also refers to landscape painting in which fidelity to nature is considered to be a most important element. One of the highest tributes to Ku K’ai-chih is given by Chang Yen-yuan in his essay on the “Records of Famous Painters” (Li Tai Ming Hua Chi'). He refers to the spirituality of Ku’s pictures in comparison with those of Chang Seng-yu and EARLY PAINTERS Lu Tan-wei, and says that Chang could paint flesh and Lu could paint bones, but only Ku could paint the spirit. There are four well-known pictures in existence which bear the name of Ku K’ai-chih. One of these is the picture of “Eminent Women” (Lieh Nu), which is in the Imperial Collection of the Manchu dynasty at Peking. One critic suggests that this painting is the same as “The Admonitions of an Imperial Preceptress” (Nu Shih Chen), in which there are many female figures, but this view is not sustained by other critics. This picture of “Eminent Women” represents many who were famous in the early tradi¬ tions of China and whose portraits can be seen in the well-known book called “Records of Eminent Women” (Lieh Nu Chuan ). Another well-known painting of this artist is the scroll now belonging to the British Museum and known as “The Admonitions of an Imperial Preceptress” (Nu Shih Chen). The general character of this painting, the scenes depicted, and the surpassing excellence of its workmanship have been well described by Laurence Binyon in the Burlington Magazine, Jan¬ uary, 1904. This scroll was reproduced in a colored woodcut in 1911, and the reproduction is so well done that it is possible for one who cannot examine the original to make a detailed study of this painting at leisure. Fortunately for me, in February, 1914, through the courtesy of Mr. Binyon, I was afforded the rare privilege of making a careful study of the original scroll. This examination was sufficient to determine the quality of the silk, to note the colors, and to attest the faithful reproduction of the seals, inscriptions, and colophons as a preliminary for further study of the beauti¬ ful reproduction. In company with a group of well-known art critics in Peking, such as Ching Hsien, King Kung-pa, Feng En-k’un, and others, I have studied the woodcut reproduction of this scroll. It illustrates some of the historical incidents referred to by Chang Hua who wrote the “Admoni¬ tions” during the reign of Hui Ti (a.d. 2.90-306) of the Western Chin dy¬ nasty. These incidents were such as that of Fan Chi, who was able by her abstinence from animal food to influence her husband, Prince Chuang, to give up his fondness for the chase. Another is that of the Lady of Wei, who refused to listen to her husband, Huan Kung, while he sang the licentious 5 ° CHINESE PAINTING Od,s of Chins Which arc recorded in the Shih Kins, Book VII. The next event is that of Empress flag who boldly faced a bear which had escaped fro S cage nd was about to attack the emperor. Following this rs the story of the court favorite, Pan Chieh-yu, who declined the emperor s mvrtation to ride at his side in his chariot. These women were chosen or ^ration in this scroll on account of their eminent virtue and ^xampks of the in of obedience recommended in the “Admonitions of Chang Hua. As trative of the temper of the times in which Ku K ai-chih lived, the folio ing translation of the ‘ ‘ Admonitions’ ’ is given: . . __ •■No way has ever been prosperous that has not come to adversity; every living thing has flourished only later to decay. In a day changes come and at the waxing of the moon affairs sink into insignificance. A high i is as a heap of dirt; changes come with the suddenness of a released trigger. Men understand to a certain extent how to improve their own dispositions Without improvement of disposition they are liable to overstep the laws of propriety. By cleaving and carving they can set themselves to becoming holy. If they speak with discretion, people for a thousand It follow their advice, but if the laws of righteousness are set aside, even in conjugal re a- tions there is suspicion. They use words as if it were a trifling matter, an yet their glory or their shame is judged thereby. Do not talk of secrecy, for Heaven peers into things which have not yet taken shape. Do not talk o black emptiness, for the gods hear even when there are no sounds. Do not boast of your glory. God’s truth hates self-sufficiency. Do not presume upon your high position, for the most prosperous come to naught. When the small stars of the early morning are mirrored in the sky, follow my warnings and you will be abundantly blessed with children according to the desires of your heart. Your prosperity should never become rudeness nor your riches be enjoyed selfishly. Selfishness begets neglect. If you love only the choicest favors they will disappear; your abundance will perish. This is a fixed law. Beauty should be natural. When it is artificial it brings trouble upon itself. A bewitching countenance that tries to show itself is always detested by a man of breeding. Closely knitted benignity will dis¬ appear and this will be the cause of it. Therefore there is the saying respect- r ; • ... £* ■***&*" : kof jiter J* n- A 'ra«t- A LANDSCAPE, STYLE OF KU K'AI-CHIH EARLY PAINTERS 5 1 ful and careful.’ Thus will your happiness be complete; tranquillity and respect will be in your own thoughts and your honor will be resplendent. These admonitions prescribed by an Imperial Preceptress are boldly ad¬ dressed to all ladies of the Palace.” As to the age of this scroll, it seems to me probable that it dates from the T ang dynasty. In the records of the paintings in the collection of the Emperor Chien Lung (Hsi Ch'ing Tsa Chi , III, zz), conflicting comments concerning it are recorded. These comments are as follows: “According to the Hua Shih of Mi Fei [Sung dynasty] the painting ‘Admonitions’ by Ku K’ai-chih is in the form of a scroll. It is full of life, brilliantly colored and executed with fine lines.Chen Chi-ju, author of Ni Ku Lu [Yuan dynasty], speaking of the painting ‘Admonitions’ said that he had seen it at Wu-men [Soochow]. It was generally spoken of as the work of Ku K’ai- chih, but in reality it was painted early in the Sung dynasty.The author of Hsi Ch'ing Tsa Chi adds his own comment that ‘upon further investigation it was found that this scroll, although painted in the splendid style of ancient times, was not the handiwork of Ku K’ai-chih, but was a copy by a T’ang artist.’ ” The commentator adds that the comment of Chen Chi-ju to the effect that it was a Sung dynasty copy was unfounded, meaning thereby that in his opinion this scroll is a T’ang painting and therefore earlier than the Sung. This opinion is confirmed by a careful study of the seals which had been impressed on various parts of the scroll. In all there are one hundred and twenty of these, and I have carefully examined each of them. With the assistance of the friends whose names I have mentioned, I have been able to recognize two seals which belong to the middle part of the T’ang dynasty. There are twenty seals belonging to the Sung dynasty, most of them being seals of the Emperor Hui Tsung or of his household department. There are two seals of Chia Ssu-tao who lived at the close of the Sung dynasty and held high official position. He was a noted art critic, and his opinions on early paintings are given great weight by early writers. After this scroll passed into the possession of Hsiang Yiian-pien of the Ming dynasty, it was literally plastered with his seals and those of his family, there being no less than fifty-four of them. The Emperor CHINESE PAINTING Ch’ien Lung added to the disfigurement by placing on it twenty seals. There are also on the scroll two seals of the eminent collector and critic. An I-chou, and five of Liang Tsang-yen, the owner, who presented it to the Emperor Ch’ien Lung. The signature of K’uai-chih was evidently placed on it by the household department of the Emperor Hui Tsung when he included it in his collection, for it was not the custom at the time of Ku K ai-chih to sign paintings. The silk on which this scroll is painted is of fine texture and is of the same quality as that used in the T’ang dynasty. It was prepare for use by the copyist himself who sized it and then beat it with a flat stick until the texture was softened and thickened, thus making a flat surface for the brush. The style of this painting, according to all of the critics who have seen it, agrees with what one would expect from an artist of the early period to which Ku K’ai-chih belongs. The design and brushwork of this painting are the earliest types now in existence as far as is known either to Chinese or foreign scholarship. Although it does not seem to me that this scroll can be considered an original, or that it can be dated earlier than the middle of the T’ang dynasty, its beauty and charm are in no way dependent upon its age. From the recorded descriptions of the paintings of Ku K’ai- chih there can be no doubt that this scroll is a correct interpretation of his style. The comment of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung on this scroll is full of interest: “Ku K’ai-chih of the Chin dynasty excelled in painting. He himself used the phrase ‘ the interpretation of feeling really lies in this, from which we know that one who has not entered into the mysteries could not attain unto such ability. This scroll ‘The Admonitions of an Imperial Preceptress’ has been handed down for more than ten centuries, yet its feeling and color¬ ing are still fresh and its expression is full of life. It could not have been equaled by the strenuous efforts of a later artist. In his colophon on the picture ‘The Hsiao and Hsiang’ by Li Po-shih, Tung Hsiang-kuan says that Secretary Ku had in his collection four famous scrolls of which this is the very best. I quite believe this. This picture was previously in the Imperial Collection, and later there were obtained these pictures by Li, viz., ‘ A River in Shu,’ ‘The Nine Songs’ and ‘The Hsiao and Hsiang.’ Thus the number EARLY PAINTERS 53 tallies with that of the famous scrolls mentioned by Tung in his colophon. As they were transferred into the Ching-i Pavilion of the Chien-fu Palace, I wrote an honorary inscription referring to these scrolls as ‘The Four Beautiful Objects,’ thus recording my profound delight in them. The for¬ tunate collection of treasures of remote antiquity in one place is beyond the bounds of expectation. I have recorded these few superficial words so that also I might felicitate these scrolls as ‘The United Swords.’ An impe¬ rial inscription written in the Ching-i Pavilion five days before the summer solstice of the Ping-yin year of Ch’ien Lung.” The genealogy of‘‘The Admonitions” scroll is traced as follows: Hsiian Ho Collection.Eleventh century Hsiang Yiian-pien.Fifteenth century An I-chou.Seventeenth century Liang Tsang-yen.Eighteenth century Imperial Collection of Ch’ien Lung... .Eighteenth century British Museum.Nineteenth century In the catalogue of paintings belonging to the Manchu dynasty and now stored in the former palace, which was prepared in 19x1, mention is made of a scroll by Ku K’ai-chih called by the same title as that which is now in the British Museum. It is quite possible that these two scrolls were made about the same time in the T’ang dynasty, and that, having passed through the hands of various collectors, they were brought together by the Emperor Ch’ien Lung. This opinion is corroborated by the records of collections in the various dynasties. In the collection of Mi Fei (a.d. 1051-1107) there was a copy of‘‘The Admonitions,” by Ku K’ai-chih. In the collection of Chao Meng-fu (a.d. 1154-13x1) a scroll with this title was also found. The famous statesman of the Ming dynasty, Yen Sung, who died a.d. 1568, had a scroll which bore the name of‘‘The Admonitions,” but was not assigned to Ku K’ai-chih. It is stated that this scroll was painted by ‘‘someone in the Chin dynasty” (Chin Jen). As it was the custom of Mi Fei, Chao Meng- fu, and Yen Sung to affix their seals to paintings owned by them, the omis¬ sion of the seals of these three collectors from the British Museum scroll 54 CHINESE PAINTING was mysterious to me until the recently published catalogue announced that there is another scroll of this same name in the Imperial Collection The scroll which was in the possession of these three great collectors is probably not the one which is now in the British Museum; otherwise it would bear some of their seals. . This opinion is also supported by certain differences which exist between the British Museum scroll and the one described by An I-chou in Mo Yuan Hui Kuan, and also described in Ta Kuan Lu. As to the order of the scenes depicted both books agree that the first scene is that of the Empress Feng, the second that of the hill, and the third that of Pan Chieh-yu. The order followed in the scroll of the British Museum is: first, the Empress Fang; second, Pan Chieh-yu; and third, the hill. In the hill scene there is another discrepancy, for neither of these two books records that there is a phoenix in the sun or a reflection in the moon, and in addition to this the Ta Kuan Lu mentions in this scene twelve stars typified by animals which are not found in the Museum scroll. A third difference is found in the statement of both books that “The Admonitions” are written in eleven lines, whereas in the Museum scroll these occupy fourteen lines, not counting the short ones. Another difference is found in the statement of the Ta Kuan Lu that in all there are twenty-seven persons in the scroll including servants; in the Mu¬ seum scroll there are forty persons. The Ta Kuan Lu also says that The Admonitions” were written in the Hsiao Kai characters, whereas in the Museum scroll they are written in Ta K’ai style. There is also a difference in the text of two characters: one in the writing of the second character of Pan Chieh, and the other where the Museum scroll gives Tao Chia; the Ta Kuan Lu follows Chang Hua’s text in making these two characters Tao Wang. The differences between the records of these two authorities and the Museum scroll add further testimony to the fact which has been recently established by the new catalogue of the Imperial Collection. It is now cer¬ tain that whereas one scroll with the title ‘ ‘ The Admonitions’ ’ by Ku K ai- chih is known to have been carried to England by an imperial commissioner and found its way into the British Museum, there remains in the Imperial Collection another copy of a painting by Ku K’ai-chih with the same title. EARLY PAINTERS 55 This knowledge has only been made possible by the recent preparation of this catalogue. This lengthy discussion of a single scroll would seem disproportionate in a book of this character unless it were explained that I have used it as an illustration of the manner in which the authenticity of Chinese paintings can be traced. One must study the style of artists and be familiar with the carefully prepared records of great collections; the seals of owners and ob¬ servers must be verified, comments from books brought together, and the annotations on the painting itself carefully studied. By following this method accurate conclusions can be reached concerning the most important paintings. There is no need of wandering through a mysterious maze in the attempt to find out the truth about pictures which come under one’s obser¬ vation. They can be attested in the way which I have followed in discussing “The Admonitions’’ scroll of Ku K’ai-chih. Another well-known scroll attributed to Ku K’ai-chih is in the Freer Gallery, Washington. The name given to this scroll by its former owner is Lo-shen T’u. Lo-shen, goddess of the Lo, is the name of Fu Fei, the daughter of a legendary emperor, Fu Hsi. She threw herself into the Lo River and became a goddess. This episode is the subject of a well-known poem by Ts’ao Chih of the Wei dynasty. The late Mr. Wang Han-fu, who was an excellent critic, considered that this scroll was not meant to describe the Lo-shen goddess and that it should be correctly described as “The River Excursion of Mu Wang” (Mu Wang Yu Ho Tti). There is much to support this opinion, for the subject of the Lo-shen goddess has been treated by other artists in a very different manner from that of the Freer Gallery scroll. This scroll was formerly in the collection of Tuan Fang, and after his death was sold to Mr. Charles L. Freer, to whom Tuan Fang had once shown it when Mr. Freer visited him in the vice-regal yamen at Nanking. It is diffi¬ cult to determine when this scroll was produced. The first annotation is one by Tung Ch’i-ch’ang (a.d. 1555-1635). In this annotation Tung Ch’i-ch’ang states that the earlier annotations had been cut off from the scroll and sug¬ gests that it may have been for the reason that they contained characters were prohibited in the hfing dynasty, or that the comments were CHINESE PAINTING 56 considered improper. He further states that this scroll was presented by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, Hung Wu, as a gift to an official, and that when he saw it the original label had already been lost. He adds that this scroll and also 'The Admonitions owned by Hsiang Yiian-pien, were genuine specimens of the work of Ku K’ai-chih. A well-known com¬ mentator in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Yang Shou-ching, says that “in the Hua Tuan of Chang Huai-kuan thirty paintings by Ku K’ai- chih are mentioned. In the Cheng Kuan Kung Ssu Hua Shih of P’ei Hsiao-yiian it is stated that the Emperor Ming Ti of the Chin dynasty painted a scroll which bore the name of this picture. It is probable therefore that the label attributing this scroll to Ku K’ai-chih was written by the former owner, Liang Chiao-ling, and that he was mistaken in attributing it to Ku K’ai- chih.’’ This scroll was highly prized by Tuan Fang, who added a second label to which he attached the comment: “This is a rare treasure’’ (Hsi Shih chih pao). The fourth scroll attributed to Ku K’ai-chih is found in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It is a landscape painting depicting the hills of Kuei- chi which are located in the eastern part of Chekiang province. Ku K’ai- chih is known to have visited this district, and in the Su Hua P’ing, written in the sixth century a.d., two pictures by Ku K’ai-chih are mentioned bear¬ ing the title “The Customs of Yiieh.” Yiieh is the early name for the east¬ ern part of Chekiang Province in which the Kuei-chi Hills are located. On the face of the painting is an authentic inscription by the Emperor Hsiian Ho, as follows: “The art of Ku K’ai-chih is well known by his paintings of human figures. There are many paintings of Ku K’ai-chih such as the Lo-shen, ‘ Nine Songs,’ and figures of different fairies and Buddhists, but this landscape scroll is considered his best. As he has wandered among the hills of Kuei- chi for many years he is familiar with every peak and valley. This has en¬ abled him to paint the landscape in a supernatural way. Therefore, I believe strongly in the sayings of Mr. Ch’en Yao-tsui that the art of Ku K’ai-chih runs independently and boldly along, and it is quite impossible to find another artist to compete with him. Ku Ka’i-chih once sent a painting to EARLY PAINTERS 57 Huan Nan-chiin in a sealed parcel. It was stolen by the bearer, but the seal of the parcel was untouched. Then Ku said to himself that the sacred painting had flown away like a cicada’s casting off of its exuviae. I quite recognize the appropriateness of his expressions.” The earliest seal on this painting is that of Cheng Kuan, which was the title of the reign of the Emperor T’ai Tsung (a.d. 6x7-50) of the T’ang dy¬ nasty. There are several seals of the Emperor Hsiian Ho, seals of Chia Ssu-tao of the Sung dynasty, one seal of Hsiang Yiian-pien, and several seals of Wang Shih-cheng. This scroll came into the possession of the Ch’en family of Wei-hsien, Shantung. While Tuan Fang was viceroy at Nanking it was offered to him for 10,000 Taels. A friend of the viceroy urged him not to buy it, and said that he himself would secure it and then present it to the viceroy. Before the negotiations were finished Tuan Fang was transferred to Tientsin, and this scroll was not presented to him. Later it was offered for sale in Peking through the Ju Ku shop, and was purchased by me for the Metropolitan Museum for $4,000 (Mex.; about $x,ooo U.S.). In the opinion of all the connoisseurs in Peking whom I invited to examine this scroll before purchasing it, and who had seen the Lo-shen scroll as well as the reproduction of‘‘The Admonitions,” this landscape scroll of Ku K’ai- chih was pronounced to be the best of the three. It has the thick black-ink dots representing trees on the landscape, and this is a well-known character¬ istic of early T’ang paintings. In my opinion this scroll is one of those re¬ productions of early paintings made by the Emperor T’ai Tsung at the be¬ ginning of the T’ang dynasty. This opinion is corroborated by comparison with a painting in ‘‘Copies of Ancient Paintings” of Hsiian Ho in which the treatment of the trees, hills, and buildings is the same as that of the ‘‘Hills of Kuei-chi” scroll. With Ku K’ai-chih are associated two other early artists, Lu T’an-wei of the Liu Sung dynasty and Chang Seng-yu of the Liang dynasty. Fortu¬ nately, two early reproductions of the work of these masters have been preserved. ‘‘The Lion and Barbarians’’ (Ssu Tzu Chen Hsing) is a large paint¬ ing on silk, four feet five inches in height, and six feet four and one-half inches in width. In the Ming dynasty this painting belonged to the famous 5 g CHINESE PAINTING collection of Sung Lo. In recent years it was in the collection of the late Viceroy Tuan Fang where I first saw it. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 the painting disappeared but was recovered from the home of a servant who had not, however, been able to preserve the inscription on the border writ¬ ten by Wang Yiian-t’ing. It is now in the collection of Mr. Charles L. Deering, of Chicago. The circumstances under which this painting was produced have been narrated by Su Shih, the poet (a.d. 1036-1101), in his comments on the Chiao-hsi Kai-kung Hall. From these comments we learn that there was a painting by Lu T’an-wei, who lived in the Liu Sung dynasty of the fifth century in the Kan Lu Temple at Jun-chow. The modern name of this temple is Ch’ao An Ssil, and it stands on the Pei Ku Hills in Tan-tu Hsien near Chin-kiang. This painting was preserved carefully in the midst of the many devastating wars which laid waste the countryside. The Em¬ peror Hsi Ning (a.d. 1068-78) of the Northern Sung dynasty heard of this noted painting and commanded a member of the Imperial Academy of Painting to go to the temple and make a copy of it. This was in a.d. 1076. When it was completed and brought to the palace, the emperor had it hung in his banqueting hall and wrote the following eulogy in its honor: “Haughty are the eyes, prominent is the nose, with ruffled mane and swollen tongue, his teeth slightly protrude. The feet are dancing, the ears are pricked up, he looks to the right and watches to the left. He is pleased with the appearance of his tail. Though fierce yet he is gentle. Such play¬ fulness hung in the Main Hall has the effect of adding a guest to the festive board. Alas! a hundred wandering souls drop into oblivion while the early Master Lu remains wonderful.’’ The style of Chang Seng-yu has been preserved in a scroll called ‘ ‘ Brush¬ ing the Elephant” (Sao Hsiang T’«), or “Washing the Elephant” (Hsi Hsiang Tu). This is a scroll on early paper with a length of twenty- seven inches and a height of fourteen and one-half inches. It probably be¬ longs to the T’ang dynasty, though it has long been assigned to Chang Seng-yu of the Liang dynasty. It was owned in the Yuan dynasty by the artist Ch’ien Hsiian, as is attested by his seal on the scroll and confirmed by the statement of Wu Ch’eng (a.d. 1x47-1311), who says in his Yiin Hsi A SIESTA, STYLE OF CHANG SENG-YU EARLY PAINTERS 59 Collection that Ch’ien Hsiian had in his possession a picture made by Chang Seng-yu. Wu Ch’eng’s description agrees in every detail with this scroll, and there can be no doubt that this is the identical picture referred to by him. It is known that Ch’ien Hsiian himself made a copy of this scroll, and this copy is now in the Freer Gallery. I have also seen several other copies. There has been much difference of opinion among Chinese critics as to whether or not this painting should be ascribed to such an early period as Liang, but there can be no hesitation in referring it at least to the T’ang or early Sung period. The subject of the scroll is the Buddhistic ceremony of brushing or washing the white elephant brought to China from India. The foreshortening of the elephant, the dignity and strength of the figures, the grace of the flowing garments, the richness of the red coloring, combine to produce a thrilling effect. Among the paintings shown by the Manchu household during the ex¬ hibition in aid of the Shansi famine relief fund, May 14-16, 1913, was one attributed to the co-operation of two artists of the Sui dynasty, Chan Tzii- ch’ien and Tung Po-jen. It represents three mounted men standing in front of a gate half opened by a servant. Inside a thatched fence is a small pavilion in which a man is seated. The seated figure is that of Chu-ko Liang, who led a life of retirement in a reed hut which was thrice visited by Liu Pei before he was granted an interview. This picture is on paper and is richly colored. It was probably produced during the Sung or Yuan dynasty. The paintings discussed in this chapter are all T’ang or Sung reproduc¬ tions, and were made at a date subsequent to some of those which remain to be described in following chapters; but they are supposedly accurate inter¬ pretations of the style of ancient artists. It is possible that as excavations proceed, specimens of mural paintings will be discovered. The Shih Ku T'ang gives a list of forty-seven temples during the period extending from the beginning of the Chin dynasty (a.d. 2.65) to the close of the Sui (a.d. 6x8), in which there were many mural paintings by noted artists. In Nan¬ king was the Wa Kuan Temple with mural paintings by Ku K’ai-chih and Chang Seng-yu; in Ching-chou, Hupeh province, were the Lung K’uan Temple with paintings by Shih Tao-shih, the Hui Chi Temple with paint- C7 6o CHINESE PAINTING ings by Chang S4ng-yu, and the Chung Sh 4 ng Temple with paintings by Tung Po-jen; and in Hsi-an, Shensi Province, there were several temples with noted mural paintings. During the Tang dynasty such paintings were especially popular in Cheng-tu, capital of Ssfi-ch'uan Province It is said that all of the ninety-six halls of the Sheng TziS Temple in Cheng-tu had mural paintings of gods and saints. Such paintings were placed on sur¬ faces which had been carefully prepared so that it is entirely probable that remains of them will be found. I I | V PAINTERS OF THE T’ANG DYNASTY A FTER a long period of dissension and division lasting for more than three hundred years, the T’ang dynasty was founded by the bril- liant Li Shih-min. His father, Li Yiian, was nominally the first emperor of that dynasty, but his rebellion against the Sui dynasty and his short reign of eight years were in the control of his second son, Li Shih-min, who, in reality, was the founder of the dynasty. During his father’s reign he held the nominal position of Prince of Ch’in, and is still frequently re¬ ferred to by this title. It was he who crushed the military activities of Li Mi, Tou Chien-te, and others, and disposed of his two brothers who plotted against him. In 62.6 his father abdicated in his favor, and from that time the new emperor, who is known in history as T’ai Tsung, began a reign more illustrious than almost any other in Chinese history. He stamped out internal rebellions, extended the borders of the empire, encouraged litera¬ ture and art, lightened the taxes of the people, and did all in his power to promote public welfare. The influence of the founder of the dynasty extend¬ ed throughout its history of three hundred years. During this period poets and authors, writers and artists, flourished in the empire. The earlier cul¬ ture of China was preserved, and large contributions were made toward its further development. One of the first artists of this dynasty was Wei-ch’ih I-seng, a native of Khotan. He was recommended to the emperor by his prince and remained in the court for many years. His painting of “The Heavenly King” (T'ien Wang Hsiang) is one of the earliest paintings preserved to our times. Ac¬ cording to the Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang, there were two copies of this picture, one in black and white and the other colored. The records state that the highly colored picture was done on silk, but make no mention of the ma¬ terial on which the black-and-white painting was made. Probably this lat- 61 * 62 CHINESE PAINTING ter one was done on paper. The black-and-white copy is in the Palace Col¬ lection, and the colored one is in the Freer Gallery at Washington. Both were originally in the form of hanging pictures, but during the Northern Sung dynasty were changed into scrolls. The colored copy on silk belonged to the collection of Hsiang Yiian-pien of the Ming dynasty, and lacked the early annotations and seals found on the black-and-white copy. These were added to the colored painting by Chang Ch’ou, who suggests that the former annotations and seals had been detached from the scroll during remounting. As far as I have been able to ascertain there has been no discussion among art critics as to which of these two paintings, the colored or the black and white one, is earlier. It is quite possible that they were produced at the same time; if not, they were doubtless in the same style of execution, otherwise they would not have been placed together by the art critics of the Ming and Manchu dynasties. The painting which is in the Freer Collection is an excellent piece of composition, coloring, and design. The Heavenly King is seated in the center surrounded by male and female attendants as well as by strange animals and birds. Among the animals the lion is the most conspicuous, so that by some critics this painting is called by the name of “The Heavenly King and the Lions’’ (T'ien Wang Ssu-tzu Hsiang). Wei- ch’ih I-seng is the first Chinese painter to whom is assigned the use of chiaroscuro (tich wa). It is said that looked at from a distance paits of his painting stood out as if they were in relief, and only by a close examination could it be ascertained that the painting had a flat surface. Several specimens of the work of Yen Li-pen were extant in the Ming dynasty and are now in the collection at the Manchu Palace. One of these was shown at the exhibition in the Central Park held in May, 1923. The title of this picture is ‘ ‘ Hsiao I Stealing the Lan T’ing Manuscript’ ’ (Hsiao 1 Chuan Lan Ting Tu). It cannot be considered an original, for the silk on which the painting is made is distinctly of the Ming dynasty type as are also the ink and colors used. The historical event told in this picture is that of Hsiao I, a petty official during the reign of the Emperor T’ai Tsung. This man tried in every conceivable way to obtain possession for the em¬ peror of the celebrated Lan T’ing manuscript written by Wang Hsi-chih. PAINTERS OF THE T’ANO DYNASTY 63 The manuscript was in the possession of a grandson of Wang Hsi-chih who had become a Buddhist priest. After many unsuccessful attempts Hsiao I went one day to the temple where Wang Hsi-chih’s grandson was a priest and took with him a poor copy of this manuscript. He showed it to the priest who proceeded to comment upon the errors of writing which he saw in the manuscript brought by Hsiao I. Upon being asked how he could detect these errors the priest disclosed the fact that he had the original manuscript in his possession. Hsiao I then proposed to compare the copy which he brought with the original. The priest consented and brought the manuscript from its hiding place back of an image where he had concealed it. As the room was dark Hsiao I suggested taking the two manuscripts out into the courtyard where there was better light, he himself holding the original and the priest the copy. While the priest was off his guard, Hsiao I bolted with the original. A good specimen of the work of Yen Li-pen is “The Tribute Bearers” (Chih Kung Tu), which has been frequently displayed in the Wen Hua Tien exhibition rooms of the palace. According to the Hsiian Ho Hua P’u, there were four copies of this painting in the Hsiian Ho Collection. This picture is in the form of a scroll about six feet in length and eighteen inches in height. It represents the bearers of tribute coming to the palace