Lotus and Birds in the Cincinnati Art Museum: Philosophical Syncretism in the
Transitional Work of Bada Shanren
THESIS
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By
Mina Kim, B.A.
* * * * *
Graduate Program in History of Art The Ohio State University 2012
Master’s Examination Committee:
Professor Julia F. Andrews, Advisor
Professor Youn-mi Kim
Copyright by Mina Kim © 2012
Abstract
This thesis, which focuses on the late Ming and early Qing dynasty Chinese artist Bada
Shanren (Zhu Da, 1626-1705), explores three facets of his painting: his gradual artistic development through his bird and flower paintings; his syncretic philosophical references to
Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism in his art; and the artistic conversation that occurs between
Bada Shanren and later generations. A descendent of the Ming dynasty Prince of Yiyang, Bada was raised and educated in an aristocratic family of collectors, artists, and poets in Jiangxi. He entered the priesthood after the fall of the Ming dynasty, rising to become temple abbot. At the age of 50 he left the temple, but was soon pressured from all directions--to collaborate with the
Qing, to serve a Ming revival, and to produce heirs. Feigning insanity, or perhaps temporarily mad, he apparently lived as a hermit for a decade, and then became a professional painter. In the absence of detailed contemporary records, his paintings and cryptic poems survive as the only primary documents of his life.
This thesis takes as its subject a little-studied handscroll painting, Lotus and Birds, painted in 1690 and currently held in the Cincinnati Art Museum. Through the close reading of its thematic and formal properties in the context of other dated works, this paper proposes that it represents a seminal example of a shift that occurred in Bada’s artistic vision. Before 1690, most of his works express his troubled personal feelings as an unfortunate Ming imperial survivor.
Henceforth, his painting begins to demonstrate his gradual artistic maturity with greater formal
ii fluency and originality, as well as expressive and psychological power. Through careful examination of dated artwork, the artist’s gradual evolution as a painter will be explored.
Further issues to be examined are both the various art historical styles and syncretic philosophical themes of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism in his art. Was he a mad man or an eccentric individualist? I will explore this question from an art historical perspective that delves into a larger movement of individualism during the seventeenth century. In conclusion, we find that the stylistic evolution in Bada Shanren’s painting came to a crucial point of transition around 1690 that is well exemplified in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Lotus and Birds. New visions of space and newly self-expressive brushstrokes create images to challenge the viewer. At the same time, his changes in life status were intertwined with philosophical and religious impulses that emerge in this period as a form of a philosophical syncretism. The Cincinnati handscroll brings together these two aspects of his art, his spontaneous brushwork and his profoundly individualistic subject matter in a way that comes to define Bada Shanren’s most characteristic works of art.
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To my parents and my husband
iv
Acknowledgments
I would first of all like to thank my advisor, Professor Julia F. Andrews, who loves paintings and nurtures my own love affair with Chinese art. Her warm advice and encouragement opened my eyes to new worlds in my work on Bada Shanren’s art and her unfaltering guidance and support make me enjoy my research.
I am particularly grateful to Professor Youn-mi Kim, who served as the second member of my thesis committee and gave me very helpful comments and suggestions regarding the exploration of Bada Shanren’s Buddhist aspects through his artworks. I extend my deepest gratitude.
My warmest appreciation also goes to Professor Martin J. Powers and Professor Kevin
Carr, who were my undergraduate teachers at the University of Michigan, and Professor J. P.
Park, who has been my mentor from Michigan and now is at University of Colorado Boulder.
Without them, I could not have studied East Asian art history. I also owe a great debt to the curator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Dr. Hou-mei Sung, who provided me access to Bada
Shanren’s Lotus and Birds in storage and allowed me to spend much time exploring the painting.
Finally, after I have used my all words, I cannot find enough to express my warmest thanks to my parents, Sujeong Kim and Okbun Yang and my beloved husband, Kyungyong Lee for their endless love and support throughout my life.
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Vita
2007……………………………………...... B.A. History of Art, with High Distinction,
The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
2010-2011………………………………………...University Fellowship, Graduate School,
The Ohio State University
2011-Present……………………………………..Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of
History of Art, The Ohio State University
Fields of Study
Major Field: History of Art
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Table of Contents
Abstract ...... ii
Acknowledgments ...... v
Vita ...... vi
Fields of Study ...... vi
Table of Contents ...... vii
List of Figures ...... ix
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………….…….1
CHAPTER ONE Lotus and Birds in Cincinnati as Bada Shanren (Zhu Da)’s Transitional Work
…………………………………………………………………………………..………...…6
The Life of Bada Shanren (Zhu Da, 1626-1705)....…………..…………………….………...... 6
Bada Shanren's Bird and Flower Paintings Divided into Periods.……...…………..…..…….8
Lotus and Birds Handscroll in the Cincinnati Art Museum.………………………....…….....16
Lotus and Birds of 1690 as One of Bada Shanren’s Transitional Works...……………...... 19
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………...……….……27
CHAPTER TWO Bada Shanren as an Eccentric Individualist and the Philosophical Syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in His Art
vii
…………………………………………………………………………………....…...…...29
Bada Shanren as One of the Eccentric Individualists ……….………………..………….…..29
Historical and Philosophical Syncretism in Bada Shanren’s Artworks………..……..…….34
1. Buddhist Aspects in Bada Shanren’s Art…………………………………………...... 34
2. Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist Syncretism in Bada Shanren's Art…………………...... 48
Conclusion….…………………………………………………………………………...... ….....71
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………..…………………...…..72
APPENDIX: FIGURES …………………………….…………………….…………...…….….85
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List of Figures
Figure Page 1. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Birds. Dated November 16, 1690. Handscroll, ink on paper, H. 37.5 x L. 330 cm. Cincinnati Art Museum………………………..85
2. Detail of Fig.1………………………………………..……………………….....86
3. Detail of Fig.1……………………………………………………..…..……...... 87
4. Detail of Fig.1………………………………………………………..….……....88
5. Detail of Fig.1………………………………………………………..……...…..89
6. Detail of Fig.1………………………………………………………..….……....90
7. Detail of Fig.1…………………………………………………………..….……91
8. Detail of Fig.1…………………………………………………………..….…....92
9. Detail of Fig.1…………………………………………………………..……….93
10. Detail of Fig.1…………………………………………………………..….…....94
11. Detail of Fig.1………………………………………………………….…..…....95
12. Detail of Fig.1……………………………………………………………...…....96
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13. Detail of Fig.1……………………………………………………………..…….97
14. Detail of Fig.1………………………………………………………………...... 98
15. Huang Anping (active late seventeenth century). Geshan xiaoxiang (Portrait of Geshan, Zhu Da). 1674. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Bada Shanren Memorial Museum, Nanchang. ……………………………………………..…..99
16. Bada Shanren. Fish and Duck. 1689. Handscroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum…………………………………………………………………...... 100
17. Detail of Fig. 16…………………………………………………….....…….....101
18. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf a, “Melons,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China………………………………………………….....102
19. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf b, “Taro,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China…………………………………………………….103
20. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf f, “Narcissus,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China……………………………………..……….……..104
21. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf k, “Pine blossoms,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China……………………...…………….…….105
22. Bada Sharen. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf m, “Pine tree,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China…………………………………………….……....106
23. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf b, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art…………………………………………...…………….....107
24. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf c, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art…………………...…………………………………….…108
25. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf e, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art…………………...…………………………………….…109 x
26. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf f, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art…………………………………………….……...…..…..110
27. Bada Shanren. Ink Flowers. 1666. Sections of a handscroll, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing……………………………………………….……....111
28. Bada Shanren. Flowers. 1671. Handscroll, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing……………………………………………………………………..…...112
29. Bada Shanren. Old Plum. 1682. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing…………………………………………………………….……...….....113
30. Bada Shanren. Crap-apple Flowers. 1682-3. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Collection of Wang Hao……………………………………………...... …....114
31. Bada Shanren. Flowers and Insects. 1683. Leaf f, “Grasshoppers and lotus leaves.” Album of eleven leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Gift of Mrs. George Rowley in memory of George Rowley…………………………………………………...………………...... 115
32. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf a, “Swallow.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection…………...... 116
33. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf b, “Hen and chick.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection…...... 117
34. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf c, “Bulbul and day lily.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection….....118
35. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf d, “Duck.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection………….…....119
36. Bada Shanren, Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo, 1689. Leaf a, “Fish.” Four Album leaves mounted as a handscroll, ink and ink and color on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection…………………………………………...…...... ….120
37. Bada Shanren. Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo. 1689. Leaf c, “Goldfish.” Four Album leaves mounted as a handscroll, ink and ink and color on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection…………………………………………...... 121
38. Bada Shanren. Myna Birds and Rocks. 1690. Hanging scroll, ink on silk. Private Collection…………………………………………………………...... 122 xi
39. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Birds. 1690. Handscroll, ink on satin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bequest of John M. Crawford, Jr., 1988……………………………………………………………………...…123
40. Bada Shanren. Myna Birds and Rocks. 1690. Leaf b, “Myna birds and rocks,” Two hanging scrolls, ink on satin. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Nelson Fund)……………………………….....…124
41. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Duck. 1690-92. Hanging scroll, ink on silk. Inokuma Nobuyuki Collection, Chokaido Foundation……………………...... 125
42. Bada Shanren. Birds, Bamboo, and Rocks. 1692. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection…………………………..….....126
43. Bada Shanren. Two Mynas on a Rock. 1692. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Han Pei-yuan Collection……………………………………………….…...... 127
44. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Birds. 1692-94. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuzo Collection……………………………………………….…...... 128
45. Bada Shanren. Two Birds. 1692. Leaf a. Two album leaves, ink on paper. Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm………….……………….…...129
46. Bada Shanren. Two Birds. 1692. Leaf b. Two album leaves, ink on paper. Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm……………………….…....…130
47. Bada Shanren. Fish. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection…………………………………………………….....131
48. Bada Shanren. Bird, Fish, and Rock. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Museum Rietberg, Zurich, C. A. Drenowatz Collection…………………...….132
49. Bada Shanren. Small Fish, Rock, and Other Subjects. 1695. Leaf e, “Rock.” Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Mushakoji Saneatsu Memorial Hall………………………………………………………………….133
50. Bada Shanren. Anwan Album. 1694. Leaf d, “Two quails.” Album of twenty-two leaves, ink and light color on paper. Sumitomo Collection, Sen-oku Hakko kan, Kyoto…………………………………...…...134
51. Bada Shanren. Anwan Album. 1694. Leaf g, “Bird and grapevine.” Album of twenty-two leaves, ink and light color on paper. Sumitomo Collection, xii
Sen-oku Hakko kan, Kyoto……………………………...……….………….....135
52. Bada Shanren. Anwan Album. 1694. Leaf n, “Two quails.” Album of twenty-two leaves, ink and light color on paper. Sumitomo Collection, Sen-oku Hakko kan, Kyoto……………………………….….…....136
53. Bada Shanren. Two Geese. 1700. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection………………………………………...... 137
54. Bada Shanren. Two Eagles. 1699. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum………………………………………………………………….....…..138
55. Bada Shanren. Eagle. 1700-1. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum…………………………………………………………………..….....139
56. Bada Shanren. Two Eagles. 1702. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. C. C. Wang Family Collection……………………………………………….….…...140
57. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf l, “Day Lily.” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara………..…....141
58. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf b, “Small bird on a branch.” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara………………………………………………………………...….…....142
59. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf j, “Bulbul.” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara…….…….....143
60. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1705. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University…………………..…………….....…...... 144
61. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Rabbit, and Other Subjects. 1684. Leaf d, “Fish.” Album of nine leaves, ink on paper. Chen Wen His Collection……….…...... 145
62. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Rabbit, and Other Subjects. 1684. Leaf f, “Rabbit.” Album of nine leaves, ink on paper. Chen Wen His Collection………..…...... 146
63. Bada Shanren. Myna Bird on a Rock. 1690. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection…………………………………………..…..…147
