Chinese Painting || Postscript to an Exhibition: A Discovery of a Collaborative Work

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Postscript to an Exhibition: A Discovery of a Collaborative WorkAuthor(s): James RobinsonSource: Ars Orientalis, Vol. 25, Chinese Painting (1995), pp. 143-148Published by: Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the Historyof Art, University of MichiganStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4629493 .

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POSTSCRIPT TO AN EXHIBITION: A DISCOVERY OF A COLLABORATIVE WORK

BYJAMES ROBINSON

SOME PEOPLE ASSEMBLE EXHIBITIONS TO PROMOTE A

personal point of view. Others, like Professor Richard Edwards, create exhibitions primarily as learning experiences and use them as occasions for bettering our understanding. For him they are projects of personal discovery-not only for himself but also for students and colleagues. The shared observations made at each step of the pro- cess, before, during and after the fact, seem to make the headaches of an exhibition worth en- during. Exhibitions, especially those that focus on a particular topic, can provide wonderful op- portunities for seeing, comparing, and discuss- ing the details in paintings that are often invisi- ble in photographs and slides. Perhaps because of this, Edwards liked to include as much variety as possible, and he rarely excluded the problematic simply because it was problematic. He had faith that the attention given to art assembled in an exhibition might be just what is needed to begin to solve some of the problems uncovered during research. Edwards's last major exhibition, "The Art of Wen Cheng-ming (1470-

1559)," concentrated on the work of that master and follower of Shen Zhou t )A, the subject of Edwards's first major study.

Here I would like to present a discovery made possible by that exhibition. It concerns a fan painting illustrating the preface to the Peach Blos- som Spring, now in the collection of the Universi- ty of Michigan Museum of Art, which was attributed to Wen Zhengming IS( mA H because it bears a transcription of that text signed by Wen and dated to 1542 (fig. 1). Though the calligraphy is certainly by Wen Zhengming, the painting should be attributed to his contemporary Qiu Ying ft : (Ch'iu Ymng, d. 1552). Recognizing Qiu as painter and Wen as calligrapher enriches the value of this fan and raises several issues, some of which can be lightly touched upon here: Qiu's reputation in this genre of blue-green narrative painting; Qiu's practice of working with other artists and calligraphers; and the implications of the subject itself, a topic ProfessorJames Cahill first raised at the exhibition symposium and has since developed further.2

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In the lower left corner of the fan (fig. 2) is a very faint rectangular seal that is illegible in photographs. Although the impression is damaged, firsthand examination reveals that it conforms to a two-character seal reading Qiu Ying.3 Part of the red ink from the character Ying can be seen on the adjoining section of paper to the right, which proves the seal was affixed to the fan while the fan was still in use. The ink would have been transferred when the fan was folded up.

The presence of this seal certainly supports other aspects of the fan painting that suggest a Qiu Ying attribution. Some of these will be dealt with later. But to appreciate this small, delicate, Ming- style blue-green painting more fully, it is appro- priate first to reflect upon Qiu Ying's reputation.

By all accounts a professional painter, Qiu Ying has always been respected by collectors with superior taste. For example, the eminent connois- seur An Qi t ii , in the 1742 preface to the catalogue of his collection, writes that he had "se- lected those items that are most important." 4

Among those "most important" paintings, An Qi records more by Qiu Ying than by any earlier or later artist.5 He quotes Dong Qichang W a m

(1555-1636), who said that Qiu was "first among the lofty hands of recent times," that not even the Song artist Li Tang a- Jg could reach Qiu's vitality or elegance and that from the Song through the Ming dynasties none surpassed him.6

Dong Qichang's comment "ice is colder than water" suggests he felt Qiu's painting even surpassed that of his stylistic predecessor, the Song dynasty master Zhao Boju fTh JW.7 Qiu's copies of Zhao Boju's (and his brother Zhao Bosu's il! fl ) blue-green paintings of the Peach Blos- som Spring were some of his greatest achievements, according to extant records. In about 1569 WenJia tP #, the son of Wen Zhengming, noted that Qiu executed a faithful copy upon request and was rewarded with fifty pieces of gold, prompting numerous copies by others. None, however, could equal Qiu's delicate craftsman- ship.8 Dong Qichang, whom one might expect to disparage Qiu and whose harshest criticism of Qiu was to equate him with Zhao Mengfu j :4: N of the Yuan, wrote that Qiu was the reincarna- tion of Zhao Boju, praising his extremely delicate style by commenting that not even Wen Zhengming with all his effort could surpass him. 9