with vari¬ ous types of offerings which are to be presented to the emperor. The figures are about seven inches in height. There are two large lions and several small ones. There is a peculiar animal with the head of a tiger and the body of a bear. There are also horses, mules, and camels. Some of the figures are mounted, some are standing in groups. Across the face of the picture are six large characters written by the Emperor Hui Tsung, stating that this is the picture ‘ ‘ Tribute Bearers, ” by Yen Li-pen (Yen Li-pen Chib Kung Tu). There are several seals of this emperor such as the double-dragon rectangular seal, Hsiian Ho, Ta Kuan, Cheng Ho, and Hsiian Ho Tien Yin. There is also the gourd-shaped seal, Yiieh-seng, of Chia Ssu-tao. This is a noble picture. It is meant to represent the great influence of the T’ang dynasty in extending the borders of the empire so as to include all of the outlying barbarian tribes. Several other paintings by this same artist are included in early CHINESE PAINTING 64 catalogues, and all of them have subjects relating to the far-flung conquests of the great founder of the T’ang dynasty. Wu Tao-yuan, who is generally known as Wu Tao-tzii, is the outstand¬ ing figure among the artists of the T’ang dynasty. This position was due in some measure to his fondness for painting religious subjects. Such pic¬ tures were very popular during that dynasty which witnessed the rise of Taoism as an organized religion and also a wide dissemination of Buddhis¬ tic influence. It was an age in which religious ideas held sway, and Wu Tao- tzii became their interpreter and transmitter. His black-and-white painting on paper in the form of a scroll, “The Presentation of Buddha” (Tun Wang Sung Tzu), or, as it is sometimes called, “The Birth of Buddha (Sloth Chia Chiang Sing), is in the collection of Mr. Ching Hsien, Peking. In the center of this scroll is seated Siva, Tzu Tsai, behind whom stand his attendants. At his left and right are guardian^. The guardian at the left is seated on a dragon which is drawn in vigorous lines. Contrary to the usual conven¬ tions, the tail of the dragon is not flattened out or curled, but stands almost perpendicular. One figure is mounted on its neck, and another is running at the side, holding in both hands a rope attached to a bit in its mouth. This dragon with its two figures exhibits surpassing boldness in design and strength in execution, these being the two characteristics of the paintings of that great artist. There are two guardians at the right, both of them semi¬ human figures holding snakes in their hands. The last part of the scroll represents the father of Buddha, Suddhodana, and his mother, Maya, walk¬ ing away with their newly born infant carried in the arms of his father. This is not in accordance with the usual tradition which states that the mother of Buddha lost her life at the birth of her son, but Wu Tao-tzii never allowed himself to be trammeled by tradition. He painted not only with freedom of brush, but also of ideas. He only followed tradition when it suited his purpose, and never allowed himself to become a slave to it. This scroll is one of the most remarkable specimens of early Chinese paint¬ ing that has been preserved to our times. Li Kung-lin, the great artist of the Sung dynasty, wrote an annotation at the end of the painting and attached to it his seal, Lung-mien Chii-shih. In this annotation Li quotes the Jui PAINTERS OF THE T’ANG DYNASTY 65 Ying Buddhist classic concerning the carrying of Buddha to the temple of Siva by his father, on which occasion all of the lesser gods paid their hom¬ age to the child who was to become the great Buddha, “Heaven in the Midst of Heaven” (Tien Chung Tien). This annotation is the best-known specimen of the handwriting of the great artist Li Kung-lin. During the Ming dynasty this scroll passed into the hands of Han Ts’un-liang when it was seen by Chang Ch’ou, author of Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang. It is mentioned in Shih Ku Tang and by many other standard authorities. Another great painting by this artist is that of the Goddess of Mercy (Kuan Yin). A copy of it is in the possession of Mr. Augustus Vincent Tack, the distinguished mural painter. The thick paper on which this picture was painted was that used both in the T’ang and Sung dynasties. The paper has been treated with flour (blanc de Chine ) and glue before the painting was done. The signature is “T’ang Wu Tao-tzu Pi,” i.e., the brush of Wu Tao- tzu of the T’ang dynasty. Such a use of the name of the dynasty under which he lived was not unusual in the T’ang dynasty and does not furnish any reason for doubting the genuineness of the signature. However, the use of the word “brush” instead of “painted by” (hua or hui), or “produced by” (chih), together with the name of the dynasty, would suggest that the in¬ scription “ T’ang Wu Tao-tzu Pi” was intended to convey the idea that the painting is in the style of Wu. We know from the Hsiian Ho Hua P'u that Wu painted two pictures of Kuan Yin, and that Chu Yu, a painter at the close of the T’ang dynasty, also painted three pictures of Kuan Yin. Chu Yu was a disciple of Wu and followed his methods closely; it was said at the time that his work could not be distinguished from Wu’s. My conclusion is that this painting is the work of Chu Yu, who added the ascription to Wu Tao-tzu; though it must be said that there is no reason, in the quality of the paper, in the colors used, in the bold outlines of the drawing, or in the inscription, why the painting should not be the work of Wu Tao-tzu him¬ self. At any rate, it is a magnificent specimen of painting. Several notable paintings of Wu Tao-tzu have been reproduced on stone. In Chii-fu, the birthplace of Confucius, is a stone on which a painting by Wu Tao-tzu of Confucius is engraved. At the top of the stone are seven 66 CHINESE PAINTING characters signifying that this is a portrait of The Ancient Master, Con fucius, Teaching” (Hsien Shih K'ung T%u Hsing Chiao Hsiang'). At the bot¬ tom of the left-hand side is the signature “T’ang Wu Tao-tzd Pi,’ which is the same as that on the painting of Kuan Yin mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Under the signature is a square seal containing the four charac¬ ters Wu Tao-Pgu Yin. In this picture Confucius is wearing the long flowing robes and the small cap of an official of the Chow dynasty with a sword suspended at his side. His lips are parted in a broad smile; the left hand is grasping the fingers of the right hand, both of them being held up in front of him. The second stone is in the yamen formerly used by the prefect of Cheng-tu, Ssu-ch’ilan. It represents the struggle of a tortoise with a snake, the body of the snake being twirled around that of the tortoise. A third representation on stone is in the Freer Gallery and was formerly exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. A picture of the Goddess of Mercy in her most gracious mood is incised on a flat surface. The accom¬ panying inscription is beautifully written. This stone was found in the place where, during the Sung dynasty, the famous garden of the Liu family was located at Nanking, a short distance west of the present buildings of the University of Nanking. When it was discovered it was being used for washing purposes by women of the district who pounded their clothes with a stick on its flat surface. Liu Shang is remembered from his portrait of Kuo Tzu-i now in the St. Louis Museum. This is a full-length portrait in black and white done on paper. It came from the collection of Prince Cho. It is seven feet two inches in height and three feet in width. It represents Kuo Tzu-i, a noted general of the early part of the T’ang dynasty who lived a.d. 697-781. He is said to have been more than seven feet in height. He led a stormy life of war¬ fare against border tribes and was frequently troubled by intrigues against him in court circles. He was a man of sterling integrity and was fond of appearing in such coarse attire as he is seen wearing in this portrait. His feet are swollen from constant travel. From his braided-straw girdle is sus¬ pended a wicker food-basket, and on his head he wears the cap of the com¬ mon people. The posture of the figure and the poise of the head are digni- PAINTERS OF THE T’ANG DYNASTY 67 fied. His face shows strong determination, coupled with the calmness which comes from long and varied experiences. In the first volume of Ars Asiatica there is reproduced and discussed a painting which is very similar in many respects to Liu Shang s portrait of Kuo Tzu-i. The authors of that volume of Ars Asiatica , Ed. Chavannes and Petrucci, follow the inscription at the top of the picture and wrongly call it a portrait of Lii Tung-pin, one of the Eight Immortals. A more careful reading of the inscription would have led these distinguished authors to have avoided this mistake, for the inscription has been wrongly attached to this painting and could not have originally belonged to it. This is proved by the inscription which speaks of the painting to which it refers as one done “on silk” ( chiian ), whereas this painting is on paper. Furthermore, the characteristics of Lii Tung-pin are the magic sword (chanyao chien ), which'he carries on his back, and a fly switch of horsehair which he carries in his hand. These characteristics are not found in either of these two paintings. We know from Hsiian Ho Hua P’u that Liu Shang painted a portrait of Kuo Tzu-i. On the lower left-hand border are two seals of the artist. One of these seals gives the sobriquet of Liu Shang, which is P eng Ch’en Lai Hsien. These evidences seem to me sufficient to establish the identity of these two portraits as having been meant to portray Kuo Tzu-i and not Lii Tung-pin; also that the St. Louis Museum picture is the work of Liu Shang. As far as is known this is the only existing specimen of the work of this artist. Chou Fang painted palace ladies, and an example of his work is found in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It is a scroll on silk called “Ladies with Fans” (Shih Nit). It is sixteen and one-half inches in height and more than ten feet in length. Four ladies with their female attendants and children are seen in the palace garden. The ladies exhibit conspicuously their fans, which in their time had only recently come into use. The color¬ ing of this picture is exquisite. During the Sung dynasty it was ascribed to Chou Fang, and it is probable that at that time his signature in seal characters was added. It bears on its face five seals of the Sung dynasty, two seals of Chia Ssu-tao, and one of Wang Meng, an artist described in the chapter on the Yuan dynasty. The Shih Ku Tang in Volume IX gives 68 CHINESE PAINTING a good description of this painting which, independent of whether or not it is older than the Sung dynasty, is a faithful presentation of the style of Chou Fang. Two great landscape artists, Li Ssfi-hsiin and Wang Wei, belong not only to the T’ang dynasty, but to all subsequent times, for they are the reputed founders of the two schools into which landscapists are divided. Li Ssu-hsun founded the Northern School and Wang Wei the Southern. Too much importance cannot be attached to this formal division into two schools which was made by Sung dynasty writers during the period when landscape painting was most flourishing. As far as I have been able to ascertain, the division into these two schools was not made until the Sung dynasty, at which time writers sought some precedent in former days for distinctions which arose among artists of their own time, and chose two great artists of the T’ang dynasty as leaders of the two styles of painting. The name for these two schools is probably taken from the earlier division of Buddhistic teaching into the Northern and Southern schools. During the Chin dynasty (a.d. 1115-1x34), the Taoist sects were also divided into Northern and Southern schools. None of these divisions has anything to do with geographical conditions unless in the case of landscape painting the Northern School be allied to the strength and ruggedness which is commonly associated with the North, and graceful beauty with the South. The difference between these two schools of landscape painting is that in the Northern the outstanding features suggest grandeur and strength and in the Southern suggest calmness and repose. The Pi Chi says,“The style of Li’s School is formal in details, but has no trace of pedantry; that of Wang Wei is studied, unobtrusive, graceful, and charming.’’ The founder of the Northern School, Li Ssu-hsun, was a great-grandson of the founder of the T’ang dynasty, and therefore had access to all the treasures of the palace. Wang Wei of the Southern School was a poetical recluse, of great literary genius; he painted with grace and self-restraint. The great landscapists of the Sung dynasty who are definitely classified by all writers as belonging to the Northern School are Kuo Hsi, Chao Po-chii, Li T’ang, Liu Sung-nien, Ma Yuan, and Hsia Kuei. The adherents of the Southern PAINTERS OF THE T’ANG DYNASTY 6 g School are Tung Yuan, Chii Jan, Wang Ch’i-han, Li Kung-lin, and Chao Lmg-jang. The position of Li Cheng and Fan K'uan is doubtful, though they are generally claimed as belonging to the Southern School. It is more true to the facts to classify them as eclectics along with Kuan T’ung, Ching Hao, Hsu Tao-nmg, Lu Hung-i, Kuo Chung-shu, the two Mi, and Ma Ho-chih. Li Ssu-hsun as an artist is little known except in connection with being the leader of the Northern School. His relationship with the ruling house of the T ang dynasty probably gave him this premier place in the North¬ ern School in the same way as Lao-tzu was elevated to high position in this dynasty because his cognomen, Li, was also that of the emperor. It was even easier for Li Ssu-hsun to be elevated to high position as an artist than for Lao-tzu to be honored as a philosopher, for he was by birth a member of the imperial family, whereas the only claim of Lao-tzu was that he shared the same surname. The T ang dynasty family naturally seized upon all per¬ sons of distinction who had the surname of Li as objects for special favors, and in the case of Li Ssu-hsun it found a man who combined the qualities of a military leader with those of an artist. Li Ssu-hsun is known among writers on pictorial art as the “Great General” (Ta Chiang-chiin ); his mili¬ tary title was “Senior (Left) Wu-wei General” (Tso Wu-wet Chiang-chiin'). This was an honorary rank signifying that its possessor was in command of the troops guarding the imperial palace and was of the same significance as the title of “Guardian of the Heir Apparent” (Kung Pao), given to high officials during the Manchu dynasty. This rank of Wu-wei Chiang-chiin had three grades, viz., “Senior General” (Shang Chiang-chiin), “Great Gen¬ eral” (Ta Chiang-chiin), and ‘ ‘ General” ( Chiang-chiin ). Li Ssu-hsun held the second grade of this honorary rank. The only mention of paintings made by Li Ssu-hsun is in two imperial catalogues. The Hsiian Ho Collection gives a list of ten paintings, several of which had duplicates. There is no trace of what became of these ten paintings, and they are not mentioned as belonging to later collectors. No paintings by this artist are recorded subsequently until the Imperial Collection of the Ming dynasty. According to the K'o Tso Hsin Wen of Shen 70 CHINESE PAINTING Chou, there was in this collection a scroll by Li Ssh-hsun as well as one by his son, Li Chao-tao. More information concerning this scroll is given in Ching-ho Shu Hua Fang. It was entitled “The Gay-colored Lotuses of the Imperial Garden.’’ The first annotation on the scroll was written in i 575 during the reign of the Ming Emperor Wan Li, the second by Wang Ch’ih-teng, and the third by Chang Chou, author of Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang. This last annotation gives all the information available as to the subject and merits of this scroll. Chang Ch’ou remarks : It was to be ex¬ pected that scions of an imperial family would like to paint palace scenes and pleasure excursions using a gold-dusted background such as that em¬ ployed by Li Ssu-hsiin and his son, Li Chao-tao. He adopted the use of the kind of silk which Wu Tao-tzu was the first to prepare. This was the * beat¬ en silk’ type prepared by beating with a flat spatula silk which had been sprinkled with chalk after having been immersed in a hot glucose solution. This quality of silk made the best surfaces for the brush and ink of the artist. As this method of preparing silk was not used after the Five Dynas¬ ties, the quality of the silk is a prime consideration in deciding upon the authenticity of any painting purporting to have been done by Li Ssu-hsiin. This scroll, ‘The Gay-colored Lotuses,’ satisfies this requirement in every respect, and must be considered to be a true representation (chin chi') of the style of Li Ssu-hsiin.’’ It is now in the Manchu Collection in the Peking Palace. The Freer Collection has a scroll attributed to Li Ssii-hsiin and en¬ titled ‘ ‘ The Imperial Garden” (Fang Hu Lang Yuan). It is in the grand style of this artist, but its type of silk and quality of colors indicate that it be¬ longs to the Ming dynasty. This does not detract from its value as being almost the only early example of the style of Li Ssu-hsiin which can now be seen. There is another scroll in the Manchu Collection called “The Jade Mountain” (Yu Shan), but competent critics who have seen it have told me that it is a forgery, though it is attested to be in the style of Li Ssu-hsiin in an annotation by Wen Cheng-ming. In his “Copies of Ancient Paintings,” Hui Tsung gives no example of the style of Li Ssu-hsiin; neither does the splendid album of Tung Ch’i- ch’ang, shown in the Peking Museum, in which this famous Ming dynasty PAINTERS OF THE T’ANG DYNASTY artist gives his “studies” of the styles of early landscapists, contain a re¬ production. Nor is there any reproduction among the famous “studies” of ang Hui or Wu Li. This leads us inevitably to the view that Li Ssu-hsiin must be considered to have been only the emeritus founder of the Northern School, and that its real originator was Kuo Hsi. Painting in the style of Wang Wei dominated so completely all subsequent landscapists that it was necessary to posit some great name like that of Li Ssfl-hsiin as the founder of a style which would protect such an artist as Kuo Hsi in his divergence from the accepted canons of his contemporaries. The fact is that Li Ssh- hsiin as a landscape painter was entirely overshadowed by Wang Wei, and it was due chiefly to his imperial connections that he has been given’such an eminent position. Li Chao-tao, the son of the “Great General,” has been more fortunate in the transmission of specimens of his work. The most noted of his paint¬ ings were “Hills in Springtime” (Chun Shan ) and “Declining Light” (Lo Chao'). In these paintings were displayed the characteristic scenes from the hills on the northern border of China in which he placed mounted figures. A good specimen of his style is found in the University Museum, Phila¬ delphia. It is a landscape painting on silk, six feet two inches in height and four feet four inches in width. The scene is the journey of the emperor through a mountain pass. The emperor is mounted on a horse before which is carried an official umbrella. His attendants may be seen before and behind him in the winding roads on both sides of the mountain stream. It is painted on two strips of narrow silk which are united by mounting. The silk was treated with fine gold dust before the bright colors were added, and these small sparkling particles add brilliance to the effect. This painting was owned by the famous collector Hsiang Mo-ling of the Ming dynasty, and later became the property of An I-chou, from whose hands it passed into the collection of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, who afterward bestowed it as an imperial present on the minister of state, Ying Ho. Even though it may be doubted whether or not this painting came from the brush of Li Chao-tao himself, there can be no doubt of its being a faithful presentation of the style of this great CHINESE PAINTING artist, and judging both from the silk and the colors used, it could not have been produced later than the Sung dynasty. Wang Wei is the dominant personality among the landscapists, not on y of the T ang dynasty, but of all periods. As a youth he must have been of a reflective turn of mind, for it is said that he could compose poetry at nine years of age. His course of life was rapid and eventful. He attained to the highest literary rank and to a responsible position in the government serv¬ ice. The rebel An Lu-shan admired his ability and carried him off into cap¬ tivity where he tried in vain to compel Wang Wei to use his talents in favor of the rebellion, but Wang would not even curry favor with his captor by writing verses to entertain guests. Through the prolonged efforts of his brother, Wang Chin, he was finally released and brought back to the capi¬ tal, but his reckless independence of spirit landed him in further trouble with the princes. He preferred his literary and religious friends to those whom he found in court circles. He did not hesitate to condemn the ex¬ travagances and excesses of palace life. Public service, with its attendant ceremony and display, was hateful to him, and he longed for the quiet of the mountains where he could live in peace. He had lost his wife when he was only thirty-one and never married again. Chastened, lonely, intro¬ spective by habit, and sharpened by a full experience of the busy activities of official life, he retired to the mountainous district of the southern part of Lan-t’ien in Shansi Province on the banks of a small mountain stream which wanders down through the valley. Here he built for himself a home to which he gave the name Wang Ch’uan. The first character in the name of his home, Wang Chuan, means the “felloe of a wheel,” and has no connection except in sound with the first character of the name of its illustrious resident. It is probable that the stream ( ch'uan ) was given a new descriptive name by Wang Wei so as to connect it in sound with his own, or possibly he was influenced in his selec¬ tion of this spot by the similarity of the name of the place with his own. Such hidden connections have always been considered desirable by Chinese litterateurs, and Wang Wei was most skilful in the use of words. He was also a great poet, and although during his life in the mountains he wrote HHI Wm Wm ' 9 BH H ■BBS 1 gSHHgSPi EHHfii PAINTERS OF THE TANG DYNASTY 73 more than a hundred verses, the one best known to later generations is that describing Wang Ch’uan. This poem would have been immortal even if it had not been supplemented by a famous picture made by the poet-painter. Wang Wei’s great fame as a literary genius rests upon his eminence in all three branches of literary attainment—poetry, calligraphy, and painting. To be a great poet, a great penman, and a great painter is a combination of even higher standard than the “three excellences” which Ku K’ai-chih was said to possess. This Wang Ch’uan home of Wang Wei is famous for two reasons: it was the subject of one of the best poems, and it was the name of one of the most famous paintings, both being the product of the same genius, Wang Wei. In accordance with prevailing custom, Wang Wei chose a style by which he was known among friends. He selected two characters, Mo-chieh, the reason for the choice being that these two characters added to his given name, Wei, make up the word Wei-mo-chieh, which was the Chinese name of Vimalakirtti, a contemporary of Shakyamuni, who visited China and was highly honored in the Buddhist sainthood. Wang wrote his name Wang Wei Mo-chieh, i.e., Wang, with the given name of Wei and the style of Mo-chieh; but it could also be read as if the four characters were joined together, in which case it would sound as if Vimalakirtti Wang was being spoken of. It is the same kind of literary pleasantry as was shown by the latent connection between the names of the region and its inhabitant. The poem and the picture both represent Wang Ch’uan as a place of splendor and magnificence, but this was the product solely of poetical license, reminding one of Alcina’s island in Ariosto’s poem. Wang Wei could only have had a very humble cottage in this secluded spot. If it had been otherwise he would have attracted the attention of the rapacious myrmidons of the court, and the place would have been confiscated. Neither the poem nor the picture has been misinterpreted in Chinese literature. It is well understood that such a place as is depicted existed only in the realm of fancy. Wang Wei’s imagination, helped by the genius of his two inti¬ mate friends, P’ei Ti and Meng Hao-jan, clothed a barren hillside with beautiful rare trees, with spacious courtyards, with a broad stream upon _ . CHINESE PAINTING 7 nr which boats plied and on whose bank stood a pretty fishing pavilion, with a deer park, with storks and birds—all of the delights of eye and ear were brought together in this one lovely spot by the fancy of a brilliant genius. Life had been hard and severe for him, but his spirit was untamed. It reveled in all of the sensuous delights which it could spiritualize, even though it had spurned them when they were thrust upon it. Wang Wei was noted also for his snow scenes. One of the best of these is “The Snowy Valley’’ (Hsiieh Hsi T’«). A stream of water flows through a valley on either side of which are snow-covered hills where trees and huts are scattered. Two boatmen are poling a sampan, the mat roof of which is also covered with snow. A critic who saw this picture on a hot summer day remarked that it sent a shiver of cold through him. This painting belongs to the Manchu Collection in the palace. It is mentioned in the Hsiian Ho catalogue, and the inner label of five characters was written by the Emperor Hui Tsung. In the upper right-hand corner is a short poem written in white ink by the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, whose seals, as well as those of the Emperor Hui Tsung, are attached to the painting. Another snow scene, en¬ titled “Falling Snow by the River” (Chiang Kan Hsiieh Chi'), was formerly in the collection of Tuan Fang and is now owned by Mr. Robert Lehman, New York. It is in the form of a scroll on silk of very fine texture. Formerly it had annotations by P eng Nien, Fan Yiin-lin, Wang Ch ih-teng, and others, but these were removed by a previous owner in Shansi who mounted them on a separate scroll. This fact is attested by Sun Chi-feng, prefect of Tsi-nan, who saw the annotations and tried in vain to buy them from their owner. This scroll is one of the best examples of the delicate brushwork, coupled with noble composition and harmonious colors, which was char acteristic of this great artist. Another illustration of Wang Wei s painting is given in the I11 us t y ate cl Catalogue of Famous Paintings owned by Liang Chang-chii, translated into English in 1919. The title of this painting is “The Pa Bridge in a Snow Storm.” The photograph represents a painting which is unquestionably in the style of Wang Wei, but having had no oppor¬ tunity to examine the original, I am unable to express any opinion as to its authenticity. PAINTERS OF THE TANG DYNASTY 75 Lu Hung-i worked during the reign of the Emperor Ming Huang, and has had a lasting influence in the history of landscape painting. His chief work is “ Ten Views from a Thatched Cottage” (Ts'ao Tang Shih Chih). This painting is preserved in the Manchu Palace Collection, and I have frequently seen it. It is on paper and done in black and white. The ten landscape views which it gives are full of charm and show an intense love of nature. Lu’s style formed the basis of the work of the Yuan dynasty artists, Ni Tsan and Fang Fang-hu. These ten views have been frequently reproduced, the last having been done by the best known of China’s modern artists, King Kung-pa. Another landscapist of this dynasty, Chang Chih-ho, is best known by his pseudonym Yen P’o Tzu. Atsixteen years of age he was recommended to the Emperor Su Tsung (a.d. 756-63) on account of his great classical learn¬ ing. He was so fond of fishing and of all forms of outdoor life that a con¬ temporary statesman, Li Te-yii (a.d. 787-849), compared him to Yen Kuang, who was the intimate friend of the Emperor Kuang Wu of the Han dynasty. A scroll on thick paper by Chang Chih-ho was in the collection of Ching Hsien. It is called “The Poem of the Fisherman” (Yu Fu Tt(u). The deli¬ cate coloring in which the mist fades away is one of the most brilliant effects I have ever seen in Chinese landscape painting. It is to be noted that in this picture there are the same dots of thick ink representing scrub trees as are found in the “Hills of Kuei-chi,” by Ku K’ai-chih. This scroll is so well preserved that it looks like a modern painting. In this dynasty there were several noted painters of horses and cows. Among the painters of horses there was Ts’ao Pa, who was summoned to the court of Ming Huang to paint the horses owned by the emperor. There have been no specimens of his work in existence since the Yuan dynasty. His pupil, Han Kan, painted both horses and oxen. Shih Ku Tang men¬ tions two paintings by this artist: “A Horse” and “A Pair of Horses” (Shuang Ma). These two paintings are in the collection of the Manchu Palace, but have not been placed on exhibition. There is also in the palace the painting “Ming Huang Testing the Points of a Horse” (Ming Huang Shih Ma Tu ). This was owned by Li Kung-lin, and was highly V J ^5 CHINESE PAINTING prized by the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, who almost covered it with inscriptions and seals. It has been reproduced on stone. In the Freer Collection there is an album of paintings in the style of Han Kan which was exhibited in Washington, April 15-June 15, 19^- ^ the British Museum there is also the painting, “A Boy Riding a Goat,” which is attributed to Han Kan. I have not found any authorization for this attribution. The picture loses none of the attraction of the strength of its composition from not having been the work of this artist. It belongs properly to the class of religious paintings rather than animal paintings, for the governing idea of the com¬ position is that of a fairy boy disporting himself, and reminds one of the line of poetry, “Five Fairies Riding Five Goats” (Wu Hsien Ch'i Wu Yang). There was also Han Kuang, a native of Ch’ang-an (Hsi-an). Three of his paintings are given in the Shih Ku Tang: “Five Oxen” (I Vu Niu); ‘‘Tien Tan on the Move” ( Tien Chia I Chu), depicting men of the Ch’i State fleeing from Yo I in carts whose projecting axles had been shortened and covered with iron on the advice of T’ien Tan; and ‘‘Ming Huang as Conductor of Music” ( Ming Huang Yen Yo). In the Freer Collection is a painting, “Tang Hui Riding Over the Snow,” which is attributed to this artist, but from the quality of the silk and the colors it must be considered a Ming dynasty reproduction. Another good example of painting of horses is “The Ten Horses,” or ‘‘The Horses Turned Out to Graze on an Autumn P)ay” (Ch iu Chiao San M.u), by P ei Kuan. This is a scroll on silk eleven inches in height and twenty-seven inches in length. To this is attached an interpretative painting of the same subject by Chao Mhng-fu done in the eleventh month of a.d. 13 ix, of which there is a second copy in the Manchu Collection, Peking. To the original painting by P’ei K’uan is attached an explanatory annotation by Lo T ien-chih, and to the painting of Chao Meng-fu is added an annotation by K’o Chiu-ssu. This painting by P’ei K’uan is an excellent specimen of T’ang dynasty work. In the quality of silk, the colors, and the design, this small painting carries on its face its own testimony of authenticity. It is now in the collection of the Metro¬ politan Museum, New York. ‘‘The Six-hoofed Horse” is another example. In this painting there is a noble horse with a groom standing at his side. PAINTERS OF THE TANG DYNASTY 77 On the borders of this painting are many inscriptions by noted literary men of the Ch’ien Lung period. The most illustrious of these annotators is Chang Ch’un-shan, who attributes it to the Tang dynasty and describes in detail the historical references to the type of horse which had two hoofs, one of which grew out of the fetlocks on the front legs. He narrates that in the Han dynasty there was a special inspector of horses called T’ao Yu Chien who obtained unusual types of horses from the tribes living on the northwest frontier. One of these varieties called Kun Yii had double hoofs on the front legs. The quality of silk, the ink, and the colors used by the unknown