64. Bada Shanren. Myna Birds and Rocks. 1690. Leaf a, “Myna Birds, Old Tree, and Rocks,” Two hanging scrolls, ink on satin. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Nelson Fund)……..…148
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65. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf a, “Ducks and old tree,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection………..…....149
66. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf b, “Ducks and rocks,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection…………….…..…150
67. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf c, “Sparrows, rocks, and plantain,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection…………………………………………………………………..…..151
68. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf d, “Sparrows and lotus,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection……….….…152
69. Bada Shanren. White Jasmine. 1694. Album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection………..………...153
70. Bada Shanren. Two Birds. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou……….……………………………………..…154
71. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, shi Chuanqi yin (釋傳綮印, seal of Monk Chuanqi)……………………………………………………………………..…155
72. One of Bada Shanren’s Signatures, Signature of Chuanqi (傳綮)………….…156
73. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人)…………………………………………...... 157
74. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人)……………………………………….....….158
75. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人)……………………………………….....….159
76. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人)……………………………………….....….160
77. Signature of Bada Shanren (八大山人)……………………………………...... 161
78. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Zaifu (在芙, In the Lotus)……….....….162
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79. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Zaifu shanfang (在芙山房, Mountain Studio in the Lotus)………………………………………………………..…...163
80. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Heyuan (何園, Lotus Garden)…..…...... 164
81. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Heyuan (何園)………………….……...165
82. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Shide (拾得)………………….………..166
83. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Shide (十㝵)………………….………..167
84. Bada Shanren. Calligraphy Colophon to sutra, (Ba da renjuejing). July 11, 1692. Album leaf, ink on paper………………………....……………………..168
85. After Muqi (d. after 1279). Drawings from Life: Birds, Vegetables, and Flowers. 1265. Section of a handscroll, ink on paper, 44.5 x 1017.1 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan………………………....169
86. After Muqi (d, after 1279). Pomegranates. Detail of the Fig. 85……….…...... 170
87. After Muqi (d. after 1279). Hibiscus. Detail from the Fig. 85…………...... …171
88. Bada Shanren. Sketches from Life. 1659. Leaf 7 “Pomegranates” Album leaves, ink on paper, National Palace Museum, Taiwan…………...... 172
89. Bada Shanren. Quince. 1689. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa……………………………………...... 173
90. Bada Shanren. Quince. 1690. Album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent by the Edward L. Elliot Family Collection…………………………...... 174
91. Bada Shanren. Flower, Buddha’s Hand Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod. 1692. Four album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection……………………………………………………………....…..…..175
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92. Bada Shanren. Birds and Flowers. 1692. Leaf g, “Withered Lotus,” Eight album leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent anonymously……………………………………………..…..176
93. Bada Shanren. Birds and Flowers. 1692. Leaf c, “Pomegranate,” Eight album leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent anonymously……………………………………………………..…...…..177
94. Bada Shanren. Birds and Flowers. 1692. Leaf h, “Lotus, Bamboo, and Rock,” Eight album leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent anonymously………………………………………….…………….….....178
95. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Buddha’s Hand Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod. 1692. Leaf c, “Hibiscus,” Four album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection…………………………………….….….….179
96. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Buddha’s Hand Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod. 1692. Leaf d, “Lotus Pod,” Four album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection…………………………………….…..….....180
97. Bada Shanren, Chrysanthemum, 1692. Album leaf, ink on paper. Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Koln………………………………….….....181
98. Bada Shanren. Lotus, Birds, and Rocks. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. C.C. Wang Family Collection……………………………………………..…...182
99. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Rock. 1694-95. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection………………………………………………....183
100. Bada Shanren. Small Fish, Rock, and Other Subjects. 1695. Leaf b. “Lotus,” Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Mushakoji Saneatsu Memorial Hall…....184
101. Bada Shanren. Orchid and Rock, Bird and Lotus. 1700. Two album leaves, ink on paper. Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Koln……………………..…..185
102. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf e, “Lotus Root,” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara………...... …186
103. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf h, “Buddha’s hand citron,” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara……………………………………………………………….…...... 187
104. Bada Shanren. Plum Blossoms. 1677. Leaf i, “Poem,” in semi-cursive script. From an album of nine leaves, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing………..188 xvi
105. Dong Qichang (1555-1636). Colophon to Xingrangtie. 1609. Section of a handscroll, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University………...…..189
106. Bada Shanren. Poem by Song Zhiwen. 1697. Album of twenty-two leaves, ink on paper. Inokuma Nobuyuki Collection, Chokaido Foundation……...…..190
107. Bada Shanren. Landscape after Dong Yuan and Calligraphy. 1693. Leaf. b, Two album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection…....191
108. Bada Shanren. Landscape after Dong Yuan and Calligraphy. 1693. Leaf. a, Two album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection...... 192
109. Dong Yuan (d. 962). Attrib. Wintry Groves and Layered Banks. 950. Five Dynasties. Hanging Scroll, Ink and slight Color on silk, 181.5 x 116.5 cm. Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, Hyogo, Japan……………….…...... 193
110. Bada Shanren. Landscape. 1681. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Collection unknown……………………………………………………...….....194
111. Ni Zan (1301-1374). The Rongxi Studio. 1372. Yuan Dynasty, Hanging scroll, Ink on Paper, 74.7 x 35.5 cm National Palace Museum, Taiwan…...... 195
112. Bada Shanren. Landscape. 1689-90. Album leaf, ink on paper. Private Collection………………………………………………………………...... 196
113. Bada Shanren. Landscape. 1696-98. Hanging scroll, ink and color on satin. Osaka Municipal Museum of Art……………………………….…...... 197
114. Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. 1350. Handscroll, ink on paper, 33 x 636.9 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan……………………………………..…...….198
115. Wang Meng. Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains. 1366. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 141 x 42.2 cm. Shanghai Museum…………………..…...199
116. Bada Shanren. Landscapes after Dong Qichang. 1697. Leaf a, Album of Six leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection………...... 200
117. Bada Shanren. Landscapes after Dong Qichang. 1697. Leaf d, Album of Six leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection………….....201
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118. Bada Shanren. Landscapes after Dong Qichang. 1697. Leaf f, Album of Six leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection…….…...... 202
119. Bada Shanren. Landscapes. 1699. Leaf l, Album of twelve leaves, ink and light color on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bequest of John M. Crawford, Jr., 1988………………….……….203
120. Li Cheng. Attributed to. Travelers in a Wintry Forest. Northern Song Period. 975-1000. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 161.6 x 100 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund and Bequest of Dorothy Graham Bennett, 1972………………………………....…204
121. Muqi. Persimmons. Mid-13th century. Ink on paper, 35 x 29 cm. Ryoko-in, Daitoku-ji, Kyoto………………………………………….…...... 205
122. Muqi. Attributed to. Dove and Bamboo. Probably 13th century. Hanging scroll, ink on silk, 78 x 40.4 cm. Soshiro Yabumoto Collection, Tokyo……....206
123. Muqi. Attributed to (d. after 1279). Myna Bird on Trunk of Pine. Detail from a hanging scroll, ink on paper, 78.5 x 39 cm. Formerly Setsu Collection, Tokyo, from So Gen no Kaiga, pl. 73……………………………..207
124. After Muqi (d. after 1279). Two Myna Birds on Hillock. Ink on paper...... 208
125. Zhao Yong (b. 1289). Myna Bird and Bamboo. 1349. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 45 inches high, 14 ¾ inches wide……………………………..………..209
126. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Detail of Pomegranate and Melon Vine. Detroit Institute of Arts (Cat. XXXII.)……………………………….……...... 210
127. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Pomegranates. Section of a handscroll. National Palace Museum, Taiwan……………………………………...... …211
128. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Turnips. 1489. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 56.7 x 30 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan……………..…………...…..212
129. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Peony. Detail of a hanging scroll, ink on paper, 154.6 x 68.1cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. From: Ming ssu-chia hua-chi (Tientsin: Tientsin People’s Art Publishing Co., 1993), pl. 98………………...213
130. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Two Young Crows. National Museum, Stockholm. (Cat. LVIII)……………………………………………….…….....214 xviii
131. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Two Myna Birds on Hillock. Section of a handscroll (MH 91). National Palace Museum, Taiwan……………..…...... 215
132. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Flowers, Fruits, and Other Plants. Detail from the handscroll, “Pomegranate.” ink on paper, 30 x 1053.5 cm. Nanjing Museum……………………………………………………………...... …..216
133. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Flowers, Fruits, and Other Plants. Detail from the handscroll, “Peony.” ink on paper, 30 x 1053.5 cm. Nanjing Museum.……....217
134. Detail of Fig. 133…………………………………………………….……..….218
135. Bada Shanren. Myna Bird on Branch. Album leaf. From Pa-ta shan-jen hua-chi (Nanchang: People’s Press, 1985), pl. 16………….…...... 219
136. Shen Zhou. Drawings from Life. 1494. One of the album leaves, “Hen,” Album of sixteen paintings, ink on paper, 34.7 x 55.4 cm…….…………....…220
137. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Plants and Flowers. Detail from the handscroll, “Pomegranates”, ink on paper, 34.3 x 84.8 cm. Honolulu Academy of Arts. Martha Cooke Steadman Fund, 1960 (HAA 2710.1)…………………………………………………………...... …..221
138. Bada Shanren. Lotus after Xu Wei. 1692-94. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Keith McLeod Fund. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston…...... ….222
139. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Lotus and Crab. Undated. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 114.6 x 29.7 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing………………….….....…223
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INTRODUCTION
Bird and flower painting is one of the most common genres in Chinese painting, produced by many artists throughout time. The genre began to flourish from the Song period.
Although during the Yuan dynasty bird and flower painting lost some of its popularity, it nonetheless preserved and regained momentum during the Ming dynasty. Among many artists who had continuously produced the bird and flower paintings since the Ming dynasty, Bada
Shanren (Zhu Da, 1626-1705) is one of the most well known bird and flower painters in the history of Chinese art. This thesis will explore his bird and flower paintings including Lotus and
Birds of 1690 in the Cincinnati Art Museum (fig.1-fig.14). Bada Shanren was born into Ming imperial lineages in 1626 and he lived through the chaotic transition to the Qing dynasty as a
Confucian scholar, Buddhist monk, and artist (fig.15). A number of scholars have studied Bada
Shanren.
Hui-shu Lee’s research “Bada Shanren’s Bird-and-Fish Painting and the Art of
Transformation” is worthy of great attention, while emphasizing how Bada deployed Zhuangzi’s themes in his works. Lee argues: “Bada Shanren painted only objects—mundane, ordinary objects but often with quite human expressions. It thus becomes self-evident that Bada Shanren intended these various things and creatures to represent human beings.”1 She also explores the art of transformation in Bada Shanren’s painting, in which the painting surface creates an imaginary
1 Hui-shu Lee, “Bada Shanren's Bird-and-Fish Painting and the Art of Transformation,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 44 (1991): 12-13. 1 space (fig.16).2 She proposes that Bada Shanren represented his psychological feeling and thoughts through ordinary objects, including through distortion of the pictorial space. She notes that in some of his favorite themes, aquatic creatures such as fish and birds, the actual spaces his subjects occupy in a single picture may be different; some swim underneath the water and others stand outside it. Wang Fangyu also studied Confucian aspects of Bada Shanren’s artworks, showing that the artist pursued a continuous course of study of historical poetry and texts in his own poems.3 James Cahill’s studies of Bada Shanren’s feigned “theoretical madness” and continuation of Chan ink painting into Ming and Qing periods inspired me to study the syncretic philosophical references of Bada’s art.4 The excellent analyses provided by these three scholars, each of whom focuses on one of the major Chinese philosophical traditions, enabled me to take a step further and see Bada’s works not from a single philosophical focus, but from a syncretic standpoint. From this perspective, his bird and flower paintings, including the Cincinnati handscrollI, Lotus and Birds, exhibit all three philosophical traditions and reveal his gradual artistic achievement. In this paper, I will argue that Bada Shanren established his own unique artistic style through his studies of ancient masters and his syncretism of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. This synthesis of art history and various philosophies, which became the foundation of Bada’s art world, has rarely been the subject of scholarship. His service as a
Confucian scholar, a Chan Buddhist monk, and a hermit-like artist all enabled him to explore the philosophical aspects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. In other words, his distinctive artistic achievement derived from both his studies and his lived experiences.