Dong further noted that in the five hundred years since the Zhaos, there were artists who could capture their delicate style, but only Qiu Ying could go beyond that and capture the elegance and scholarly spirit (shiqi ? #) of their paintings. '0

Dong Qichang did not recommend the blue- green mode of painting, for it was painfully labo- rious and lacked spontaneity. But he did recog- nize its worth. In his apt phrase, the styles of the Zhaos and that of the Dong Yuan 2iJ (d. 962) tradition "are like the paired wings of a bird." 1'

Though Qiu's reputation often suffered in the shadow of Wen Zhengming, some connoisseurs have judged Qiu superior in the blue-green style. This important mode of painting has recently been considered full of antique resonance, with an imperial and scholarly association that also ap- pealed "to patrons of strong antquarian bias." 12

For this mode of painting, Qiu's authorship is perhaps more desirable than that of Wen Zheng- ming.

The Peach Blossom Spring fan can now be added to the group of paintings by Qiu Ying that combine his illustrative talents with the work of the greatest calligraphers of his day. It is worth exploring these joint works. Not only did Qiu illustrate cherished works of calligraphy for collectors, but in his early years he apparendy also collaborated with noted painters. Beginning as



POSTSCRIPT TO AN EXHIBITION 145

early as his mid-teens, he worked with Shen Zhou, Tang Yin J jK, Zhou Chen , f, Wen Zheng- ming, Zhu Yunming * kX HA, and six other con- temporaries on a memorial painting for a retired Suzhou official."3 Records show that eight years later Qiu was asked to paint with Wen Zheng- ming, in the capacity of a colorist, unfortunately not with the best results. 14 These are the rare examples; far more nunmerous are the recorded and extant instances of Qiu Ying's illustrations accom- panying a piece of calligraphy or a calligrapher's transcription of a text that Qiu had illustrated.

It is not always clear in these collaborative works whether the painting or calligraphy came first, but aesthetically it may not matter. A few of the recorded examples, as (un?)reliable as they may be, should suffice to suggest the scope of Qiu's work. It is recorded that Qiu Ying illustrated texts in 1530,15 1542,16 and sometime between 1551 and his death around 1552. 1' In 1542 and 1551 he executed paintings for which calligra- phywas solicited from Wen Zhengming. 18 In 1520 he worked with Wen Zhengming and in 1525 with Zhu Yunming. 19 Additionally, there are undated examples of collaborative works and uncommon circumstances, such als his painting of Zhongkui X &iL, which he showed to Wen Jia, Wang Gu- xiang i f 9, and Lu Zhi I h when they visited him in 1543. Qiu gave it to Wang because Wang so admired it, and Lu Zhi, on the spur of the moment, added the background. Later it was inscribed by Wen Zhengming.20 Clearly, Qiu worked with the best artists of his day and they with him.

As Edwards notes in the catalogue entry, 'The popularity of the [Peach Blossom Spring] theme in Suchou at this time is suggested by paintings of it from the hand of Wen's contemporary, Ch'iu [Qiu] Ying." The subject illustrated in the Mich- igan fan is a story by Tao Qian n M (365-457) that prefaces his less famous verse, ThePeach Blos- som Spring. It tells of a fisherman who discovered an ideal land where people had escaped the cha- os of the Qin period (221-207 B.C.) . This harmo- nious world was reached through a mountain cave at the source of a stream that flowed through a beautiful grove of blossoming peach trees. Af- ter the fisherman had come back to his own world, he and others were unable to relocate this utopian village.2'

By necessity this fan is not a full illustration of the story, as are the handscrolls by Qiu in the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The artist planned for the text to be

added in the upper right, and he had to reduce the story to a few symbolic motifs. 22 Yet, even with- out the text, the selection of motifs is so precise that anyone with a little knowledge would recog- nize the theme. The fisherman's boat drawn to the bank, the blossoming peach trees, and the narrowing cave are sufficient to set the scene. The fisherman is caught emerging from the cave, sur- rounded by it, and thus our attention is focused on him.