artist justify the ascription of this painting to the T’ang dynasty. It is to be noted that the horses of T’ang dynasty paintings are always rep¬ resented with short thick legs, heavy bodies, large necks, and small heads. Their eyes are bright and exhibit intelligence. This is in accord with the symbolism of that period in which a fine steed is the symbol of a gentleman ( chiin-tzu ), typifying the qualities of dignity, strength, and obedience. Tai Sung painted oxen, and two examples of his work still remain. One of these is in the Manchu Collection and has been frequently exhibited. The subject of this scroll on paper is “The Fighting Oxen’’ (Tou Niu). There are vigor of drawing and intensity of action in this painting. One feature of it has been humorously commented upon. A herd boy once saw it when the artist had put it out in his yard to dry in the sun. The boy ex¬ claimed that bulls fought with their horns and always kept their tails between their legs when fighting, but that in this painting the bulls were fighting with their tails in the air. I suspect that it was not a herd boy, but some clever critic of later time that made this comment. Another specimen of Tai Sung’s work is “The Five Oxen’’ (Wu Niu'), a scroll on paper owned by the late Wu Yu-lin, compradore of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Peking, and now in the possession of his nephew. This represents the five oxen in various positions. The drawing is even better than that found in the palace painting of “The Fighting Oxen.” In symbolism the bovine species represents agriculture. Pien Luan was a distinguished painter of birds and flowers, and founded the style used by subsequent painters of this subject. Hsian Ho Hua Fu 7 S CHINESE PAINTING gives a list of thirty-one of his paintings of which, as far as I know, only one has survived, and it is by no means certain that this is an original. It was formerly in the collection of Ching Hsien who obtained it from the Viceroy Tuan Fang. It is a large hanging picture done on two strips of silk and measuring six feet in height and three feet in width. There are two peacocks, one on a rock and the other on the ground partially hidden by another rock through a hole of which the beautiful plumage of the pea¬ cock’s tail can be seen. Above are banana trees with leaves partly opened and partly closed. In the center is a large red flower. The name of the artist, Pien Luan, in a hidden signature ( An-K’uan ) is faintly seen on a rock in the lower center of the picture. The original silk has been much repaired, and on the surface many of the colors have been retouched. This is the famous “Peacock” painting which has been so highly praised by many critics. It is now owned by Mr. John J. Emery, New York. The foregoing examples of the paintings of T ang dynasty artists are all that have come under my notice. They exhibit as a whole great freedom of style. Artists followed their own bent in painting and had not yet been brought under the domination of conventionalism or virtuosity. There is only one characteristic in which they agree, and that is, their freedom. Other later artists were also free, but not to the extent of those who flour¬ ished during that period. I cannot agree with those who claim that there is a distinct T’ang dynasty style of painting which can always be recog¬ nized, but it is certain that no work which shows the marks of convention¬ ality in design or brush strokes can be assigned to that period. It was a time when styles were in process of formation, when they had not already become fixed. F VI PAINTERS OF THE FIVE DYNASTIES JJROM the reign of the Empress Wu in the middle of the seventh cen¬ tury the Tang dynasty tottered to its fall. The emperors were in the power of the eunuchs, and discontent was rife on every side. An Lu- shan, who had been a favorite of the Emperor Hsixan Tsung (a.d. 713-56), headed a rebellion which succeeded in reducing a large part of the north¬ west territory. Military leaders sprang up in different sections of the coun¬ try and established kingdoms. The last emperor of the Tang dynasty was a puppet in the hands of Chu Wen who forced him to abdicate and then put him to death. Chu Wen set himself up as the first emperor of the later Liang dynasty, only to be murdered by his own son. This inaugurated the period a.d. 900-960, which is known as the “Five Dynasties” (Wu Tat), for the reason that there were five principal houses among the small kingdoms into which the country was divided. It was a period of great confusion, con¬ stant fighting, and bitter jealousies. In spite of the existing handicaps sev¬ eral artists felt enough of the inspiration so carefully fostered during the T ang dynasty to maintain a high standard of workmanship. There was little encouragement.for them in their surroundings, but they were able to rise above the impediments of their time. In the long list of Chinese artists few are more honored than these men of the Five Dynasties, viz., Ching Hao, Hsu Hsi, Chou Wen-chii, Li Sheng, Kuan Hsiu, Tiao Kuang-yin, Huang Ch’iian, Huang Chii-ts’ai, Kuan T’ung, Wang Ch'i-han, Lu Kuang] and Ku Hung-chung. Ching Hao lived during the last days of the T’ang dynasty and made for himself a name as one of the great landscape artists. He was a native of Ho-lei (modern northwestern part of Honan Province), and is frequently spoken of as Hung Ku-tzh. He is said to have combined great originality with perfect technique, or, as the Chinese artists express this idea, he was 79 t 8o CHINESE PAINTING able to use effectively both his brush and colors. The Hsiian Ho Collection contained twenty-one paintings done by him, all of which were landscapes. His greatest surviving work is “A Mountain Village,” formerly in the collection of Keng Hsin-kung and later owned by Prince I. This painting was done on silk and is two feet two inches in height and two feet seven inches in width. It is signed by the artist with four seal characters, Ho-lei Ching Hao , i.e., Ching Hao of Ho-lei. In this picture the coloring is delicate, and the brush strokes are refined. The mountain village nestles in the hills so intimately that it forms an essential part of the landscape. A full de¬ scription of it is given in the Shih Ku T ang, and my own observation fully confirms the high estimate given of it in this authoritative book. Two other paintings by this artist are mentioned in the Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang: one of an old pine tree and the other of a mountain top, but as far as I know neither of these remains at the present time. Tung Ch’i-ch’ang places Ching Hao as the first among five great landscapists of whom the other four were Kuan Tung, Tung Yuan, Chii Jan, and Li Cheng. He also comments upon the rarity of works by this great artist. Kuan T ung studied with Ching Hao. The leading characteristic of his landscape work is his piling hills upon hills, a style which was later adopt¬ ed by Kuo Hsi. Specimens of the work of Kuan T’ung are rare. An I-chou had only one painting by this artist in his collection, although in the Hsiian Ho Collection of the Sung dynasty ninety-three pictures are catalogued. The only example of his work that I have seen is a large painting on silk, seven feet two inches in height and three feet two inches in width. This painting belonged to the well-known collector and connoisseur, Feng Tzu- yiin, of Canton, who gave to it the name “A River in Autumn among Mountain Ridges (Ch iu Chiang Tieh Chang). This might be expressed in the language of Tennyson as “A Ridge of Heaped Hills—an Autumnal River Scene. In the Hsiian Ho Collection there were twenty-two pictures of autumnal hills (ch'iu shan ) and fourteen other pictures depicting autumn scenes. The governing idea of these pictures is in all probability the same as that of the one we are describing; it is that of a ridge of hills in autumn separated by a valley through which a river flows. This painting is prob- PAINTERS OF THE FIVE DYNASTIES 8l ably the one mentioned in the Pao Hui Lu under the name of “The Purple of the Autumn Hills” (Ch'iu Shan Ling Tsui). In his comments on this painting Yu Ho of the Yuan dynasty says that it had survived the ravages of war for more than three hundred years when it came into the possession of his friend, Sung Tzu-hsii, who discovered that it had been previously in the collection of Lu Ch'i-ch’uan. In the Ming dynasty it was in the collection of Shen Chou, the artist. Another artist, W6n Ch£ng-ming, wrote an annotation upon it in which he incorrectly speaks of this painting as a scroll. The next record of it is in the collection of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung. We have no record of how this painting left the palace, but we know that it was customary for this emperor during his later years to present paintings to leading statesmen on the occasion of imperial birthday celebra¬ tions. It is more than probable that it was on one of such occasions that this picture found its way into the hands of a high official, and later came into the possession of Feng Tzu-yiin, from whose collection I obtained it, passing it on to Professor Simkovitch of Columbia University. This is one of the noblest specimens of landscape that I have ever seen. Li Sheng, a native of Ssu-ch’uan Province, was a great landscape artist of this period, but little is known of him further than that he was a scion of the imperial house of T’ang. Mi Fei records that he had a landscape painting by this artist in which the brushwork was of delicate refinement. Above there were peaks upon peaks, below there were a bridge and a sandy beach. In the center of the picture there were a bubbling fountain and more than thirty pine trees. It had a signature in small characters, Li Sheng of Ssu-ch’uan (Shu Jen Li Sheng). The Ch'mg-ho Shu Hua Fang records two pictures by this artist—one “A Noted Scholar” ( Kao Hsien ) and the other “Rain on the Hsiao Hsiang Rivers” (Hsiao Hsiang Yen Yu). I have seen one scroll by this artist called “A Fall of Snow at P’£ng Lai” (P'Sng Lai Fei Hsiieh). This scroll is one foot three inches in height and seven feet six inches in length. The painting is on silk. At the end of the scroll is a signa¬ ture in small characters, Li Sheng. The picture begins at the right-hand margin with a wave-like sweep of overhanging rock, which is repeated along the lower margin until it meets the water. The color where it appears 8s CHINESE PAINTING through the snow is delicately subdued. The mountains remain covered with snow after it has melted from the foliage of the trees. The fine sweep¬ ing curves, together with the imaginative conception of hill and dale, form a good example of harmony and vitality which are the requisites of the first of the “six canons.” The first annotation on this scroll is by Yu Chi of the Yuan dynasty. He compares the refinement of its execution wit t e work of Wang Wei in his “Snow Scene,” and says that Li Sheng and Wang Wei may be considered as brothers in artistic work. Another annotation is by Yuan Chio, also of the Yuan dynasty, who visited the Ta Sheng z u Temple at Ch’eng-tu and saw a writing by Su Shih in which reference is made to this snow scene. This annotator comments upon its wonderful perspective and brilliant composition. He says that Li Sheng s work had often been credited to Li Ssu-hsiin, but that Mi Fei with his keen critical sense recognized the difference and correctly assigned this scroll to Li Sheng. Another annotator comments upon the fact that connoisseurs of his time seemed only to know of Li Ssfi-hsun and his son, Li Chao-tao, and were ignorant of the existence of Li Sheng whose merits as a painter were almost equal to those of his great predecessors. This scroll has several seals of the Yuan dynasty, including one in the shape of a bronze tripod, which is also found on the painting “Ming Huang Testing the Points of a Horse,” by Han Kan. Wang Ch’i-han lived under the Southern T’ang Kingdom, one of the small principalities of this period. It was founded by Hsu Chih-kao, and its capital city was Nanking. The founder of this short-lived dynasty, which lasted only thirty-nine years, attempted to restore the glory of the T’ang dynasty in art and literature. Under such favoring influences Wang Ch’i-han was able to produce a high quality of work. The scroll Reading (K’an Shu TV), by this artist, is one of the best examples now extant of early Chinese painting. It is on silk thirteen inches in height and twenty- seven inches in length. An old man with a long beard and flowing garments sits in a chair, with his left hand upon the arm and picking his ear with his right hand. In front of him on a low four-legged table are a pile of books, writing-brushes, and an open manuscript. To his right is a long table on PAINTERS OF THE FIVE DYNASTIES 83 which are more books, two bundles of scrolls, and a harp. Behind all is a large screen made of one dominating central panel and two extended aves. On the three panels of the screen is a beautiful landscape painting in the style of Wang Wei. On the left-hand side of the screen there is another figure approaching the man who is seated. The coloring of the landscape painting is in delicate shades of green, the long robe of the approaching figure is in mauve, the framework of the screen is a light shade of green, and the robe of the seated figure a creamy white. Over the back of the chair is a reddish-colored fabric. These colors, mingled with the light and dark shades of black ink, combine to make a most beautiful composition. At the beginning of the scroll are three large characters, K'an Shu T’u, from which it takes its name, “Reading.” At the end of the scroll are five large characters, Wang Ch'i-han Miao Pi, which mean “The Wonderful Painting of Wang Ch i-han. All of these eight characters were written by the Em¬ peror Hui Tsung of the Sung dynasty. On the scroll are impressed the Sung dynasty imperial seals -Jui Ssu Tung Ko and Chien Yeh Wen Fang. In addition to these there are two gourd-shaped imperial seals—one under the three characters, the other under the five characters—and on each of these seals are the two characters Yu Shu, meaning ‘ ‘ Written by the Emperor. ’ ’ In addition to these seals there are many others of its former owner, Keng Hsin-kung. The annotations are remarkable. The most important is that of Su Shih, which is dated the second day of the sixth moon of the sixth year of Yiian Yu, i.e., a.d. 1091. On one side of the beautiful handwriting of this great calligraphist is an annotation by his younger brother, Su Che, and on the other one by his brother-in-law, Wang Tsin-ch’ing. The comments of Su Shih refer in a playful mood to the deafness of his brother-in-law, and apply the lesson of the seated figure picking his ear, hinting that deafness could be avoided by this process. There is another annotation by Tung Ch i-ch ang in large fluent characters in which he refers to the freedom from conventionalism of the work of Wang Ch’i-han. There are also comments by the fourth and sixth sons of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung and by several other well-known scholars of later times. This scroll has an unbroken history as to ownership, from the time of the Hsiian Ho Collection through CHINESE PAINTING the Yiian, Ming, and Ch’ing dynasties down to the late Viceroy Tuan Fang, from whose hands it passed to those of its present owner. Considering the full details as to historical ownership, Sung dynasty imperial seals, Sung dynasty annotations, annotations by two of the most famous calligraphists, Su Shih and Tung Ch’i-ch’ang, and its present state of preservation, this scroll is probably the most complete and perfect specimen of early Chinese paintings now in any collection. A good photographic copy of it has ap- peared in the Kokka. Ku Hung-chung also lived under the Southern T’ang dynasty. The best specimen of his work is “A Night Banquet Given by Han Hsi-tsai” ( Han Hsi-tsai Ye Yen T'u). This painting is illustrated as No. 4 in the Catalogue of the Collection of Liang Chang-chii (Eng. ed.). A scroll bearing the same name is in the Imperial Collection, Peking. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, there is a painting signed by this artist called Returning from a Banquet,” which represents two men on horseback, both showing the ef¬ fects of excessive drinking. One rider is supported by attendants on either side of his horse. This painting came from the collection of Liu T’ieh-yiin to whom it was presented by Shen Po-hsi. Previously it belonged to the famous Canton collector, Feng Tzu-yiin. This picture combines a harmoni¬ ous blending of colors with boldness of conception. The subject recalls the convivial banquet scenes which were so common during the latter half of the T’ang dynasty. The Shih Ku Tang mentions another painting by Ku Hung-chung in which he depicts the visit of four famous scholars to Shan- yin. Nothing is known of any other work by this artist; his prominence is due to his having preserved for later generations a portrayal of the festive features of T’ang dynasty life. Lu K’uang was a native of Chia-ho (modern Chia-hsing) in Chekiang Province, who also lived during the Southern T ang dynasty. A fragment of his painting “Fishing” (P'u Yu) is described by An I-chou in Mo Yuan Hui Kuan. This painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It is two feet six inches in height and thirteen and a half inches in width. An I-chou says that the picture was originally painted on two strips of silk, one of which has disappeared. The fragment that is now preserved PEONIES, BY TIAO KUANG-YIN PAINTERS OF THE FIVE DYNASTIES 8 5 in the Metropolitan Museum is even smaller than that described by An I-chou, but enough remains to show the high quality of the work of this artist. The scene depicted is that of a fisherman assisted by a man pushing a small boat on which the fisherman sits. The rocks and trees which are dimly seen form an excellent composition, and they are painted with the freedom which was characteristic of artists previous to the conventionalism of the Sung dynasty. This picture is also described in the Yun Yen Kuo Yen Lu. In the lower left-hand corner is the seal of Chia Ssu-tao of the Sung dynasty, bearing the two characters Yueh-seng. Kuan Hsiu was a Buddhist priest of the Han Shan Temple in Ssu-ch’uan Province. Before entering the priesthood he had already made a name for himself in Lan-hsi (modern Chin-hua in Chekiang Province) as a scholar and calligraphist under his family name Chiang. When he went to Ssu- ch’uan in 936, he was received with great honor by the ruler of the princi¬ pality of Shu, who bestowed upon him imperial robes and an honorary title. His calligraphy is said to have been not inferior to that of Huai Su, but no examples of it have been preserved other than his signatures. In the Hsiian Ho Collection there were thirty specimens of his work of which twenty-six were pictures of Lo-han. The most famous of these is the scroll preserved in the Kodai-ji Temple in Japan, where it is said to have been kept continuously for eight hundred years, having been taken from China to Japan by a Buddhist priest. A small painting by this artist forty-seven inches high and nineteen inches wide is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It is the picture of a Lohan attended by a servant. On the left-hand border is the signature of Kuan Hsiu, this artist having been fond of exhibit¬ ing his calligraphy by signing all his pictures. There are also specimens of his work in the Imperial Collection, Peking. Tiao Kuang-yin, or, as he is often called, Tiao Kuang, was a native of Ch’ang-an (modern Hsi-an), but removed to Ssu-ch’uan during the reign of T ien Fu (Chao Tsung), a.d. 9 02 -) £.nd distinguished himself as a painter of birds, flowers, and animals. He continued painting until he was more than eighty years of age. At the time of the Emperor Hui Tsung it is re¬ corded that his mural paintings of flowers and bamboos were still extant in 86 CHINESE PAINTING the temples of Ssu-ch’uan. In the Hsiian Ho Collection there were twenty- three specimens of his work, all of which were pictures of birds and flowers. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, there is a scroll by this artist called “The Gathering of the Feathery Tribes’’ (Ts'ung Huang Chi Yu). The colors of this scroll are exquisitely delicate, and the drawing of pheas¬ ants, geese, ducks, egrettes, cormorants, and other birds, is lifelike. The arrangement of willow and bamboo trees, as well as of many-shaped rocks, combined with the grouping of the birds, forms a striking composition. This scroll is attested by annotations of Sung Ch ang-i and Ch en I of the Ming dynasty, the latter dating his comments in a.d. 152.6. It also bears the seal of Wang Shih-cheng, author of Wang Shih Shu Hua Yuan. I have also seen in the Imperial Collection, Peking, an album picture by this artist, depicting monkeys. The brushwork and coloring are identical with the Metropolitan Museum specimen. Huang Ch’iian studied under Tiao Kuang-yin and rose to the position of superintendent of the palace under the usurping Shu Emperor, Meng Ch’ang. As he was a native of Ssu-ch’uan this distinction gave him a high standing among the men of his own generation and made it easy for him to gain recognition as a painter. He attained fame at a very early age, and was able to produce a large number of paintings. The Hsiian Ho Collection had three hundred and forty-nine specimens of his work. In the Imperial Collection, Peking, is a small painting of asters in which the splendid color effects obtained by this artist are seen. There is also an example of his work in the Metropolitan Museum signed with the artist’s name. Judging from these two paintings it is evident that the chief excellence of this artist was his ability in obtaining color effects, and that his chief weakness was in com¬ position. I have seen in the Imperial Collection a painting attributed to his son, Huang Chu-ts’ai. The work of father and son was so nearly alike that it would be impossible to distinguish one from the other. The fond¬ ness of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung for the small painting by Huang Ch’iian in his collection can be seen by the number of seals which he attached to it, the last one, T’ai Shang Huang Ti, having been affixed after the emperor had been on the throne more than fifty years. VII PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY: LANDSCAPE ARTISTS I N 960 the Sung dynasty was founded by Chao K’uang-yin, whose sol¬ diers placed upon him the imperial yellow robe at Chen Chiao, a military post northeast of K’ai-feng. He chose K’ai-feng as his capital. Easily accessible, situated on the banks of the Yellow River in the heart of the region where early Chinese civilization began, this city became the center of influence during a period most illustrious for its patronage of liter¬ ature and art. Until the inroads of the Tartar tribes drove the dynasty in 112.6 to seek a more secure site south of the Yangtse, K’ai-feng witnessed the comings and goings of a larger group of distinguished statesmen, litter¬ ateurs, poets, and artists than ever graced the capital city of any ancient or modern country. It was a period of reorganization after a half-century of anarchy and disorder. Even the thoughts of men needed to be collected into an authoritative system. Uniformity became the watchword of the national leaders, and though it was bitterly opposed by such men as Wang An-shih in theories of political administration, and as Su Shih in literary interpretation, it won the day. The Northern Sung period is distinguished chiefly by the casting of the inner thoughts and outward expressions of men into fixed molds. The broad teachings of Confucius which had been interpreted previously according to the personal ideas of commentators were crystallized into the clear, cold system of the two Ch’eng and Chu Hsi. This spirit of the age was reflected in painting. Here freedom became re¬ stricted, conventions arose, technicalities assumed a place of importance, and the power of precedent asserted itself. General opinion in the T’ang dynasty and in the Five Dynasties had favored the development of indi¬ vidualism in taste and expression; the Northern Sung changed all this. Its aim was not development, but tranquillity, and though it reached a higher 88 PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 89 level perhaps than either of its predecessors, it was the height of a wide mountain plateau, not of impressive peaks. Under such general influences it was natural that in pictorial art the chief development of the Northern Sung should be landscape painting, for in this it was easier than in any other form to conventionalize and system¬ atize. Among twenty artists of this dynasty who are to be mentioned ten were landscapists, and in discussing their work it will be seen how the tendency toward fixed standards was fostered and developed. Seven of these great painters of landscape flourished during the first forty years of the new empire. They not only attained to immortal fame on account of their paintings, but what is of still greater significance, they also became the models for all subsequent artists. Li Ch eng is one of the most important of these landscapists of the early part of the Northern Sung dynasty. He was a descendant of the T’ang dy¬ nasty emperors. His ancestors had removed from Shensi to Ying-ch’iu in Shantung Province, and it was there that Li Cheng was born. From the name of his birthplace he is often spoken of as Li Ying-ch’iu. He was not a prolific painter, and Mi Fei, on account of having seen only two of his paintings, peevishly remarked that there was no use of attempting to dis¬ cuss Li Cheng. Fortunately his most important painting, “Studying the Tablet” (Tu Pei Tu), has been preserved to our time, and is now in the pos¬ session of Ching Hsien, Peking. This is a hanging picture about four feet in height, made on double strips of silk. The background is a landscape done in highly saturated ink (shut mo). This landscape of itself is most beautifully executed and lends distinction to the governing idea of the painting, a tablet in front of which a man is standing attended by a small boy. In his left hand the man carries a hamper, and his gaze is fixed intently upon the tablet on which may be seen indistinctly characters written in an ancient style. On the lower left-hand border of the tablet is an inscription of eight characters which states that the figures of the painting were done by Wang Hsiao, and the trees and rocks by Li Ch eng (Wang Hsiao Jen Wu Li Ch’eng Shu Shih). The Mo Yuan Hui Kuan, in discussing this painting, narrates that during the Ming dynasty Mr. Ts’ai, CHINESE PAINTING 90 of San-han, had a Sung dynasty reproduction of it. This reproduction, which was evidently the work of an academician, is now also in the collec¬ tion of Ching Hsien. I have frequently examined at the same time these two paintings, the original and the reproduction, and have found the re¬ production of such an excellent quality that it could easily have passed for an original, although with the original in view one is able to detect in the reproduction the distinguishing characteristics of academy paintings which aimed at studied and punctilious effects. This artist was fond of depicting winter scenes, full of gloomy effects. The Shih Ku Tang describes twelve paintings by Li Cheng, and of these seven are winter scenes. Two of them are called Tan Lin , i.e., Groves in Winter,” and one is ‘‘Winter Magpies” (Han Ya). Another is ‘‘A Wintry Grove in a Desolate Plain” (Han Lin Ping YeF). The ‘‘Winter Magpies” was formerly in the collection of Li Mei-seng, and is now in the Metro¬ politan Museum, New York. In the foreground is a group of leafless trees over which are flying dozens of magpies ready to join their companions perched upon the branches. In the background are houses grouped in the midst of other trees around which magpies are also hovering. Beyond arise distant peaks of barren hills. The whole atmosphere of the painting pro¬ duces a feeling of chilliness in the beholder. Attached to this painting are five seals of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, one of Hsiang Yiian-pien, one of Wang Hung-hsii (d. 1737), and one of Wu Yiian-hui. Shen Kua (a.d. 1030-93), in his Miscellanea , criticizes Li Ch’eng for the turned-up eaves on the buildings in his landscape, and also for showing the valleys between mountain ridges. The critic maintained that the per¬ spective of the artist was wrong and that he did not know how to produce proper effects of height and distance, and trusted to clever devices to help himself out. This criticism was to a large extent well founded. The chief defect of Li Cheng’s painting was that he attempted to put too much into his scenes, with the result that they appear overcrowded, but his use of brush strokes was unsurpassed, and his painting was free from the conven¬ tionalism of later artists. Fan K’uan was a contemporary of Li Ch eng, but little is known of his PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 91 history outside of the fact that he was a Honan man who journeyed fre¬ quently between the capitals K’ai-feng and Lo-yang. The Hsiian Ho Hua P'u states that in his earlier years he painted in the style of Wang Wei, during his middle life in the style of Wei Hsieh, and in his more mature years followed the styles of Lu T’an-wei and Wu Tao-tzu. The truth underlying this statement is that he painted with a great freedom of style and with a wide range of subjects, while at the same time he drew from earlier masters as much as possible. The best known of his paintings is a scroll called Autumnal Glow” (Yen Lan Ch'iu Hsiao'), now in the Metropolitan Mu¬ seum, New York. In the Catalogue of Chinese Paintings published by the Metropolitan Museum in 1914 and prepared by myself, this scroll through a misprint was called “A Winter Landscape.” It is on silk, fifteen and three- quarters inches in height and twenty feet in length. Full accounts of this remarkable painting are contained in Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang, Shih Ku Tang, and Jang Li Kuan. After the first inner label there are several seals of Hsiang Yuan-pien. Following these are an earlier label at the end of which are the two cyclical characters chi ch'ou, and four imperial seals of the Emperor Hui Tsung. These two cyclical characters indicate the year 1109, which may be taken as the year in which this scroll came into the possession of the Emperor Hui Tsung. There are also eleven other seals of Hsiang Yuan-pien. The first annotation was written by Yang Shih-ch’i, an eminent critic of the Yuan dynasty. According to Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang and Shih Ku Tang, there were annotations on this scroll by Chao Meng-fu, Kung Hsiao, Wang Meng, Yeh Kuang-chii, Liu Yiian-tso, and Chang Fu-feng, but these have disappeared in the remounting, and an annotation by Yang Shih-ch’i has been added. This annotation of Yang Shih-chi is undoubtedly genuine and is attested by four seals of Hsiang Yuan-pien, but as it makes no mention of this particular scroll it must originally have been attached to another scroll of the same artist and transferred to this one. The severance of anno¬ tations by well-known writers from original scrolls and the transference of other annotations have been done not infrequently by owners and dealers who have thereby been able to obtain two valuable possessions instead of one. As a general rule it is safe to say that only annotations in which CHINESE PAINTING 92 definite reference to an attached painting is made can be relied upon as genuine, unless, perchance, their authenticity can be confirmed from contem¬ poraneous writings. In the case of this scroll there is no need of depending upon any annotations; the painting speaks for itself. Fortunately it is also attested by the seals of Hui Tsung. Even if it cannot be proved beyond per- adventure that this scroll is an original painting by Fan K uan, these seals are sufficient to show that its production was not later than the time of Hui Tsung, which was only a little more than a hundred years after the death of this artist. An excellent example of the work of Hsu Tao-ning is the scroll formerly owned by Tuan Fang. The name of this scroll is “The Hsiao Temple on a pjjjl Overlooking a River" (Chiang Shan Hsiao Ssu~). The artist has not followed the usual method of landscapists in placing the temple, which is the central feature, in the middle of the scroll; he has placed it at the end, making the larger part of the picture an approach to the temple. The temple itself is partly hidden by a projecting peak. Below is the river with small boats plying their way hither and thither. The artist has preserved the balance of the picture by inserting in the center a group of buildings which belong to the main temple. This HsiaoTemple was built by the Emperor Wu Ti (a.d. 502.