2 Ibid., 14-22. 3 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 35-81. 4 James Cahill, “The “Madness” in Bada Shanren’s Paintings,” Ajia bunka kenkyu, Vol. 17 (March, 1989); 119-143, James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998), 17-41. 2
“Lotus and Birds” in Cincinnati as His Transitional Work
This paper will address these arguments in three chapters. Chapter one will briefly deal with the life of Bada Shanren, and examine his bird and flower paintings from 1665 until his death in 1705. Then, next section introduces a little-studied handscroll, Lotus and Birds of 1690 in the Cincinnati Art Museum (fig.1). In carefully examining Bada’s bird and flower paintings from 1683 to 1694, I will suggest that his bird and flower paintings reveal gradual artistic development from the late 1680s in terms of: spontaneous brushstrokes, subject matter, psychological dimension and level of personal reflection, and increase in productivity. I will proceed to argue that the period of time between the late 1680s and the early 1690s constitutes
Bada Shanren’s artistic transitional period as epitomized in Lotus and Birds. When Richard
Barnhart has described this handscroll, he notes “if we think of Bada Shanren’s art as autobiographical, lotuses and rocks must have held particularly personal meanings for him. It would perhaps be correct to suggest that, in numerous precise ways, the lotuses he painted were the face and mind of the painter.”5 I thus propose that the Cincinnati handscroll reflects his personal emotions through the depiction of particular elements such as a duck, sparrows, and rocks. Through these, Bada Shanren represented his desire to overcome current circumstances, and as a consequence achieved his mature artistic style.
General Views about Bada Shanren as an Eccentric Individualist and the
Philosophical Syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in His Art
As my next project, this paper will consider the madness and eccentricity of Bada
Shanren and propose that he was one of the many eccentric individualists within the widespread
5 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 115. 3 seventeenth-century phenomenon of individualism. 6 His feigned madness can be viewed as a way to escape from the political and social pressure from the Qing dynasty. After the collapse of the
Ming, many people resigned their political status and retreated into nature. Some of them produced artworks in very expressive ways, and they came to be called “individualists.” Among them, Bada’s artworks influenced the Eccentrics of Yangzhou as well as modern artists, as I will explore in the final chapter.
I will also examine Bada Shanren’s artworks, including Lotus and Birds in Cincinnati, which intermingle Chan Buddhist, Neo-Confucian, and Daoist aspects as well as art historical styles of past masters. First, I will consider the Buddhist elements in Bada Shanren’s artworks, which are little examined by other scholars. Even though Bada resigned his position as a Chan
Buddhist monk in the early 1680s, his use of Buddhist themes, names, seals, and artistic styles until his death in 1705. I will then introduce his syncretism of art historical styles and philosophies through his art. Although some prominent scholars have already studied Bada’s adaptations of historical styles and the relationships between his art and Buddhist, Daoist, or
Confucian concepts, my thesis that emphasizes Bada’s syncretic philosophical references will enrich their research with several specific examples. Ultimately, Bada’s study of classical
Confucian texts and poetry, combined with his references to earlier masters’ works, indicate his continued engagement with Confucianism. Bada Shanren also infused his personal emotions and thoughts into the animals as metamorphic objects in his paintings, which suggest affinity with the philosophy of Zhuangzi. His use of everyday life objects and spontaneous brushstrokes also seem
6 Edmund Capon, Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, XIV-XXth Centuries, Catalogue Written by Edmund Capon and Mae Anna Pang (Sydney: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, 1981), 14-17 and Wai-kam Ho, “Late Ming Literati: Their Social and Cultural Ambience,” in Chu-tsing Li and James C. Y. Watt, The Chinese Scholar's Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period: an Exhibition from the Shanghai Museum (New York, N. Y.: Asia Society Galleries in Association with Thames and Hudson, 1987), 23-36. 4 to relate to Chan Buddhism. In other words, his works derive not from any single philosophy, but from a syncretism of several. From this perspective, I will argue that his bird and flower paintings, including the Cincinnati handscroll, Lotus and Birds, exhibit the philosophical synthesis of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism that enabled Bada Shanren to emerge with his own distinctive artistic vocabulary.
In conclusion, this thesis focuses on Bada Shanren’s bird and flower paintings, tracing his gradual artistic development over a lifetime. As of the 1680s, his bird and flower painting becomes much richer and more diverse, and he achieved artistic maturity. I argue that his transitional period toward greater maturity was from the late 1680s to the early 1690s, and the little-studied handscroll, Lotus and Birds, epitomizes his this transitional mood. I also define
Bada Shanren as an eccentric individualist, and argue that his philosophical syncretism and his continuous studies in art history become the basic foundations for his artistic maturity. I sincerely hope my investigations will provide a new perspective for the understanding of Bada Shanren’s life and painting.
5
Chapter One
Lotus and Birds in Cincinnati as Bada Shanren (Zhu Da)’s Transitional Work
The Life of Bada Shanren (Zhu Da)
Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) was born in 1626 as a descendant of the prince of Yiyang of the
Ming imperial family (fig.15).7 His literary and artistic family had cultivated poets, calligraphers, painters, seal carvers, and art connoisseurs over four generations; Zhu Douzheng (1541-1589), a poet, calligrapher, painter and seal carver, was his grandfather and Zhu Moujin was his father.8
Although Zhu Moujin (died 1644) was a deaf-mute scholar, he had learned from his father and capably rendered the styles of Wu School masters such as those of Shen Zhou and Wen
Zhengming.9 Raised in such an artistically nurturing environment, Bada Shanren started to study poetry at the age of seven, and became accomplished in calligraphy, seal carving, and painting as a Confucian scholar. As an imperial descendant, Bada received a good classical education, and in his late teens, he took the civil service examination and passed the first-level test in the early
1640s. In 1644, however, the last Ming emperor committed suicide in Manchu –overrun capital,
Beijing, and his father suddenly died shortly afterwards. The Ming dynasty collapsed that same
7 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 13. 8 For more information about Bada’s portrait, see Richard E. Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits, 1600-1900 (Cambridge [England]; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 63-67. 9 Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 1. 6 year and the Manchu established the Qing dynasty. In 1645, when the Qing army came to Bada’s hometown, Nanchang in Jiangxi, the young man took refuge in the Fengxin Mountain, west of
Nanchang. Bada found a shelter in a temple in 1648 and became a Buddhist monk. He later became a disciple of the prominent Chan master Yingxue Hongmin of the Caodong sect in 1653.
In the 1670s, Bada expanded his social relationships outside of Buddhism, becoming friends with
Qing officials, including Qiu Lian, who later became an official in Linchuan, Jiangxi. After the death of his Buddhist teacher, Yingxue, Bada gradually moved toward the secular world. His specific cause for leaving Buddhist life remains unclear.10 His attempt to reenter the secular society also was not easy; his mental health declined in 1680, and his subsequent eccentric behavior might be related to escaping from the pressure from the Qing government, which was pressuring him to take a civil examination for government service.11 As of 1684, Bada began to use the name, “Bada Shanren,” which literally means “Mountain Man of Eight Greatnesses” while producing many works.12 According to Chu-tsing Li, Bada took his name from a sutra, because “the term means four directions and four corners.”13 After the early 1690s, Bada lived as a hermit and devoted more and more time to painting and calligraphy, occasionally travelling. In
1701, he set up his studio, called Wuge caotang (Hut for Sleeping Alone and Waking to Sing), where he continued to paint until his death in 1705.14
10 Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 2-4. 11 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 14. And Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 8. 12 Wen Fong. “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 8. 13 Chu-tsing Li, “A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection,” Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 30 (1974): 212. 14 Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 1-9, 7
Bada Shanren’s Bird and Flower Paintings Divided into Periods
This section will carefully consider Bada Shanren’s bird and flower paintings. It places his paintings chronologically according to their authenticated dates and examines different periods of his artistic development according to composition, brushwork, and the analysis of other scholars. These attempts will provide how bird and flower paintings of Bada Shanren gradually improved and how he achieved artistic maturity in his bird and flower paintings.
Let us first examine other scholars’ divisions of Bada Shanren’s life and art. First, Wen
Fong distinguishes three periods: “Buddhist Phase (1648-1680), Emotional Crisis (1680-1690), and Artistic Growth (1690-1705).”15 During the Buddhist Phase, he began his life as a Buddhist monk from 1648 to around 1680. According to Fong, Bada’s first work is the album of fifteen leaves, Sketches From Life, dated 1660, which is in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. These subjects such as flowers, vegetables, and fruits are continuations from the art of Shen Zhou, Chen
Chun, and Xu Wei.16 Bada seemed to retain the “sketches from life” tradition of literati masters, and Chan or Daoist painters, which he probably learned in his youth. During this period, Bada
and Wang, Fangyu and Richard Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 23-81. For more information about Bada Shanren’s life and art in chronological order, see Zhu Da, Badashanren quanji (Nanchang: Jiangxi meishu chubanshe, 2000), 198-204, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, The Eccentric Painters of China: [Exhibition, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, January 21-March 5, 1965] (Ithaca, N. Y.: Andrew Dickson Whiter Museum of Art, 1965), 6-7, Zhu Da, Badashanren (Beiijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1993) and Chen, Ding, “Bada Shanren zhuan (Bibliography of Bada Shanren),” in Badashanren lunji (Taipei: Guoli bianyiguan, 1984): 531-2. 15 Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 8. 16 Ibid., 9. For more information about Bada’s early works, look at Chu-Tsing Li, “A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection,” Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 30 (1974): 213. 8
Shanren thus mainly painted flowers and fruits that are inspired by Chan Buddhism, Daoism and
Confucianism. The period of “Emotional Crisis” lasted from 1680 to 1690.17 During the period,
Bada returned to a secular life, but suffered pressures from both the Qing government and society’s expectation that he remarry. After this period, Bada began his emotional recovery. As the final stage, “Artistic Growth” lasted from 1690 until 1705, when Bada focused on historical painting and calligraphy styles, while simultaneously creating bird and flower paintings.18
Wang Fangyu also divides Bada’s artistic narrative into three phases: “The Buddhist
Years (1653-1680), Return to Secular Life (1680-1684), and Artistic Maturity (1684-1705).”19
During the “Buddhist Years,” Bada became a head of the Gengxiang monastery and held company with poets. He also produced art; his calligraphy adopted historical texts and styles, including those of the seventh-century scholar Sun Guoting’s and the Tang and Song calligraphers. This indicates his continued studies in Confucianism, even though he was a
Buddhist monk, and is evidence that his philosophical syncretism had already begun to appear in his paintings. Bada mainly chose natural objects such as flowers, plants, and vegetables, but not yet the subjects of his later specialization: birds and fish.20 When Bada quit his career as a
Buddhist monk, in the early 1680s, he adopted historical styles in calligraphy and poetry with increasing frequency, and began to explore new kinds of subject matter, such as birds and fish with animated plants and flowers.21 During the third stage, Bada produced more creative,
17 Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 9. 18 Ibid., 13-21. 19 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 37-81. 20 Ibid., 37-51. 21 Ibid., 51-57. 9 expressive, and mature works, and simultaneously dealt with more varied genres in landscape, flower and bird painting, and calligraphy.22
Joseph Chang divides Bada’s life and art into four stages; “Before the Fall of the Ming
Dynasty (1626-1644), Seeking Shelter in Buddhist Temples and Episodes of Madness (1645-
1680), From Madness to Marriage and Beyond: The Donkey Years (1680-1684), and Sudden
Return to the Mundane World, Wielding Brush and Ink (1684-1705).”23 After his scholarly life in the first stage, Bada became a Buddhist monk and studied past masters’ styles, including those of
Shen Zhou and Xu Wei during the second period. He returned to the mundane world only during the third stage when he developed a distinct style that involved, “the side of the brush, forming flat, angular, and sharp-ended strokes.”24 In the final phase, Bada devoted himself to his art.