Edwards appropriately included this painting in the exhibition because Wen did work in a similar blue-green manner. Professor Anne Clapp observes that Wen and Qiu "between them com- posed a whole new chapter in its [the blue-green mode's] history."23 Similar blue-green paintings by Wen are extant, and Wen did illustrate famous poems. Yet my initial doubts that Wen was the artist of the Peach Blossom Spring fan arose from two considerations. First, Wen's inscription only states that it was "written ( shu ) by Zhengming at the age of 73"; he seems to have reserved the term shu for his calligraphies or colophons on paintings by others. Second, the subject matter itself is problematic, for it is unclear whether Wen ever illustrated this particular piece or genre of literature. 24

In general, Wen and Qiu chose to illustrate writings with different kinds of subject matter. Wen was inclined to paint either full-length or distilled illustrations for his own poetry or for poems, such as the "Red Cliff' by Su Shi M M (1037-1101), with an abstract, philosophical content, while Qiu tended to illustrate more descrip- tive literature, some of which borders on a mere inventory of objects, such as the Shanglin fu I ft PA and the Duleyuanji A V m 9i. In the instances where both artists illustrated the same literary piece, Qiu Ying arguably depicted a broader range of literature than did Wen Zheng- ming. The straightforward narrative of the fisherman's discoveries was not as compatible with Wen Zhengming's preferences as it evidently was with Qiu's.25 So based on the subject alone, one might surmise that Qiu-the consummate craftsman, master of Song styles, and repeated illus- trator of the Peach Blossom Spring-was more likely than Wen to have painted this fan, especially when the painting itself has been aptly described by Ed- wards as a "craftsman-like blue-green colored scene," owing "much to the late Sung." 26

Certain specific details are also not character- istic of Wen's usual practice. The face of the fisherman, with its full, fine-haired beard of even



146 JAMES ROBINSON

length stretching from ear to ear, is rather un- usual. It varies from Wen's usual facial type, which generally sports a more cursorily depicted mus- tache and goatee. Qiu, on the other hand, used this style of beard on some faces of workmen, such as farmers and fishermen, though never when portraying scholars, officials, or servants. 27

Viewing this fan as a work by Qiu Ying rather than Wen Zhengming, one notices motifs that are found in Qiu's other works. Certainly, the most prominent motif in this fan is the cave. Slightly above and beyond a rocky protrusion in the foreground, the circular entrance of the cave is partially obstructed by a flat, blank, slanting ledge of rock with an underside of concave arcs. The cave in the Chicago Art Institute version of the theme, with its circular entrance partially obscured by a straight-sided mass of slanting rock, is similar. The lower left corner of Qiu Ying's painting Zhao Mengfu Writing the Heart Sutra in Exchange for Tea, with a text also written by Wen Zhengming in the same year of 1542, displays a variant of this motif: the cavity for the stream and its far bank are similar in structure and impact to the cave entrance depicted on the fan. 28

The drapery lines on the fisherman in the

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Peach Blossom Spring and the central figure in Qiu Ying's A Donkey for Mr. Zhu similarly describe the loose fabric of the inside back of the pant legs (fig. 3) .29 On the right leg of the fisherman, lines from near the front of the leg cross the thigh and cuff to the back of the trousers, and on the front or left leg, a long line continues from the back of the thigh and extends downward from the knee. The pant legs also reveal one of Qiu Ying's idio- syncrasies: the definition of the facing edge of the trousers with one smooth, continuous line and the back with several slanting lines drawn downward and into the leg. At the knees and cuffs, the lines flare slightly, suggesting a move- ment of the cloth.

Qiu Ying's talents and mastery of earlier styles, particularly the blue-green mode of painting, supplied the demands of contemporary collectors and assured a prominent place for him in the history of Chinese painting. It is not surpris- ing, then, to read that in 1552, when the collec- tor Hua Yun 0 X (1488-1560) visited Zhang Fengyi fJi (1527-1613) and saw Leng Qian's E M (thirteenth-fourteenth century) painting Penglai Immortals Playing Chess, he produced some Dengxin tang aZ Lb 4 paper and asked Qiu to copy (lin Wi$) it.30 On another painting of this same subject, out of fear that Qiu Ying's talents would not be recognized later, Wen Zhengming extolled Qiu's achievements, pronouncing the painting pure in spirit, refreshing in vitality, and graceful." Wen's fear was perhaps grounded in Qiu's evident absence of ego as an artist. No- where can one find large or lengthy writings by Qiu on his paintings. If his paintings are signed by his own hand, which they often are not, the signature is usually in an unobtrusive corner of the painting, on a rock or tree trunk. 321 It has even been said that in his copies ( lin mo W V) of pre- vious artists' works, he never added a signature.33 In his choice of subjects and styles, as well as in the attitude toward painting he adopted, we find an abundance of conservative Song aesthetics and ideals.