-49) of the Liang dynasty, who ordered the famous calligra- phist, Hsiao Tzu-yiin, to write for it the character Hsiao of large size in the fei-pai style, i.e., so that the hairs of the brush would separate and leave blank spots not covered with ink. This character, Hsiao, was the family name of the emperor, and it is said that when the temple was destroyed the board on which Hsiao was written was the only thing which remained un¬ injured. This scroll of Hsii Tao-ning is in monochrome. It has a label writ¬ ten by the Emperor Kao Tsung (112.7-62.) of the Southern Sung dynasty, and an annotation by Su Chiung, great-grandson of Su Sung, the poet. There are many important seals, among which are one of the Emperor Kao Tsung and another of Chia Ssu-tao. Another interesting feature of this scroll is an extra label which follows the annotation of Su Chiung, and was written by Chang Chao, the noted calligraphist of the K’ang Hsi period. This scroll is recorded in nearly all of the important critiques, and forms one of the PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 93 most valuable remains of early Sung painting, which merits our particular attention and most careful study. Tung Yuan painted the hills of his own native Kiang-nan in the vicinity of Nanking. He is classed with the Sung artists, though in reality he began his work during the latter part of the Southern Tang. One of his most famous paintings is “Travelers in Summer Hills” ( Hsia Shan Using Lit). This was in the collection of Chao Meng-fu in the Yuan dynasty, and several descriptions of it remain, although the painting itself has disappeared. At the opening of the scroll there was a grove through which travelers passed to a high hill. Circling around this hill to the left the pathway descended and soon entered another thick grove. Beyond this was a higher hill with two peaks partly covered with mist. It has been described as a masterpiece of composition. Another painting which was owned by the Yu family of Honan in the Ming dynasty was “Turrets in the Fairy Hills” ( Hsien Shan Lou Ko). The description of this painting in Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang states that the trees and rocks had an impressive ancient appearance, that the figures were full of life, and that the center of the picture contained an example of chieh hua (“measured paintings”) equal to any of the later work of Kuo Chung-shu. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has the fragment of a scroll by Tung Yuan, called “Wind and Rain in Hills and Valleys” (Hsi Shan Feng Yu). This scroll was owned in the Ming dynasty by Yu Cho, Shen Chou, and Wu Yiian-po. Since the time of the Ming dynasty this scroll has only been a fragment, but all of the critics unite in saying that it is an excellent example of the work of Tung Yuan. In the collection of Ching Hsien, Peking, there is a hanging picture, three feet seven and one-half inches in height, twenty-six and one-half inches in width, painted on double strips of silk neatly joined together. The name of this picture is “The Recluse on a Hill by the River ( Chiang Shan Kao Yin). The locality referred to is the same as that mentioned in the painting of Hsii Tao-ning, already described. This picture has half of the seal of the official redactor, Chi Ch’a Ssu, intrusted with the gathering together of the Sung dynasty treasures after the flight of the court to Hangchow. There are also five seals of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung. 94 CHINESE PAINTING Although Tung Yuan was the most realistic of any of the early land¬ scapists, his landscapes were memory reproductions and not elaborated sketches of nature. They were imaginative reconstructions painted in the quiet seclusion of his studio. He was fond of roaming through the hills, but the landscape which he painted was that which had stamped itself upon his memory and had warmed his soul. He used freely artistic license in adapting any existing landscape to the needs of his general conception. Where there were no gurgling rivulets, pretty pavilions, wayfaring pilgrims, or flagstone bridges, he inserted them in his landscape for no other reason than his own pleasure. His only law was a freedom from attempting to represent nature as it was found at any one time or in any one place. In his memory reproduction he transformed landscape so as to give delight to himself as well as to those who would see his picture. In other words, his landscapes were a reconstruction produced by his imagination, not a composite of actual sketches. Kuo Chung-shu is usually classed among the artists of the Northern Sung period, although some authorities, including the Hsiian Ho Hua P’u, classify him under the Five Dynasties. He was a native of Ho-pei, Honan Province, but the date of his birth or death is not known. His paintings did not gain a name for themselves until several generations had passed. He was the first great painter of architecture in landscape. He set palaces in the midst of beautiful scenes and painted them accurately, not suggestive¬ ly. He used square and compass, ruler and plumb line, so that the drawing of his palaces was correct according to scale. In landscapes the painting of buildings with the aid of instruments so that they are true in proportions is called “measured painting” (chieh hua). In this branch Kuo Chung-shu was the first and still remains the greatest master. Two of his famous paintings of palaces were those of the city and country residences of Ch’ien Liu (a.d. 851-931), the Prince of Wu Yueh, whose capital was Hangchow. These were called “The Palace of Yueh Wang” (Yueh Wang Kung Tien ) and “The Summer Villa” (Pi Shu Kung Tien). The former was in the collection of Yen Sung in the Ming dynasty, the latter in that of Wen Cheng-ming. PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 95 In Volume III, No. 1 (1914), of Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, the Wang Ch’uan scro by this artist was described by me in detail. Wang Ch’uan was the place where Wang Wei built his villa so as to provide a refuge from the cares of the world. It was located in the mountainous district of the south- ern part of Lan-t’ien, Shansi Province. As has already been mentioned, this p ace Wang Chuan, became the subject of a great poem and a famous pic- ture by this poet-artist, Wang Wei. Kuo Chung-shu made a reproduction of the Wang Ch’uan scroll of Wang Wei, and this is now in the Metropoli¬ tan Museum, New York. It is on silk, sixteen feet one inch in length and twe ve and a half inches in height. Twenty places mentioned in the poem of Wang Wei are depicted, and the poem itself is copied at the end of the picture on a separate piece of paper by Chao Jung (Chao Chung-mo) of the Yuan dynasty. The twenty stanzas of the poem sing the praises or extol the beauties of these places, but give no details from which an artist could construct a painting. Poem and picture are alike works of imaginative genius. In the scroll beautiful trees cover the hills, boats are on the broad stream on the edges of which storks are wading; there is a deer park, a hillock covered with bamboos, a grove of magnolia trees, another of pepper trees, another of wavy willows, a waterfall; birds are flying in the air—all the delights of eye and ear were brought together in this one lovely spot. This scroll is fully described in Shih Ku Tang and Ch’ing-ho Shu Hua Fang. Its genuineness is attested by a number of important seals such as Chi Hsien Yuan of Kublai Khan (the second emperor of the Yuan dynasty), one of Chao Meng-fu, one of Shen Chou, one of T’ang Yin, two of Tung Ch’i-ch’ang, and one of Hsiang Yuan-pien. Yen Wen-kuei, who was a native of Wu-hsing (modern Soochow) flourished during the reign of T’ai Tsung (976-97), at whose court he was a favorite. He used very thin lines and warm brilliant colors. Mi Fei de¬ scribes two paintings by this artist. One of these was “A Market Scene on the Seventh Night” (Chi Hsi Yeh Shih). This portrays the bright colors on the seventh day of the seventh moon when the Weaving Damsel meets the Shepherd Boy in the sky. The other painting, less than a foot in size, was called ‘ ‘ Crossing the Sea” (. Po Ch’uan Tu Hat). The size of the boat was 9 5 CHINESE PAINTING that of a leaf, and the men on it like kernels of wheat, and yet, notwithstand¬ ing the minute size of the objects depicted, one could see the confusion on the boat and the hurried movements of its occupants preparing to face the storm and waves. Even the distant peaks appeared to extend a thousand It in the distance. Though crowded with details, the paintings of this artist never seem confused; the brilliant composition caused each small item to fit into the harmonious grandeur of the whole. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, has a landscape scroll signed with the name of Yen Wen-kuei, and bearing the Hsiian Ho gourd-shaped seal of the Emperor Hui Tsung, and a rectangular seal, Chung Shan K’ai Kuo, of Hsii Ta (a.d. 132.9-83). This scroll must have been one of the paintings gathered from various sources as presents to Hung Wu, founder of the Ming dynasty. Hsu Ta captured K’ai-feng and Peking, driving the Mongols northwestward toward their ancient home. He gained a great reputation on account of his strict prohibi¬ tion of pillaging by his soldiers. It is probable that during the capture of some of the wealthy northern cities Hsii Ta obtained this scroll. It was the custom for conquering generals at the beginning of each dynasty to acquire as many valuable art productions as possible, and to present them to the new emperor. Hsii Ta had a rare opportunity during his conquest of the regions in which the Sung, Liao, Chin, and Yiian dynasties flourished. The style of painting in this scroll fully accords with the descriptions of that of Yen Wen-kuei. Although there is no means of verifying it as a genuine specimen of his work, it may be considered at least as an early authentic reproduction of his style. The priest, Chu Jan, is the seventh and last member of the distinguished group of landscapists that graced the early years of the Northern Sung dynasty. He was a native of Nanking, where he entered the K’ai Yiian Monastery. He became a great favorite of Li Yii, the last emperor of the Southern T’ang dynasty, and when Li Yii capitulated to the Sung emperor, T’ai Tsung, the priest Chii Jan was recommended to the court at K’ai-feng. Here he was given a position in the K’ai Pao Monastery, and soon made for himself a great name. He followed the style which had been adopted by Tung Yiian, and became master of his art. During the succeeding dynasty 97 PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY a saying arose that ‘ ‘ in earlier times there were Ching Hao and Kuan T’ung, and in later times Tung Yuan andChiiJan.” One of his famous paintings had for its subject the pilfering of the Lan-t’ing manuscript by Hsiao I. This is described fully in Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang, but as far as I know, the picture has now disappeared. Another famous picture known during the Ming dynasty, and mentioned also at the beginning of the Manchu dynasty in Shih Ku Tang, was “A Fishing Boat” (Ch'w Shan Yu Ting). In the col¬ lection of Tuan Fang there was the scroll, “Views of the Yangtse” (Ch'ang Chiang Wan Li ), which is illustrated in Kokka, No. z$i. This is now in the collection of Feng Hsu, of Peking. It is a long scroll on silk. The views which it depicts start from Pa-shu (modern Ssu-ch’uan), and various places are selected down the course of the river as far as Jun-chou (modern Chin- kiang). The names of the places are written in small characters over the land¬ scape. The brush strokes are very fine, contrary to the usual style of his brush strokes, which are thick and vigorous. There is a specimen of his work in the Cleveland Museum. It is a hanging picture, five feet seven inches in height, and three feet five and one-half inches in width, painted on two strips of silk. On the side of the painting is a seal certifying that it was presented to the first emperor of the Manchu dynasty, Shun Chih, by Sung Ch’iian. Sung Ch’iian was the last governor of Peking under the Ming. He only held the position for three days when the city was captured by Li Tzu-ch’eng, who promptly reappointed him, and he continued in office for two years. He then became chief minister of state for six years, and it was during the first year of his tenure of this high office that he presented this painting to the emperor. From the beginning of the eleventh century down to the end of the Northern Sung dynasty (112.6) there was proportionately a much smaller number of great artists than during the first years when the seven great artists, who have been described in the preceding paragraphs, made their reputations. In this long period of a century and a quarter there were only three landscapists whose names can be coupled with those of their immediate predecessors. These are Kuo Hsi, Chao Ling-jang, and Mi Fei. Kuo Hsi was the most important of these three artists, and fortunately CHINESE PAINTING good specimens of his work are still extant. In the collection of Tuan Fang there was a scroll called “ The Clearing of Autumnal Skies” (Hsi Shan Ch'iu Cht). This picture is illustrated in Kokka, No. Z50. It is a monochrome painting done with thick ink thoroughly saturated in water (shut mo). According to Shih Ku T ang, the original label of this scroll was written by Ni Tsan, but it has been lost. The earliest seal is that of K’o Chiu-ssu of the Yuan dynasty, and there are three annotations written during the Ming dynasty by Wen Chia, Wang Chih-teng, and Tung Chi-chang. I have compared this scroll with one in the Metropolitan Museum called “Mountain Wayfarers” ( [Kuan Shan Hsing Lu), and have found the two iden¬ tical in style, brushwork, and quality of ink. The scroll in the Metropolitan Museum is one foot seven inches in height and nineteen feet in length. It was formerly in the collection of Wu Jung-kuang, and the inner label was written by this owner who was a distinguished calligraphist. It also has three seals of Erchintai who was one of the Manchu generals accompanying the founder of the M^anchu dynasty, Shun Chih. There are also one Sung dynasty imperial seal, Chi Hsi Tien Pao, and one of Hsien-yii Ch u of the Yuan dynasty, with the three characters K'un Hsiieh Chai. This scroll came to the Museum from the collection of Hsu Fu (Hsu Sung-ko), who obtained it from Keng Hsin-kung, and bears the seals of both of these previous owners. Hsu Fu was a noted scholar who became president of the Board of Rites about 1870. There is also another picture by Kuo Hsi in the Metro¬ politan Museum. It is a hanging picture called “Mountain Scenery” ( Chien Ko Hsing Lu). This painting is an illustration of a maxim stated by this artist in his essay on landscape (Lin Ch'iian Kao Chih) that landscape must be viewed from a distance in order to be comprehended in its grandeur.” To appreciate this picture one must imagine himself looking down upon the landscape from an opposite height. Beyond the massed hills in the far dis¬ tance may be seen a far-reaching range of hills. The mountain travelers crossing a flagstone bridge, the pavilions clustering at the foot of the hills and overlooking an expanse of water, the trees on the hillside, the gate tower in the valley—these are all subsidiary to the central peak which dominates the whole picture. There is another scroll in the Metropolitan PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY oo yy Museum by this artist which came from the collection of Hsii Ch’i It is called :* Mountain Travelers on the Hills of Ssd-ch’uan” ( Shu Shan Hsing Lu\ or Travelers on Summer Hills” (Hsia Shan Hsing Lu). This scroll is described in Shih Ku Tang. It is on silk and painted with thin ink. There are several noteworthy annotations. One of these is by Ou-yang Hsuan, a distinguished critic of the Yuan dynasty. The annotations of Wei Su, Wang Ch ung, and Shen Chou, all of the Ming dynasty, discuss the style of paint¬ ing used by Kuo Hsi, and unite in appraising his work as equal to that of Li Ch eng. It has been pointed out by various critics that Kuo Hsi painted in the style of Li Ch eng, but it seems to me to be truer to the facts to state that this artist was not dependent for inspiration upon any of his predeces¬ sors. He was a master in his own right. Chao Ling-jang (Chao Ta-nien) was connected with the imperial family. He was a precocious student of literature and early turned his attention also to painting. Having risen to a high sinecure official position he was free to devote himself to his studies and painting. His work has always been in great favor with literary men, both on account of his imperial connection and also his scholarly attainments. I have seen a scroll by this artist entitled Plucking Lotuses” (Tsai Lien), which came from the collection of Li Tso-hsien of Wei-hsien, Shantung Province. It is richly colored and painted with delicate, fine brush strokes. The work is dainty rather than strong, and is suggestive of a dilettante such as the artist un¬ doubtedly was. He was fond of making small-sized paintings, and I have seen several examples of his work in album collections. Another picture by this artist is called “Home Again” (Kuei Ch’ii Lai). It has been illustrated in Kokka (No. 12.4). This picture was commented upon by Mi Fei who lived a generation later than the artist, and who was impressed with the breadth of landscape which the artist was able to encompass in such small space. He also made a painting of wild geese to which frequent reference has been made in poetry. While he cannot be placed in the same class as the great artists of this dynasty, the favorable comments of Mi Fei have given him such a high position as warrants the joining of his name with theirs in this chapter. IOO CHINESE PAINTING Two of the greatest literary men in the history of China lived during the latter part of the Northern Sung. These were Su Shih (Su Tung-p’o) and Mi Fei (Mi Yiian-chang). Su Shih was a calligraphist and concurrently a painter; Mi Fei was a painter and concurrently a calligraphist. Mi Fei as a landscapist had a style of his own. He piled ink upon ink almost as if he were working in oil. He used thickly saturated ink in depicting the tops of hills whose bases were enveloped in mist, thus bringing out strong con¬ trasts. His “Mist on the Hills” (Yiin Shari) has a colophon stating that it was painted by Mi Fei on an autumn day in the second year of the Emperor Yiian Feng, i.e., a.d. 1079. In this P icture the cone a mountain top rises above a heavy mist, below which is a tree-covered hill. It has a seal of the artist (Ch’u Kuo Mi Fei ) under his signature, also a seal of the Sung Emperor Kao Tsung, and seven seals of Ch’ien Lung to whose collection it formerly be¬ longed. There was a painting signed by Mi Fei loaned by the former Emperor Hsiian T’ung to the exhibition held in Central Park, May, 1913. It was called “Pine Trees on Hills in Spring” ( Ch'un Shan Jui Sung), and although I have found no record of this painting among early collections, it is un¬ doubtedly in the style of Mi Fei and worthy of his brush. It was done on paper as was also “Mist on the Hills.” His style was too far removed from the brush strokes of calligraphy to become a permanent influence in paint¬ ing. It was followed by his son, Mi Yu-jen, by Fang Fang-hu of the Yiian dynasty, and attempted by Tung Ch’i-ch’ang of the Ming dynasty in some of his paintings, but without much success. It remains the individualistic style of Mi Fei, and the high opinion of it, expressed by critics in spite of its peculiarity, is the highest possible tribute to his great talents. These great artists painted landscape for its own sake, not as a mere background for some other leading idea. The early landscapists of Europe seem to have introduced the landscape chiefly as a helpful adjunct to their dominant historical tales or as affording an opportunity for displaying their power in producing striking color effects. This rule was exemplified by Gozzoli’s “Procession of the Magi,” Titian’s “Landscape with Satyrs,” or Claude Lorrain’s “Flight into Egypt.” Only occasional instances of paint¬ ing landscape for its own beauty occurred, such as Leonardo da Vinci s j tb jjj> - s. ij: ^ ’• H: . A- I --j i: '"■• v « 13 n •-. t ■t. f . •K.ft/i -vA. 1: r- •• wWP»-,- A WINTER SCENE, BY SU SHIH IOI PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY Study of a Tree”; “The Pasturage,” by Karal du Jardin (Louvre); “The Travelers,” an etching by Ruysdael (in the Bibliotheque Nationale); or Landscape with Animals,” by Thomas Gainsborough. With most artists convention and formulas were all important rather than a study of nature. Even Watteau used the landscape as an accessory rather than as a primary motive, though his love of nature was the chief inspiration of his work and accounted for the development of the modern French school of landscapists who have become the glory of this branch of painting in Europe. Corot, Rousseau, and Millet learned their lessons from Watteau, and he learned his from nature in the same way as Chinese landscapists. Turner’s fascina¬ tion for the effects of light and shade and for strong coloring places him in striking contrast to Chinese methods. With Chinese landscapists nothing could take the place of an intimate acquaintance with the varying moods of mountains and the changing aspect of trees and streams. Landscape with them was worthy of study and representation for its own natural beauty and its spiritual suggestions. The Chinese term for ‘ ‘ landscape’ ’ now is shan-shui (‘ ‘ hills and water”). An earlier term, shan-ch uan , has the same meaning. These two parts of a landscape, hills and water, have ever been full of mystery and imaginative¬ ness to the Chinese. The early book, Shan Hai King, the ‘‘Classic of the Hills and Sea, has many curious tales of nymphs and sprites, creatures of human fancy. These are all gathered around the hills and sea (shan hat), which are the-essential component parts of a landscape. Of course there are other features such as trees, rocks, animals, human figures, but any one of these may be included or neglected by a Chinese landscapist in his sketch. What cannot be omitted is the hills and water. In our Western conception a landscape is any stretch of country as seen from a single viewpoint. It may be a level tract or studded with hills, but in the technical sense a land¬ scape in China always means hills and must include some water. This fundamental difference in the Chinese conception of the meaning of a land¬ scape must never be forgotten. A Chinese landscape painting includes al¬ ways a view of mountain scenery, and somewhere in it must be seen the water of a babbling brook, a flowing stream, or an ocean shore. Water is 102 . CHINESE PAINTING conventionalized as surface ripples, and this convention is probably as cor¬ rect as one based upon color. Water has been recognized generally by paint¬ ers as less interesting in art than in nature. All of the great landscapists had opportunity for leisurely study of nature. In some instances they wandered in the hills because they loved them; in others the exigencies of political turmoil forced them to take refuge in lonely resorts, and their fondness for nature drove them to the hills. Li Ssu-hsiin spent years in retirement from official life after the usur¬ pation of the Empress Wu; Wang Wei retired to the hills of Shansi where he lived alone; Li Sheng wandered constantly among the mountain scenes of his native province Ssix-ch’uan; Li Ch’eng, though descended fiom the im¬ perial house of T’ang, led the life of a wanderer and sauntered from Si-an-fu to Ying-ch’iu in Shantung; Fan K’uan illustrated his own maxim that it is better to study nature itself than the style of great masters by spending much of his time in wandering between the capital city of the Sung, K’ai-feng, and the old capital city of Lo-yang; Kuo Chung-shu led a stormy life, spending much of his time in hiding in the hills where he studied nature. And yet, notwithstanding this intimacy with nature as a whole and familiarity with all the details of many specially beautiful places, these artists never attempted to depict scenes such as could be readily localized. They avoided the risk of a reversion to topography to which their landscape painting undoubtedly owed its origin. They recognized that accurate draw¬ ings from nature, no matter how skilfully colored, could only be examples of topography, and they chose rather to exercise complete liberty in arrang¬ ing their material so as to produce the strongest possible influence upon the souls of those who would view their work. They did not interest them¬ selves in accuracy; their aim was to effect a spiritual impression. Their view of a landscape was that of a poet who freely discards or exaggerates. They had the sole aim of producing an artistic response in the mind of the be¬ holder. Their sketches from nature (shih miao) were for personal use, but in their paintings they copied no recognizable views, for they well knew that no view remains the same for two hours in succession. They spiritual- PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 103 ized and idealized what they saw, seizing upon such features as would serve their high purpose. They did for the barren, rugged hills of northern China in their paintings what Scott did for the dismal scenery of the High¬ lands in his writings, where the Scotch hills are filled with romantic as¬ sociations which could not have been duplicated elsewhere. Chinese land¬ scapists have revealed in their paintings a devotion to the majesty and mystery of their own hillsides which never fails to stir the hearts of their countrymen. They have preserved spiritual aspects, which are, after all, the permanent features of scenes as far as an appeal to the human soul is concerned. A correct understanding of artistic emotions is of much greater importance than accuracy of drawing. No painstaking reproduction can convey the same impression as is produced by the scene itself, but a land¬ scapist who catches the spiritual in nature can communicate it to others. That which is meant to be truthful in representing nature does not in every instance appear truthful as seen in the work of artists; more dependence can be placed upon the transmission of emotional impressions such as have been attempted by Chinese landscapists. In depicting nature Chinese artists were well justified in their avoidance of the strong contrasts of light and shade as found on bright days, and in their choice of dull atmospheres, for they were brought thereby into inti¬ mate communion with nature. Their paintings are sombre, but are full of subtle mystery. They are not luminous, but neither are they obscure. Art¬ ists have not chosen nature on picnic; their nature is the great mystery in the face of which we pass our days. Man is ever in the presence of this strange overmastering power of earth and air, hills and water, which con¬ trols his fortunes and often even the measure of his life. Nature is no play¬ ful child to be trifled with and amused by; she is a mysterious power, full of glory and majesty. Man is only the third of the great powers, heaven, earth, and man, whose importance equals only this grade in which he is traditionally placed. Heaven is almighty, earth is mysteriously subject to heaven s powers as he finds them revealed on the earth, and he stands always in awe and reverence of them. His is not an anthropomorphic deity; heaven is an overruling law according to the standard interpretation of the ortho- CHINESE PAINTING 104 dox commentator of classical literature, Chu Hsi. Nature in this philosophy is grand, dignified, and mysteriously silent. As most of the work of these artists was done in monochrome, it was subject to the besetting snare of flatness, but this has been studiously avoid¬ ed by the Sung landscapists. One can never think of their work as having the superficial accuracy and flatness of photographic effects; on the contrary they always seem to bring out the essential qualities of a landscape. One of the first duties of an artist was to decide between the principal and the sub¬ ordinate features, or, as it was expressed, between the relative position as a host and his guest. “His great mountain,” as Kuo Hsi said, “must domi¬ nate the surrounding lower hills.” Whether grandeur or distance, rain or wind, whatever is the dominating idea, this must be emphasized, and thus the danger of flatness be avoided. Where the painting reveals no such over¬ mastering principle there was always a tendency to insipidity, and this quality is the sign and the condemnation of the work of the copyists who often rivaled their masters in their skill of brushwork, but utterly failed in catching the dominant feature of the landscape. Landscapists were not confined to our convention of perspective. Some¬ times the station-point is taken from one hilltop looking out over others still higher and separated by intervening valleys. Again the beholder is on a hill looking up a valley beyond which ridges of hills fade away into the distance. At one time the correct view or ground line is obtained by stand¬ ing at the right-hand side of the painting, and at others by standing on the left. The beholder is never posited as stationary. He must adjust himself to the artist rather than compel the artist to work as if an observer could not move. The perspective is linear, but instead of one original plane as in Western painting there is a succession of planes one above the other, as in hanging paintings (li chou ), or one next to the other, as in scrolls (shou chiian). The reduction and narrowing of contiguous planes brings the par¬ allel lines to one vanishing-point, not to two as in the Western convention. The perspective is also aerial, for the convention provides for the proper shading and coloring of the picture to produce the desired effect of distance and tint. The Chinese term for perspective is yuan chin , i.e., “distant and 1. NIU MAO TS'UN, “WRINKLES LIKE THE HAIR ON A COWS HIDE,” USED BY WANG MENG. THIS IS ALSO CALLED KUEI P'l TS’UN, "WRINKLES LIKE THOSE ON THE FACE OF A DEMON” 2. TA FU P’l TS’UN, “WRINKLES LIKE THE SLASHES OF A LARGE AXE,” USED BY MA YUAN 3. CHIEH SO AND CHE TAI TS’UN, "WRINKLES LIKE THE TWISTS OF A ROPE AND THE FOLDS OF A BELT,” USED BY LI T’ANG, T’ANG YIN 4. CHIEH SO TS’UN, "WRINKLES LIKE THE TWISTS OF A ROPE,” USED BY HUANG KUNG-WANG 5. P'l MA TS'UN, “WRINKLES LIKE HEMP FIBERS,” USED BY TUNG YUAN, CHU JAN, WU ch£N 6. LUAN CH'AI TS'UN, "WRINKLES LIKE A HEAP OF FIREWOOD,” USED IN FREEHAND LANDSCAPE DRAWING 7. CHUAN YUN TS’UN, “WRINKLES LIKE CONVOLUTED CLOUDS,” USED BY KUO HSI 8. HO YEH TS’UN, “WRINKLES LIKE THE VEINS OF A LOTUS LEAF,” USED BY WANG WEI, WHO ALSO USED YU TIEN TS'UN, "WRINKLES LIKE RAINDROPS” 9. HSIAO FU P'l TS’UN, "WRINKLES LIKE THE SLASHES OF A SMALL AXE,” USED BY LI SSU-HSUN AND LI CH’ENG 10. CHE TAI TS'UN, "WRINKLES LIKE THE FOLDS OF A BELT,” USED BY NITSAN PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 105 near,” and is taken from the Book of Changes. It is a convention much earlier t an the European perspective, which came into use in the fifteenth cen¬ tury, and is an adaptation of the method used in bas-reliefs. This conven¬ tion is not mathematical if judged by our accepted laws, for it is earlier than modern science; but with the Chinese art has never had, as with us, what Kenyon Cox calls the “fatal tendency to become science.” It must be granted that the Chinese convention allows greater freedom than the Western, which could not possibly be adapted to the painting of long scrolls of landscape, and is therefore more useful to Chinese artists than a scientifi¬ cally correct perspective could be. The scroll “Washing the Elephant” is a good illustration of the Chinese method of foreshortening; and “Colors of Ling-an Shan,” by Wang Hui, one of the linear and aerial perspective methods. The importance of brush strokes (pi /ah') became both the greatest glory and the most insidious peril of the Sung landscapists. They were masters of the brush, and their style of mastery was the standard of the division into schools. The most fundamental difference is between artists who used coarse, thick strokes (tsu pi) and those who preferred thin, slender ones (hsi pi). The thick strokes were generally used by the bolder souls who were less trammeled by convention than their fellows of the delicate, fine lines. It was next to impossible to use any coloring as an ac¬ companiment to these coarse strokes; monochrome