While he continued to socialize with monks, scholars, and Qing officials between 1684 and 1693, he also produced a great number of works in a much broader range of subjects. In his later years,
Bada focused on the study of historical masters’ styles in calligraphy and painting, setting up a studio where he could ultimately develop his mature style.25
Based on the writings of three prominent scholars’ views, a clear picture of Bada’s life and art emerges. Two authors, Wang Fangyu and Joseph Chang, concur that Bada Shanren’s artistic growth began from the middle of the 1680s, and Wen Fong suggests it starts from 1690.
Through the examination of Bada’s artistic styles, I will, however, propose that Bada’s
22 Ibid., 57-81. 23 Joseph Chang, “The Life and Painting of Bada Shanren,” in Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 1-9. 24 Ibid., 1-4. 25 Ibid., 5-9. 10 transitional period occurs between the late 1680s and the early 1690s, when the Cincinnati handscroll, Lotus and Birds was produced, which I will discuss in the final section of this chapter.
I will now focus on the subject of bird and flower painting, tracing the chronological development of their styles. The earliest extant work by Bada Shanren is Flower Studies, which composes an album of twelve paintings and three works of calligraphy. It is dated to 1659-60, and is currently located in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan (fig.18-fig.22).26 The album primarily depicts flowers, pine trees, and melons. The overall composition of the album is simple, and the brushstrokes are less varies than his later works. Bada’s lotus painting appears in 1665
(fig.23-fig.26) and continues to produce for the next forty years.27 The lotus objects are placed in various ways. Wang Fangyu describes Bada’s early paintings as possessing an “imaginative use of space.”28 Bada’s lotuses are located on the top or the bottom, and usually they are shown in diagonal composition on the right top or the left bottom. In other words, although his use of brushstrokes is less sophisticated than his later works, his play with pictorial space already appears in these works.
Bada creates a new kind of composition that places natural elements in the center of the pictorial surface. The Ink Flowers of 1666 and Flowers of 1671 demonstrate the gradual shift in his compositions. The banana leaf and two flowers in Ink Flowers approach the center of the
26 Wang, Fangyu, “The Life and Art of Bada Shanren,” in Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 43, 49, and Joseph Chang, “The Life and Painting of Bada Shanren,” in Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 2. 27 Richard M. Barnhart, “Reading the Paintings and Calligraphy of Bada Shanren,” in Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 84. 28 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 50. 11 scroll (fig.27).29 The flora depicted in the Flowers handscroll are also located near almost locate in the center, and the brushstrokes of the painting are less individualistic and characteristic than his later ones (fig.28).30
After the 1680s, however, Bada’s artworks, especially his bird and flower paintings, become increasingly expressive. The subjects of his artworks may be read as self-portraits, a phenomenon which reflects his increased interest in the Daoist philosophy of Zhuangzi after returning to secular life.31 The Old Plum, painted in 1682, illustrates his angular brushstrokes and mirrors his strong and expressive mind (fig.29).32 Painted in 1682 or 1683, Crab-apple Flowers also reflects a powerful style, characterized by a greater use of dark ink with which he boldly combined wet and dry brushstrokes (fig.30).33 The extended composition of the scroll enhances the strength and power of this mode of painting. Bada also expanded his paintings to include the subjects of birds, insects, and fish, all of which are illustrated in Flowers and Insects of 1683
(fig.31).34 Various birds such as bulbuls, chickens, swallows, and ducks are also depicted in the
Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects, painted in 1683 (fig.32-fig.35).35 Although his birds are rendered in simple brushstrokes, their wide eyes exude strong emotion, often gloominess or
29 Ibid., 47. 30 Ibid., 46-47. 31 Joel J. Kupperman, Classic Asian Philosophy: A Guide to the Essential Texts (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 126-7. And for more information about Zhuangzi’s themes and concepts, see Steve Countinho, Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy: Vagueness, Transformation, and Paradox (Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington: Ashgate, 2004), 19-37, Liu, Jeeloo, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 152-181, and Zhuangzi, The Inner Chapters, Translated by David Hinton (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint: Distributed by Publishers Group West, 1997). 32 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 53. 33 Ibid., 53. 34 Ibid., 90. 35 Ibid., 92-3. 12 anger.36 These kinds of psychological gazes are continuously shown in his works until the late
1680s. As of 1684, however, Bada pursued a more profound artistic inquiry during which he adopted the name “Bada Shanren.”37
After the late 1680s, Bada Shanren started to illustrate intense psychological gazes in his paintings. In Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo, painted in 1689, the composition of the painting is greatly simplified, but his fish stares at the top of the scroll as if wishing to escape his current situation (fig.36-fig.37).38 The birds in Myna Birds and Rocks of 1690 are characterized by a particular gaze. Some look in opposite directions, others close their eyes (fig.38).39 These birds might reflect the artist’s own feelings about his life. Lotus and Birds of 1690 in the Cincinnati Art
Museum similarly reflects the artist’s psychological state through the gazes of his birds, lotus, and rocks. This will be examined in the next chapter (fig.1).40
Bada’s projection of emotional states onto his subjects is well represented in bird and flower paintings executed during the early 1690s. The artist’s transitional change can be traced to
36 For more information about bird’s eye, see Fujio Kobayashi, Hachidai Sanjin: Shogai to geijutsu (Tokyo: Kijisha, Showa 57, 1982). 37 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 57. 38 Ibid., 103. 39 Ibid., 112. For more information about 1690’s work, see Zheng, Dekun, Rao, Zongyu and James C. Y Watt, Ming Yimin shuhua yantao huijilu: Xianggang Zhongwen daxue Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo wenwuguan, 1975 nian 8 yue 31 ri zhi 9 yue 3 ri / te yue bianji Zheng Dekun, Rao Zongyi, Qu Zhiren = Proceedings of the Symposium on Paintings & Calligraphy by Ming Yimin: 31 August-3 September 1975, Art Gallery, the Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong / guest editors, Cheng Te-kun, Jao Tsung-I, J.C.Y. Watt (Hong Kong: Xianggang Zhongwen daxue Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo wenwuguan, 1976), 497. 40 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 116-7. For more information about his bird and lotus painting, see James Cahill, Soogen-ga: 12th-14th Century Chinese Painting as Collected and Appreciated in Japan: March 31, 1982-June 27, 1982, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley: The Museum, 1982), 38-9. 13 these paintings (fig.39-fig.44).41 Through painting, Bada seemed to express acceptance of his current situations and his desire to overcome life’s disappointments to surpass the limitations of life through art. Two Birds of 1692 shows a sense of peace in the gesture of the birds; one bird looks up, but without anger (fig.45-fig.46).42 The other birds look gloomy, but at the same time they seem to sleep. Bada’s brushstrokes are much simpler and more stylized than in previous works. Although his dissatisfaction is still shown in some works such as Fish of 1694 and Bird,
Fish, and Rock of 1694, the artist more professionally devoted his artworks during this period
(fig.47-fig.48).43 Bada’s brushstrokes also are more distinctive and expressive than in previous works, and his contrasting combinations of wet and dry, and of soft and rough brushworks become more mature than in earlier artworks previous works (fig.49-fig.52).44 His paintings after the 1690s usually illustrate landscapes or bird-and-flower types.
Even though Bada Shanren studied historical styles of landscapes and calligraphy, his bird and flower paintings seem to be more constructive and powerful in their compositions and brushstrokes after the early 1690s. His Two Geese of 1700 is painted using an S-curved composition, which is often shown in landscape painting (fig.53).45 Bada thus adopted landscape compositions into his bird and flower paintings. Two Geese begins with flowers on a vertically sharp cliff. Two geese sit below. Sharp angles between the lower rocks enhance the S-curved
41 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 118-137. 42 Ibid., 138. 43 Ibid., 149-151. For more information about Bird, Fish, and Rock of 1694, see Chu-tsing Li, A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection, Vol. 2 (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1974), LXXIV, and for more information about Bada’s lotus painting in 1694, see Nadine Tynon, “Painting and Politics: Eccentricity and Political Dissent in Zhu Da's Fish and Rocks,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1989): 123-4. 44 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 158-9. 45 Ibid., 194. 14 compositional effect and add depth to the painting. His eagle paintings, executed between 1699 and 1702, are particularly powerful (fig.54-fig.56).46 These eagle paintings have similar compositions, with one eagle looking out to the right side of composition. These paintings represent his accomplishment as a fully mature artist during this late period. Moreover, Bada still dealt with his previous favorite subjects such as flowers and birds. In Flowers, Fruit, and Birds, dated in 1703, he used less ink and painted each subject in one album leaf (fig.57-fig.59).47 The album leaves might serve as a collection of his reminiscences. In Lotus of 1705 is one of final works and depicts only the lotus, one of Bada’s favorite themes (fig.60).48 The flourishing lotuses signify his acceptance of his current life situation, and may represent his desire to obtain peace in the Buddhist world.49
The overview of the artistic development of Bada Shanren can be summarized as follows. In his early period, Bada painted limited subjects such as flowers and fruit. After returning to the secular world around 1680, however, he began to illustrate a wider range of subjects including birds and fish. After the 1680s, Bada’s painting style becomes more mature and imbibes the artist’s actual emotions. The adaptation of the name, “Bada Shanren,” in 1684 moreover signals a profound shift in his career from Buddhist monk to artist. His paintings also make use of more constructive and powerful compositions and brushstrokes from the late 1680s.
46 Ibid., 198-9. 47 Ibid., 210-213. 48 Ibid., 217. 49 For more about his bird and flower paintings, see Zhu Da, Chu Ta: Selected Paintings & Calligraphy: [Exhibition] Vassar College Art Gallery, December 2, 1972-January 28, 1973, The New York Cultural Center (in association with Farleigh Dickinson University) February 28-April 14, 1973 (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Hamilton Reproductions), Li, Huangsheng, Badashanren zhuanqi (Wuhan: Wuhan daxue chubanshe; Taipei: Taiwan Hanxin wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1994), Zhu Da, Badashanren quanji, Vol. 1-5, Supl (Nanchang: Jiangxi meishu chubanshe, 2000), Zhu Da, Badashanren (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 2002), and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “Recent Additions to the Asiatic Collections,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Vol. 53, No. 294 (Winter, 1955): 77. 15
Bada continuously produced bird and flower paintings, and focused especially on eagle and lotus paintings around 1700. The last lotus painting represents his acceptance of his current circumstances, and his hope for Buddhist peace. Bird-and-flower paintings are thus useful tools in evaluating Bada Shanren’s artistic improvement and final achievement.