The Peach Blossom Spring fan painting appears never to have borne Qiu's signature, and though his seal has all but disappeared from view, this exquisite little painting remains to affirm that some of his accomplishments are certainly equal to, and should not be obscured by, those of Wen Zhengming.



POSTSCRIPT TO AN EXHIBITION 147

Notes

This article is based oIn one that Professor Edwards urged me to write soon after the exhibition "The Art of Wen Cheng-ming" as a timely addendum. It was orig- inally intended for Oriental Art Magazine, but because of the publication lag the topic was no longer timely and I did not then pursue publication. This brief note contains the core of that article, with only slight addi- tions prompted by some scholarship during the inter- vening years. I am thankful to Professor Edwards for all the encouragement he gave me as a student.

1. Richard Edwards, The Art of Wen Cheng-ming (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1976), cat. no. XXX- VIII, pp. 142-43.

2. Namely, the relationships of biography and styles. See James Cahill, "Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming as Artist Types: A Reconsideration," Artibus Asiae 53, no. 1/2 (1993) 228-48.

3. This seal is similar to nos. 3 and 9 in Victoria Con- tag and Wang Chi-ch'ien, Seals of Chinese Painters and Collectors (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1966), 6 and 633; Signatures and Seals on Paint- ing and Calligraphy (Hong Kong: The Arts & Liter- ature Press, 1964), 2:6; and nos. 8-10 in Shanghai Museum ed., Zhongguo shuhuaj ia yinjian kuanzhi (Beijing: Wenwu Press, 1987), 1:144.

A seal in the lower right corner was left uni- dentified in the exhibition catalogue. The legend reads "Langhuan Immortal's Hall fan collection S1 f M X P " and alludes to the Langhuanji

JM M `, which, like the Peach Blossom Spring, tells of finding a utopian place. The story recounts a visit by Zhang Hua f f (232-300), a shepherd turned statesman, to an extraordinary place called Langhuan fudi 1! E gtit, where each room was full of marvelous books, none being later than the Qin period. Ruan Yuan Fi Tr (1764-1849), a re- nowned bibliophile and antiquarian, is the only person I have found with a seal containing a similar legend ("the Langhuan Immortal's Hall

4 fX X X"). See Shanghai Museum ed., Zhong- guo shuhuajia, 1:563, no. 34, for one with a similar legend and style of carving. Ruan was one of the compilers of the first supplement to the catalogue of the Qing imperial collection and author of Shiqu suibi E E PA :. Ruan's seal is not only appropri- ate; it also adds to ilhe lineage of the painting.

4. Thomas Lawton, "Notes on Five Paintings from a Ch'ing Dynasty Collection," Ars Orientalis 8 (1970): 193-94.

5. The total for Qiu is six scrolls and two albums in the main body of the catalogue and eleven paintings in the supplement.

6. An Qi, Moyuan huiguan a m (Beijing, 1908), chap. 3, pp. 77a, 79a, 80b, and 81a.

7. An, Moyuan, 81b.

8. Wen Jia, Qianshantang shuhuaji i I (Meishu congshu ed.), 8b.

9. Dong Qichang, Rongtai bieji 3 ; id, chap. 6, pp. 34b-35a and Huayan & a (Yishu congbian ed.), 38. In another colophon, Dong included Shen Zhou with Wen as not equal to Qiu in the blue-green mode of painting. See Bian Yongyu T T W, Shigutangshuhua huikao t X (Taibei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1958), 4:468.

10. Dong, Rongtai, chap. 6, p. 50a and Huayan, 43.

11. Dong, Rongtai, chap. 6, p. 8a and Huayan, 26.

12. Anne de Coursey Clapp, The Painting of T'ang Yir (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 233.

13. Clapp, T'ang Yin, 51 and, for other examples, 52 n. 12.

14. This information is from a colophon on the Prin- cess and Lady of the Xiang, by Wen Zhengming. See Thomas Lawton, ChineseFigure Painting (Washing- ton: Freer Gallery of Art, 1973), 63.