became a necessity with this class of artists, whereas a touch of color was often needed to rescue the gentler style from the dangers of effeminacy. Mi Fei had a style of his own which approached that of our Western artists. He did not trust to simple strokes, whether thick or thin, for the expression of his conceptions; he piled ink upon ink by using strokes upon strokes. His hills were masses of solid ink which thinned out into the light shades of the mist. Even his trees were solid patches in which the trunk and the branches were outlined by the use of a darker shade of ink. Other artists outlined their hills with brush strokes, but Mi Fei preferred solidity. The hook at the end of lines called “wrinkles” (ts'un fah) used in the delineation of mountains, forms also a basis for classification. Li Ssu-hsiin io 6 CHINESE PAINTING used the small axe strokes ( hsiao fu p’i ts'un), while Wang Wei used the raindrop strokes (yii tien ts'un). There were also the large axe strokes ( ta fu p’i ts’un) of Li T’ang, the p’i ma ts'un of Tung Yuan, and such other re¬ finements of style as lotus-leaf veins (ho yeh ching ts un), convoluted clouds (chiianyun ts'un), and many others. The overelaboration of the differences of method in calligraphic painting proved to be a peril. Later artists copied the style and missed the spirit, but their work came to be prized as highly as that of the greater artists. Wang Hui of the early years of the late Manchu dynasty surpassed almost any of the Sung artists in his command of the brush. This has endeared him to modern intellectuals, and good specimens of his work now bring higher prices than those of Sung artists which are much superior in artistic inspiration. This is entirely due to the perfection of Wang’s brush strokes. If art were only technique, Wang Hui would rank as one of China’s greatest artists, for in this respect he surpasses either Li Cheng or Tung Yuan. His is the beauty of the gentle dove which can be handled and fondled; the great Sung masters soared in the heavens like eagles beyond the reach of ordinary men, but still within the scope of admiring vision. Their various styles were picked out by later people, as for the artists themselves, these were but the natural expression of their unfettered spirits. A knowledge of China’s geography is necessary to an understanding of its landscape painters. Just as one cannot rightly appreciate Claude Lorrain without having seen Italy, or Ruysdael without knowing Holland, so one must have seen Chinese scenery in order to judge of its interpretation by Chinese painters. Tung Yuan painted the hills of his own native Kiang- nan in the vicinity of Nanking. Fan K’uan studied the shifting clouds and drifting mists from his retreat in the Chung-nan Mountain in Shensi. The Lii Mountains of Kiangsi, the Kuei-chi Range in eastern Chekiang, the hills around the Ch’ien-t’ang River in western Chekiang, and the numerous hill groups of Ssu-ch’uan were all subjects for Sung artists. There were also the two lakes—Po-yang in Kiangsi Province, and the Tung-t’ing in Hunan. The long river which we call the Yangtse Kiang was frequently painted from its source to its mouth (< Ch'ang Chiang Wan Li). The two Hunan rivers, Hsiao ->44-^ V PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 107 and Hsiang, became as famous in art as in poetry. These all form parts of the great national heritage into which Chinese painters were born, and their characteristics are so different from the countries of the West that only a first-hand acquaintance with them is sufficient as a preparation to appre¬ ciate their interpretation. There were also historical settings for famous events such as “The Assembly in the Western Garden” (Hsi Yuan Ya Chi'), where noted scholars enjoyed the beauty of the landscape which enveloped them, or Wang Ch'uan, the fanciful creation of Wang Wei, with its bamboo groves, deer park, charming pavilions, and grand halls. The well-known palaces such as the O Pang Kung or the Ta Ming Kung, the Wei Yang Kung, and the Kan Ch’iian Kung, were placed in their appropriate surround¬ ings (adossement). In the mind of the Chinese artist these various features were but parts of the geography of their country, and there was premised a familiarity with them which is necessarily absent in the case of Western¬ ers, but none the less needed as a primary equipment for appreciating these wonderful productions. VIII PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY: OTHER ARTISTS A LTHOUGH landscape painting must be considered the outstanding \ feature of pictorial art during the Northern Sung dynasty, there .A- )\. were famous artists who devoted their attention chiefly to other subjects. Chou Wen-chii has had no superior in the painting of female fig¬ ures. The incomparable Li Kung-lin stands in a class by himself as a painter of Buddhistic religious subjects. Chao Ch’ang and Tsui Po as painters of flowers, and I Yuan-chi, Ai Hsiian, and the Emperor Hui Tsung as painters of birds, as well as of flowers, are pre-eminent. These artists preserved in some measure the freedom of T ang painting and did not allow themselves to be bound by the conventions which held sway in the painting of land¬ scapes. Their work was free from the trammels of calligraphic painting, it was wholly imaginative and full of sensuous delight. Chou Wen-chii belonged to the brilliant group of artists that flourished at Nanking during the contemporaneous Southern T’ang dynasty. His style was undoubtedly influenced by that of his great predecessor of the same surname, Chou Fang, but he had his own individual method in depicting the clothes and attitudes of the women whom he painted. In his scroll A Summer Evening in the T’ang Palace (Tang Kung Chun Shari) there were eighty-one figures of women and children, all of diminutive size; in his “ Six Beautiful Women” (Liu Met), formerly in the collection of Tuan Fang and now owned by Mr. John J. Emery, New York, the figures are all one-third life-size. Whether large or small, their costumes and coiffures were in the style of the T’ang dynasty. Another famous scroll by this artist was “The O Pang Palace (0 Pang Kung Yang). This palace was built by Ch’in Shih Hwang in the third century b.c., a short distance from the capital Hsien Yang (modern Hsi-an) xo8 BB PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 109 in Shensi Province. It had an immense inclosure including a deer park, fish¬ ing lakes, and large groves. The palaces of this picture were painted according to scale in the style of “measured paintings’’ (chieh hud). His scroll, “The Parting and Reunion of Su Yo-lan’’ Q» Yo-lan Hua Pei Hui Ho), depicts the romantic tale of Su Yo-lan, wife of Tou T’ao, a general of the anterior Ch’in dynasty. She was married to this man in her youth and proved to be most helpful to him in his public career. Before he was transferred to a distant post he had become infatuated with another beautiful woman, Chao Yang- t’ai, whom he took with him on his long journey. His wife, Su Yo-lan, repined at the loss of her husband’s love and determined to show her devo¬ tion by weaving with her own hands an acrostic in which she could ex¬ press her feelings of devotion. Upon hearing of her faithfulness the general sent messengers to bring her to him. It is the parting of the husband and wife and their later reunion that are recorded in this scroll by Chou Wen- chu. The acrostic attached to the scroll was written by Li I-an, also of the Sung dynasty. I have seen this same subject painted by a Southern Sung academician and to it attached an acrostic written by Wen Cheng-ming. In the British Museum there is a painting “Children at Play” (Hsi Ying), by Chou Wen-chii. It is a hanging picture and has great charm, but is a Ming dynasty reproduction. The original painting of this subject by Chou Wen-chii was in scroll form and was in the Han family collection during the Ming dynasty. I do not know whether or not it is still in existence. Li Kung-lin lived at the close of the eleventh and during the early part of the twelfth century. He was a native of Shu-ch’eng in Anhui Province near the provincial capital. He attained to the highest literary degree and was appointed to a post in the Board of Justice. He is known by several names. Li Kung-lin is his ordinary name; his hao is Li Po-shih; on account of having lived for a long time in a villa on the Lung-mien Hill, he is called Li Lung-mien; his sobriquet was “The Retired Scholar of Lung-mien” ( Lung-mien Chii-shih); from his official position he is also known as Li Chien-fah. His brilliant talents had good opportunity for full development among the distinguished group of men of which he was a member. There were Mi IIO CHINESE PAINTING Fei, who was an artist, critic, poet, and antiquarian; Su Shih (Su Tung-p’o), poet, calligraphist, painter, and high official; Su Che (Su Tzu-yu), only less distinguished than his brother; Wang Hsien (Wang Ching-ch’ing), brother- in-law of the two Su. These friends were fond of gathering in gardens where they spent the day in producing poems, writing skits on one another, looking over ancient bronzes, jades, and stone inscriptions, and in con¬ viviality. The favorite garden resort was the Western Garden (Hsi Yuan), and this was commemorated by Li Kung-lin in one of his scrolls, The Gathering in the Western Garden ( Hsi Yuan Ya Chi). This group was composed of men who had had sound literary education and who had at¬ tained to high official positions. They had abundant leisure for literary pursuits and aesthetic enjoyments. Li Kung-lin is the greatest of all the artists of the Northern Sung period, if one judges by the amount of space devoted to him in art histories. He was a constant worker, and due to the influence of his circle of admiring friends, who were contemporary with him, a large proportion of his paintings were preserved so carefully that they were in existence down to the end of the Ming dynasty. It was thus possible for the Ming dynasty writers to leave us valuable critiques of his work. His pre-eminence was in the painting of figures. In original paintings he used CP eng Hstn-t'ang paper, but silk for reproductions. His use of paper was influenced by his style of brush- work. On paper he painted in black and white, tracing his figures with strong, delicate lines ( (pai miao). He revived the freedom from conventional¬ ism of T’ang dynasty artists, and showed himself such a supreme master of his brush that no one of his time dared to call him to account for departing from the conventions of the great landscapists who had immediately pre¬ ceded him. One of the greatest works produced by Li Kung-lin is the scroll of “The Five Hundred Disciples” (Wu Pat Yin Chen). This scroll is in a private col¬ lection in Peking, and I have many times had the opportunity of examining it in detail. It is signed by the artist and dated the eighth moon of the sixth year of Yuan Feng (a.d. 1085). The descriptions of this scroll in Ch'ing- ho Shu Hua Fang, Shih Ku Tang, and in Giles’s History of Pictorial Art, 109, Ill PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY are accurate, though incomplete. The scroll opens with the figure of the Buddhistic god, Chun T’i, who guards the entrance into mortal exist¬ ence. Chun T i stands on a rock around which billows are surging. The free way in which the artist treats this subject is characteristic of the whole scroll. The two disks representing the sun and moon, instead of being held in the hands of this god, appear in the midst of the flames which encircle and surmount the figure in ascending jets. One of the four left hands holds a bow and arrow; in another a standard is held; another is ringing a bell; and the fourth is grasping a halberd. In the hands on the right are a sword, a wheel which is supported by two hands, and a precious stone. Chun T’i is dressed in flowing robes, the girdles of which are blown out on either side by the wind in long folds. On his bare breast is a pendant from which three short chains are suspended, similar to that usually seen on figures of Kuan Yin. On the rocky cliff opposite there are three gnarled pine trees which inter¬ mingle their branches and spread out over one end of a procession of disci¬ ples crossing the sea. Some of these are on dragons, others on turtles, sea¬ horses, shells, leaves, fish, and strange animals, while others tread on the sea as if it were dry land. The grouping of this company of nearly forty disciples is striking. There are three main groups, each of which blends into the other. Some are carrying alms bowls, others prayer rolls, copies of the Buddhistic sutras, figures of images, incense urns, bouquets of flowers; all wear flowing robes, but some have their hands uplifted as if in prayer, while others allow their arms to fall at their sides. This group of disciples is welcoming the dragon from the air which those on an opposite cliff are speeding on its way. In order to describe this scroll accurately, a whole volume would be necessary, for it refers in some one passage or another to almost every phase of Buddhistic thought and practice known in China. It is sufficient to say that the grouping of the figures shows an infinite variety, that the postures of the figures and the expressions on the countenances are never the same. There are single wayfaring pilgrims threading their ways through lonely paths. Wei T’o and two companions are seen paying obeisance to a deity seated on an overhanging rock. Some are flying through the air on storks. na CHINESE PAINTING others on the red bird, the phoenix, and wild goose. One striking group is offering incense and watching the strange figures that appear in the rising cloud; one seated figure is pulling his flesh apart with his two hands exhibit¬ ing a sacred heart of love to a devoted group surrounding him. There are goats, dogs, tigers, horses, deer, and other animals. There are bamboos drawn in the split-pen style (shuang kov), pine and fir trees, willows, acacias, and gingkos. One of the most beautiful passages is a rustic, circular bridge on which a group of five figures stands watching a waterfall. The author of Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang rightly calls attention to the fact that even in this Buddhistic scroll Li Kung-lin could not escape from the pedantry of a scholar, for one of the passages represents a disciple writing on a stone tablet with a pen dipped in ink from an ink tablet held up to him by another disciple. Though he was a devout Buddhist, Li Kung-lin was primarily a great scholar and could not refrain from depicting a scene in which scholarly disciples appear. From a Western point of view one of the most striking things about this scroll is the use of shadows. All of the heads which are turned to one side have shadows. In some instances these shadows are done lightly in thin ink; in others they are quite dark. As far as I know, this is the only instance in Chinese paintings in which there is a shaded or dark portion representing a shadow. This scroll having been painted on paper in black and white formed a good medium for the introduction of chiaroscuro. Another well-known scroll by this artist is “The Drunken Priest” (Tsui Seng), now in the collection of Mr. Eugene Meyer, Jr. It is on Ch eng Hsin- t’ang paper one foot in height and nearly two feet in length. Although the figures are slightly colored, the style of painting is the same (pai miao) as is found in “The Five Hundred Disciples.” In the center of the picture a Buddhist priest is seen sitting on a stone under an old pine tree. His left hand rests upon the shoulder of a small boy who is holding out paper on which the priest is attempting to write. There are two attendants, both of them busily engaged in attending to the wine required by the priest. The whole scene suggests the famous poem of Huai Su which commences with the line ‘ * All are offering wine’ ’ (Jen jen sung chiti). The scroll is signed with PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 113 the four characters Li Po-shih Hua, which mean “Painted by Li Po-shih.” There are a half-seal of the Southern Sung dynasty redactor and two seals of Tung Ch i-ch’ang. This scroll was formerly in the collection of An I-chou, and is fully described by him in Mo Yuan Hut Kuan. It passed through various hands until it came into the possession of Pang Lai-ch’en, of Shanghai, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Meyer. There is in the Government Museum, Peking, a scroll by Li Kung-lin called The Five Horses QVu Ma). This scroll was highly prized by the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, not only on account of the pictures of the five horses, but also on account of an annotation by one of the artist’s famous contempo¬ raries, Huang Ting-chien (Huang Lu-chih), a.d. 1050-1110. These five horses were presents from tributary states, and the first four had special names taken from the localities where they were bred. The fifth horse had a name given to it by the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, taken from the annotation of Tseng Yu, also a contemporary of the artist. The first horse in the scroll came from Khotan and was presented to the Emperor Che Tsung in the first year of his reign. The picture represents a man in the garb of Khotan, lead¬ ing his horse with a halter. The horse is a piebald, five feet four inches in height, and is called “Phoenix Head’’ (Feng t'ou). The second horse is led by a Mongol. It has a large black-and-white patch on its shoulder, and from this takes the name of Brocade’’ ( Chin-pu ). It is four feet six inches in height. The third horse is led by a native of one of the Indo-Scythian tribes whose features are distinctly non-Chinese. His garments are thrown loosely around the central part of his body, leaving his right shoulder and legs exposed. On his head he wears a turban. The horse is four feet six inches in height, and is called “Baldy” (Hao-f,ou-cb'ih '). The’fourth and fifth horses are of the type of the present Mongol ponies and are led by men who might be either Mongols or Manchus. The five horses are full of life. They have thick necks, large bodies, short thin legs, large tails, and sparse mains. They are all piebald stallions. A. C. Sowerby has described the outstanding features of a “China pony’’ as (1) large head, (i) short neck, (3) deep chest, (4) long barrel, (5) short leg. This is an exact likeness of the horses in this picture of Li Kung-lin. On the scroll the date of presenta- CHINESE PAINTING 114 tion of each of the first three horses, its name, age, and height, are written by the artist. In the case of the fourth horse only the date of presentation is recorded, whereas the fifth horse is left without comments by the artist, unless, perchance, the comments have been lost in remounting, for the end of the sheet of paper comes almost immediately behind the tail of the horse, and it is possible that the author’s comment on this horse, which is one of the best of the five, has been lost. The scroll is on Cheng Hsin-t’ang paper, and the artist has used the same style of black and white (pai miao ) as was used in the two pictures described in preceding paragraphs. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is a small hanging picture, two feet ten and a half inches in height, one foot two and a half inches in width. I have called this painting “Meditations”; it represents the radical philosopher, Wang An-shih, walking through an avenue of old trees dressed in his ceremonial robes and hat. This picture is fully described in Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang and in the Shih Ku Tang, and is also mentioned in the Hsiian Ho Hua Fu. It bears the seal of Hui Tsung, and of the first emperor of the Southern Sung dynasty, Kao Tsung, showing that it must have been one of the paintings hastily withdrawn from the palace before the capture of Hui Tsung and his son at K’ai-feng. This painting is on silk, and the brushwork shows the same virile style as always characterizes the work of this great artist. There are also two scrolls by this artist in the Metropolitan Museum: one called “The Arhats” or “The Lotus Club” (Lien She), and the other ‘ ‘ The Sixteen Lohans” (Shih Liu Ying Chen). The former is on paper and the latter on silk. Both of these scrolls are described in Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang and in Shih Ku Tang. “The Arhats” scroll was formerly in the collection of Chang Feng-i of the Ming dynasty, and has one of his seals. Chang Feng-i was a noted scholar and the author of a book on painting called Hai Lui Ming Chia Kung Hua Neng Ssu. This scroll painting passed into the collection of Te Ling (T& Yen-hsiang), and has two of his seals. It was later acquired by Pi Yuan (a.d. 172.9-97). Pi Yuan was a noted antiquarian and wrote a supplement to the “ History of Ssu-ma Kuang” which extended from the beginning of the Sung to the end of the Yuan dynasty. His seal PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY n 5 attached thls scroH is inscribed with the four characters of his sobriquet of Wan T 7 he SlXteen Lohans ” was formerly in the collection Wang Shih-cheng of the Ming dynasty. It bears the seals of Li Tsohsien, ou iang- ung, Hu Shih-chun, Liu T’ieh-yiin, and others. It also as an annotation by Tung Ch’i-ch’ang in which he says that this scroll had been owned by Han Tsung-po and that it had been copied by Ting Yiin- r g ; The SealS and annotations of these two scrolls are sufficient assurance that during the Ming dynasty both were considered to be genuine works of 1 Ung " m ‘ ls P ossl hle that this means nothing more than the fact that these scrolls were in the recognized style of Li Kung-lin, but it may also mean that they were considered during the Ming dynasty to have been actu¬ ally painted by this artist. Whichever of these two views is adopted both scrolls are painted in a style worthy of any great artist. In the annotation of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung attached to the scroll Admonitions ’ by Ku K’ai-chih, he states that in his collection there were three scrolls by Li Kung-lin which he joined to the “Admonitions” scroll in his list of “The Four Beautiful Objects” (Ssu Mei Chu). These three scrolls were “A River in Shu,” “The Nine Songs,” and “The Hsiao and Hsiang.” Of these three scrolls I have seen two, viz., “The Nine Songs” and The Hsiao and Hsiang, both of which deserve all the praise which the Emperor bestowed upon them. In addition to those already noticed, Shih Ku Tang mentions the following pictures by this artist: “Illustrations of Filial Piety with Annotations” (Hsiao Ching Tu Ping TV), “The Three Worthies of the Kingdom of Wu” (Wu Chung San Hsien'), “Portraits of the Han Emperor Kao Tsu and Five Others” (Han Kao Teng Liu), “Portrait of the Buddhist Deity Hua Yen” (Hua Yen Pien Hsiang ), “Portrait of Vimala- kirtti” (Wei Mo Ching Hsiang), “Reproduction of the Wang Ch’uan Villa by Wang Wei” (Ling Wang Mo-chieh Wang Ch'uan), “The Three Reli¬ gions” (San Chiao), “The Mountain Village” (Shan Chuang), “Yang Kuei- fei Returning Drunken from Yao-t’ai” (Yang T’ai Chen Yao Tai Tsui Kuei), “Illustrations of and Comments upon Emperors and Statesmen” (Chun Ch'en Ku Shih Tu Ping Shu), “Kuo Tzu-i Dismounting” (Kuo Tgu-i Tan Ch'i Hsiang Lu), “The Yang Pass” (Yang Kuan), “Ceremonial Visit of a Bar- xx6 CHINESE PAINTING barian King” (Fan Wang Li Fu), “The Three Horses” (San Ma ), “The Portrait of the Fairy of Ku-she Mountain” [Ku-she Mountain is in Ling-fen county, Shansi Province (Ku-she Hsien Hsiang')," The Lohans” (Lo-han T’u), “Liu Shang Watching Chess” (Liu Shang Kuan Ch'i), “A Picture of Ch’ih Pei” in Hupeh Province where Liu Pei won his famous victory] (Ch'ih Pei T’u), “The Preaching of Vimalakirtti” (Wei Mo Yen Chiao). This long list shows the versatility of Li Kung-lin. He roamed through historical and religious subjects with great freedom. Two of the subjects of his paint¬ ing confirm statements made in the preceding chapter concerning the venera¬ tion in succeeding generations of the great T’ang general, Kuo Tzu-i, and concerning the high artistic importance of the work of Liu Shang. The paintings of Li Kung-lin, varied as they are, form a most illustrious epoch in the long history of pictorial art in China. The dynasty also produced great painters of flowers and birds (hua niao). One of the earliest was Chao Ch’ang, who was a contemporary of the noted landscapists during the first decades of the Northern Sung. The Hsuan Ho Hua Fu says that he was a native of Kuang-han, in Ssu-ch’uan Province, but Hua Shih Hui Chuan says that this was an error and that Chao Ch’ang was born in Chien-nan of the same province. I have seen several album pictures but no hanging ones or scrolls attributed to him. In a Sung-Yiian album in the Metropolitan Museum the ninth picture is attributed to this artist, and I have also seen his work in an album in the Government Mu¬ seum. He was an exquisite colorist, and was also skilful in composition. He has been the ideal of all subsequent painters of flowers, but Ch'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang, Shih Ku T’ang, and Mo Yuan Hui Kuan make no mention of his paintings, thus proving that they had not been seen by the authors of these standard works. Ts’ui Po, a native of Hao-liang (modern Feng-yang), in Anhui Province, was appointed expositor of art (i hsiieh) during the reign of Jen Tsung (a.d. 10x1-63). His painting of birds and flowers was of such high excellence that the Academy of Painting decided to use it as a model instead of that of Huang Ch iian. With him was associated another good painter, Wu Yiian-yu, one of whose works is recorded in Yiin Yen Kuo Yen Lu. Ts’ui Po PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY n 7 painted on a coarse silk which he prepared carefully so that it would pro- uce the best effects of coloring. Frequently he covered the blank spaces of his snk with blue so as to bring out in bold relief the contrast with the co or of his flowers. His paintings were true to nature (hsieh seng), and were free from conventionalism. I have seen a scroll attributed to Ts’ui Po which has annotations by Chao Jung, Lu Hsing-chih, Ni Tsan, and Sung K’o This scroll was in the collection of Huang Hsueh-pu. It is unquestionably in the style of Ts’ui Po, though probably the work of an academician of the Southern Sung dynasty. The coloring of the flowers and fruits in this scroll is both bold and delicate. Shih Ku Tang records only two paintings by this artist, and their present location, if indeed they are extant, is unknown This artist must not be confused with another man of the same name, Ts’ui Po of the Southern Sung dynasty, who was a famous artist in the production of tapestry (ko ssu). A specimen of the tapestry woven by the latter Ts’ui Po was exhibited in Central Park, Peking, May, i 9 z 3 , and a similar speci¬ men is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. I Yuan-chi, a native of Ch’ang-sha, Hunan Province, lived in the middle of the eleventh century. He was stimulated by the success of Chao Ch’ang to attempt original work by making a special feature of the painting of monkeys and gibbons as adjuncts to his painting of birds and flowers. His picture, The Hundred Gibbons” ('Pat Yuan), is his most famous work and is now preserved in the Government Museum, Peking. In the Metro¬ politan Museum, New York, is a scroll “Plumage and Fur amid Flowers” (Hua Hue Lmg Mao), painted on silk, which is twelve and a half inches in height, and eight feet five inches in length. This was formerly in the collec¬ tion of Shih Ming-ku of the Ming dynasty and bears three of his seals, viz., Ming-ku Chen Wan, Ming-ku Chen Ts’ang, and Shih Shih Yiieh Chien T ang Tsang. It also bears two seals of Chou Mi, author of Yiin Yen Kuo Yen Lu. In composition, in delicacy of brushwork, in brilliant color, this scroll is worthy of being classed as a masterpiece. In the Freer Gallery there is a hanging picture called “Captive Monkey,” also attributed to this artist. It possesses all the merits which I have ascribed to the scroll “Plum¬ age and Fur amid Flowers.” I Yuan-chi was a close student of nature and n g CHINESE PAINTING spent much time in wandering through groves and over hills, observing the habits of birds and animals. Ai Hsiian, who was a native of Chin-ling (modern Nanking), came into prominence during the reign of the Emperor Shen Tsung (1068-86). He was also influenced to a large extent by the career of Chao Ch ang, and adopted the same course as I Yuan-chi in developing new subjects for painting. He depicted birds amid the falling leaves and harvested fields of autumn. Among birds he specialized in painting quails, and there is a scroll by him called “Quails” (Yen Shun). This scroll came from the collection of Ts’ai Lu-ping, of Shih-men. It has a gourd-shaped seal of the household depart¬ ment of the Northern Sung dynasty, which is evidence of the contempo¬ raneous popularity of his work. In several of his poems Su Shih (Su T’ung-p’o) praises the artistic productions of Ai Hsiian, and it has been chiefly this praise on the part of the great poet which has rescued this artist from oblivion. None of the great Ming dynasty writers even mentions his name. The Emperor Hui Tsung is the last of the painters to be mentioned in the Northern Sung dynasty. He has been given credit for being a great painter of birds and flowers, but whether the paintings attributed to him are really the product of his own brush, or the work of members of the Academy of Painting which the emperor so freely patronized, is a question which probably will always remain open for discussion. The reign of this emperor was so clouded with corruption and calamity that it is not easy to form a decisive judgment as to any events which occurred in the palace outside of those which had political significance. The emperor was completely in the hands of the corrupt statesman, Ts’ai Ching, and later of the eunuch, T’ung Kuan. Under the influence of Ts’ai Ching, Chu Mien was appointed to gather in from the provinces all valuable objects such as bronzes, jades, writings, paintings, stone inscriptions, and all kinds of artistic objects which might please the emperor. Chu Mien carried out his work so success¬ fully that, as a contemporary historian records, the roads leading to K’ai-feng were crowded with carts and the Huai River with boats, all carrying valuable tribute to the capital. The emperor was not his own BIRDS IN THE LANDSCAPE, BY HUI TSUNG. A PICTURE INTRODUCTORY TO THE ALBUM “COPIES OF ANCIENT PAINTINGS” PAINTERS OF THE NORTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 119 master at any period of his reign, and finally having been betrayed, was carried off by the Nii-chen Tartars into captivity, and died in poverty and disgrace. Hui Tsung must have been deeply interested in all forms of art; other¬ wise his designing ministers would not have chosen artistic objects as presents to please his fancy. He himself was a dilettante. The Academy of Painting founded in his capital gathered about itself a large group of painters who still felt the influence of the great masters who immediately preceded them. The emperor and his ministers encouraged the Academy in every way, even to the extent of the emperor, in all probability, allow¬ ing his own name to be attached to the best paintings produced by the academicians. The Academy was also responsible for the adoption of the monogram T ten Hsta I Jen. This is a high-sounding phrase which refers to the unrivaled position of the emperor as the primate of all under heaven. Beautiful seals carefully engraved were prepared for the emperor and at¬ tached, not only to paintings attributed to him, but also to many which were brought together in his collection. Many small album pictures are attributed to Hui Tsung, and doubtless a large proportion of those that are included in careful collections were produced during the Hui Tsung period, but they were painted in the Academy, not by the emperor himself. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, there is a scroll, “Instruction” Qisiin Cb'u'), which formerly belonged to the princely collection in Hai Kung Fu, Peking. It represents the Emperor Ming Huang of the T’ang dynasty instructing his son, who stands by his side, hesitating to take the books handed to him by his father. An armed attendant stands near watching the scene. The picture is full of life and delicately colored. Originally there was an annotation written by Chao Meng-fu, and this was still attached to the scroll at the beginning of the Manchu dynasty, according to the statement of Shih Ku Tang. This anno¬ tation has been copied by Feng En-kun, one of the best modern writers of the Chao style. On the scroll are the double-dragon gourd-shaped seal, two imperial Sung seals, the monogram of the Emperor Hui Tsung, and a seal Hsuan Wen Ko, of K’o Chiu-ssu of the Yuan dynasty. One of the valuable ISO CHINESE PAINTING parts of this scroll is the heading which is said to have been written by the emperor in thin gold script (sou chin). In this heading the emperor states that this scroll is a reproduction of a T’ang dynasty original, the work and colors of which he greatly admired. Taken as a whole, the Northern Sung period of painting was of equal importance with the T’ang dynasty. In landscape painting it fixed the standards for all succeeding painters, and this is equally true in the painting of flowers, birds, and animals. In one department alone, viz., that of the painting of figures, does the T’ang dynasty retain an unquestioned suprem¬ acy, disputed only by one artist of this dynasty, Li Kung-lin. This branch demanded a larger degree of freedom than was possible in the atmosphere of the Northern Sung so heavily laden with the mustiness of scholarly traditions. The Northern Sung dynasty was driven from its capital at K ai-feng, and after several years of migration settled at Hangchow. The pursuit of personal pleasures by the emperors, the domination of corrupt ministers, the influence of eunuchs upon court life, and the lack of discipline in the army brought about the downfall of the dynasty. The Tartar tribes that pressed in upon it from the north were stronger and better trained. They had also the stimulus of being able to pillage wealthy cities. Against their incursions, the pleasure-loving, artistically inclined Emperor Hui Tsung could offer no effective resistance. IX PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY AT THE time when the last two emperors of the Northern Sung dynasty were carried into captivity (a.d. 112.7), Kang Wang, the ninth son of the Emperor Hui Tsung, was in Nanking. Through the combined influence of the surviving widow of the Emperor Che Tsung and Chang Pang-ch’ang, whom the Chin Tartars had placed upon the throne, this ninth son of Hui Tsung was chosen as emperor. He is known in history as Kao Tsung. He had no more liking for war than his dissolute father, and was inordinately fond of pleasure and ease. During the first year of his reign a peace was patched up with the Tartars under which the three dis¬ tricts of T ai-yiian, Chung-shan, and Ho-chien were cut off from the em¬ pire. The new emperor wandered from place to place, going once as far north as Chi-chou in Shantung Province, residing for more than a year in Yangchow, and finally resolving in the third year of his reign to establish his capital at Hangchow. After this decision was made the emperor con¬ tinued to wander from place to place for several years until in 1139 peace was sufficiently restored to allow him to take up his residence in the new palaces at Hangchow. The establishment of this new capital did not bring peace to the country; it only provided a safe halting place for the pleasure- loving emperors to pass a few score insecure years. The Chin dynasty of Nu-chen Tartars held sway in practically all of the country north of the Yangtse River, and was a constant threat to the Southern Sung dynasty at Hangchow. As in the Northern Sung dynasty, so in the Southern Sung, landscape painting held the premier place and commanded the talents of the best artists. Among these were several who were rightly classed among the great masters, such as Li T’ang, the two Chao brothers, Chao Po-chii and Chao Po-su, Ma Ho-chih, Ma Yuan, Hsia Kuei, and Liu Sung-nien. These 121 Ill CHINESE PAINTING landscapists maintained the high standards of their predecessors of the former dynasty, but their work shows the increasing influence of conven¬ tions. No artist contributed during this time anything new; all were con¬ tent to follow in the style of earlier masters. The Southern Sung dynasty must be considered a period of development in painting along established lines; it can lay no claim to leadership. Many of its artists attained to a high state of excellence, but it was the excellence of conformity, not of creative genius. Li T’ang is a connecting link between the Northern and Southern Sung dynasties. He held an important position in the Academy of Painting under the Emperor Hui Tsung, but his most important work was done during the reign of the Southern Sung Emperor, Kao Tsung, under whose patronage he continued to paint until he was eighty years of age. There were several other artists who joined the court at Hangchow after having been members of the Northern Sung Academy of Painting, such as Chu Tun-ju, Su Han-chen, Pi Liang-shih, Chiang Ts’an (Chiang Kuan-tao), but none of them at¬ tained to the same eminence as Li T’ang. The Emperor compared Li T'ang to T’ang Li, i.e., Li Ssu-hsiin of the T’ang dynasty. His specialty was the combination of figure painting with landscape. His figures were as care¬ fully drawn as if they were to stand alone, and his landscapes were as perfect as if there were no figures in them. His most famous picture is in the Government Museum, Peking. It is called ‘ ‘ The Return of Chin Wen Kung” (Chin Wen Kung Fu Kuo). Chin Wen Kung was one of the five famous feudal kings (Wu Pa), of the seventh century b.c. In a lecture delivered at Hongkong in March, 1873, James Legge gave an account of his life, and this lecture was reproduced in the China Review (I, 370). Chin Wen Kung (Ch’ung Er) was the second of three sons of Duke Hsien who con¬ trolled the principality of Chin from 676-51 b.c. In 671 Duke Hsien sub¬ jugated the wild tribe, Li Jung, and brought back with him a beautiful young lady who was the daughter of the chief of the tribe. After a son was born to her, she plotted against the three older sons, the oldest of whom was driven to commit suicide. Chin Wen Kung was at that time in charge of a place called P’u, and when at the instigation of the young wife his PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 123 father sent an expedition against him so that he might be killed, he ran away, saying that he would not fight against his own father. He remained with a distant northern tribe for nineteen years until after the death of his father when he returned to Ch’i and joined the powerful Duke Huan. The painting of Li Tang describes his dramatic return. It is delicately colored, and the figures in it are full of life. This artist, according to Shih Ku Tang, also painted two other pictures which had historical or traditional sub¬ jects. One of these was “The Fern Garden of Po I” (Po I Shu Chi Tsai Wei). Po I in the twelfth century b.c. was a prince in a small kingdom now in the province of Chihli. His father desired to make a younger brother, Shu Chi, his successor, but Shu Ch’i refused, insisting that the principality be given to the elder son. When the father died Shu Ch’i fled into the moun¬ tains whither he was followed by his brother Po I. In lonely retirement they cultivated together a garden of ferns. The subject of this picture was especially adapted to the genius of Li T’ang. Another painting was “The Three Laughs at Hu Hsi” (Hu Hsi San Hsiao ,). This refers to the well- known incident of a visit paid by T’ao Yiian-ming to the priest Hui Yuan, who lived in the Tung-ling Temple on the Lii Mountains in Kiangsi. It was the custom of the priest never to accompany his guests beyond a bridge which crossed the small stream called Hu Hsi. On the occasion of the visit of T’ao Yiian-ming, the priest became so engrossed in conversation with his distinguished guest that he forgot himself and wandered across the bridge to the other side of the stream. Suddenly a tiger which was crouching near the path roared, bringing both men to realize how far they had gone whereupon they laughed heartily. The wild mountain scenery with its dashing torrent and a tiger hiding under the trees, together with the two noted figures, provided the kind of subject especially agreeable to this artist. In the collection of Mr. Charles Deering, Chicago, there is a painting by Li T’ang of the O Pang Palace. It is three feet eight inches high, and one foot eight and a half inches wide. It was formerly in the collection of the famous litterateur, Li Chia-fu. The palace in this picture is an adornment to the landscape, and the landscape is a beautiful setting to the palace. The CHINESE PAINTING 124 painting of the palace, like that of Chou Wen-chii, mentioned in chapter viii, is in the style of measured paintings ( chieh hud), and is most carefully done. Su Han-ch’en was a member of the Academy of Painting under the Em¬ peror Hui Tsung of the Northern Sung dynasty, and was one of the group of artists who joined the Southern Sung dynasty at Hangchow, where his chief work was accomplished. He had diversified talents. The Hua Chien places him as a painter of women in the same class as Chou Fang and Chang Hsiian of the Tang dynasty, and Chou Wen-chii of the Northern Sung, but this is higher praise than the artist deserves. He was also a mural painter, and, together with Hsiao Chao, painted the walls of the Wu Sheng Temple near Hangchow. His chief work was, however, the painting of genre pictures such as ‘‘Children at Play” (Ying Erh Hsi), ‘‘Toy Peddler” (Ho Lang), “Children Fighting Crickets” (Ying Erh Tou Hsi Shuai), and ‘‘The Fight between the Kingfisher and the Oyster” (Yu Fan T’u). The last- mentioned subject refers to the well-known phrase that when the king¬ fisher and the oyster struggle, the fisherman gets the benefit, which is com¬ monly used as an illustration of the advantage which neutrals obtain when two parties contend. On account of the popular character of his subjects, the paintings of Su Han-chen have been reproduced and copied by many artists. Hsieh Shen, who was a member of the Academy of Painting during the Ching Ting period (1x60-65) t ^ le Emperor Li Tsung, flourished about one hundred years after Su Han-chen. He was also a painter of genre pictures, and his style followed closely that of Su Han-chen. His best- known painting is an album with various scenes in the daily life of a toy peddler (Ho Lang). Chao Po-chii (Chao Ch’ien-li) was a favorite of the Emperor Kao Tsung. His style of painting had, perhaps, a greater influence on later painters than that of any other artist of this dynasty. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is a painting, “The Orchid Pavilion” (Lan T’ing Hsiu Chieh), one foot three and three-quarters inches in height, and one foot in width. The outer label, which was originally attached to this painting, was written by Sun Ch’eng-tse (T’ui-ang), author of Keng T%u Hsiao Hsia Chi. PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 125 ' The picture is signed by the artist as an officer of the government ( ch'eri ), and states that he painted it under imperial orders. This picture came from the collection of Liang Chang-chii who was five times governor of Kiangsu Province during the reigns of Chia Ch’ing and Tao Kuang at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and whose Catalogue of Paintings, pub¬ lished by the British Museum, has already been referred to in a previous chapter. There are two seals of Governor Liang on the painting, viz., Chii Ling Shen Ting and Ch’ang Lo Liang Shih. The scene is one which has been painted by many artists—a restful pavilion by the side of a mountain stream, surrounded by orchids. There are two annotations written during the Ming dynasty: one by Chu Yiin-ming and the other by the noted artist T’ang Yin. Chu’s annotation narrates the historical scene during the ninth year of the reign of the Emperor Mu of the Eastern Chin dynasty (a.d. 353), when a group of scholars gathered at Lan-t’ing in eastern Chekiang. The leading spirit of this gathering was Wang Hsi-chih, and there he wrote the manuscript which has ever since been known as “The Lan-t’ing Manu¬ script,’’ and which is the most famous specimen of Chinese calligraphy. On this painting are three seals of the Emperor Kao Tsung: one a gourd¬ shaped seal with the two characters Mi Fu, the second a circular seal with the first of the Eight Diagrams on it, and the third with the four characters Yii Fu F'u Shu. The coloring of this painting is restrained but brilliant. Delicate shades of green in his landscapes are characteristic of the work of this artist. Chao Po-su was a brother of Chao Po-chii; some authorities, such as the Ni Ku Lu, claim that he was an elder brother, while others state that he was a younger brother. The two brothers at first painted in the style of Li Ssu-hsiin of the Northern School, but later were eclectics. I have seen only one specimen of the work of Chao Po-su. It is a scroll on silk called “Tur¬ rets in the Five-colored Clouds” (Wu Yiin Lou Ko). The subject of the paint¬ ing is color effects on the Lii Mountains after a storm when a rainbow stretched down over the hills and the turrets of the temples could be seen. The Lii Mountains, on which the modern summer resort, Kuling, is located, were favorite themes for poets and artists. This scroll is signed by the artist CHINESE PAINTING 12.6 with the statement that it was painted under the instructions of the emper¬ or. The first annotation is by Ch’ien Liang-yu, a noted litterateur of the Yuan dynasty, and author of the “Chiang Ts’un Collection of Essays.” This annotation is dated the twenty-seventh day of the eighth month of the cyclical year Ping-shen (a.d. 1356), of the Emperor Chih Cheng of the Yuan dynasty. There is also an important annotation by Sung K’o of the Ming dynasty, and another by Chu Fu, a noted writer of the Ch’ien Lung period, who was also a landscape painter. This scroll fills the beholder with the sensuous delight of brilliant coloring and charming composition. Neither this nor the one of his brother, described in the preceding paragraph, de¬ serves to be classed as an example of the best grade of Chinese landscapes; they must be classed as good specimens of refined workmanship. Ma Ho-chih was a favorite of the court during the reign of Kao Tsung. The emperor wrote for him the text of the three hundred and sixty odes known as ‘ ‘ The Odes of Mao’ ’ (Mao Shih). The text of these odes is believed to be the original one delivered by Confucius to Pu Shang. The scrolls illus¬ trating these odes are in the Government Museum, Peking. I have frequently seen the scroll which contains “The Ten Odes of the Kingdom of Ch’en.” In this scroll an explanation of each ode is followed by a picture illustrating it. The first ode called Yuan Ch'iu represents a dance. Four musicians are seated on a mat: two are blowing wind instruments, one beating a drum, and one an earthen vessel; behind them stand four figures, each holding a streamer made of egret feathers. At the side of the two dancers are two at¬ tendants with cymbals. From the posture of the dancers it appears that they are in a high state of hilarity. The second ode is called 4 ‘ The White Elms at the East Gate” (Tung Men Chih Fen), and represents a woman dancing in the market place under two trees at the side of a well. The third ode (Heng Men ) represents a man sitting on a mat under a roof supported by untrimmed timbers. In front of the place where the figure is seated is a small stream over which is a flagstone bridge leading to a closed gate. The fourth subject is “The Moat at the East Gate” (Tung Men Chih Ch'ih). The beautiful lady who is the heroine of these “Ten Odes” is depicted kneeling at the side of the stream, washing clothes on a stone. The fifth scene depicts the luxurious PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 127 willows inside the eastern gate. Under the willows is a small group of five persons. The city gate is sketched with a few rapid strokes, but with great strength of brush work. The sixth ode is called “The Gate to the Tombs” (Mo Men). This is purely suggestive, and the only things seen in the picture are four jujube trees in which each leaf is done with a single brush stroke. The seventh scene is “The Magpies’ Nests” (Ch'iao Ts'ao). This is a weird scene. In a gnarled tree a magpie hovers over a nest. Some magpies are seen in the branches, and others are flying toward the tree. The eighth ode is called The New Moon (Chiao Yiieh). The heroine stands in a pavilion built above the roofs of the surrounding houses. She points with one hand to the moon above her. In the landscape only the tops of the trees can be dimly seen. The ninth ode is called Chu Ling, and represents the hero in his chariot drawn by a pair of spirited horses and accompanied by a retinue of mounted men. He is on his way toward the beautiful lady. In the tenth ode, which is called Tseh P'o, the hero is lying in a pavilion with a thatched roof, supporting his head upon his right arm. Here he is sur¬ rounded by a marsh in which there are rushes and lotus plants; while wak¬ ing or sleeping he weeps for his beloved. These odes describe the dissipa¬ tion and pleasure-seeking of the officers of this small kingdom of Chen, which was situated in the southeast corner of the present province of Honan. Against the carefree pleasures of the young people the contentment and happiness of a poor recluse are placed in contrast. Notwithstanding the example set him by the recluse, a man hurries to his own ruin in an intrigue with a beautiful woman. The comments of the emperor bring out in full detail encouragement to virtue and warning against evil-doing. This didactic scroll is only one of many which depict other historical scenes narrated in the “Odes of Mao,” but from the detailed description of one the scenes of the other scrolls may be easily imagined. Attached to this scroll of Ma Ho-chih is an annotation by Tung Ch’i-ch’ang in which the relation of the artist to the Emperor Kao Tsung is fully described. The work of Ma Ho-chih in illustrating the life narrated in the early folk-songs of China is of very great importance, and is similar to that of the Florentine school in depicting scenes from the scriptures. CHINESE PAINTING 12.8 Ma Yuan flourished during the first half of the thirteenth century in the reigns of the Emperors Ning Tsung and Li Tsung. He was the son of Ma Hsing-tsu, grandson of Ma Pen, both of whom were known in their own generations as good painters. Ma Yuan was appointed to the Imperial Academy of Painting, and his work evidences the restraint placed upon him by academy conventions, while at the same time it shows that he was al¬ ways struggling to be free. One cannot escape the feeling, while seeing ex¬ amples of his work, that if Ma Yuan had enjoyed the same privileges of freedom as the great masters in the early part of the Northern Sung dynasty, he would have equaled the best of them in the quality of his work. Circum¬ stances were against him, and the most that can now be said in praise of his work is that in landscape painting he was the greatest of the acade¬ micians of the Southern Sung dynasty. In a laudatory “Monograph on a Masterpiece of Chinese Painting in the Smithsonian Institution (Freer Col¬ lection),” Laurence Binyon classes Ma Yuan as “one of the most re¬ nowned painters of that wonderful Sung era which lasted from the tenth to the thirteenth century.” It is true that his name is coupled with those of the masters of the Northern Sung, but in point of time, as also in influ¬ ence, his name stands almost at the end of this list. In the students’ albums prepared by great artists of the Ming and Manchu dynasties, one does not find Ma Yuan, for he created no style of his own, but was content to work in that of his predecessors. Indeed, the only peculiarity of his work is that from which he obtained the nickname of “The One-cornered Ma” (Ma l-chto). This was his habit of putting in at one corner of his picture the trunk or branches of an old pine tree. The Freer scroll, described by Binyon, presents Ma Yuan as a great academician; in it are gathered all the strength and all the foibles of academy paintings. Notwithstanding its excellence, this scroll does not represent the native genius of Ma Yuan as well as it is illustrated by either one of two pictures exhibited by Mr. Freer in 1917 at the Art Institute of Chicago. One of these was called in the catalogue “Mountain Scenery,” though the name inscribed on it is “Asking for the Way” (Wen Tao T'u). The other was a landscape showing rocky hills, pine trees, and a pavilion. These two pic- PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 129 tures show Ma Yuan attempting to rid himself of the trammels of con¬ ventionalism and to prove himself master of a style largely of his own creation. A good example of Ma Yiians work was the large painting, "Listening to a Fountain’’ (Sung Ch'iian T’u), owned by Mr. Edgar Gorer, which un¬ fortunately went down with him in the "Lusitania” disaster in which this great collector of Chinese porcelains was drowned. This painting bore the signature of the artist and came from the collection of Prince Cheng, the eleventh son of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung. It had two seals of Hsiang Yiian- pien, viz., Tzu Ching Fu Yin and Hsiang Mo-ling Fu Mi Chi Chih Yin. This was one of the best specimens of the work of Ma Yuan which I have ever seen. In this painting a traveler over a mountain road has halted his mule cart to listen to the waters rushing down the valley from a fountain under the pine trees. At the left are seen a man and his servant climbing the steps which lead to a mountain retreat. A mist rises from the valley and almost obscures the distant hills. A scroll by Ma Yuan bearing this same name is recorded in Shih Ku Tang where it is fully described. It had five ancient pines in the midst of which stood an elderly scholar accompanied by a youth carrying the equipment of a painter. Another large picture by this artist, " Searching for Truth” or " Searching for a Hermit” (Chung Shan Chao Yin), depicts two philosophers who are sitting at a stone table under pine trees on a summer evening. Behind them stands a servant with a large fan with which he is trying to keep them cool. Inside a pavilion a servant is preparing food. On the road another philosopher, attended by a servant carrying his master’s harp, moves along slowly to join his friends and spend the long summer evening in literary discussion. Behind the pavilion a bridge crosses over the rapid mountain stream to other houses in front of which rise abruptly bold cliffs half covered with mists. These descriptions of various paintings by Ma Yuan are sufficient to indicate the characteristics of his style. The landscapes which he painted were those of the country surrounding Hangchow where he lived. Ma K’uei painted in the same style as his brother Ma Yuan. I have seen a scroll by this artist painted on silk. It is called Mao Tieh which literally i 3 ° CHINESE PAINTING means “octogenarian,” but characters of similar sound mean “cats and butterflies.” This method of using phonetic tropes is very common in the Chinese language, and was intended in this instance to add dignity to the work of the artist. Kittens playing around bushes and flowers over which butterflies are hovering form a playful study. The charm of this picture is in the mellow color and the intimate treatment of flower and plant life. The masterly arrangement of the numerous groups of entirely different sub¬ jects on undulating ground which form a relief to the main subject, cats and butterflies, is manifest as the picture is unrolled in segments. The fore¬ shortening of the faces of the cats looking upward is apparently not true to nature, but the practice of Chinese artists is to draw only from the frontal point of view. This scroll, which is signed by the artist, was formerly in the collection of Keng Hsin-kung. It bears two seals of P’an Wen-ch’in (Pan Tsu-yin) and four seals of Ts’ung En, who was governor of Shantung Province during the reign of T’ung Chih. As to the son of Ma Yuan, Ma Lin, I have only seen one example of his work. It belongs to the Palace Collection and was exhibited at Central Park, Peking, May, 1913. It is called “Three Officers Proceeding on Inspection” (San Kuan Ch'u Hsun). It is a hanging picture in the same general style as that of his father, but with more delicate lines. To a landscape which might be easily mistaken for one painted by Ma Yuan is added a flock of birds, and this addition, which is said by the critics to have been usual with Ma Lin, was the chief peculiarity of his paintings. Hsia Kuei, a native of Hangchow, was a contemporary of Ma Yuan and also a fellow-member of the Academy of Painting. His scroll, “Ten Thousand Li on the Yangtse” ( Ch'ang Chiang Wan Li), now owned by Mrs. William Moore, New York, exhibits this artist at his best. His brush strokes are vigorous and graceful, his composition and drawing are of high grade, and there is a certain air of abandon in it. In the Metropolitan Museum there are two halves of a scroll by Hsia Kuei which came from the collection of Li Cho-wu. The original scroll was cut in two pieces, but these fortunately were brought together again like “The Two Swords” (Chien Ho), to which the Emperor Ch’ien Lung refers in his annotation on Ku ■ " - PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 131 K ai-chih s Admonitions” scroll. Hsia Kuei is usually associated with Ma Yuan on account of the similarity in the styles of the two men. Hsia Kuei was not so ambitious in his work as Ma Yuan, but was a more patient and careful worker. While Ma Yuan seemed always to be struggling to do something better than his actual performance, Hsia Kuei painted easily with a grace natural to himself, and leaves one with the impression that he himself was quite satisfied with his work. Liu Sung-nien was in many respects the most clever artist of the Southern Sung dynasty in reproducing the style of early landscapists. His scroll, “A Snow Scene” ( Hsueh Ching), in the Metropolitan Museum, is one of the best specimens of his work. It is in the style of Wang Wei, and is annotated by the famous artist of the Ming dynasty — Wen Cheng-ming. It was origi¬ nally in the collection of Ch’iao Ta-chih of the Yuan dynasty, and bears several of his seals. It also has a seal of the great scholar of the Yuan dy¬ nasty — Yang Shih-ch’i. In delicacy of brush strokes, in brilliant use of shell white, and in the broad scope of its perspective, this scroll shows the perfection of the work of academicians. The artist was a member of the Academy of Painting during the reign of the Emperor Kuang Tsung (a.d. 1190-95). In the Government Museum, Peking, there are other scrolls by Liu Sung-nien in which he reproduces the style of his predecessors. The Shih Ku Tang and Ch’ing-ho Shu Hua Fang mention the scroll ‘ ‘ Listen¬ ing to the Lute” (T'ing Ch'in) as one of his best works, but I have not had the opportunity of seeing it as it has never been placed on exhibition in the Government Museum where it is preserved. Shih Ku T'ang also records an¬ other scroll by Liu Sung-nien called ‘‘Lu T’ung Drawing Tea” (Lu Tung P'eng Ch'a'), and pronounces it a painting of high grade. The tale that it depicts is of Lu T’ung, a poet of the seventh century a.d., who is famous for his love of tea and for an ode which he prepared on the subject of tea-drink¬ ing. In this ode he said that his seventh cup of tea affected him in the same way as if a gentle breeze had lifted him from the ground and was carrying him heavenward. Liu Sung-nien showed little originality in his work, but as a copyist of early styles made a valuable contribution to the art products of his dynasty. CHINESE PAINTING 132 Liang K’ai was a member of the Imperial Academy of Painting during the Chia T’ai period (a.d. 1x01-5) of the Emperor Ning Tsung. He was dis¬ liked by his associates who, it is said, did not approve of his careless style of workmanship. They called him “Crazy Liang” ("Liang Feng-t^u). He drank heavily, and often his paintings were executed while he was intoxi¬ cated. There are many of his paintings in Japan, where his work is highly prized. The Kokka illustrates several pictures attributed to Liang K’ai. The Japanese critic, Sei-ichi Taki, in his “Three Essays on Oriental Painting” (p. 73), describes a painting, “The Dancing P’u T’i.” He says: “This is probably the most famed among the Ashikaga collections, or for that matter, among any other collection in this land, having unanimously been spoken of in ancient writings as a masterpiece of unsurpassed excellence. It is hard to give another Chinese figure painting which approaches the present work. It is a perfect study of idealism founded on realism. The tell¬ ing effect of minimized strokes being most wonderful especially where he left out the outline of the crown of the head for the beholder to fill it in by his imagination. And all these effects were brought out by the single India- ink color which appears in full triumph in the mass of streaky lines repre¬ senting a garment.” This painting is illustrated in Plate L of “Three Es¬ says,” and judging from its appearance there is little reason to doubt that it is a genuine specimen of the work of Liang K’ai. The most famous of his paintings is that of “Wang Hsi-chih Writing on a Fan” ( Yu-chun Shu Shan). This is fully described in Volume V (p. 16) of “The Records of the Southern Sung Academy of Painting” (Nan Sung Yuan Hua Lu). Wang Hsi-chih is dressed in the long flowing robes of early China with a flat accordion-pleated cap on his head. In front of him a servant is holding a fan on which Wang Hsi-chih is writing. At his left stands another servant holding an ink pallet. The trunk of a huge fir tree is shown on the right of the picture, suggesting that the group is standing in its shade. This painting has on its face a poetical annotation by the Em¬ peror Ch’ien Lung, and is much disfigured by the many seals which this ardent admirer placed upon it. It is a very strong drawing, and is suggestive of the work of Wu Tao-tzii or Li Kung-lin, to both of whom later critics PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY *33 constantly compare Liang K’ai. The subject relates to the same scene as that of “The Orchid Pavilion” by Chao Po-chii, mentioned in a previous paragraph. Another great painting by this artist is “The Sixteen Lohans” QShih Liu Ying Chen), which belongs to a private collector in Peking, Lin Ch’ang- ming. It is interesting to note that the artist has omitted the two Chinese patriarchs and has confined his attention solely to the strange faces of the sixteen Lohan who came from foreign countries. The faces of the Lohan, though grotesque, exhibit great virility. All of them are standing figures. The first is followed by two servants, one of whom carries a flower vase and the other a huge fan. The second Lohan is accompanied by two followers, the one on the left with a Chinese face, holding an incense urn, and the one on the right grasping a fly brush and pointing to a monkey which holds in its hand a pomegranate. The third person is leaning on the shoulder of an old servant and supporting himself with a staff. Behind him are three attendants, one of whom is leading a lion and another holding aloft in his hands the lion’s cub. Each of the remaining figures has his own individual setting different from that of any other. In a long annotation Wang Wen-chih of the Ch’ien Lung period likens this picture to “The Arhats” (Lien She T'u) of Li Kung-lin, but having seen both of these pic¬ tures, I am inclined to believe that in comparison that of Liang K’ai is the better. It takes rank among the greatest of Buddhistic paintings, not only for its fidelity to Buddhist traditions, but for the freedom and strength with which the artist treats his subject. Li Sung was an academician during the reign of the Emperor Kuang Tsung. He was of humble birth, and in his youth was apprenticed as a carpenter. Li Ts’ung-hsiin, seeing the genius of the boy, adopted him as his own son. One of his most famous paintings is “Watching the Bore” ([Kuan Chao Tu). The famous bore of Hangchow Bay impressed Li Sung in the same way as it does those who behold it today. It lost none of its grandeur to one who, like the artist living at Hangchow, could see it every day. This painting is in the Palace Collection, Peking. Another famous painting is “Conquering the Soil” (Fu Tien Tu). It is a series of twelve agricultural CHINESE PAINTING *34 scenes done on one strip of silk divided into panels by black lines. Such a method of panel painting was a peculiarity of Li Sung. I have seen an example of this type of his work. A strip of silk six feet four inches long, two feet nine inches wide, is divided into three panels. These panels are not quite uniform in height, the upper one being two feet one inch, the middle one two feet two and a half inches, and the lower one a trifle more than two feet. The effect on the beholder of this slight variation in size is that the three panels appear to be exactly the same size. The three scenes in this painting