Lotus and Birds Handscroll in Cincinnati Art Museum
The handscroll, Lotus and Birds, which is painted with ink on paper, was produced on 16
November 1690.50 It has artist’s six seals, his poem, and inscriptions with four collector’s seals, but unfortunately no colophons. The scroll begins on the right with a large mass of rocks consisting of a three-dimensional sharp black dense rock and a two-dimensional unpainted rock, situated next to a lotus pond (fig.2).51 The striking contrast between various wet black brushstrokes and dry “flying white” brushstrokes introduces the beginning of the dynamic handscroll. Next to the rocks, there are lush lotus leaves and two white lotus flowers on the upper side with three tiny dots and a small rock on the bottom. The small rock is represented in a three- dimensional effect created by the play of light and shade. The contrast between black and gray and wet and dry brushstrokes reveals Bada’s improvisatory and masterful skill. At the same time, the clean white brushstrokes that delineate two flowers growing out of wet black and gray smudged lotus leaves also indicates his interplay with ink and texture. His interplay is suddenly interrupted, however, by massive lotus leaves and three long diagonal lotus stalks, expanding
50 The format of a handscroll is explained well in James O. Caswell, “Lines of Communication: Some Secrets of the Trade in Chinese Painters’ Use of Perspectives,” Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 40 (Autumn, 2001): 207 and Jerome Silbergeld, Chinese Painting Style: Media, Methods, and Principles of Form (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982). 51 These detailed photographs of Lotus and Birds were taken by the author in storage at the Cincinnati Art Museum on May 13, 2011. 16 upward and to the left (fig.3). This creates an effect of speed, and simultaneously forms a balance with the overlapped thick rocks that interspersed lotus leaves in the scene. The gray lotus leaf that is located between the two black lotus leaves creates feeling of spatial depth in the painting
(fig.4). However, in switch from dense black compositions to wet gray gradations of the brushstroke, Bada appeared to finish one story and began another (fig.5).
The profile lotus leaf seems to point out three sparrows like a human hand (fig.6). Two sparrows are talking to each other. The smaller one that first appears sits on the dry and almost white rock, and the bigger and darker one sits in front of the much darker rock. The diagonal composition of two happy birds also creates a deep spatial effect, and the two birds let us imagine their sound in the silent scroll. The third sparrow, which is located on the edge of the less volume rock, sits quietly and lonely, separated from the previous two birds (fig.7). The wet gray lotus leaves might also reflect the isolation of the birds by pushing the bird’s space into the inside of the scene. Black lotus stalks moreover enhance the deep spatial effects. The diagonal lotus stalks infuse the scene with dynamism, as the strong wet leaf that is cropped on the top edge of the scene creates a sense of deep distance. In other words, Bada brilliantly played with the deep distance effect and created a wonderfully dynamic composition within the limited space of a small handscroll.
Near the end of the scroll, an overhanging rock that has extremely dry round brushstrokes suddenly appears (fig.8). Bada extended the rock brushstroke behind the lotus leaf by occupying the overlapped space, which creates the infused rock that is located behind the lotus leaf or in the water. Bada abruptly shifted the scene into the water, where a duck is seen to be
17 swimming.52 Although the posture of the duck looks calm and peaceful, his round eye, tiny exposed teeth, and outstretched neck suggest a certain discomfort (fig.9-fig.10).53 The duck’s neck and mouth points to the outcropping rock, which in turn directs attention to a poem that reads (fig.11):
“I once saw in the heart of the lotus seed That the lotus flower had its roots. At Ruoya splitting the lotus pod, It is the young gentleman in the painting.” (Translation by Hui-shu Lee)54
According to Richard Barnhart, the lotus in the poem is “the young gentleman in the painting,”
Langhunzi, here translated as “young gentleman,” is actually a term of reference to the emperor, who may be referred to as Langjun. On that basis, Barnhart continues, langjunzi could be translated as child of the emperor, or more broadly “imperial descendant.”55
The duck is pushed back into the water by a large plantain leaf (fig.12). A thick plantain stalk, which is represented in extremely dark ink, divides the scene, and the dynamic right side of the leaf forcefully pushes the duck into the water. The left leaf and trunk-like stalk block the scene. The conclusion of the scroll contains the plantain, Bada’s inscription, and three seals
(fig.13). The last leaf, which resembles a human hand, points of the artist’s name, Bada Shanren
(fig.14).
52 For more information about “water” in Chinese painting, see Robert J. Maeda, “The “Water” Theme is Chinese Painting,” Artibus Asiae, Vol. 33, No.4 (1971): 247-290. 53 For more about the bird’s teeth of Bada, look at Shanghai bowuguan, Shanghai bowuguan canghua= A Shanghai Museum Collection of Paintings (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 1999), 51. 54 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 115. 55 Ibid., 115. 18
Lotus and Birds in 1690 as One of Bada Shanren’s Transitional Works
According to both Wen Fong and Wang Fangyu, the production year of the Cincinnati handscroll, 1690, is one of the most significant years in Bada’s career. 56 It was the transitional time when his painting style became mature. 57 Fong proposes that Bada made developments in two principal directions in his art of the early 1980s; one is the perfection of “representational realism by refining observed details to the essentials, executing them in a spontaneously expressive brushwork,” and the second is the simplification and universalization of his brushmarks, which are reduced to “a system of precisely controlled, and easily repeatable, calligraphic formulas.”58 Although Bada expanded his painting contents beyond describing flowers and lotus after the early 1680s, he began to infuse his paintings with personal reflection after the late 1680s. According to Richard Barnhart, this is particularly evident in his lotus blossoms and poetry.59 Hui-shu Lee also proposes that “all the various birds and fish of Bada’s painting are the transformation of a most profound and sophisticated human being. . . The
56 Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 6-23 and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 86-112. 57 For more about Bada Shanren’s life from 1684 to 1700, see Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 8, James Cahill, “The “Madness” in Bada Shanren’s Paintings,” Ajia bunka kenkyu, Vol. 17 (March, 1989): 119-143, Wen Fong, “Reply to Professor Soper's Comments on Tao-chi's Letter to Chu Ta,” Artibus Asiae, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1967): 352. For more information about Bada’s eccentricity, look at Nadine Tynon, “Painting and Politics: Eccentricity and Political Dissent in Zhu Da's Fish and Rocks,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1989): 98-127, Ellen B. Avril, “Highlights of Chinese art,” Arts of Asia, Vol. 23 no.2 (March/April, 1993): 73 and Ellen B. Avril, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum, with Contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih, (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum), 75, and You, Jia, Feiku feixiao dibeiju: Badashanren Yishu Pingzhuan (Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe: Hunansheng Xinhua shudian jingxiao, 1990), 127-8. 58 Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 12. These innovations culminated in the Cincinnati handscroll, executed at the very beginning of his final period. 59 Ellen B. Avril with contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum), 75 and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 115. 19 transformation that Bada sought may have ultimately eluded him.”60 Bada thus transformed himself into natural objects. This section focuses on Bada Shanren’s works between 1683 and
1694, and explains the gradual stylistic evolution these paintings undergo as they reflect the artist’s emotional state.
Based on the historical records, Bada Shanren left the Buddhist temple around 1680 and returned to the mundane world. However, his life was unpleasant; he could not adjust to the new surroundings, perhaps experienced a failed marriage, and was forced to become a Qing official by the government. In order to escape this latter duty, the artist reacted by feigned madness. As of
1683, Bada explored various subjects including flowers, insects, crabs, birds, fish, plants, rabbits, melons, quinces, cats, and even chickens.61 Wang Fangyu assumes that the years from 1684 until
Bada’s death in 1705 are Bada’s mature period, characterized by strong and vigorous brushwork, and a masterful control of ink.62 Most of Bada’s works dating from the 1680s illustrate motionless, quiet, gloomy, and somewhat angry animals that seldom open their mouths and have large intense eyes (fig.61-fig.62).63
As of the late 1680s, Bada Shanren focused more on his art. He produced a great many artworks and dealt with a large variety of subjects than in earlier years. His paintings also more seriously reflect his own thoughts and feelings. A handscroll Fish and Duck, painted in 1689, hints at the mature evolution of his art (fig.16).64 Bada also began to show his growing interest in
60 Hui-shu Lee, “Bada Shanren's Bird-and-Fish Painting and the Art of Transformation,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 44 (1991): 22. 61 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 86-112. 62 Ibid., 57, 66. 63 Ibid., 98-99. 64 Ibid., 68-69. 20
Daoist concepts of transformation and metamorphosis that especially come from the teachings of
Zhuangzi.65 Hui-shu Lee suggests that Bada adopted the Daoist classics, and particularly the ideals of Zhuangzi concerning the transformation of ordinary objects. She particularly highlights, taking the sparrow and goldfish in Zhuangzi as examples, the way the artist imbues them with human expressions. 66 She also states that the goldfish in Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo of
1689 would seem to refer to Bada’s nobility, Ming imperial lineage, and that Bada frequently used Zhuangzi’s theme from 1689 to 1692 in his works (fig.36).67
Although Bada Shanren began to deal with bird and flower paintings more professionally around 1683, his paintings were still less characteristic of his mature style than those developed in his later years. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects displays less expressive brushstrokes in a simple composition, and his birds are somewhat different from those of later paintings (fig.32-fig.35). More specifically, the birds demonstrate a lesser contrast between wet and dry brushstrokes, and are similar to the style of early master Shen Zhou, a topic that will be discussed in the next chapter. His paintings thus reflect influences from earlier masters. Even though Bada created some sense of an angular composition through his depiction of branches and leaves, the overall composition and brushstrokes are less expressive than those in his later works.
Paintings before the late 1680s strongly reflect his emotional dissatisfaction with his current circumstances and his reminiscences of the lost Ming dynasty. Stylistic innovations were
65 Two Scholars, Wang Fangyu and Sherman E. Lee have explained well Bada Shanren’s interest in Zhuangzi. For more about, look at Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 66-69, and Sherman E. Lee, “The Two Styles of Chu Ta,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 45, No. 9 (Nov., 1958): 216. 66 Hui-shu Lee, “Bada Shanren's Bird-and-Fish Painting and the Art of Transformation,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 44 (1991): 7-18. 67 Ibid., 7-18, and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 103. 21 momentarily set aside. Flowers, Rabbits, and Other Subjects, dated to 1684, emphasizes his profound unhappiness in the aggressive pose of rabbit and its glaring eye (fig.62).68 The poems inscribed onto the painting evoke the lost dynasty. According to Richard Barnhart, “the ghosts in the poem may refer to the death of the former dynasty, and might indicate him as a prince.”69 The poem on the painting (fig.62) inscribed upon the painting recounts the stories of Liu Ben (active c. 824) and Li Bai (701-762), and might likewise refer to the last emperor of the Ming dynasty.70
Bada continuously reaffirmed his imperial lineage and emotions around 1689, but his paintings take on a less aggressive form and might be interpreted as reminiscences over his past peaceful age rather than direct representations of his anger and dissatisfaction. It appears that Bada was accepting of his current life situations, even though he still missed the luxuries of his youth.