15. In 1530 Qiu illustrated the Yuan artist Ni Zan's f R ci OJ entitled Spring inJiangnan for Yuan Zhi

A (1502-47). The text was one of the more influential works of literature in Suzhou during the middle Ming dynasty, and Yuan Zhi had two verses by Ni Zan in his collection as well as numerous rhyming poems by most of the noted calligraphers and poets of the period. Chiang Chiao-shen, Wen Cheng-mingyu Su-chou hua-t'an (Taibei: Nation- al Palace Museum, 1977), 152. See alsoJao Tsung- i, "Tz'u Poetry and Painting: Transpositions in Art,' Ku-kungchi-k'an 8, no. 3 (Spring 1974): 16.

16. According to the colophons, Qiu painted Zhaolveng- fu Writing the Heart Sutra in Exchange for Tea, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, to accompany a poem by Zhao Mengfu and a transcription of the sutra by Wen Zhengming. Wen's writing of the sutra is dated to the same year as his writing on the Peach Blos- som Spring, 1542, and in both Wen has written the second part of the date (yin ) in a special manner. See Edwards, Wen Cheng-ming, 144.

17. The paintings illustrate six traditional texts that were copied by famous Ming calligraphers. See Lawton, Figure Painting, 58-69.

18. In 1542 Wen copied the Lanting j onto a Qiu



148 JAMES ROBINSON

Ying painting, and in 1551 he transcribed Sima Xiangru's P1 ,Y tU 81D Shanglin fu for a 1550 Qiu Ying painting. Chiang, Wen Cheng-ming, 199, and Bian, Shigutang 4:470.

19. Qiu and Wen copied Li Gonglin's > D The Lo- tus Society. Chiang, Wen Cheng-ming, 117. Qiu and Zhu duplicated a painting by Zhao Mengfu. Law- ton, Figure Painting, 59.

20. Chiang, Wen Cheng-ming, 206.

21. A translation of the preface is included in the catalogue entry noted above, and a complete translation of the preface and the poem with commen- tary and annotation can be found in James Hightower, The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien (Oxford: Clar- endon Press, 1970), 254-58.

22. Marshall Wu, curator at the University of Michi- gan Museum of Art, notes that the black ink of the writing crosses on top of the brown lines defining the water. Dr. Wu also suggests that the artist may have intentionally used brown for the water lines in order to avoid confusion with the writing that was to be added later.

23. See n. 13 above.

24. Regarding courtesans, Professor Cahill has written that "Wen Zhengming would have died before depicting such a subject." Cahill, "Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming," 240. While this may be extreme, I suspect there were similar boundaries, albeit self- established, for the literature Wen felt was worthy or suitable for him to illustrate.

25. When Wen Zhengrning chose to exhibit his talents in calligraphy, he was evidently not similarly

discriminating in his choice of texts. Writing a text apparently was not quite the same as illustrating it.

26. Edwards, Wen Cheng-ming, 204 and 142.

27. See Qiu's Canon ofFilial Piety and Six Scenes in Sung and Yuan Styles in An Exhibition of Works by Ch'iu Ying (Taibei: National Palace Museum, 1989), 36 and 46.

28. See n. 16 above.

29. Marilyn and Shen Fu, Studies in Connoisseurship: Chi- nese Paintings from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in .Vew York and Princeton (Princeton: Princeton Uni- versity Art Museum, 1973), no. III, p. 89.

30. Chiang, Wen Zhengming, 246.

31. Bian, Shigutang, 472. The theme of immortals playing chess was quite popular during this time in Suzhou. A later example, once attributed to Leng Qian, is reproduced in Arts of Asia at the Time of American Independence (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1975), 7.

32. For a discussion of Qiu's calligraphy and signatures see Jean-Pierre Dubosc, "A Letter and Fan Paint- ing by Ch'iu Ying," Archives of Asian Art 28 (1974- 75): 108-12. An unobtrusive signature may seem in keeping with what a "professional should do," yet I feel that the duplication of another's painting does require a certain suppression of individ- uality in the interests of the final image-not un- like the position taken by some Song Academy artists with respect to nature.

33. An, Moyuan, 78b.



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Chinese Painting || Postscript to an Exhibition: A Discovery of a Collaborative Work

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