represent: first, a call from the home to the priesthood; next, the departure for the temple; and, third, the reception at the temple. The composition and coloring of this picture show Li Sung to have been a good artist, but one closely bound to the conventions of his craft. Wu Ping was a member of the Academy during the same period as Li Sung. I have seen one specimen of his work, “Ducks and Hibiscus’’ (JSu Jung Yuan Ying). The flowers, as well as the plumage of the two mandarin ducks, are delicately colored. This painting is a good example of the work of an academician, but is lacking in originality of conception and boldness of execution. Several paintings of Wu Ping are in the Government Museum, Peking, and his work has been highly praised by Wu Ch’i-chen and other critics. Fang Ch’un-nien was a member of the Academy during the Shao Ting and Ching Ting periods of the Emperor Li Tsung. His chief work was in painting religious subjects. His scroll “Female Devas Scattering Flowers” (T'ien Nit San Hua) is dated the second year of Shao Ting Q12.2.J). It bears the seal Chin Su of Ku Ying, a collector of the Yuan dynasty, and also seals of Shih Ming-ku of the Ming dynasty. This scroll portrays devas with long, graceful garments floating through the air holding streamers in their hands and scattering flowers over the earth. The postures of the figures have been recently exhibited on the stage by the noted actor, Mei Lan-fang, the sub¬ ject of whose most famous play is the same as that of this scroll. Chao Meng-chien was a descendant in the eleventh generation of the founder of the Sung dynasty, Chao K’uang-yin (T’ai Tsu). He was born and lived at Hai-yen. In the second year of the Pao Ch’ing period of the PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 135 Emperor Li Tsung (a.d. 1x2.6), he obtained the highest literary degree of Chin Shih, but there is no record of his having been appointed to the Acad¬ emy of Painting. His literary standing was too high to allow him to accept such a position, for the Academy of Painting was much inferior in rank to the Hanlin Academy. In addition to his personal name he is known as Chao Tzu-ku, and also as I Chai. He was one of the most distinguished, if not indeed the most distinguished, man of the Southern Sung, and is often compared to Mi Fei of the Northern Sung dynasty. His accomplishments in literature and calligraphy were only equaled by his distinction as a painter. He was the author of “A Treatise on the Plum Tree” (M« P'u ), and also of a collection of writings called I Chai Wen Pien. He lived to the ripe age of ninety-seven, and on the fall of the Southern Sung dynasty retired to a mountain resort at Hsiu-chou (modern Hua-t’ing) on the border between the provinces of Kiangsu and Chekiang. Chao Meng-chien specialized in the painting of the narcissus flower. He left several scrolls, one of which is in the Government Museum, Peking. It is painted in black and white. The graceful narcissus stalks grow out of the rocks; the flowers are opened in full bloom and are massed in every conceivable position, sometimes with the face of the flower in view and at other times with it turning backward in a tangle of stalks. It was formerly in the collection of Hsiang Yiian-pien, and bears many of his seals. I have often seen this remarkable scroll and con¬ sider it one of the best existing specimens of Chinese painting. During the Southern Sung dynasty Chinese painting may be said to have reached full maturity in the work of the Imperial Academy. The pictures of the academicians were perfect in design and coloring, but lacked the optimism and youth of the work executed by the artists of the T’ang and the Northern Sung dynasties. The removal of the capital from K’ai-feng to Hangchow was the dividing line between the Northern and Southern Sung dynasties. In many respects it was similar to the year 400 b.c. in Greece, previous to which time there had been two centuries of prolific activity in poetry, philosophy, history, and art. The highest standards of excellence had already been set, and it only remained for the generations which came after 400 b.c. to endeavor to maintain them. It was a time for stabilization CHINESE PAINTING 136 and standardization. The close of the Northern and the commencement of the Southern Sung dynasties marked in China a similar epochal transition. It is therefore impossible to speak of the Sung dynasty as a whole; it must be divided into Northern and Southern. The tendencies and accomplish¬ ments of the Northern and Southern divisions of this dynasty are quite different. The former was a period of fresh creation; the latter was one of adherence to fixed standards. This is the explanation of the fact that some artists in the subsequent Yuan and Ming dynasties were able to produce as high a grade of work as those of the Southern Sung. The Chin dynasty, which extended from 1115 to 1134, was contempo¬ raneous during most of its existence with the Southern Sung. The founder was Akuta, a chieftain of the Nu-chen Tartars under the Liao dynasty. He declared his independence, and was immediately recognized by the Liao as the first emperor of the Chin dynasty. His family name was Wan-yen. He drove the Liao from Peking, where he established his capital and entered into relations with the Emperor Hui Tsung. This dynasty at first ruled over the few northern provinces of China which were the centers of early civilization, but, after the Southern Sung dynasty established itself at Hangchow, the Chin dynasty was practically in control of all the territory north of the Yangtse River. There were two artists in this dynasty whose paintings I have seen, Yang Pang-chi and Li Shan. Yang Pang-chi painted “A Barbarian Horseman” (Fan Ch'i ) on a large strip of silk six feet nine inches in height, three feet eleven inches in width. It depicts a Mongol horseman mounted on a piebald pacing horse which is in rapid motion. Over the saddle is a leopard skin on which the rider is seated. In the background is an old willow tree from which fresh branches have sprung. The name of the artist is on a stone at the bottom of the pic¬ ture. This painting came from the collection of Ts’ao Hsi-lin (Ts’ao San¬ to), of Fen-yang, Shansi Province. This collector was a member of the Han- lin Academy during the latter part of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung’s reign. In its intensity of action this picture may be compared to the Horse and Rider,” by Albert Cuyp, in the Munich Gallery. The most famous picture of this dynasty is ” Wind and Snow among Pine PAINTERS OF THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY 137 Trees (Feng Hsiieh Sung Shari), by Li Shan. This was formerly in the collec¬ tion of An I-chou, and is fully described in Mo Yuan Hui Kuan. It is now owned by Mr. Eugene Meyer, Jr., New York. It is a scroll on silk about nine inches in height and two and a half feet in length. In symmetry and rhythm it can be compared to the work of Ching Hao and Fan K’uan. Tall pine trees are seen growing on the many-peaked hills. In front of a rude pavilion a figure is seated, hovering over a stone. The brush strokes, whether perpendicular or horizontal, are full of virile strength. The scenery in the broad perspective is varied, but everywhere grand and impressive. The artist has signed his name at the beginning of the scroll, “Painted by Li Shan of P ing-yang’’ ( P'ing-yang Li Shan Chih). An I-chou describes it as having annotations by three noted men, Ni Tsan, Wang Meng, and Wu Chen. There is also a poetical annotation by Wang Shih-cheng, and a critical one by Wen Po-jen. It has many seals of famous men such as Wang Shih cheng, Chang Tse-chih, and Yen Sung. This painting was for many years in the collection of P’ang Lai-ch’en of Shanghai, who, as has been already noted, also owned “The Drunken Priest” by Li Kung-lin. Being the owner of two famous scrolls by artists, both of whose surnames were Li, Mr. P’ang called his studio Er Li Chai , i.e., “The Studio of the Two Li”; but as both scrolls have now passed out of his possession, this name is no longer used. PAINTERS OF THE YUAN DYNASTY I T WAS many years after Genghis Khan (1162.—12.2.7) broke through the Great Wall and entered China near Ning-hsia before his grandson, Kub- lai Khan, made himself master of China. In 1x76 Hangchow, the capital city of the Southern Sung dynasty, opened its gates and surrendered the final remnants of its power to the conquering Mongols. The last two em¬ perors of the Southern Sung wandered from place to place as did the first of their line until eventually the unfortunate youthful emperor, known in history as Ti Ping, lost his life at Yai-shan in Kuantung Province and brought to a close the Sung dynasty. In 1x64 Kublai Khan had already chosen Peking as the capital of his new dynasty to which the name Yuan was given. In addition to his vigorous military campaigns which extended to many of the smaller countries surrounding China, Kublai Khan devoted considerable attention to the building-up of a stable government. In 12.87 be opened the Imperial Academy, to which he assigned many of the Southern Sung scholars who had been captured during his various expeditions. He sent Ch eng Chu-fu as an envoy through the central and southern part of China to hunt out the abode of renowned scholars and invite them to court. The envoy found Chao Meng-fu who went with him to the hermit retreat of Chao Meng-chien, but this sturdy scholar refused to receive the imperial messenger and would only allow his own brother, Chao Meng-fu, to enter by the back door. Although Chao Meng-chien declined to go to court, his younger brother, Chao Meng-fu, along with more than twenty other scholars who were well known at the time, returned with Ch eng Ghu-fu to Peking and became the connecting link of Sung dynasty culture with that of the Yuan and succeeding generations. Chao Meng-fu (1x54-1311) inherited the prestige of being a descendant of the founder of the Sung dynasty and the hereditary right to an official PAINTERS OF THE YUAN DYNASTY I 39 position. His fame, however, does not rest upon his birth but upon his own great achievements. He added to his extraordinary natural talents an unusual capacity for diligent work. In government service he was an effi¬ cient president of a board under the new dynasty, which might have been expected on account of his birth to have held him at arm’s length. As a literary man he was appointed to the highest post in the Hanlin Academy. In calligraphy he was a master of all styles of writing — seal characters (chuan shu), official writing (li shu), model style (k’ai shu), and running style (losing shu). In writing he could easily follow the style of any of his predecessors. In painting he swept away the formal conventions of the Southern Sung Academy of Painting and restored freedom to artists. In his painting of figures and religious subjects he went back to the T’ang style as he did also by following the style of Han Kan in the painting of horses. In landscape he adopted the style of Tung Yuan. It may be said of Chao Meng-fu that his was a combination of literary, calligraphic, and artistic talent such as no other single man in the long history of China has ever dis¬ played. He is known as Chao Tzu-ang, and the Emperor Kublai usually addressed him with the familiar term Tzu-ang. His pen name was “Retired Scholar of the Snowy Pines” (Sung Hsiieh Chii Shih). His canonical name is Chao Wen-min, and his official title “Duke of Wei” (Wei Kuo Kung). A good specimen of the work of Chao Meng-fu is found in the Metro¬ politan Museum attached to a scroll “The Ten Horses” (Ch'iu Chiao San Mu), by P’ei K’uan of the T’ang dynasty. The name “Ten Horses” has been given by me to this scroll, for it depicts ten horses at pasturage on an autumn plain. A more correct translation of the Chinese title would have been “An Autumn Pasturage,” but this would not have brought out the most prominent feature, which is not the landscape but the ten horses in various positions at pasturage. Chao Meng-fu treated this same subject, and was doubtless aware of its having been painted earlier by P’ei K’uan. A zealous collector brought the two paintings together and mounted them in one scroll, though each painting is worthy of being considered separately on its own merits. The only advantage of their being together is that it gives a good opportunity to note the variations which a later artist felt at i 4 ° CHINESE PAINTING liberty to make in reproducing the work of his predecessors. In this par¬ ticular case Chao Meng-fu found in the work of a T’ang dynasty artist a theme concerning horses, which was especially fitted to his own time when the Mongol passion for horses had been imitated throughout China. In re¬ producing a picture with this subject, Chao Meng-fu exhibits two quali¬ ties which have usually characterized Chinese litterateurs. On the one hand, th ey have been an xious to make themselves agreeable to their official superiors, and as a rule have been willing to caferrO' j 3 reTaihlTg^court 431 i^ - mgsponJEEjot herliand, th ey-have.so ught _tqsquare themselyeTwith their contemporaries and with the judgment of later generations by harking ba ck to som e wel l-known p redecessor who could be quoted as a precedent, or, sometimes even, a.s a jus tifica tion. This “Autumn Pasturage” scroll by Chao Meng-Fu is on silk. It is signed by the artist’s name, Tzu-ang, and is dated the eleventh month of the first year of Huang Ch’ing (a.d. 1311). In the upper right-hand corner of the scroll are the five characters Ch'iu Chiao Yin Ma T’u, which is a slight variation of P’ei Kuan’s title, and means, literally, “Watering Horses on the Plains in Autumn.” There is an annota¬ tion by K’o Chiu-ssu in which he likens this picture to that of the “Five Horses,” by Wei Yen, and the “Ten Horses,” by P’ei K’uan. It was doubtless due to this statement that the paintings of P’ei K’uan and Chao Meng-fu were brought together. One can only wish that the efforts of the collector had been as successful in finding the painting of Wei Yen as in the case of that of P’ei K’uan. This small painting of Chao Meng-fu exhibits fidelity of conception combined with strength of execution. His brush strokes are firm and certain; his coloring is in harmony with his subject. In short, this painting is in accord with the accepted canons and traditions of Chinese pictorial art. This scroll is fully described in Shih Ku Tang. In the Government Museum, Peking, I have frequently seen one of the most famous scrolls painted by Chao Meng-fu. It is called “Autumnal Colors on the Ch’iao and Hua Mountains” (Chiao Hua Chiu Se ). These mountains are in Li-ch’eng, Shantung Province, on the northern borders of a lake. They have been famous in Chinese literature and art from the time of the foundation of the Chow dynasty, and were visited by the Emperor PAINTERS OF THE YUAN DYNASTY 141 Ch’ien Lung on his journey to the southern provinces. The poet, Li T’ai-po, praised them in one of his well-known poems. In portraying their beauties Chao Meng-fu was in full accord with the best traditions of his country. He himself visited these hills on his journey from Hangchow to Peking. Hua Shan is a cone-shaped hill on the east, and Ch’iao Shan a flat-topped hill on the west of the northern shore of the lake. In front of both hills are groups of willow and small pine trees. Extending to the right of Ch’iao Shan is a country hamlet with a fisherman in the foreground raising his net, and a flock of five sheep waiting to enter their fold. At the beginning of the scroll two boatmen are seen poling their small craft. In the center of the picture there are two other boatmen, one of whom is fishing. The whole impression of the picture is one of quiet beauty. The Emperor Ch’ien Lung has covered the blank portions of the scroll with his seals and annotations which are more conspicuous than the artist’s own statement written in his beautiful handwriting. The colophon signed Wu-hsing Chao Meng-fu is dated the twelfth month of the first year of Yuan Chen (a.d. 12.95). The colo¬ phon is followed by the artist’s seal of four characters, Chao Shih T^u-ang. There are three other pictures by this artist which I have seen. One of these is owned by Feng Hsu, of Peking. It is called “The Three Reli¬ gions” (San Chiao T’u), and presents three standing figures: Confucius, Buddha, and Lao-tzu. Confucius with his long black beard and flowing robes holding a kilin in his arms; Buddha with green hair and whiskers, wearing large ear-rings, his folded hands uplifted as if in prayer; the white- bearded Lao-tzu with enormous eyebrows holding in his hands a staff. This picture is signed the ninth month of the fifth year of Yen Yu (a.d. 1318). It is the same scene as is incorrectly called “Christ with Nestorian Priests” by Giles in his History of Chinese Pictorial Art. In Giles’s illustration Lao-tzu stands at the left, Confucius in the center, with Buddha at his right. The second picture is in the collection of Ching Hsien, Peking. It is called “The Three Horses of the Chao Family.” Of these the first was painted by Chao Meng-fu; the second, by his son Chao Jung, who gained an independent reputation as a painter of distinction; and the third, by his grandson, Chao Lin. The painting, “The Three Horses,” is in the same style as that of CHINESE PAINTING 14a “The Five Horses,” by Li Kung-lin, to which it is not inferior in brush strokes. The third picture is that of “Tzu Kung Meeting Yuan Hsien ( T%u Kung Chien Yuan Hsien). These two men were disciples of Confucius, and the incident depicted is the visit of Tzu Kung who went in great style with a chariot and four horses, to call upon Yuan Hsien. Yuan Hsien had been living the life of a hermit after the death of Confucius and went out to receive the call of Tzu Kung, wearing an old hat made of mulberry bark, old clothes and shoes, and supporting himself on a pilgrims stafF. When Tzu Kung inquired anxiously as to the health of Yuan Hsien, he replied that he was poor but not ill, and said that the only illness he feared was an in¬ ability to do what he knew to be right. This scene was of the kind that especially appealed to Chao Meng-fu, and his painting shows his strong sympathy with plain living and high thinking. The wife of Chao Meng-fu, Kuan Fu-jen, was a talented painter of orchids and bamboos. She frequently co-operated with her husband in painting. I have seen one authentic example of this joint work in which Kuan Fu-jen painted bamboos, the rest of the work having been done by Chao Meng-fu. Kao K’o-kung, who was a native of Central Asia, came to the court of Kublai Khan, was given a high official position, and made for himself a well-earned reputation as a painter. He is known also as Kao Yen-ching and Kao Fang-shan. He followed the style of Mi Fei, and furnished inspira¬ tion for two later painters—Ni Tsan and Fang Fang-hu. His greatest work was in the painting of bamboos in which this artist claimed for himself that while some had been able to paint the form and others the spirit, he had been able to combine both form and spirit. I have only seen one authen¬ tic painting by this artist which is “Ink Studies of Bamboos” (Mo Chu). In this picture Kao K’o-kung wields a brush with great strength and yet with delicacy of touch. The author of Cb'ing-ho Shu Hua Fang, in speaking of one of his paintings which he had seen in the collection of Hsiang Yiian- pien, inquired why anyone should wish to see the work of Wang Wei or Li Ch’eng when he had an opportunity of seeing that of Kao K’o-kung. This seems to be extravagant praise, but there can be no doubt that this artist deserves an honorable position in the ranks of Chinese painters. PAINTERS OF THE YUAN DYNASTY 143 Huang Kung-wang is known also as Huang Tzu-chiu and “ Single Peak” (/ Feng Tao Jen) and ‘ ‘ Very Crazy’ ’ (Ta Ch'ih). He was fond of nature in the open. In an annotation on one of his paintings Chu Chih-fan says that Huang Kung-wang, while living in retirement, used to wander over the Yu Mountain (modern Ch’ang-shu, Kiangsu Province). He would often sit down for hours, making sketches of the landscape before him. This is very unusual with Chinese landscapists, and I do not remember having seen this comment made concerning any other, although love of nature as demon¬ strated by extensive wanderings in the hills was frequently characteristic of this class of artists. One of the best paintings by Huang Kung-wang is “Dwelling on Fu-ch’un Mountain” (Fu-ch'un Shan Chu), now in the Gov¬ ernment Museum, Peking. It is a scroll on paper about twenty feet in length and one foot in height. This artist had two distinct styles of paint¬ ing : one in which he used thick, heavy strokes and depicted rugged scenery; in the other style he used fine, delicate strokes and depicted quiet scenes. The Fu-ch un scroll is in the latter style, and justifies Ni Tsan’s comparison of Huang Kung-wang to Kao K’o-kung. In an attached annotation Tung Ch’i-ch’ang narrates that the owner of this scroll during the early part of the Ming dynasty was so passionately fond of it that he did not wish any¬ one else ever to possess it. Shortly before his death the owner, Hsu, left his sickbed, went to the place where the picture was stored, found it, threw it into the fire, and then hastened back to his bed thoroughly tired out. Fortunately his son saw what his father had done and rescued the painting from the fire, the only damage done having been the mutilation of the first part of the scroll. This has been patched, and the place where the new paper is joined to the old one can easily be seen. The paper on which the scroll is painted is in several lengths, and it is evident that the third section from the end has not the same quality of paper or ink as the other sections have. This part of the scroll was probably also injured, and has been replaced. This painting is well executed. It has the virtue of freedom and spontaneity, but lacks spirituality. It reveals the cleverness of this artist in use of brush strokes, but lacks the inspiration of the earlier great landscapists. I have seen another painting by Huang Kung-wang in the collection of Ts’ai Po- *44 CHINESE PAINTING hao, done with thick, heavy strokes, but much prefer the Fu-ch’un scroll. However, both pictures exhibit the tendency of painting to turn to writ¬ ing, and Huang Kung-wang may be considered to have added great impetus to this movement. This style of painting was afterward known as ‘ ‘ Literary Men’s Paintings” (wen jen hud). It showed splendid control of the brush and followed all of the prescribed canons, but it was dilettantish and pedantic. Wang Meng is another great favorite of the conventional literary class. His poetical comments on his own paintings are as clever as the pictures themselves. His work is calligraphic rather than imaginative, but in imagination he is superior to Huang Kung-wang. He followed the style of his maternal grandfather, Chao Meng-fu, and sought to imitate this many-sided genius; but his writing, composition, and painting are all inferior to those of his illustrious example. If his unquestioned brilliance had been supplemented by patient work, as in the case of Chao Meng-fu, his pictures would have been more praiseworthy. I have seen one large hanging painting on paper by this artist. It represents a stream flowing down through a valley on both sides of which the hills are covered with flowering peach trees. The stream opens out into a pond on the side of which a fisherman is seen half hidden by overhanging trees. It is a scene which would tempt one to wander in the hills. Though charming, this picture is too redolent of the refined studio. Its name is Hua Hsi Yu Ying, which expresses in concise form the description of the picture which I have given. The most famous painting of Wang Meng is that of The Thatched House of the South Village” (Nan Tsun Tsao Tang'). The place described in the title of this picture was the home of his friend, T ao Tsung-i, who had retired into private life on account of failure to pass the highest literary examination. It was in this place that T ao wrote his famous book, Cho Keng Lu, which contains so many valuable comments on painting and poetry. This picture is listed in the collection of the Government Museum, Peking, but I have never had an opportunity of seeing it. It has been de¬ scribed to me by one who had examined it as delicately colored and full of imaginative beauty. There is another painting by this artist which I have frequently seen. It was formerly in the collection of Tuan Fang, and later A, ' 33 BE 5 5 ' : ±i it V*k tig Jjd IM w At 'J£- >JL T a. 4'ifc 5p$; K~i4ii ^ \*' 'Jr Jc 5* trt ri"-' } ■ jik. 1 ' jot' ^ ^p" KiMittil * __ * ’ £1 1 flap P«;;l _ MjjfLp 5 ® 1 *=rrv i iii^yijtf i»i €*= 3 i V"J^ 4jnr wf.j^ <*-^^nf^ijr - A% <- ■ <*-r>- - * (-}W \ ^ 4 - '«i frai ^ ^ tf*cJ £* £•*? ^ ^ P V; ^ ^ ■( f£V v t ■* i,.- 45 $p 1 -^ \ ^- j* ^ S? p£~ -t* 1 fir- •*£ N ’ .. . ’ *~ .r r Xkr*-, A \ 4 r^f-«§fc*fr^ \p a *',>-. v •':-*^-*^r "S'i -/{ .;-. hammedans, natives of Khotan, of Inner Ivfongolia, and of Kitan Tartary. hdention is also made in the Biographies of Painters of the sketches brought to China by Matteo Ricci which from the description given of them were probably etchings. Of all the foreign influences only two have been recognized as having distinctive styles. The painting of the Khotan artist, Wei-ch’ih I-seng, was said to have been done in the “positive” style (wa tieh ); and the paintings done by the members of the McCartney embassy were ‘' measured paintings” (chieh hua). V CHINESE PAINTING These sketches of Parish and his associates went far to increase the prestige of Castiglione and his associates and to make their influence permanent. The ferment which these men introduced into artistic circles in China has worked more slowly than that infused into intellectual groups by the sci¬ entific method which came with the revision of the calendar according to accurate mathematical rules; but the ferment has been at work and is still working. It would be quite easy for the Western methods of painting to be adopted in China if it were not for the supremacy of calligraphy. A great writer is still the greatest artist, and his paintings are considered sub¬ sidiary. This is shown in the recent work of former President Hsu Shih- ch’ang. As long as painting is joined to calligraphy its methods must depend upon brush strokes, but if in the future calligraphy becomes a pro¬ fession, as it did in the West, and is no longer a sine qua non of a literary man there would be a rapid absorption of Western methods of painting which would easily replace and eject the trifling methods now known as ink amusement” (mo bst). The present tendencies of education are all in the direction of dissociating calligraphy from the necessary equipment of a scholar and of good writers becoming a professional class. If this tendency increases in the rising generation it is certain that the traditional painting methods of China will be modified and will approach nearer to those of the West. To some minds this will be profanation; to others it will be only another evidence of the similarity of principles underlying all forms of cul¬ ture and of the universality of the appeal of paintings to the highest emo¬ tions of man. i INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Ai Hsiian jit.i°8, 228 Akuta pH tT. I 3^ AnI-chou • 28, 2-3» 52-. 53> 54’ .7i» 8o, 84, 113, 137, 147, 161 An K’uan Bff . 78 An Lu-shan % M \U . 7^79 Arzuli Palpata *W*K*A*- • *4 8 Buddha ^ . 3 2. I 4 I Ch’a Shih-piao ^ ± . . . 165, 176, 177 Ch’an-tang jpg .254 Chan Tzu-ch’ien fit -f - iS: . . iz, 18, 4Z, 59 Chan Yao Chien flf ££ $(tj . 67 Ch’ang Ang$ .76, 85, 166 Chang Chao . 92- Ch’ang Chiang Wan Li '££ $5 M • • .97. 106, I 3° Chang Ch’ien-shou 3R HI . J 6 Chang Chih-ho i$ jg 5fB. 75 Chang Ch’ou i}R 3fc 1, 19, zo, 6z, 65, 70, 154 Ch’ang-chow . • ^4,153,156,174 Chang Ch’uan-shan r)R ® ill. 77 Chang Chiin-li ffijg ft . J 54 Chang Ch’ung 5't 3 .265 Chang FSng-i §R ft ti. JI 4 Chang Fu-ftng [>ff ft. 9 1 Chang Han ^ % . 166 Chang Hsiian ^. 16,124 Chang Hu .174.176 Chang Hua ijj| 4j| • • •.5°. 54 Chang Huai-kuan 5R J ffi. 1 ° Chang Ling 3R S.. • • * * 165 Ch’ang Lo Liang Shih gftfi • • «5 Chang Meng-chin »JJ| if • • • • x 5^> I ^5 Chang Pang-ch’ang i}R #15 H • • • • • 2zi Chang Seng-yu 3R fit ^ iz, 14, 16, 48, .57> 5 8 > 59> 60,161 Ch’ang-sha . ir 4> Ch’ang-shu . J 43> z 5£ Chang Tsao ijR Jsjg. I7 ° Chang Tse-chih ijg 1W ft . . I 37 Ch’ang Yang Palace :S fos & .... 1 7 Chang Yen-yuan ijR %■ • • • • 2.z, 40, 48 Ch’ao An Ssu M # #. 5« Chao Ch’ang g. . 109, 116, 117, 118, 138, 14Z Chao Ch’i-mei ® H. 2.0 Chao Ch’ien-li if I.124 Chao-chow d'h.266 Chao Chiin Wd M . 43 Chao Chung-mu ® . 45 Chao Yung® ff|.95> II 7> 14 1 Chao K’uang-yin ig)|.88, 130 Chao Lin JE 1|. 242 Chao Ling-jang . . .69, 97, 99, 108 Chao Meng-chien ® * §* 134. x 35> 138, 147 Chao Meng-fu Jg ^ ftg. 7> 12., 15, 16, 33, 38, 44, 53. 76, 91. 93. 95. 229. 138, 139, 140. 241, 14Z, 144, 145, 147, 15Z, 157, 159, i6z, 174, 178, i8z Chao Po-chii ® ft . 16, 69, izi, 1Z4, .1Z5, 133, 149. 252-, 183 Chao Po-su j£ ft M . izi, iz 5 , 152. Chao Shih Tzu-ang @ ft f l?j • • • • 141 Chao Ta-nien @ ^ . 99 ChaoT’oJgfS.2^6 Chao Tsung P3 ^. ^5 Chao Tzu-ang SE f - Ip. x 34 ChaoTzu-ku ^ f* |fi|. x 35 Chao Wen-min jg ft $C. 239 Chao Yang T’ai JE 1^ .• • io 9 Che Chih Mo Mu Tan fir >1 ft W • 256 Ch t P’ai 'M . 177 Che Tsung .113,12.1 Cheh ®..• • *7. 18 Chekiang ffif 01.85,167,177 Ch’en U . I15> l82 - Ch’en, kingdom of ®. I2 -7 Chen-chi ^ HI. 70 Ch’en Chi-ju p£ #| .Si. 265 Ch’en Chi-lio p£ ^ IBS. I 5 6 Ch’en Chi-shun pg ^ im . Ch’en Ch’iao PR . ° 8 Ch’en family ft, . 57 Ch’en Hao % i$. ■ • • •.’ X V Ch’en Hung-shou ^ i'A Wi • • • • 265 Ch’SnlH#... 86 Ch’en K’uo pt ^5 Ch’en Ming-hsia ^ M. . Ife 5 i86 CHINESE Ch’en Tao-fu Hi ^. I ^5 Ch’£n Yao-tsui ft. 5 6 Ch’eng . 88 Ch eng, Prince ]$ M iE . 1Z 9 Ch’eng An-chiin ^ .166 Ch’eng Chia-sui .165 Cheng Ch’ien §5 ^. 12. Cheng-chow §15 #1 .165 Ch’engChii-fuaiS^ •_.138 Ch’eng Chiin-fang ^ J§. 2-6 Cheng Fa-shih §|5 ±. 14 Cheng Ho ®C . 63 Ch’eng Hsin-t’ang jC> IgT. 37, 45, no, 114 Ch’eng Hua ffc it . I 5 Z ’ i6 3 Cheng Kuan ^ fU.. 14, xo, x6, 57 ChSng Kuan Kung Ssu Hua Shih jj m & ®.«it.n, 14,56 Cheng Piao §jS .191 Ch’eng Shih Mo Yuan H J 3 j M IS • • 3 ^ Cheng Te jE . 14, 156, 157 Ch£ng-ting Fu m I ^7 Ch’eng-tu ^15 .60, 87 Ch’eng Wang $ ]£. 9 > 148 Ch’i #.1x3,166 Chi Ch’a Ssu m £ ^. 93 Ch’i Ch’ai-chia ,p |5 ft.165 Ch’i Ch’iao T’u ^ 15 .178 Chi-chou fH.m Chi Hsi Tien Pao $ gg R g. 98 Chi Hsien Yuan *^|S£. ...... 95 Chi Ku Chai Chung Ting I Ch'i K'uan shih m hr its ft a- ■ ^ Ch’i-li-t’an -£ Ji jf|. I ^7 Chi Hsi Yeh Shih £ & TfT. 95 Chia Ch’ing % Jg. 2.5 Chia Hog^ .84, i6z Chia-hsing |g % .84, 15X Chia I ^ |t.167 Chia Ju ^|5 §|5 . 9 Chia Ssu-tao {£( 5 H. .16, 51, 57, 63, 67, 85, 91 Chia T’ai ^5 .132. Chiai Yuan j§f. %. J 55 Chiang ^. 85 Chiang-chiin J|§ %. . 69 Chiang Kan Hsiieh Chi f£ T 1 H IP? •• 74 Chiang Kuan-tao it fi ill. 1ZZ Chiang Shan Hsiao Ssu it tfl jpf • 9 Z Chiang Shan Kao Yin it |il jii H • • • 93 Chiang T’ing-hsi $?f IS. r 78 Chiang Ts’an it ^. 3 Z > 1ZZ Chiang Ts’un it fcf. zo, xx, Z3 Chiang Ts’un Hsiao Hsia Lu it ft Iff 1 §. zz > 171 Chiang Yu-jen # ^ 182. Chiao-hsi Kai-kung Hall IP fj ^ &■ ^ 58 Ch’iao Hua Ch’iu S£ fX { 5 , • • • 14° Chiao Mo )P . 35 Chiao Ping-chen fft .i8z Ch’iao Shan ® Ul. J 4 I Chiao Shih Tu Shu Ti f 3 f Hf • • • • I 54 Ch’iao Ta-chih ff§ ^ 16, 131 Ch’iao Ts’ao ife.1x7 Chieh Hsi-ssu jg f§ .148 Chieh Hua 3 $. if . . .94, 109, 1x4, 149, 183 Chieh Piao fg . 2.8 Chieh Tzu Yuan Hua Chuan ft * a * #. i6 Chien 38 Chien-fu Palace jfS 5 i?. 53 Chien Ho $jj .13 ° Ch’ien Hsuan 29, 37, 58, 59, 147, 151 Chien Ko Hsing Lii $1] |Jg ff Jg. . . . 98 Ch’ien Liang-yu & fa .12.6 Ch’ien Liu |jg 51 ?. 94 Ch’ien Lung g£. 18, 19, 2.3, 33, 39, 51, 52, 53, 71, 74, 76, 90, 93, 100, 113, 115, 12.9, 130, 132., 136, 141, 146, 147, 156, 157, 159, 163, 164, 168, 170, 172., 173, 177, 178, 179, .181, 182., 183 Chien-nan $j] n6 Ch’ien Shun-chu $jg ^ ^ .147 Ch’ien-t’ang #jg .106, i$z Ch’ien Tseng fg % . 2.2. Chien Wen Ti ^ ^. 47 Chien Yeh Wen Fang ^ H ^ • • • 83 Chih ®J. 65 Chih Cheng $ j£.126, 146, 149 Chih Ch’uan I Chii fft Jl| ^ M • • • • I 45 Chih-shui vS 7 jC.166 Chih Kung T'u $$ ^ [3 .i 7 > 6 3 Ch’ih-pi .157 Chih-t’ou Hua S® S. x 7 8 Chin Chun-ming ^ ^ 175 Chin-hua ^ 85 Chin Jen# A. 53 Chin-ling # ^.118, 177 Chin-ling P’ai # JR. 177 Chin Ming Ch’ih I 49 Chin-pu JJ||f.113 Chin Sheng-t’an ^ ^ . I 7° Chin Shih ±.135 Ch’in Shih Hwang ^ ^ . . . 108, 165 INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES 187 Chin Shih So ^ .170 Chin Su 4* Ifi.134 Chin-t’an ^ ijjj.148 Chin T’ing-piao & g .179 Chin Wen Kung § 3^ ^.ixx, 148 Chin Wen Kung Fu Kuo ff ® 12.2. Ching-chou jfi] 4H. 59 Ching Hao f ij ^. .... ia, 31, 69, 79, 80, 97, 137, 174 Ch’ing Ho fpj.19, 2.0 Ch’ing-ho Shu Hua Fang ?