Although Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo of 1689 shows his unhappiness and dissatisfaction by locating fish at the top of the scene, the fish’s facial expression, combined with the poem, indicate the powerless circumstance of the Ming loyalist in a less aggressive manner (fig.36).71
After 1690, Bada Shanren more frequently dealt with bird paintings that normally accompany with rocks, flowers, and trees would seem to contain a certain kind of ambiguous or unambiguous narrative story.72 Bada’s paintings also convey his more creative play with composition and individualized brushstrokes. Ju-hsi Chou has said that Bada acquired a new
68 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 99. 69 Ibid., 97. 70 Ibid., 100. 71 Ibid., 103-4. 72 Joseph Chang, “The Life and Painting of Bada Shanren,” in Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 3. 22 confidence in his art after the 1690s.73 Eugene Eoyang has also noted that Bada’s birds, flowers, spiders, and rocks are frequently self-referential and allude to Zhuangzi’s concepts.74 The hanging scroll, Myna Birds and Rocks, painted on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in 1690, mirrors the artist’s inner thoughts and emotions (fig.38).75 The gestures of each bird is different: the bird on the top stares to the right; the left bird in the middle hangs down its head, closing its eyes; and the right bird in the middle looks to the left. The left bottom bird looks up on the top right side, the middle bottom bird stares at the top left side, and finally the right bottom bird closes its eyes. These sequences amazingly convey Bada’s transitional emotions and ideas around
1690. In other words, the top bird looks angry, the next bird tries to endure its struggle, and the third one opens its eyes with an unhappy and dissatisfied demeanor. The two birds on the bottom look in opposite directions, and finally the last one closes its eyes in order to endure or to accept its current situation. Richard Barnhart has suggested that, “this unprecedented painting marks an entirely new stage in Bada’s life and art.”76 The dots scattered across the top, middle, and bottom of the hanging scroll enhance its psychological depth.
The painting style of another bird painting, Myna Bird on a Rock (fig.63), dated to the ninth day of the ninth month in 1690, is very similar to that of the previous painting, Myna Birds and Rocks (fig.38).77 In this painting, Bada focused more on the lotus subject, with which he
73 Chou, Ju-hsi, “A Landscape Painting Album by Chi Ta,” Honolulu Academy of Arts Journal, 1977: 44. 74 Eugene Eoyang, “Bada Shanren: Traditional Iconoclast and Riddler of the Past,” Essays in Romanticism, Vol. 7, 1999: 62-3. 75 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 112. 76 Ibid., 112. 77 Ibid., 113-114. 23 would be greatly familiar as a Chan monk.78 Indeed, Bada might utilize the lotus as his personal symbol.79 This hanging scroll can be interpreted as the continuation of the previous painting. The myna bird is looking at on the top right part. Its gesture looks calm, and at the same time, its eyes seem to convey that the bird contains a number of thoughts. It is similar to the pose of scholars who look in one fixed direction and fold their hands behind their backs. The bird appears to be accepting his current state of affairs.
Finally, Bada produced Lotus and Birds on 16 November 1690 (fig.1). In this painting,
Bada carefully represented his transformational idea, and began to produce a series of gradual artistic evolutionary paintings.80 This handscroll conveys his transitional mood through this painting. The painting unfolds his spirit of transition, as it would be a narrative story. The symbolic narrative illustrates two happy birds—possibly the power of the Qing or the Manchu people during that period—and one gloomy, lonely bird—likely Bada Shanren himself. A duck is pushed back into the water by a large plantain leaf. The left leaf and stalk block the scene, while pointing of the artist’s name, Bada Shanren. It seems to express his new desire toward an independent mature artist. His other painting, Lotus and Birds of 1690, also exemplifies the change in his emotional outlook during his transitional phase as he gradually accepted his current circumstances (fig.39).81 The rocks, lotus leaves, and flowers are blended together, hinting at the
78 For more information about Chan Buddhism, especially Chan’s view on mind and Nature, see Liu, Jeeloo, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 304-331. 79 Ellen B. Avril, “Highlights of Chinese art,” Arts of Asia, Vol. 23 no.2 (March/April, 1993): 73. And for more information about his favor of lotus, see the interpretation of Bada’s poem in Sherman E. Lee, “The Two Styles of Chu Ta,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 45, No. 9 (Nov., 1958): 217. For more about Bada’s lotus paintings in 1694, look at Nadine Tynon, “Painting and Politics: Eccentricity and Political Dissent in Zhu Da's Fish and Rocks,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1989): 123-4. 80 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 115-7. 81 Ibid., 118-9. 24 complexity of his emotions. The different kinds of birds, mynas and sparrows, stay in the same place, indicating his acceptance of current life in the society. The painting ends with a lotus that might suggest his more serious devotion to painting, and a conclusion to his emotional crisis. His artistic expressions in terms of composition and brushstrokes become more diverse and creative.
Myna Birds and Rocks of 1690 demonstrates his diverse experiments in bird paintings (fig.64 and fig.40).82 During the transitional period Bada painted many myna birds. Two myna birds (fig.64) seem to reflect Bada’s concerns about his current and future life. Although the left bird, sitting on the rock, looks up at the sky, and the right bird that hangs down its head, while closing its eyes.
They echo the artist’s own emotions. However, from this point onward, it is very hard to find any aggressiveness or anger in his works. Instead, it shows his strong desire to accept his current situation and put his more energy into artistic pursuits. His later works, especially bird and flower paintings, convey no sense of anger but display his artistic confidence. Nonetheless, their gloomy gestures, few strokes’ rock, and one huge tree branch still connote a slight uneasiness to the process of letting go his past life as a Ming loyalist and embracing his new life as a mature artist.
Bada also created powerful simple images by using only the myna birds and rocks (fig.40); the impression of rocks and birds are really strong and powerful with succinct brushstrokes. The rocks, depicted as cliffs as well as isolated floating elements show Bada’s talent in creating distinctive compositions. Staring off in opposite directions, the birds further reflects the artist’s transitive period during the early 1690s.
Bada Shanren’s attempts to abandon his past worries are shown in Birds and Ducks painted in 1690-1 (fig.65-fig.68).83 The first two scenes are quite similar to the previous work,
Myna Birds and Rocks; even though the two birds are replaced by ducks, the theme and general
82 Ibid., 121. 83 Ibid., 121-122. 25 appearance is very similar. Bada further added new elements to the painting. These scrolls share the same narrative sequence with those of previous paintings. The sparrows, rocks, and plantain are unstably positioned atop tall narrow rocks and powerless plantains (fig.67). Overall, the painting implies Bada’s own powerlessness and loneliness a member of the collapsed Ming imperial lineage. Bada represented his emotional change of heart in the conclusion of the scroll.
The two sparrows reflect Bada’s strong desire to overcome his past; they try to meet each other and converse (fig.68). The upper sparrow located beneath the huge rocks might be Bada Shanren himself, struggling under a huge burden. The other sparrow however comes to aid him escape.
These kinds of narratives are continuously illustrated after 1690, even though Bada chose to represent different subjects.
As seen, Bada’s paintings gradually transform from expressions of anger to expressions of an independent mature artist. His paintings become much calmer than previous ones, and achieve his own distinctive style in terms of brushstrokes and compositions. Like the Lotus and
Birds (fig.1) of 1690, Bada freely transformed the two-dimensional pictorial surface into his own creational space.84 There are three huge rocks in Birds, Bamboo, and Rocks of 1692 (fig.42); one plain-like rock is located on the bottom, and two rocks are posited in the middle of the scroll.85
The space occupied by the two birds remains ambiguous. They could be floating in the sky just as easily as standing on a ground. The floating two rocks seem to represent his previous oppressed life, but the burden is about to get away from him, because the birds are about to free themselves
84 For more meaning of birds in a lotus pond, look at Vito Giacolone, “Chu Ta (1626-1705): Toward an Understanding of His Art,” Oriental Art, Summer, 1975: 145. 85 For more information about Bada’s bird and flower paintings after 1690s, see Zhu Da, Badashanren quanji, Vol. 1-5, Supl (Nanchang: Jiangxi meishu chubanshe, 2000), 1691’s work in Vol. 1 page 214-217, 1693’s work in Vol. 2 page 268, 1694’s work in Vol. 2 page 340-3, 1695’s work in Vol.2 page 405, 1696’s work in Vol.2 page 409, and 1705’s work in Vol. 2 page 644. Also, for more information about Bada’s 1692’s work, see James Cahill, The Painter’s Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 9. 26 from past worries. Bada thus brilliantly created two kinds of compositions within the same space.
Bada’s works during the early 1690s hence show his transitional stage from the emotional turmoil to the desire to overcome his current situation and become a mature artist. Bada focused on producing his art instead of denying his current life in the Qing dynasty. Obviously, his painting,
Lotus and Birds, painted in 1692-94, is more constrictive than previous works (fig.44).86 His studying of the past landscape painting styles would help his improved development in bird and flower paintings. Bada also found a new way to paint along with his new experiments in calligraphy during the early 1690s.87 His bird and flower paintings thus simultaneously adopt the composition of the landscape painting and expressive qualities of the calligraphic manner (fig.69- fig.70).88
Conclusion
Bada Shanren began to produce more developed bird and flower paintings after the late
1680s. From the late 1680s, the gestures and gazes of animals share an intense psychological effect absent in his earlier paintings. Although the facial expressions and bodily gestures of these animals remain slightly uncomfortable, they are nonetheless less angry than those in previous examples. His birds are also represented in a much simpler and more abstract manner. Bada expanded his painting subjects including landscapes and calligraphy after the early 1690s, which I
86 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 137. 87 Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 14-15. 88 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 152-3. For more information about Bada’s works from 1692 to 1695, see Eugene Eoyang, “Bada Shanren: Traditional Iconoclast and Riddler of the Past,” Essays in Romanticism, Vol. 7, 1999: 65. 27 will discuss in the next chapter.89 More importantly, Bada started to accept his current circumstances and strove to accomplish his distinctive artistic style. Lotus and Birds handscroll, dated to 1690, in the Cincinnati Art Museum epitomizes his transitional period into a fully mature artist. The painting style of the scroll is significantly more constructive and narrative than in previous works. He also examined more varied subjects after the early 1690s. Finally, after the middle 1690s, Bada Shanren achieved his artistic maturity as one of the prominent masters in the bird and flower genre in China. Therefore, the period from the late 1680s to the early 1690s, and especially the year 1690, delineates Bada Shanren’s transitional period. Lotus and Birds in
Cincinnati is one of the most significant paintings, demonstrating how changes in his attitudes and painting styles let him to become an independent mature artist.
89 Wen Fong, “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 13. 28
Chapter Two
Bada Shanren as an Eccentric Individualist and the Philosophical Syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in His Art
Bada Shanren as One of the Eccentric Individualists
Although Bada Shanren’s identity as an eccentric individualist is not a main concern in this paper, this section will briefly deal with the eccentric aspects of Bada’s life by considering the arguments of other scholars. First, I would like to define the term “eccentric.” Basically, an eccentric means that a person who has a peculiar or unusual behavior or personality. Eccentric behaviors do not necessarily entail madness. Eccentric artists produce somewhat unique and unusual artworks, but they do not deny or destroy historical themes and styles. In this section, I will propose that Bada Shanren was one of many eccentric individualists of the late Ming and the early Qing dynasty.
