In the right-hand scroll a single large figure and an attendant crane stand on a bank where waves are crashing behind them. A massive cliff rises above anchoring a blossoming plum tree. The figure, with carefully detailed bearded face, wears a scholar’s robe and hat, holds an old wooden staff and boasts fingernails of a length that precludes any manual labor. The mountain forms are textured with the side of the brush in the quickly-done stroke known as the ax-cut texture stroke, with strong dark and light contrasts providing a sense of drama.
The figure can be identified as Lin Bu (965-1026), canonized as Master Hojing, a native of Hangchou who retired from the world and lived the life of a recluse near West Lake, where he is shown in the present painting.1 He there amused himself by growing plum-trees and keeping cranes; never marrying, because, as he said, the former stood him instead of a wife, the latter of children. He threw away his poems as fast as they were written, declaring that he did not care for fame among his contemporaries, still less with posterity.
The left-hand painting features two figures, a seated individual wearing a scholar’s robe and holding a fan attended by a servant boy holding a long staff, viewing a ribbon-like waterfall descending over rocky outcroppings to the right of a misty valley. The scholar, his mouth open in a wide smile, appears to be singing or chanting a poem to express his emotional response to the evocative setting. A pine tree enters from the upper left and frames the figures below.
The gentleman is Li Bo (705-762), born in Baxi in Sichuan, of imperial descent.2 Known as much for his riotous living as for his inspired poetry, Li wandered as far as Shandong and formed a coterie that became known as the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Brook. Around the year 742 he reached the capital of Chang’an, where he became a favorite of Emperor Minghuang. Unfortunately, he drew the ire of the powerful eunuch Gao Lishi, who convinced the imperial consort Yang Guifei to approach the emperor and prevent Li from being appointed to an important official post. Permitted to withdraw from court, Li formed a new coterie known as the Eight Immortals of the Winecup. Seeking refuge with a relative, Li drowned one night when leaning too far over the edge of his boat in a drunken effort to embrace the reflection of the moon.
Although the pair are independently and quite successfully composed, they are yet joined in several subtle ways. Lin Bu looks to the side, his rather impassive countenance not implying immediate welcome but rather allowing our attention to be drawn to Li Bo on his right, a strategy most appropriate to a genuine recluse. Li, on the other hand, as befits a charismatic leader and organizer, appears to welcome closer contact with the viewer through his smile and obvious joy, and to fully embody the promise of poetic communication. The creative passion of the poet is beautifully responded to by the beatific expression on the servant’s face. The focus on the poets’ physical attributes while engaging and compelling in themselves requires the defining elements—the blossoming plum, the crane, the pines, and the waterfall- to define the narrative while at the same time receding visually from the central actors in the narrative.
The paired images of these two paragons make a powerful appeal to our emotions and imaginations, just as their poetry affects us even today. In general terms, the features characterizing these works are typical of imperial court painting and the Zhe School, analyzed in admirable fashion by Richard M. Barnhart in his path-breaking Painters of the Great Ming.3 Among many apt comparisons we may mention here Liu Jun’s “Three Daoist Immortals Dancing Around a Frog” (fig. 1) and the anonymous “Daoist Immortal” attributed to Jiang Gui (fig. 2). Dating to the later 15th and the 16th century, these comparisons suggest a date to the late 15th early 16th century for the present pair.
The high skill of the artist— note among details the varying treatment of hands, the faces of the figures, and their attire, along with the emotional content embodied by the figures and the drama of the nature embracing them—marks him as one of the best recruits to serve the court during the middle Ming era.
1.See his biography in Herbert Giles: A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, Taipei, 1968, p. 485.
2. See his biography in Herbert Giles: A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, Taipei, 1968, p. 455-456.
3. Richard M. Barnhart: Painters of the Great Ming, Dallas, 1993. We are most grateful to Dick for sharing with us his ideas on the present pair of paintings.
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Fig. 1. Liu Jun: “Three Daoist Immortals Dancing Around a Frog,” after Richard M. Barnhart: Painters of the Great Ming, Dallas, 1993, cat. 38.
Fig. 2. Jiang Gui, attributed: “Daoist Immortal,” after Richard M. Barnhart: Painters of the Great Ming, Dallas, 1993, cat. 72.
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