§ M # ?ft US-1, 16, 19, 2.0, 61, 65, 7°, 80, 81, 91, 93, 95, 97, nx, 114, .216, 131, 14X, 154 Ch’ing-hsi ^ 44 Ching Hsien 7^ g.16, 64, 93, 165 Ching I lH.152- Ching-i Pavilion gf 'fin ff. 53 Ching Ting ^ % .22.x, 134 Chin-kiang §ji| ££.9°> 97 Chiu Chang ji ^. 41 Chiu Ch’i jl |. 4 1 Ch’iu Chiang Ch’ing Tiao PA CC Pin $]■ 4 Z Ch’iu Chiang Tieh Chang PA XL ji: ft# • 80 Ch’iu Chiao San Mu pA #|5 tie tA ■ ■ 7 &> 239 Ch’iu Chiao Yin Ma T’u PA 5® tA PI- 24° Chiu Ch’iu % PA. 87 Chiu Ko T’u Jl PI. 25 Ch’iu Lin pA pp.263 Ch’iu Shan Hsiin Yin PA lh H IS • • • 256 Ch’iu Shan Ning Ts’ui pA ill 'fife • • 80 Ch’iu Shan Tu Shu pA llj ^ # • • • 273 Ch’iu Shan Yu T’ing PA Ul ffit ■ • • 97 Ch’iu Shih-chou + 258 Ch’iu Shih-fu jfi g % .158 Ch’iu Ying ^.• • ; .... 35, 15X, 158, 159, 261, 163, 178 Cho, Prince j. 66 Cho Keng Lu |g ^ §sfc .2.6, 35, 144 Choufjij.27,2.8 Chou Chen MU . J 5 8 Chou Chih-mien Ml J|. l6 4 Chou Fang J10 0#. . . ix, 17, 38, 67, 68, 108, 150, 155, xix Chou Liang-kung )|^il.2.4, 115 Chou Mi Ml 3®.”7 Chou T’ien-ch’iu JU % ^. i6 5 Chou Wen-chii MI ® x 7, 79> 208, 109, 1x4 Chow Li M) Ch’u .. Chu Chih-fan & $ ■ Chu Ching-hsuan fk :£ ChuFu^H . 42 176 243 32 1x6 Chii-fu gj Jp.. 65 Chu Hsi ^ .88, 104, 151 Chu I-ang & f| &.173 Chii Jan E . ix, 3X, 47, 69, 96, 171, .174, 276, 177 Chu-ko Liang jig .32,59 Ch’u K’uang $£. 46 Ch’u Kuo Mi Fei 100 Chu Lin pj; pp.12-7 Chii Lin Shen Ting H pp ^ ■ • ■ 2x5 Chu Mien 3fc jjjlj.118 ChuP’uitlg. 2.6 Chii Shih Chou 256 Chu Te-jun §§ fi. J 4f Chu Ts’un-li ^ Xf B|. 2.6 Chu T’un-ju m. I12 - Chu Wen 3fc . 79 Chu Yu M- ■ ■ ^ . 6 5 Chu Yiian-chang j£ f$ . 25 1 Chu Yiin-ming 12-5 Chii an ^.27, xi, x8 Chiianfl.38, 67 Ch’uan )[|. l' 2 - Chuan Shu gpc =(f.*39 Chiian Yiin Ts’un J||i . 106 Chuang, Prince J. 49 Chuang Hui-s£ng 0 x ^5 Chuang-tzii J* .22, 45 Chuang Yuan )|A JC . Chuh Chih ft $£. I 6 Ch’un, Prince . Ch’un Ch’iu Annals ^ pA. Ch’un Shan 0 jij. Ch’un Shan Jui Sung ^ ih P&- • • Chun T’i '<|S . Chun Ch’en Ku Shih T’u Ping Shu a ##. Chiin-tzh ^ - j-. Ch’ung Er fi %■ . ■ • • • • • • • Chung Hua 1 Shu [lj PS IS • • Chung Shan K’ai Kuo fp 1 (Jj ® • • Chung Shan Wang Ch'i ^ |L| iE • Chung Shang 4* -t • •• • • • • ’ Chung Sheng Temple M # ■ • ■ Confucius JL .“* 35, 46, 88, 141 Er Li Chai “ ^ W . I3 Z Erchintai & #. 98 259 5 71 IOO III US 77 112 . 7 179 176 45 12.1 119 96 45 2-4 60 CHINESE PAINTING Erh Kuang 47 Fah Yuan Chu Lin &$$■** - 34 Fan Chi ^ . 49 Fan Ch’i # 136 Fan Ch’i % iff .177 Fan K’uan . .69, 90, 9a, xoz, 106, 137, 170 Fan Wang Li Fu $ 3* $j}.116 Fan Yun Jg §. 148 Fan Yiin-lin jfg jfc | 5 g. 74 > l6 5 Fang ffi . . m . 3 2 -> 42 - Fang Ch’un-nien 3^ ip . . . . 134, 15Z Fang Fang-hu 3^ ^.75, 100, 141 Fang H£ng-hsien jj $ .176 Fang Hu 3^ 5jg.158 Fang Hu Lang Yuan 3?/ fglti ■ • • 78 Fang Ku Hj "A.160 Fang Shih Mo P’u 3§" M Hi • • • • 36 Fang Yii-lu ~jj ^ ^. z6 Fei Ch’i-huai tfiE fe.173 Fei Ch’iu Shan jg £ tU.166 Fei-pai £ . .. 92- Fen-i . 17 Fen-yang #HH.136 Feng, Empress jg. 5 °> 54 Feng Ch’in $§ $Jj .148 Feng En-k’un 3 § Jg. % .49, 119 Feng Hsii |g.97, 241 Feng Hsiieh Sung Shan !Hh M & ■ ■ x 37 Feng Kung-tu $f Jg.i 73 » x 77 Feng Lo Wu Chiang M IS 2 C • • • x 54 Feng Sheng $f .151 Feng-t’ou E ©.113 Feng Tzu-yiin T SI.80, 81, 84 Feng Wen-ch'ang ^ g.175 Feng-yang J||.136 . ^ Fu-ch’un Shan Chii ^ 4 j W: ■ • • • M 3 Fu Ch’un Shan T’u ^ ^ lL] P 3 • • • • x 73 Fu Fei ijg:. 55 Fu Hsi ii.11, 55 Fu Jung Yuan Ying ^ ^ ... 134 Fu Shan 4 j.35, 178 FuTijj®itij. 149 Fu T’ien T’u EH B.133 Genghis Khan $4 ef S ff.138 Hai Kung Fu $£ 119 Hai Nei Ming Chia Kung Hua Neng Ssu .1x4 Hai-yang $£ H.176 Hai-yen $£ lj$J.134 Han Ang M Han Chung 4 *.x66 Han Hsi-tsai & gg ft. 84 Han Hsi-tsai Ye Yen T’u n m « « g n. 84 Han Hsin $g ^.166 Han Hsiu $$ f?jc.148 Han Kan .17. 75 > 7 S > 82., 139 Han Kao Teng Liu jSi ^ A ® • • • 215 Han Kao-tsu jg| jifl.165, 166 Han Ku Pass pg ^ |$j.166 Han Kuang 76 Han Lin ^14 . 9 ° Han Lin P’ing Yeh ^ §=f • • • 90 Han Shan Temple U (JL( %. 85 Han T’ao % §§.165 Han Ts’un-liang ^ ^ 65 HanTsung-po g? fQ. . . .11, 18, 44, 115 Han Wen Ti ^.167 Han Wu Ti jg ® .167 Han Ya ^ 90 Hangchow |/t 4 H 44 » x2-o, izi, 114, 133, .135, x 3 6 . 238. IS 2 -, 264, 169 Hanlin Academy • • • • 136,139 Hao . 109 Hao-liang .116 Hao Mao 3§j 35 Hao-t'ou-ch’ih gfl .1x3 Heng Men $tj p>I.12.6 Ho-chien jfif IbI. IZI Ho Cho -fpj jfcjf. 2.3 Ho Hsiang T’ing T’u Chiian .154 Ho Lang ^ 5(5 .114 Ho-nei |sf [4 .79, 80 Ho-nei Ching Hao fSf |*} 3J1J • • • • 80 Ho-pei ^ db. 94 Ho Ti fp . 37 Ho Yeh Chin Ts’un M MS • • • 206 Hsi-an £.14, 76, 108, 15Z Hsi-an-fu g fff.165, 167 Hsi Ch’iao Shang Ch’un M 'M ■ 264 Hsi Ch’ing Ku Chien f f . . 170 Hsi Ch’ing Tsa Chi M §lj HE ■ • • • .18, 14, 51, 172. Hsi Hsiang T’u gfe ^ [H.58, 163 Hsi Hu $jfj. 31 Hsi Ning gE 3 ^. 58 Hsi Pao-ch’en gg g. . . . 154, 176, 178 Hsi Pi $fl ip.105 Hsi Shan Ch’iu Chi (JL| ■ ■ ■ 98 Hsi Shan Feng Yu g| (Ij jR M • • • • 93 INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Hsi shih chih pao # 1 ft K - • • • 56 Hsi Wang Mu 31 gj:. 31 HsiYinggR®.109 Hsi Yuan ® gS.32., no Hsi Yuan YaChi ® H M- ■ ■ 107,110 Hsia Kuei MM -68, 12.1, 130, 131, 151, 164 Hsia Shan Hsing Lii J£ ill fy |&. . . 93 > 99 Hsia Wen-yen M 3 &C ^.M> 3 1 Hsiang .. 3 1 Hsiang Mo-lin JJ! it .. 18, 71 Hsiang Mo-lin Fu Mi Chi Chih Yin P.^9 Hsiang Sheng-mo HI 8? g|i • • • • I ° 4 > 265 Hsiang-yang jg gj.15^ Hsiang Yii 266 Hsiang Yiian-pien Jg % .51, 53 > 5 ^> .... 57, 6a, 90, 91, 95, 12.9, 135, 142- Hsiao fj£. 9 1 Hsiao j||. 3 Z Hsiao Chao jf H. «-3 Hsiao-chien /J\ f§. 37 Hsiao Ching T’u Ping T’i Hsiao Fu P’i Ts’un /h & $$ ■ ■ ■ • 206 Hsiao Hsia Lu §?i M $$ •. 10 Hsiao Hsiang Po Yiin jjj[j ft- • • 27° Hsiao Hsiang Yen Yii j|| jffl $9 ® • • • 81 Hsiao I HI ^ ...•••;••• 6i > 6 3>97 Hsiao I Chuan Lan T’ing T’u . . ^ Hsiao K ai /J-» $5 . 54 Hsiao King ^ M • 35 Hsiao Shan Hua P u /]> |_Lj ^ jllf- • • • 1 & L Hsiao Tsung ^ ^. i6 3 Hsiao Tzu-yiin ^ ^ SI. 9 2 - Hsieh Ho ^ H. 3 °, 44 Hsieh Hua % • • • •. 157 Hsieh-i % M . 3 ° Hsieh Seng % tfe. XI 7 > *73 Hsieh Sheng f§t # • • .. I ^ 4 Hsieh Shih-ch’en it 15 . i6 5 Hsieh Sun it H. I7 7 Hsieh T’ao Qp. 37 Hsien, Duke HR & . I12 - Hsien Feng M ••■•••••• ' 43 Hsien Shan Lou Ko till [il $5 US • • • • 93 Hsien Shih K’ung Tzii Hsing Chiao Hsiang & ffi H ^ tf %C & • • • ® 6 Hsien Tsung^^. l6 3 Hsien Yang & . IO ° Hsien-yii Ch’ii 111 . 9 Hsin-an $f % . \ 77 Hsin Ch’ou ^ 3 fc. 3 Hsin Ch’ou Hsiao Hsia Lu . 2 -3 Hsin Lo Shan Jen $Jf H \l\ A.*7 6 Hsing-p’ing hsien H zp M.166 Hsing Shu fir #.139 Hsiu-chou #!. I 35 Hsiung-nu ^ $2. 43 Hsii Chai Ming Hua Hsii Lu III • • • • • • • • z 5 Hsii Chai Ming Hua Lu jjft ft % & J-5 HsuCh’i#^.87,99 Hsii Chih-kao t31 IS. 8i Hsii-chow-fu %. Ill Iff.265 Hsii Fu # U .. ' • 98 Hsii Hsi # Jig.12., 80, 87, 163 Hsu Kuang-ch’i & % & .*7° Hsii Pen # % .246 Hsii Shih-ch’ang tit H.284 Hsu Sung-ko %. fig M . 9 8 Hsii Ta ^ ^.96, 151 Hsii Tao-ning ff j|i ^ • 69, 91, 93, 152., 260 Hsii Ts'ung-ssh # ^ fi®. I ^ 2 - Hsiian Ho jj£ 14, 16, 18, 19, 45> 48> .53, 57, 63, 69, 70, 80, 83, 86, 96 Hsiian Ho Hua P’u ^ jftl Iff 14. l8 > ^ .47, 63, 65, 67, 77, 9 1 ’ 94> 216 Hsiian Ho Lin Ku "A • • • 4 1 > 47 Hsiian Ho Shu P'u % *n 39 • • 29,114 Hsiian Ho Tien Pao % Ht W • • • • 43 Hsiian Ho Tien Yin ^ ^[i P!1 • • • • 63 Hsiian Tg ‘M. M . l6l > 164 Hsiian Tsung ^. 79 Hsiian Tsung-t . l62 - Hsiian T’ung % B . 100 Hsiian Wen Ko jt[ HH. JI 9 Hsiieh Ching 5 .. I 3 I Hsiieh Hsi T’u fU 74 Hsiin Ch’u Sl| ft. I1C 9 Hsiin Hsii taj M. 46 HuHsij&$i ^ - - • I2 - 3 Hu Hsi San Hsiao ^ • • • • I2 -3 Hu Shih-chiin “5 Hu-t’ou-ho M. 167 HuTsao^it. 177 Hua-fi. b 5 Hua Chi* m .. Hua Chien •••••• • 44 ’ 4 °’ 4 Hua Hsi Yii Yin $ 9 g ft Ift - • • • . ■ ^ • • • Hua Hui Ling Mao ^6 HuaNiao^£^r- • • ■ Hua Niao T’u HuaP’ing^#-. • • • Hua Shan 4 jSf 1I4 . • • • 244 117 116 164 48 141 CHINESE PAINTING Hua Shih it. 13, 4 6 > 79 Hua Shih Hui Chuan # it ® I# 14,116,183 Hua-t’ing |$f 2j£.135, 148, 160 Hua Tuan flf ft. 5 <> Hua Yen $ $3 .176 Hua Yen Pien Hsian IJ§ j$| H i =0 • • • 215 Huai Su -||| ^.85, m Huan, Duke |w & .12.3 Huan Chiu -0 . 2.8 Huan Kung g ^. 49 Huan Nan-chiin g JJ|>. 57 Huan Wen fg $§.. 47 Huang Ch’ing M. !£.140, 149 Huang Chii-t’sai ^ . . . 79, 86, 161 Huang Ch’iian ^ 3|C. .12., 79. 86, 87, Il6 > I 5°» I 53 Huang Ho Shan Ch’iao $§ jJj $6 • • 145 Huang Hsing J| 181 . 43 Huang Hsueh-pu jg ^ [fi|.117 Huang Kung-wang jg H 12., 143,147, . . 151, 155, 160, 169, 174, 175, 176, 182. Huang Lu-chih ^ @ jS.113 Huang T’ing-chien ^ [US .... 19,113 Huang Tzu-chiu ^ ^ .143 Hui m . 65 Hui Chii Temple S? #. 59 Hui K’un j§,.279 Hui Ti gi . 49 Hui Tsung ^.14, 19, 2.1, 41, 43, 44 . 45, 46, 47, 58, 63, 74, 83, 91, 91, .... 96, 108, 114, 118, 119, 136, 172. Hui Yiiang .12.3 Hun Chih S® $£. 2.9 Hunan jftJJ .32., 117- Hung Chih 51 .. 163 Hung-jen % fc .177 Hung Kou $| 166 Hung Ku-tzu gfc T-.• • • 79 Hung Tou Shu Kuan Shu Hua Chi It £ * IE. 2.5 Hung Wu .56, 96, 146 ^. 3 1 I H.6, 7 I, Prince il 3 :. 80 I Chai H #.135 I Chai WSn Pien g $ * II.135 I Feng Tao Jen —■ fc$: A.143 IHsiieh#^.116 I Shu .6, 7 I Yuan-chi jt cf • • • 21, 208, 117, 118 Jang Li Kuan Kuo Yen Lu IS i®. BR .2.4, 91 in Jen Jen Sung Chiu AASI • • • Jen Tsung JT ^. 126, 248 Jo-shui ^ 7 JC. 25 ° Tu-i in .179 Ju KmShop 15 * m . 57 Juan Ta-ch’6ng pm 6®.265 Jui Ssu Tung Ko ^ gl ®. 83 Jui Ying 1 $ J®. 64 Jun-chow f| 4H.16, 97 K’ai-feng ® . 19, 88, 91, 96, 114, no, 135 K’ai Pao Monastery ® ^. 96 K’ai Shu Jg#._.139 K’ai Yuan Monastery pij j£ . . . . 96 Kan Ch’uan Kung-y* ^ . . . 31,41,107 Kan Lu Temple ^ M tF. 5 8 K’an Pei T’u p). 26 K’an Shu T’u $) sjF @ • • • • 25, 17, 80, 83 K’ang Hsi gg.i8, 11,11,13, 91, 268, . 170, 171, 171, 175, 176, 178, 179, 181 K’ang Hsi Tzu Tien (jSg .... 170 K’ang Wang 0 3 E.12-1 Kao Ch’i-p’ei M ^ M.279 Kao Fang-shan i® & iii.242- Kao Hsien ^ 81 Kao K’o-kung .ill, 141, 143, •••••; . H5> J 47> 174 Kao-li Chien Chih ilij M M fit • • • • 37 Kao Shih ±. 45 Kao Shih-ch’i jjgj j; -gf.2.3, 2.4 Kao Ts’en jg ^.177 Kao Tsung g?. . . 44, 91, 100, 114, 12.1, 11.7-, 1x5, 116 Kao Yen-ching jg; jg: ®.142. Keng Chih T’u %f .46, 182. Keng Hsin-kung < 2 *. 8o, 83, 98, 130,139 Keng Tzu Jf|* ^. ll Keng Tzu Hsiao Hsia Chi M ^ ifi M IB.2.3,114 Khotan f®.61, 113 Kiang-si f£ ©. ..9,177 King Kung-pa ^ At . r> . 49. 75. 159. 273, 275, 176 K o Ching-chung N 1 $, 14 1 . J 49 K’o Chiu-ssu it . . 76, 98, 119. 246, 148, 152- Ko Hung ^ 145 K’o-ssii ^1] ^. 19 K’o Tan-ch’iu ^ £.249 K’o Tso Hsin Wen 2 j§f B8 . . . . 69 Ku ^.161 Ku Ch’a Chii Ko * m 3 |.156 Ku Chih §J fit. 3 7 INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Ku Hung-chung gg |g) rf*.79, 84 Kii-jung ft) ^.148 Ku K’ai-chih |g £.iz, 14. 15. 16, i 7 > x8, ix, 42., 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52., 53, • 54 . 55 > 5 6 . 57 . 59 . 73 . 75 . IX 5 . * 3 °. 178 Ku-she Hsien Hsiang #£ M -flU • • • 115 Ku-she Mountain 115 Ku-shuh Jlft H. 177 Ku Yeh-wang ffi if 1 . 12. Ku Yen-wu gg .170 KuYingjjgM.134 Ku Yiieh-chih ®| fg £. 47 Ku Yiin Ch’u Shih ft * jfc ± . . . 148 K’uai Jo-mu $jl] A.149, 178 Kuan Ch’ao T’u fU :j$J g.133 Kuan Fu-jen A A. 1 4 z Kuan Hsiu fjc.79. 85 Kuan Po-heng $j) Sff. .157, 160, 161, 175, 176 Kuan Shan Hsing Lu |$j) jlj fy . . . 98 Kuan Shu-tzu ^ S 4 . 45 Kuan T’ung JU £. ...... xi, 69, 79, 80, 97, 174, 182. Kuan Yin ®i .3 1 . 65. 111 Kuan Yin Pien Hsiang ft it H • • l6z Kuang-han MM. IJ 6 Kuang Tsung jfe ^. I 3 I > I 33 KuangWujfeg;. 75- i6 7 KublaiKhan&ift . . 95,138,151 Kuei-chi ^.32.. 56, 76 Kuei Ch’ii Lai ^ ^ ^. 99 . X 47 K’uei Hsiao |$| f|.x66 K’un Hsiieh Chai [$ ^3 ^. 98 K’un Hsiieh Chi Wen 03 4 ^ IS • • • 34 K'un-shan Jg, ^.* 75 . X76 K’un-yang |1 |§. i6 7 KunYii|i.|l. 77 Kung Hsiao i| h®. 9 1 Kung Hsien ^.176. 177 Kung Pan-ch’ien J 7 ^ Kung Pao ^ ^9 Kung Pi .30, 160 Kung Ting-tzix || j{|{ ^ • ..x ^5 Kuo Ch’ao Shu Hua Chia Pi Lu •••••• i s Kuo Ch’ao Yiian Hua Lu g| r 14 J 'Ai A & z 3 Kuo Chung-shu $|S . .12., 30, 69, 93, 94, 95, 102. KuoHsiSP gj.n, 68, 71, 80, 97, 98. .99, 104, 149, 150, 182. Kuo jo-hsii §& % ft.,“■> 3 i. Kuo Shih-wu §j 5 ifi: 3 l i 5 ^» i 5 8 ’ i^ 4 > i 7 ^x i8:l K uo Tzu-hsing §15 T* H. I 5 I 191 Kuo Tzu-i H5 ^ #.31, 66, 67, 116 Kuo Tzii-i Tan Ch’i Hsiang Lu . «5 Kwan-yin "u.161 Lai Ch’in Chih Tzii T* • • . 147 Lan-hsi f$ M . 8 5 Lan-t’ien ^ . 7^ 95 Lan T’ien-shu ^ ED .169 LanT’ing j|fj ..61,97,115 Lan T’ing Hsiu Chieh 00 ^ jM- • • I2 -4 Lan Ying jgg . i 6 5 > i 6 9 > 170 Lang Ch’an $] 165 Lang Shih-ning $[5 lit ^. I 79 Lao-tzu ^ ^ .11, 69, 141 Li ^.167 Li Chao-tao ^ |I 3 .7°> 7L 81 Li Ch’eng ^ $.69, 80, 89, 90, 99, 101, .106, 142., 174, 181 Li-ch’eng g ^. 99 > I 4 ° Li Chia-fu ^ |§ /Jig. 12-3 Li Ch’iao 165 Li Chien-fah $ ^ io 9 Li Cho-wu & ££ j£. I 3 ° Li Chou ^ $jf|.104 Li Hou-chu ^ ^ ±. 37 Li Hsi ^. 11 Li I-an ^ ^.109 LiJungHiSc. Li Kuang ^ )M . i6 7 Li Kung ifi.170 Li Kung-lin S' ®| T2 -» J 7 x 3 °> 37 > 38, 46, 64, 63, 69, 75, 108, 109, IIO, III, 113 , 115 , H6, 12 - 0 , 131 , 133, 137, I4Z, 151, 155. 159. i6 °. .162., 178,179 Li Liu-fang . i6 5 Li Mei-seng $ ^. 9 °> i 57 » J 73 LiMi^^f. 61 Li Po-shih ^ ift P#. S 2 -* i° 9 > “3 Li Po-shih Hua ^ fi. XI 3 Li Shan ^ \i\ . x 37 Li Sheng ^ #.79, 81, 81, 101 Li Shih-min ^ tfr S. 61 Li Shu ft #.* * I 39 Li Ssu-hsiin^ JS HI - i 2 -, i 6 » i 7 > ^ 8 x . 69, 70, 71, 8l, IOl, IO5, 12 - 2 -, 12 - 5 , 155 Li Sung ^ ^.• • ■ I 34 » Li Tai Ming Hua Chi J|| ® 4 8 Li Tai Ming Jen Nien P’u . r f T Li T’ai-po ^ A .H 1 Li T’ang ^ . 68, 106, in, 12.2., 12.3, 155 I J u 192 CHINESE PAINTING Li TS-yii *£ |K #. 75 Li Tso-hsien ^ ^ ^. 99 > JI 5 LiTsungJJ! g?.1x4, 12-8, 134, 135 Li Ts’ung-hsiin ^ g)||.133 Li Tung-yang . 153 Li Tzu-ch’6ng ^ Q $.97, 168 Li Ying-ch£n ^5 Jjg .157 Li Ying-ch’iu 89 Li Yiian ^ ^. 61 Liang Ch’ang ‘j$ .148 Liang Chang-chii $ ig • • • 74> 84, 1x5 Liang Ch’ang Shan Kuan 1I4 . 148 Liang Chiao-lin |j£ ^ 56 Liang Feng-tzu ^ JjS, J- .13X Liang Hung ^ 46 Liang K’ai ^ fg.132., 133 Liang Tsang-yen % $!. 5 ’ 2 -> 53 Lieh Nii 34 l A. 49 Lieh Nii Chuan 7 j\\ A ^. 49 Lieh Nii T’u ^lj A fii.159 Lien Chiian fjji . 38 Lien She j|§ jjjj;.114 Lien Sh6 T’u 3 fi jjtfc EH.133 Lin Ch’ang-min jjc IS. I 33 Lin Ch’iian Kao Chih # j® HC . . 98 Lin-fen |5g . > . . . . 116 Lin Wang Mo-chieh Wang Ch’uan st i * m w in. ji 5 Ling | 5 g. 32- Lmg H. 38 Ling Yen Shan Jen ft ;g- tfj A • • • • IX 5 Liu Fa A H . 3 ° Liu I A !£. 6 Liu Jan $1} $$ .163 Liu Mei A il.108 Liu Pei .59, 116 Liu Shang #ij ]?{j.37, 66, 67, 116 Liu Shang Kuan Ch’i f?i] ]?ij ijjx . . . 116 Liu Sung $lj Jjc. 57 Liu Sung-nien §\] JS- 3X, 68, 1x1, 131, 15Z Liu Tao-ch’un $1] jH jf£.xx, 30 Liu T’ieh-yiin f?i] §|£ U.84, 115 Liu Yao AS. 3 ° Liu Yiian-tso §1] jc . 91 Lo Chao ^ M . 7 1 Lo Ch6n-yii fi $ii 3 t. 8 Lohan$|$l . . . 17,31,85,114,115,133 Lohan T’u H $1 13 .116 Lo Mu 177 Lo Ping £t JjgJ.178 Lo-shen ll. I 7> 55> 5 6 > 57 Lo Shen T’u $$■ f $ g.55, 178 Lo T’ien-ch’ih HAM. 7^ Lo-yang % .91, iox Lii Chi S . Lu Ch’i-ch’uan jjH ^ Jl|. 81 Lu Chih p .163, 165 Lu Hsin-yiian |§j X4 Lu Hsing-chih (S£ fy jfl.117 Lu Hung Jgr $§. 17 Lu Hung-i ;j[ —.69, 75 Lu Hung Ts’ao T’ang iff $§ j,t 'g'. . . 160 Lu K’o-cheng p ]£ IE.165 Lu K’uang p .79> 84 Lii Mountain jjj.1x3, 12.5 Lu Pao-shan p 'gj (Xj.163 Lu Shan H [JL| . 48 Lu Shih-hua p B# Jfc. X5 Lu T’an-wei £1 $£•••• 1 6, 48, 57, 91 Lu T’ung Peng Ch’a ^ . 131, 148 Lii Tung-pin i|i5j 55. 67 Luh Chia | f.166 Lung Hsi |Sf§ .1 66 Lung K’uan Temple fg ^ . 59 Lung-mien fl Dfi.109 Lung-mien Chii-shih gg Jtk A • • 64, 109 Ma Chih fi* (ft. 37 Ma Ho-chih ^ £ 69, 1x1, 1x6, 1x7, 151 Ma Hsing-tsu J| ft jjifl.1x8 Ma I-chio — Jfj.1x8 Ma K’uei jl|.1x9 Ma Lin JHJ .130 Ma Pen If $.1x8 Ma Yuan J@f . . . 68, 1x1, 1x8, 119, 131 Mao Shih 45 1x6 Mao Tieh ||.1x9 Mao Yen-shou 4S 5$ #.42-> 43 Maya 0 Jf[$. 64 Mei-chow 4H.151 Mei Hua Tao Jen J6 3^ A.146 Mei Lan-fang j$j ^.134 Mei P’u ^ |g.2.6, 135 Mei Shu $fij. 7 Mei Wen-ting $$ # Jjf*.170 Meng Ch’ang jg; . 86 Meng Hao-jan ^ ^ ^. 73 MengT’ien ^ Jg.34> 35• 43 Mi Fei 9fc ^ . 7, 12., 15, 16, 17, 19, xx, 33, 38, 40, 46, 51, 53, 81, 8x, 89, 95, 97, 99, 100, 105, 109, no, 135, .141, 145, 15X, 160, 176, i8x Mi Fu $5 fif .iz 5 Mi Yu-jen yfc & {Z .100 Mi Yiian-chang 7^ % ^.100 INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Miao . 31 Ming Chu PJj g)c. . . .. 2.3 Ming Huang Pj] . ..75, 119 Ming Huang Shih Ma Tu . 75 Ming Huang Yen Yo Pft # ^ • • . 76 Ming-ku Chen Ts'ang P^ 1 ik-M- • • 117 Ming-ku Chen Wan Pj3 ^ Iji • . • IX 7 Ming Mo Pj5 M. 35 Ming Ti BJ ^.46, 47, 56 Mof. 32- Mo-chieh |§£ fg. 73 Mo Chu U| IT.142- MoHsiMltSt. i8 4 Mo M6n % P'3.X2-7 Mo Miao ^ 3 Z Mo P’u iH. 2.6 Mo Yuan Hui Kuan |g M M l8 > 2-3, .54, 84, 89, 113, 116, 137, 161 Mu Ku Hua ’$[ # M . I ^ 1 Mu Ti fg ^. : . IX 5 Mu T’ien Tzu Yen Yao Ch’ih M % * *1 M. 46 MuWang^^E. I 5> 3 1 Mu Wang Pa Chun ^ A ^ • • • • -*5 Mu Wang Yu Ho T’u ft IH MIS • • 55 Nan-ch’ang Ifffl._■ • • x 77 Nan Ching Chiai Yuan • - 155 Nan Hsiin Tien T’u Hsiang K’ao ffi M WL I® 9 l ft . *-3 Nan Hsiin T’u JKC @.■ • • 172- Nan Sung Yuan Hua Lu |^J Sfc R nE & 132- Nan Ts’un Ts’ao T’ang ©5 A ■ • 244 Neng fg. 3i Ni Ku Lu #g # ffi. .5 x > 22-5 NiTsan{£ff .12., 16, 32., 33, 75 > 9 8 > 1x7, 137, 142-, i43> 245 > j 4 6 > J 47> . . . .148, 149, 152., 158, 160, 174, 182. Ni Yu fft .245 Ni Yiian-chen yc M . I 45 Ning-hsia ^ JC. x 3 8 Ning Shou Chien Ku 3§£ ■ • • 271 NingTsung^^.1x8,132. Nii-chen j£t ^. IX 9> 22.1, 136 Nii Kua ®. 11 Nii Shih Ch6n * £ &. 49 OChiaoPBJ®. 0 35 O Pang Kung p? ® ^ • 107 > Io8, I2 "3 Odes of Cheng $|$ - • • -j • • • 5° Odes of Kingdom of Ch’en (S$ J3 - - • 12.6 Odes of Mao ^5 jNf. 12-7 Ou-yang Hsiian fifc 99 Pa-ling f| |S||.167 Pa-shu El ^. 97 P’ai®. 177 Pai Miao Qfg.no, nx, 114 Pai Shih Weng 0 ^ ^.153 Pai Yuan ‘gf .117 Pan Chieh gf #jt. 8 4 Pan Chieh-yu g£ $| if .5°> 54 P’an Lei $§ 2.x P an Tsu-yin fff 111 23° P’an Wen-ch’in ifg it W) .23° P’an-yii 166 Pan Yuan gf|.. 175 P’an Yiin-yii $§ # .165 P’ang Lai-ch’enUi^ g 15, n3> 237,145 .156, 160,165 P’ang Tsan^|^. x 4 8 Pao Ch’a Ssii ^ jp J #. 14 Pao Ch’ing ft ft. x 34 Pao Hui Lu ft £ §% .2.5,81 P’ei Chung f}=> • ■ .. J ^5 P’ei Hsiao-yuan g # .11, 14, 56 P’ei Hsien fifr ft.165 Pei Ku Hills IH ill. 5 8 P’ei K’uan g % .76, i39> 24° P’ei Tig 51. 7 3 P’ei Wen Chai Shu Hua P’u • • • • • **>'70 P’ei Wen YiinFuW^CoSJfr- ■ • 270 P’eng Ch’eng Lai Hsien Hi • ■ 67 P’feng Lai Fei Hsiieh ^ M 5 ■ • • 81 P’togNien^^.74- 265 Pengpu 1$.252 P’eng Wen-ts’an^^^. z 4 Pi Chi $ IS. 68 Pi Fab m : ik . 10 J> Pi Hua m *. 161 Pi Liang-shih ^ ^ ill. 1ZZ P’iMaTs’untglt. 106 P’i P’a Hsing fH fa“. l6 3 Pi Shu Kung Tien $i ^ ®. 94 Pi-yen ^ BU. . Pi Yiian 3p= ^. 2x5 Pien Ching-chao B3.163, 164 Pien Chuang-tzh Tz’ii Hu * & * $9 % . 45 Pien Ho fn.22> 2X Pien Luan ^ ^.12-, 77> 7 8 Pien W6n-chin I °3 Pien Yung-yii -fr A #. , zz Ping Fu T’u & 1RF m .15. 26,44 Ping-shen ^. i2b ° CHINESE PAINTING \ Ping-wu . 48 P'ing-yang zp B§.137 P'ing-yang Li Shan Chih ^ 1 ® ^ [I] M I 37 Ping-yin ^ ^. 53 PoChii-iftJg^.163 PoCh’uan Tu Hai jjjft ^ $£ #|J. 95 Polffii. I2 -3 Po I Shu Ch’i Ts’ai Wei {ft Hfc 12.3 Po Miao T’ieh Ti T’u ft fw $§§ 10 [3 • i6 3 Po Ying-li © J® H.175 P’u .I2.X Pu-lii TfC ^ 35 Pu Shang |' .12.6 P’u-t’i ^ $|.132., 146 P’u Tung^Jflp].179, 180 P’u Yii Jf &. 84 San Chiao H .115 San Chiao T’u H 13 . 141 San Chiieh H IS. I 74 San-han H W . 9 ° San Kuan Ch’u Hsiin H ^ JKC • . 130 San Ma H . 116 San P’in H on. 3 1 San Ping H. 31 San To H ^.176 Sao Hsiang T’u }§ % [3 . 5 8 Seng£. 38 Seng Chuan 4 i|fi. 3 8 Shan-chow jffj.167 Shan Chii T’u jJLf [3 .148 Shan-ch’uan jjj )||.101 Shan Chuang [jj .115 Shan Hai \l] 101 Shan Hai King 1J4 S. 101 Shan-hai-kuan [I| gg.168 Shan Hu Mu Nan Ifljj fj£. 2.0 Shan Hu Wang MMM .16, 2.0 Shan-shui |X| TjC.101 Shantung \U jk . 35 > 8 9 Shan-yin ^. 84 Shang gg. 10 Shang Shang _L _L. 2.4 Shao Hsing M. 44 Shao Mi $[5 $$.165 Shao Ting |g £.134 She-hsiung-kuan ff| fig.167 Shen . 31 Shen Chen-chi pC M . I 33 Shen Ch’i-nan 153 Shen Chou Jfc .7, 18, 33, 35, 69, 70, 8i> 93 > 95 > 99 > ^ * 53 > * 54 > I 55 > .i 57 > 163, 165 Shen Heng-chi f!§L tf. I 53 Shen Kua 90 Shen Shih-t’ien TJ til.153, i 54 Shen Te-chien Jfc ^ ?j§. 2^3 Shen Tsung ^|tl ^.118 ShenTuJt^. . .. 149 Sheng gg.171 Sheng Mou ® g*.147, 149 Sheng Po-hsi ® {ft H. 8 4 Sheng Tzu-chao ^ -T* lift . I 49 Sheng Tzu Temple ^ ^. 60 Shih Chia Chiang Seng ^ . . 64 Shih Chii ^ ^. 39 Shih Chii Pao Chi Ti IS j!| % 18, 2.3, 2.4, 171 Shih Huang tn M. . 34 Shih King gf &.9, 10, 30 Shih-kof$Uft. 33 Shih Ku T’ang 'jgr 18, Z2_, 59, 65, 67, 73 > 7 6 > 8o > 8 4 > 8 7 > 9 °> 9 *> 95 > 97 > 9 8 > 99 > 1IO > IT 4 > II 5 > Il6 > . 11 7 > H 9 > I2 - 3 > I2 - 9 » I 3 I » M 0 * I 45 > J 49 Shih Ku T’ang Shu Hua Hui K’ao .2.2., 170 Shih Liu Ying Chen -f* 7^ JSffi • n 4 > J 33 Shih-men ^ P 1 ].118 Shih Miao ® jgf.102. Shih-Ming-ku ^ ^.18, 117, 134 Shih Nii ± 67 Shih Shih Yiieh Chien T’ang Ts’ang Jt&0§g^gl .ii 7 Shih Tao-shih ^ iE ©.i7> 59 Shih Ti Ho Tso Hua Hui m % & ft ^. J 73 Shou Chiian ^ ^.104 Shufv. 3 8 Shu fief. 7 Shu-ch’eng ^.109, 15Z Shu Ch’i 5^ . *.12.3 Shu Chien . 37 Shu Hua Fang # ® 19 Shu Jen Li Sheng §*} X ^ 81 Shu King ^ g .9, 10 Shu-seng ^ ^ .138 Shu Shan Hsing Lii Hj |X| ff M • • • • 99 Shuang Kou fg . 112. Shuang Ma fg fg, . 75 Shuang-ssu Chiian ||. 38 Shui Mo tK M.89, 98 Shun Chih (ilg Jj§.97> 9 8 Shun Hua T’ieh ^. 2.1 Si-an-fu ioz Siva ft % $$.64, 65 Soochow H ^51, 146, 13Z, 158, 172., 175, 177 INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Sou Chin -g! ^. . .no Ssii-chin Te-yung ^ Hi . .. . 16, 18 Ssu Ch’ou g, ggt. 91 Ssu-ch’uan pj J[|.6o, 66 Ssu Ku Ch’uan Shu [5} @1 ^ . . . . 170 Ssu-ma Kuang ^ .. . 114 Ssii-ma Shao ig] 47 Ssu-ma Tao-chi v\ k} . 47 Ssu Mei Chii pj || 115 Ssu Shih Mei Hua PJ IS 36 • • • • *53 Ssu Ta Ch’i Shu PJ ^ Hf. I 7 ° Ssu Ta Chia pj ^ |$£.177 Ssu Tzu Chen Hsing $j -J* . . . 57 Ssu-tzu Lin T’u Ping T’i « * # a # s. j 46 Ssu Wang pt| 3£.174 Su Che jjjfe I®.83, no Su Chiung H 'JJpj. 9 Z Su family I ° Su Han-ch’6n ^ $1 S. 43 » I12 -» 12 -4 Su Hua P’ing $$ Jp. 5^ Su Shih .33, 58, 8i, 83, 84, 88 .ioo, no, 118, 152. SuSungH^g. 9 Z SuTsungif^. 75 Su Tung-p'o M $ .... ioo, no, 118 Su Tzu-yu M * Ell. 110 Su Yo-lan^^^. .31. io 9 Su Yo-lan Hua Pei Hui Ho .0bSJ?'J#£-.*°9 Suddodana ^ 3*. °4 Sun Ch’eng-tse ^ W . 1 - 3 » IZ 4 Sun Chi-feng J5j . 74 Sun I JR ». ... .. J 77 Sung Ch’ang-i 86 Sung-chiang . J 77 Sung Ch’uan ®. 97 Sung Ch’uan T’u ^ J§£ |U. 1Z 9 Sung Hsia Kuan Ch’iian f TftI- • *57 Sung Hsiu 5jc M . • • i6 5 Sung Hsueh Chii Shih 8 S M i ■ • • *39 Sung-hua jfS- . 37 Sungkiang ^ CH. I °° Sung K'o ~tL ._■ • 1I 7> iz6 > i6 4 Sung Li Yuan Ch’ii M % M ■ • • • *5° Sung Lien 5jc . I 49 Sung Lo m . 5 8 Sung Mou-chin 5jc S . Sung Mountain {§£ (I|. 3 Z Sung Tzu-hsii 5jc Ml. Sung-yen Mo $0 H. 35 Sung Yin Lien P’u^S-^ 31 f|§ • • • • 1 f z Sung-yiian Jfc 7C.no, 160 Ta Chiang-chiin -fc 0 % . 69 Ta-chien |jg. 37 Ta Ch’ih ^ M . *43 Ta Ch’ing I Tung Chih i£ • U° Ta Fu P’i Ts’un 106 TaK’ai*® . 54 Ta Kuan •fc $1. 63 Ta Kuan Lu £ ®i $$.. . . . 18,11,54,170 Ta Kuan T’ai Ch’ing T’ieh * m ± m ffi. « Ta Kuan T’ieh ^ fi W. 2.1 Ta Ming Kung £ WJ g.31, 107 Ta Mo y§ $. 3 1 Ta Sheng Tz’u Temple Jc M ■ ■ 81 Tai Chin |§£ jg.164 T’ai Ch’ing jfc . 2.1 T’ai-chow ^ I 5 2 - T’ai Hsien T’u JJ£ fil] [H.164 T’ai Hu Jz . 3 Z T’ai Kung Wang g. 35 T’ai Shang Huang Ti ^ _L ^ iS? • • • 8 ^ Tai Sung ^. I2 -, 77 T’ai-ts’ang ^ ^ .i 5 8 > x &9 T’ai Tsu & i 34 > J 4 8 T’ai Tsung ^ 14, 57, 61, 95, 96, 148, 171 Tai W£n-chin & * $g.164 T’ai-yiian jfc M . IZ 1 Tan Ssu Chiian ^ . 3 8 Tan-tu Hsien ftfcU . 5 8 T’ang Ch’ao Ming Hua Lu & 18 £ fi m . 31 T’ang Hou ^ . 44 > 4 ° T’ang Jen Shih I Jg A B M . J 73 T’ang Kung Ch’un Shao ^ ^ W- • 108 T’ang Li xzz T’ang Lu-ju A . I 55 T’ang Po-hu Jg ft . 155 T’ang Tai ^ IS.180, 181 T’ang Tzii-wei jg ^ S.15 5 T’ang Wu Tao-tzu Pi ® ^ ^ . 65, 66 T’ang Yin |lf jt}- 35 > 95 > I2 - 5 > I 5 2 -’ I 55 > .i 57 » x 5 8 > i6 3 > i6 5 T’ang Yu-chao jg ^ 03.i75 TaoChiajt^. 54 T’ao Ch’ien p® f§ .M7 T’aoHuaAn^^Jf.15 6 Tao Kuang 3 ^ l2 -5 Tao-shih^ifr.„ 34 T’ao Tsung-i p® ^ fi.16, 144 Tao Wang jf ^. 54 T’ao Yu Chien |© ft. 77 T’ao Yiian-ming |5§| {HH P§. I2 -3 Te Lin ^ #. II; 4 CHINESE PAINTING Te Ni £ Jg.i 8 x Te Yen-hsiang ^ #. “4 Teng Chun §15 ._• • • • «■ T’eng Wang Yiian-ying JJ^ I JC ® • • I2 - T'iPa®{^.ii »33 Ti Ping 3 ? {S.138 T’iaoErT'u ^ % @. 15 Tiao Kuang 85 Tiao Kuang-yin rj it )§L • • • 79> 85,86,156 Tieh Wa ft [U]. 62. T’ieh Wang Shan Hu gft 559 • • • 2.0 T’ien Chia I Chii ffl & Jg. 76 T’ien Chung T’ien 5 c 4 * ^. ^5 T’ien Fu^|g. 85 T’ien Heng FH .166 T’ien Hsia I Jen X T — A.119 T’ien-ju X in. J 4 6 T’ien Nii San Hua ffc to • • *34 T’ien-t’ai % 32- T’ien Tan 0 41. 76 T’ien Wang Hsiang X 3 £ 61 T’ien Wang Ssii-tzu Hsiang . 6i T’ien Wang Sung Tzu % I g T • • • 64 T’ing Ch’in ^ 13 1 T’ing Ch’iian T’u gjg |I|.164 Ting Kuan-ho T ®l li>. J 7 8 Ting Kuan-p’eng TliH . 1 78 Ting Nan-yii T ® ^3 . 162. T’ing Sung T’u $§ ;$■ f®I.173 -Ting Yiin-p’eng T H ®B- • • 215, l62 -. 178 To Chen gf §jf|. 2.5 Tohan Temur ^ 5 i>i ^ H.151 Tou Chien-te jyt . 61 Tou Niu |i] 4^. 77 Tou T’ao gf ©. io 9 Ts’ai m. 89 Ts’ai Ching .2.1, 118, 17Z Ts’ai Lien 31 . 99 Ts’ai Lu-pin ^ §i[.n8 Ts’ai Lun ^ _. 37 Ts’ai Po-hao 0 JQ .... 15,44,143 Ts’ang Chieh §f jig . ■ .. 34 Ts’ang Lang Man Shih ^ jg| dt • • 145 Tsao Chiao Tzu ^ f 4 . 38 Ts’ao Chih ^ ffl. 35 > 55 Ts’ao Chih-pai W ^tl Q . . . 147, 148, i8z Ts’ao Fu-hsing W 5 $ ^ • • I2 -, 25.16,44, 45 Ts’ao Hsi-ling # $11 .136 Ts’ao Hsiieh-ch’in ^ ^ ^.170 Ts’ao Pa ff. 75 Ts’ao San-to f 136 Ts’ao T’ang Shih Chih j!£ ^ • • 75 Ts’ao T’ang T’ixj£^r®. . . . . . . 17 Tse-li ffl M . . . . . 37 Tseh P’o . . . . . 12.7 Tseng Yu 'g - . . . . . 113 Ts’i-pao -t; f. .... 176 Tso Wu-wei Chiang-chiin . .... 69 Tsou Che |[5 . .... 177 Tsou I-kuei ® . .... i8z Ts’u Pi I® Sf£. Ts’ui Kung ^ . Ts’ui Po |4 .108,116,117 Tsui Seng {Sf? Iff.nz Tsui Seng T’u 0 $ fit @.178 Ts'unFah£&&.105,175 Ts’un Shan-tsun (Ij ^.176 Ts’un Shan-tsun Hsien-seng Jr-1 Ij TJ 'Jt 176 Ts’ung Enf |.130 £ 86 6, z8 zz 2-4 3 1 89 Ts’ung Huang Chi Yu * M * M- X’u m. T’u Hua Chien Wen Chih® jg % Tu Hua Lu jjg Jg . T’u Hui Pao Chien HI jj® S M • • • 24 Tu Pei T’u gg pj. Tuan Fang ® # - 13, 55, 56, 57, 58, . 74 . 78 , 84, 9Z, 97, 108, 144 Tuan Yang Hsi Pi jg H j®t • • • • 169 T’ui-an j{| Jg.1Z4 Tun-huang Stone House ^ Tt • 38 Tung Ch’i-ch’ang :J£ H .18, 3Z, 33, 35,55,70,80,84,95,98, 100, 113, 115, 143, 154, 159, x6o, 161, 163, .165, 174, 176, 177 T’ung Chih It!) ?p.130 Tung Hsiang-kuang 4§- 52. Tung Hsiian-tsai i§| 159 T’ung Kuan jg. 118 Tung-lin Temple ^ tF. I2 -3 Tung Men Chih Ch’ihJjC f"j ?t!l. . ■ 12.6 Tung Men Chih Fen P 1 ! ifr ■ ■ ■ 12-6 Tung-o Hsien ; 3 t |SJ fli. 35 Tung Pang-ta 31 #|5 'M . *77 Tung Po-jen gf 10 C.59. 60 Tung Ssii-po if 0 .159 Tung T’ing Ch’un Se v]n) ^ g, . . . 173 Tung Yuan ijf; #§ xz, 3Z, 47, 69, 80, 93, 94. 9 6 . 97. 106, 139, 169, 170, .i7 6 . 277 . i8z Tzu-ang ^ ^.139, 140 Tzu Ching Fu Yin ^ 5? T-P • • - • I2 -9 Tzu Kung m .142. Tzu Kung Chien Yuan Hsien ■? M JL fC ^.242- INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Tzii Tsai |=1 IE X $$. 64 Vimalakirtti : 73 » US Wa Kuan Ssii *jgf . 14 Wa Kuan Temple "if Tf. 59 Wa-tieh [U] ft.179, 183 Wan Li ^ ^.17, zo, 70, 160, 169 Wan-yen % fg. 136 Wang An-shih J .88, 114 Wang Chdn-p’eng 3 fg |jtjg . . . . 148, 149 Wang Ch’i-han 3 % . • • •..15* l6 > 6 9 > 79 ’ §2 -> 8 3 Wang Ch’i-han Miao Pi 3; >0 ^ Sff 83 Wang Ch’iang I #§.32., 43 Wang Chien 3 M .169, 170, 174 Wang Ch’ien-ch’ang 3 ^ ||. zi Wang Chih-jui 3 £. 177 Wang Ch’ih-t&ng 3 p $2.0, 70, 74, 98, 165 Wang Chin 3 jjff. 7Z Wang Ching-ch’ing 3 § J/fip.1x0 Wang Ch’uan J|| . 3Z, 71, 73, 95, 107, 115 Wang Ch’ung 3 ^|.99, 165 Wang Fu 3 164 Wang Han-fu 3 55 Wang Hsi-chih 3 f| .17, 6 z, 63, 1Z5,13Z Wang Hsi-chio J|.169 Wang Hsi-shan J ||.170 Wang Hsiang-shu ££ |h] . . . . 156, 170 Wang Hsiao 3* 89 Wang Hsiao Jen Wu Li Ch’en Shu Shih 3E(£A 89 Wang Hsien 3 S 5 fc.no Wang Hui 3 31 . . 30, 3Z, 71, 105, 106, 171,17Z, 173, 174 Wang Hui T’u 3* ^ |0.178 Wang Hung-hsii 3 90 Wang I 3 : /s|. 47 Wang K’o-min 3 ; JnL ll!c.i6z Wang K’o-yii ££ fliij 3 . 2.0 Wang Lang 3 0 $.167 Wang Lu-t’ai 3 M £. I 73 Wang Mang 3 I?.167 WangMeng3£ gg .iz, 67, 91, 137, 144, 145, 146,147, 155,160, 169, 173,174, i8z Wang Mou-lin 3 |§!|.165 Wang PaJ .167 Wang Shih-chen 3* 3 : I 7° Wang Shih-cheng 3 3 . .... 17, 18, zo, 57, 86, 115, 137,169 Wang Shih-ku 3 Tr ^.17Z Wang Shih-min 3 . .169, 170, 171, 173, 174, 175 197 zo, 86, 169 J 45 Wang Shih Shu Hua Yiian 3£#fi2g. Wang Shu-ming 3 Bg. . . Wang-ssu-t’ai ^ • • • Wang T'dng-ch’eng If g . Wang To 3 . Wang Tsin-ch'ing 3 ff Hip • . Wang T’ui-ku ££ }R ... Wang Wei 3 IZ > l6 > 3 °> 33 > 68 > 7C 7 2 -> 73 > 74 > 8i > 8 3 > 9 1 ’ 95 > IOi > I o6, ..... 107, 115, 131, 142., 158, 177 Wang Wei Mo-chieh 3 $1 0 an ■ ■ • 73 Wang Wen-chih 3 : ?r?.133 Wang Wen-su 3 # #.169 Wang Ying-lin 3 Jg . 34 Wang Yuan 3 l)f!|.150 Wang Yiian-chao 3 10 M.169 Wang Yuan-ch’i 3 171, 173, 174, i8z Wang Yuan-t’ing 3 % M . 58 Wang Yiin If.173 Wei fi§. Z4 Wci H.12., 33 Wei, Lady of % ij®. 49 Wei Chao .148 Wei-ch’ih l-s&ng M Zj Iff. . 16, 18, 61, 6z, 179, 183 Wei Hsieh \% .16, 37, 45, 46, 91 Wei-hsien $f£ ^. 57 Wei Kuo Kung 139 Wei Mo m .3 1 , 48 Wei-mo-chieh H Jp fg. 73 Wei Mo Ching Hsiang f |5 $£ • • 115 Wei Mo Yen Chiao ${£ Jp faf . . . . 116 Wei So ^ ^. 17 Wei Su 99 WeiT’o^lfc .in Wei Yang Kung 3 $ • • • 3*> 4L io 7 Wei Yen ^ jig.140 Wen Ch£ng-chung f J 4 *.156 Wen Cheng-ming 3SC ?gc 0 J 1 2.0,3 5,70,81, 94, 109, 131, 15Z, 156, 157, 158, 160, 165 Wen Chia ^ .zo, 98, 158, 165 Wen Chih 3^ ih.165 Wen-chow $ 3 . .156,157 Wen Heng-shan 3 C$s lh .156 Wen Hsiin .i6z Wen Hua Tien jfc '40 $$ . 63 Wen Jen Hua £ A #. I 44> J 57 W6n Lin JJc.156 Wen P’eng ^.!58, 165 Wen Pi 35 C M . I 5 ^ Wen Po-jen 3£ £ .137, 15 8 Wen San-ch’iao ^ $f.158 CHINESE PAINTING W6nT’ai#|£.158 Wen Tao-ch’eng jit . l6 5 Wen Tao T’u jt H. 118 Wen Ti .__.44> 1 ^ > W£n T’ien-hsiang % jj4.156 W6n Ts’ung-chien ^ fl®. ..... 165 Wen Wang I.*4® Wen Yu T’u # 2 H.159 Wu^. 35 Wu, Empress iS; Jp.ioz Wu Chen ft. . . . .137, 145, 146, 147, 149, 151, i8i Wu Ch’eng 59 Wu Ch’i-chen ^ ^ ^.134 Wu-chin 3^1.174 Wu Chung-kuei 146 Wu Chung San Hsien ^ 4* H M • • • JI 5 Wu Hsiao-hsien Jj| /J% {?§.163 Wu Hsien Ch’i Wu Yang 2 fill g$ 2 # 76 Wu-hsing . 95 Wu-hsing Chao Meng-fu ^ St ]fr. $5t 141 Wu Hung ^ ^. 177 Wu Jung-kuang ^ H jfc.47 > 9 8 WuK’uan^f.153,154,157,165 WuLii^)fi.31,71,171,175,176 Wu Liang Tz’u jg; fis|. n WuMaSI.113 Wu-mSn ^ 51 Wu Niu 2 -4 1 .76> 77 Wu Nii $!§ 158 Wu Pa 2 Iff.12.2. Wu P’ai ^ #£.177 Wu Pai Ying Chen 2W1M ■ • • • 110 Wu P’eng-ch’iu £ ^ ^.163 Wu Pin ^ 165 Wu Ping .134 Wu San-kuei ^ 168 Wu Sheng Shih Shih • • M> 2 -5 Wu Sheng Temple 2 i§ ^.124 Wu-sih $$ H3.47> I 5 2 - Wu Sung T’u 2 <&■ H8.175 Wu Tai 2 79 Wu Tai Ming Hua Pu I 2ft2«ffi5t. 2x Wu Tao-Tzu ^ jt iz, 16, 18, 30,37, .64, 65, 70, 91, 131, 162. Wu Tao Tzh Yin ^ it •? PP. 66 Wu Tao-yiian it JC. 64 Wu Ti jg; Ifr .47> 9 Z Wu Wei .. . .35,163,178 Wu Wei-yeh fj| . . . . 168, 170, 175 Wu Wen-kuei ^ 19 Wu-ying Tien jj£ 3^ jfg.163 Wu Yu-ling £ % tit . 77 Wu Yii-shan ^ |1|.175 Wu Yiian-hui X M . 9° Wu Yiian-po ff. 93 Wu Yiian-yii ^ 7C %.116 Wu Yiieh, Prince of j|ySc 2. 94 Wu Yiieh So Chien Shu Hua Lu . 2-5 Wu Yiieh Yeh Min Chi ft ff R M 175 Wu Yiin Lou Ko 2 M 1® BB. 12 -5 Yai-shan M (Jj.‘ 138 Yang Cheng T’u ^ IE 1 m 1.*48 Yang Ch’i-tan %% MW . *4 Yangchow ‘}\\ .9> IZI > *78 Yang Kuan |§ JI 5 Yang Pang-chi j| ^.*3 6 Yang Pu-chih M ffi .*54 Yang Sheng $} ^ . 161 Yang Shih-ch’i $ dr . 91, 13 1 Yang Shou-ching Q Wc ...... 56 Yang T’ai Chen Yao T’ai Tsui Kuei .«5 Yangtse Kiang f fil.106 Yang Wen-tsung SS. i6 5 Yang Yin-po • • • • *54> l6o > *75 Yeh Hsin |g /ft. 2 77 Yeh Kuang-chii ^ ^ ^. 9 1 Yen ..16, 35 Yen Chi pj. 19 Yen Fu (Hi jfig.176 YenJo-chii^3^^.170 Yen Kuang .75» i6 7 Yen Lan Ch’iu Hsiao BH • • • 9 1 Yen Li g 0 .170 Yen Li-pen H & IZ > I 7> l8 » 3 8 , 61, 63, 64 Yen Li-pen Chih Kung T’u m ± * w n m . Yen Li-te @. 18 YenP’oTzu®^^ . 75 Yen Shun || f|.118 Yen Su 3K . iz Yen Sung ]|£ p* . . .17,18,10,53,94,137 Yen Wen-kuei 3B2 ^C. ^ - • 32-> 95> 96, 160 Yen Yu 2£ 141 Yen Yuan gf x> .170 Yen Yiin-po |R |SS ffl. .... 157, 169,163,169,170,176, 178 Yin Chi-chao 5* jjjgg B3. iz Yin Chung-k’an # tjg. 47 Yin Hsien T’u ffc f[l| ^.155 Ying-ch’iu £.89, ioz Ying Erh Hsi H & & .114 INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES Ying Erh Tou Hsi Shuai M & M & B 12.4 Yiian YingHo^fp. 7 1 Yiian Yo I &. 76 Yiian Yfift. 93 Yiian Yii If*:. 35 Yiian Yii chi a m . 82. Yiian Yii Chih-ung £ Jffi . . . . • • 173> i77 Yiian YiiCho-^^i. 93 Yiian Yii-chow $1 . 167 Yiian Yu-chiin Shu Shan 3 g sjf J| . . . . 13 2 - Yiian Yii Fu T’u Shu f)=P Jfj : |U . . I2 -5 Yiian YiiFuTz’u ffliXM . 75 Yiieh Yu Ho ^ 81 Yu Mo ftjj ^. 35 Yii P an T’u H§ ££ g.114 Yii Mountain K fU. 143 Yii Shan 3 * ill. 70 Yii Shu ijp. 83 Yii Tien Ts’un $$ ^.106 Yii Tung Chun Hsien 3£ 3 |i {ill . . . 149 Yii Tung-ju ^ #q.165 Yii Tzu ^ 37 YuYenvft® . 35 Yiian Chien Lei Han $[J IS ® • • • 170 Yuan Chih U. 11 Yiian Chih ^ % .165 Yiieh-seng £.16, 63, 85 Yiieh Wang Kung Tien 3: ^ ® . . 94 Yiin Hsi g . 38 Yiin Hsi Lao Jen H ® ^ A.148 Yiin Ko ^ 174 Yiin Kung-fu ^ ^ ^.169, 178 Yiin Lin Chii Shih Hf W M dt • • • • 145 Yiin Nan-t’ien ^ H.174 Yiin Shan f|f 1J4 100 Yiin Shou-p’ing *pf[ H . . 171, 174, 178 Yiin Yen Kuo Yen Lug ’ 85, 116, 117 Yung Cheng $j| jE-iB, 170, 171, 173, 177, 178 YungLoTjt*^.149