Bada’s eccentricity in his life and art was already well known among his contemporaries. Some people believed that Bada was mad. Among them, Bada Shanren’s contemporary biographer, Zhen Ding, even noted that “I have asked people from his village, and they all said: ‘He accomplished it while he was drunk,’ Alas! Alas! One can get drunk as he did, but not crazy as he was.”90 Moreover, Hu Yitang’s son-in-law, Qiu Lien addressed Bada Sharen’s
90 Nadine Tynon, “Painting and Politics: Eccentricity and Political Dissent in Zhu Da's Fish and Rocks,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1989): 104. It was quoted in Mae Anna Pang, Zhu Da the Mad Monk Painter, exhibition, catalogue (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1985), 1. 29 madness in 1679, saying, “I have heard that Xuege [i.e. Bada] became mentally disordered and returned to Fengxin. I suspect that it was under some pretext.”91 During this period, Bada represented his frustration as a Chan monk in the colophon of Huang Anping’s portrait, and he began to show eccentric behavior in order to leave the Buddhist life.92 However, many early Qing and current scholars have suggested that his madness was only feigned. Zhen Ding queried,
“Shanren was really crazy! But how then can the productions of his brush have such strength?”93
Based on Wang Fangyu’s book, Shao Changheng interviewed Bada in 1688 or 1689 at Beilansi
(Northern Orchid Temple), where is in north of Nanchang. Shao stated that “Bada was so overwhelmed by the desire to express himself that he used first his hands and then brush and paper to communicate:”94 Shao also recorded:
“Upon meeting each other we shook hands. He gave me a long look, then roared with laughter. At night we stayed in the temple; clipping the candle we conversed. Shanren was uncontrollably excited, so he used hand language. When he could no longer make himself understand in this manner, he asked for a brush to write on the table to converse. Even though the candle exposed its wick, we were not tired.”95
91 James Cahill, “The “Madness” in Bada Shanren’s Paintings,” Ajia bunka kenkyu, Vol. 17 (March, 1989): 120. Cahill has said that the translation was based on a rendering by Wang Fangyu, and it is in Qiu Lien’s “Poems by the Monk Chaoze,” written in 1679. 92 Ellen B. Avril, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum, with Contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum, 1997), 75. 93 Nadine Tynon, “Painting and Politics: Eccentricity and Political Dissent in Zhu Da's Fish and Rocks,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1989): 104. It was also quoted in Mae Anna Pang, Zhu Da the Mad Monk Painter, exhibition catalogue, (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1985), 1. 94 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 24. 95 Ibid., 24. Shao Changheng, in Bada Shanren lunji: 527-8. According to Wang Fangyu, he says that some scholars have believed that this meeting took place in 1690 (see, for example, Wu Tong, Bada Shanren lunji, 26), but according to Shao’s preface to his Qingmen lugao, published about 1693, in which the biography of Bada Shanren appears, he returned to his home in Wujin (present-day Changzhou), Jiangsu, in summer 1689. 30
James Cahill has dealt with Bada’s so-called madness in his essay. He has argued that
“pretending or enacting madness as a desperate expedient for placing oneself outside normal expectations of engagement with society or to escape suspicion of involvement in anti- government activity or even of expression loyalist sentiments, was a long-established practice in
China, for which many noted men, artists among them, could serve as models.”96 Li Dan explains that Bada’s first recorded madness appeared at the end of his stay in the magistrate of Linchuan
Hu Yitang. 97 The Qing government forced Bada to take the Boxue Hongci examination in 1679, and Bada feigned insanity in order to avoid becoming a Qing official. 98 However, Wu Tung claims that “Bada’s outbreak of madness in 1680 was unrelated to his stay with Hu Yitang,” and his decision to finish the Buddhist life and return to secular life is related to proclaim his Ming imperial lineage.99 Cahill has moreover suggested that Bada Shanren’s insanity is “theatrical madness.”100
Further evidence supports the argument that Bada’s madness was indeed feigned. Bada himself confessed that he had pretended to be mad, and he talked about his lunacy in his works.
Richard Barnhart conveys Bada’s pretend madness by using his poem that Bada confessed his feigned craziness by his own purpose.101 Wang Fangyu provides some specific examples about
96 James Cahill, “The “Madness” in Bada Shanren’s Paintings,” Ajia bunka kenkyu, Vol. 17 (March, 1989): 119. 97 Ibid., 119. It was quoted in Li Dan, “Bada Shanren zongkao ji Niu Shihui kao” (Investigations of Bada Shanren and Niu Shihui), Wenwu, 1960, no. 7: 35-42. 98 Li Dan, “Bada Shanren zongkao ji Niu Shihui kao” (Investigations of Bada Shanren and Niu Shihui), Wenwu, 1960, no. 7: 35-42. 99 James Cahill, “The “Madness” in Bada Shanren’s Paintings,” Ajia bunka kenkyu, Vol. 17 (March, 1989): 119-120. It was quoted in Chiu Ling-yeong and Fang Chaoying, “Chu Ta,” in L. Carrington Goodrich and Fang Chao-ying, et al., ed., Dictionary of Ming Biography (New York, 1976) 1: 354-55. 100 James Cahill, “The “Madness” in Bada Shanren’s Paintings,” Ajia bunka kenkyu, Vol. 17 (March, 1989): 119. 101 Richard M. Barnhart, Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press; Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1977), 256. 31
Bada’s affected madness.102 According to Wang, Bada noted in an album of poems, which was done from 1682 that “there is a guest at Yuzhang [Nanchang] gate, / I pretend to be mad and talk to the flying swallows.”103 Another poem also shows his affected madness in Landscapes,
Flower, and Calligraphy in 1699.104 The poem reads:
“I still use a fine brush to make sketches of life, The “face” even not is not too bad. Feigning madness, covered with wine like Gan Fengzi, And he who left Fangzhou –“Three Flowers” (Sanduohua).” (Translation by Richard M. Barnhart)105
Wang Fangyu has mentioned, “Gan Fengzi was an eccentric Song painter who was often drunk on wine and at times pretended to be mad. The first character in the painter’s name, gan 甘， means “to be willing,” so the line can also be translated as “I am willing to be considered a mad man” in the poem.”106 Bada’s eccentricity could be a political action and anti-social actions.107
James Cahill claims that eccentric art begins during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, supported by Dong Qichang.108 Cahill illustrates that fantastic and bizarre masters were well known during the late Ming period, while showing Xu Wei and Chen Hongshou’s styles.109
Prominent two well-known Chan monks, Shide and Hanshan, who reveal Bada’s engagement
102 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 42. 103 Ibid., 42. 104 Ibid., 190. 105 Ibid., 191. 106 Ibid., 42. 107 Nadine Tynon, “Painting and Politics: Eccentricity and Political Dissent in Zhu Da's Fish and Rocks,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1989): 100-108. 108 James Cahill, Fantastics and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting (New York: Asia Society; distributed by Abrams, 1967), 10-36. 109 Ibid., 16, 36. 32 with Chan Buddhism, might also inspire Bada Shanren’s eccentric behavior.110 It is thus assumed that Bada Shanren’s madness was purposefully feigned and was one of the well-known reactions during the late Ming to the early Qing period.
Eccentricity is moreover considered as an important concept in Chinese art, and eccentric masters were paragons of the eclectic literati attitude of “spontaneity and creativity, which originally from Chan Buddhism and Daoism.”111 A number of scholars have supported the argument that the eccentric individualism is a social and cultural mode of expression in the early
Qing dynasty. Nelson Wu has explored the social background of the Qing dynasty, and suggests that many scholars and artists did indeed have eccentric behaviors, and the early Qing’s social mode enhance this fashion.112 Wu describes one direct case about Fu Shan (1607-1684), who was forced to become a Qing official in 1678 and headed to Beijing.113 Bada Shanren and Shitao were in the same situation as Fu Shan, and in order to avoid Qing pressure, Bada pretended to be mad.114 Vito Giacolone further argues that Bada was one of the most innovative individualists, and that “he and the Individualist painters developed expressionistic contents, minimal forms, and constructivist concepts, leading ultimately to an early manifestation of abstraction.”115 Eccentric individualism was thus highly popular during the early Qing dynasty. It would seem only natural for Bada Shanren to adopt this socially accepted demeanor.
110 For more about Shide and Hanshan, see Helmut Brinker, Zen in the Art of Painting. Translated by George Campbell (London; New York: Arkana, 1987), 70-76. 111 Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, The Eccentric Painters of China: [Exhibition, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, January 21-March 5, 1965] (Ithaca, N. Y.: Andrew Dickson Whiter Museum of Art, 1965), 3. 112 Nelson I. Wu, “The Toleration of Eccentrics,” ARTnews, Vol. 56 (1957): 26-29. 113 Ibid., 29. 114 Richard Vinograd, “Origins and Presences: Notes on the Psychology and Society of Shitao’s Dreams,” Ars Orientalis, Vol. 25. Chinese Painting (1995): 69. 115 Vito Giacolone, “Chu Ta (1626-1705): Toward an Understanding of His Art,” Oriental Art, Summer, 1975: 140-2. 33
Historical and Philosophical Syncretism in Bada Shanren’s Artworks
Bada Shanren’s various life careers as a Confucian scholar, Chan Buddhist monk, and artist enable him to study Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. During his early period, he sought to become a Confucian scholar by studying traditional Confucian texts and enjoying painting and calligraphy, while preparing a civil service examination. After the collapse of the
Ming dynasty, however, he was forced to become a Chan Buddhist monk. In this section, I will propose that how Bada Shanren’s life and art uniquely syncretize these prominent philosophical concepts. First, this paper will examine his persistent use of Buddhist-related names even though he returned to the secular life as a professional artist in the early 1680s. It is almost impossible to divide his artworks into three distinct parts each reflecting a single philosophy because in truth these concepts are fused together through his paintings. Nonetheless, for the sake of clarity I will try to divide this section into two parts: in which one is a continuous relationship with Buddhism, and the other is syncretic references of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism through Bada
Shanren’s art.
1. Buddhist Aspects in Bada Shanren’s Art
His Continuous Use of Buddhist-related Names and Seals
Although Bada Sharen returned to the secular life after the early 1680s, his continuous relationship with Chan Buddhism is still revealed, using Buddhist names and seals. When he belonged to the Chan temple, he would not seem to be satisfied with his life, even though he 34 spent much time studying Buddhist practices and doctrines, and also he showed his great talent in
Chan sect. Bada attempted to resign his Chan monk position, and finally he returned to the mundane world as an individual artist in the early 1680s. He, however, continuously used
Buddhist-related names and seals until his death in 1705, which suggest his continuous conversation with Buddhism.
First, Bada’s use of Buddhist names and seals during his monk period demonstrates his direct relationship with Buddhism. In his lifetime Bada adopted about twenty different names.
When he became a monk at the Caodong sect of Chan Buddhism, he mostly referred to him as
Chuanqi (傳綮) until his staying in the temple, in 1680 (fig.71-fig.72).116 He had another
Buddhist name, Fajue (法堀), that is assumed that he gained this name when he became a monk in 1648, and he was known as Xuege (雪個) among his friends.117 Bada also used some Buddhist- related seals; the first seal, ku Fo chao (枯佛巢), that means “a dried Buddhist nest” from 1659 to
1660, Jingturen (淨土人) that means “Person of the Pure Land” from 1659 to 1965, Fajue (法堀) from 1660 to 1674, shi Chuanqi yin (釋傳綮印) that means “seal of Monk Chuanqi” from 1659 to 1678, Gengxiang (耕香) that means “Temple for Cultivating Fragrance” from 1666 to 1671,
Dengshe Qina (燈社綮衲) that means “Monk Qi of the Lantern Society” in 1678, Fo dizi (佛弟子) that means “disciple of Buddha” in 1678.118
Moreover, after resigning the Chan monk position, he continuously referred to him as
116 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 246, 251. 117 Wang, Fangyu, “The Life and Art of Bada Shanren,” in Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 30-31. 118 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 245-247. 35
Bada Sharen (八大山人) from 1684 to 1705, Zaifu (在芙) from 1691-92, Zaifu shanfang (在芙山
房) from 1692-96, Heyuan (何園) from 1699 to 1705, and Shide (拾得) and Shide (十㝵) from
1702 to 1705, while using these seals and signatures (fig.73-fig.83).119 Wang Fangyu suggests that the use of names, Bada Shanren and Shide, reflect, “his thoughts remained centered in
Buddhism, although he had long since discarded his monk’s robes.”120 Wang has argued that a more credible explanation of the name is given in a colophon to Nanchang xianzhi (Annals of
Nanchang), and Bada Shanren saw a written copy of the Ba da renjuejing (八大人覺經, Sutra of the Eight Great Human Realizations) by Zhao Mengfu, and Bada admired the piece and thus he adopted these two characters, ba da (八大), as his name that is shown in “Calligraphy Colophon to sutra (Ba da renjuejing)” of 1692 (fig.84).121 The sutra, Ba da renjuejing that is about the eight awareness of Buddha and Bodhisattvas and was translated by An Shigao (安世高) during the second century in the Han dynasty.122 An Shigao was actually the prince of the Parthian Empire
(安息國, Anxiguo), but he became a monk and translated many Buddhist texts in Chinese.123
Long Kebao also mentioned that Bada Shanren took the title of this sutra as his name.124
Moreover, it might be possible that his use of bada comes from the Eight Great Sacred Sites
(bada shengdi, 八大聖地), where have been known in China since the eighth century, and his
119 Ibid., 246-250. 120 Ibid., 31. 121 Ibid., 32 and 261. 122 T17n0779_p0715b01(00) - The t17n0779_p0715c03 (00), last Modified March 11, 2012. http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T17/0779_001.htm. For more about Ba da renjuejing (八大人覺經) and the contents of the sutra, see Taibeishi huiju chubanshe, Fo shuo ba da ren jue jing shu (Taipei: Taibeishi caituan faren huiju chubanshe, 1976). 123 Taibeishi huiju chubanshe, Foshuo bada renjujing shu (Taipei: Taibeishi caituan faren huiju chubanshe, 1976), 1. 124 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 32 and 261. 36 name also reflects the eight events of the life of the historical Buddha, Syakamuni.125 It is possible that his use of Bada Sharen comes from the Daoist or Neo-Confucian idea because the name literally means “Mountain Man of Eight Greatness” that seems to indicate the reclusive attitude from Daoism and Neo-Confucianism.126 He also used the seals of Zaifu (在芙) that means “In the Lotus” from 1691-92, Zaifu shanfang (在芙山房) that means “Mountain Studio in the Lotus” from 1692-96, Heyuan (何園) that means “Lotus Garden” from 1699 to 1705 and
Shide (拾得) and Shide (十㝵) from 1702 to 1705. He especially referred him as Shide (拾得), who was known as one of the Chan Buddhist sages in the eighth century; Shide usually accompanied with his companion, Hanshan, and they had known because of their eccentric behavior.127 Therefore, his use of Buddhist related names from the late 1640s until his death in
1705 indicate his continuous conversation with Buddhism, and especially referring himself as
Bada Shanren and Shide suggests that Bada still kept his Buddhist idea in his life and art, although he left the Chan Buddhist temple in 1680.
Brief History of Chan Buddhism
Chan Buddhism developed between the sixth and the eighth century in China.128 It did not originate in the Chinese appropriation of Indian Buddhist texts, but could be traced to the
125 For more about the Eight Great Sacred Sites, see Youn-mi Kim, “Pagodas on the Pagoda: Microcosm of the Buddhist Universe” in Eternal Ritual in the Infinite Cosmos: The Chaoyang North Pagoda (1043-1044) (PhD diss., Harvard University, Cambridge, 2010), 33-34. 126 Wen Fong. “Stages in the Life and Art of Chu Ta (A.D. 1626-1705),” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 40 (1987): 8. 127 For more about Shide and Hanshan, see Helmut Brinker, Zen in the Art of Painting. Translated by George Campbell (London; New York: Arkana, 1987), 70-76. 128 Jeeloo Liu, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub, 2006), 304. 37
Indian Buddhist practices.129 The heritage of Chan Buddhism was not clearly established, but the teaching of it originated from India. Chan teaching did not particularly rely on written sutras; instead it was orally continued from one patriarch to another.130 The twenty-eighth patriarch
Bodhidharma (470-543) brought this teaching to China in the sixth century, and Chinese Chan
School assumed him as the First Patriarch.131 Chan Buddhism was supported by Tang court, which contributed to the establishment of the Chan sect.132 Its lineage continued with Huike (487-
593), Sengcan (dates unknown), Daoxin (580-636), and Hongren (601-674).133 After the fifth patriarch, Hongren, the Chan School was divided into two schools, the Northern School that
Shenxiu (605-706) was a leader and the Southern School that was controlled by Huineng (638-
713). Simply, the Northern School emphasized the gradual paradigm, but the Southern School explicated the importance of sudden enlightenment.134 Huineng’s Southern School was recognized by the Chinese royal court and began to more develop in the Tang dynasty.135 The
Southern School also has two kinds of schools, Linji School and Caodong School, and Chan
129 Peter D. Hershock, Chan Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 66. 130 Jeeloo Liu, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub, 2006), 304. 131 Ibid., 304. 132 Hu Shih, “Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism in China Its History and Method,” Philosophy East and West, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Apr., 1953): 5. For more about Chan Buddhist doctrines such as Chan’s self-cultivation, Xiaolian Liu, “A Journey of the Mind: The Basic Allegory in Hou Xiyou ji,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), Vol. 13 (Dec., 1991): 36. 133 John R. McRae, Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 2-3. 134 For more about the two paradigms, see Mario Poceski, Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hangzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 194-198. And For more about the relationship between language and non-language in Chan Buddhism, see Youru Wang, “Liberating Oneself from the Absolutized Boundary of Language: A Liminological Approach to the Interplay of Speech and Silence in Chan Buddhism,” Philosophy East and West, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Jan., 2001); 83-99. 135 Jeeloo, Liu. An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 305. 38
Buddhism flourished during the Song dynasty.136 The decreased government, however, supported for the Chan Buddhism, Chan teachers distributed their concepts to literati, who were beginning to practice Chan meditation.137 James Cahill has proposed that the styles of Chan paintings were absorbed into literati painting after the Yuan dynasty, which might be possible to obtain some clues how the concepts and styles of Chan paintings were transmitted to later literati painters.138
Although Chan Buddhism was slightly declined in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it still continued in China.139 A temple of Caodong School also was the place where Bada Shanren stayed for thirty years as a monk after the collapse of the Ming dynasty. One of the Caodong practices is “silent illumination,” and according to Jeeloo Liu, the Southern School’s theologies faithfully followed the notion of the innately pure, vacuous, radiant mind without any defilements and its view on mind and nature is somewhat related to Daoism, which entail one of the reasons why many
136 John R. McRae, Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 11-21. For more about Caodong school and its transition to Japan as a Soto school, see Mario Poceski, Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hangzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 112-113. 137 John R. McRae, Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 134-135. 138 James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 24-35. For more about Chan Buddhism and Caodong school in the Yuan dynasty, see Valentina Boretti, “The Quasi-Genderless Heresy: The Dhūtaists and Master Jizhao,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 67,No. 3 (2004): 349, 359.
139 Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1964), 434-454. For information about Chan Buddhism about lineage, history, and patronage, see Sylvan Barnet, Zen Ink Paintings (Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1982), 8, John R. McRae, Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 103-118, Liu, Jeeloo, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 304-331, Mario Poceski, Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), Hu Shih, “Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism in China Its History and Method,” Philosophy East and West, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Apr., 1953): 3-24, and Albert Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendency of Chan Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 209-219. 39 literati had paid attention to the Chan Buddhism since the late Song period.140 Chan Buddhism and Daoism influenced southern Song literati scholars, and Chan Buddhism in some sense intermingled with Confucianism and Daoism.141 These environments enabled many literati to engage with Chan Buddhism. The cultural background and the Ming dynasty’s collapse could thus lead Bada Shanren to find a shelter in a temple, and became a Chan monk of the Caodong sect in 1653.
Buddhist Motifs and Concepts in His Bird and Flower Painting
Bada Shanren reflected Buddhist motifs and concepts through his artworks. Bada obviously expressed a Buddhist-related theme in his early period’s works; he mostly painted everyday life objects including pomegranates, flowers, vegetables, and most importantly lotus.
Without saying it, lotus is one of the representative motifs in Buddhism that symbolizes purity.
After he returned to the secular world around 1680, Bada began to deal with various kinds of subjects such as animals, flowers, and insects, and he had also developed his art since the early
1690s. Bada expanded his painting subject and improved his style toward the mature style, while retaining lotus motifs in his art. His use of lotus motif is moreover occupying the much larger portion of the whole composition and his lotus paintings are still appeared in 1705, which indicates his continuous connection with Buddhism. Bada Shanren thus continuously adopted the
Buddhist motifs until his death in 1705. This paper also proposes that his distinctive artistic
140 John R. McRae, Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 134. For more about Caodong (Soto) School, see William M. Bodiford, “Dharma Transmission in Soto Zen. Manzan Dohaku's Reform Movement,” Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Winter, 1991): 423. 141 Valorie Malenfer Ortiz, Dreaming the Southern Song Landscape: the Power of Illusion in Chinese Painting (Boston: Brill, 1999), 8, and Helmut Brinker, Hiroshi Kanazawa, Andreas Leisinger, “Zen Masters of Meditation in Images and Writings,” Artibus Asiae, Supplementum, Vol. 40 (1996): 11-16, and Peter D. Hershock, Chan Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005). For more about Buddhism and Daoism in the Yuan dynasty, see Ping Shao, “Huineng, Subhūti, and Monkey's Religion in "Xiyou ji,” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 2006): 713-740. 40 vocabulary may be inspired from Chan Buddhist concepts. Among important doctrines in the
Southern School of Chan Buddhism is the concept of “Sudden Enlightenment,” and Chan
Buddhism emphasized illogical and unconventional approaches and inner harmony in daily activity.142 These Chan Buddhist ideas would seem to become one of the factors that encourage him to create his own spontaneous and expressive style and to choose everyday life subjects such as mynas, vegetables, flowers, and animals through his art.
The earliest extant lotus painting appears from 1665 (fig.23-fig.26)143 Bada’s use of lotus theme is retained until his death in 1705, while playing with various aspects of lotus flowers in his pictorial space.144 Lotus is one of the important iconographies in Buddhism as a symbol of absolute purity and renunciation because it grows from the dark watery mire but the lotus blossom is untainted or unstained.145 Like Wang Fangyu’s comments, Bada Shanren created his early works within the imaginative space in these works.146Bada placed lotus flowers in the edges of the album, instead of representing in the center, which deliberately leave the place where viewers or a painter himself are able to engage with the scene, while feeling that they are surrounded by the lotus flowers in Buddhist world. During his early Buddhist years, Bada
142 Jan Fontein and Money L. Hickman. Zen Painting ET Calligraphy; An Exhibition of Works of Art Lent by Temples, Private Collectors, and Public and Private Museums in Japan, Organized in Collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970), XVI, and Chang, Chung-yuan, Original Teachings of Ch’an Buddhism: Selected from the Transmission of the Lamp (New York: Pantheon Books, 1969), 129-147, 174-181. 143 Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 31- 34. 144 Richard M. Barnhart, “Reading the Paintings and Calligraphy of Bada Shanren,” in Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 84 145 Robert Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), 37-38, and 173. 146 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 50. 41 especially focused on everyday life objects including flowers and fruits that are related to Chan’s concept, inner harmony in everyday activity. Bada might also represent his Buddhist ideology through these objects to express his wish, obtaining Buddhist learning through practicing paintings. This kind of practice was common for Chan monks. One of the prominent monks,
Muqi, who was a Chan monk during the Southern Song dynasty, produced monochrome ink paintings of everyday life objects in his Drawings from Life: Birds, Vegetables, and Flowers of
1265 (fig.85).147 These vegetables in the handscroll illustrate how Muqi was interested in normal objects and how he described them in simple but distinctive ways. Muqi’s Pomegranates looks less realistic but contains the essence as his own visual language (fig.86).148 Muqi’s Hibiscus also is illustrated in simple monochrome ink, but it reflects some important and unique characteristics of Hibiscus (fig. 87).149 James Cahill has stated that from the Southern Song period artists invested the mundane objects as their representation of metaphorical meaning.150Although there are a few survived works during his Buddhist period, Bada painted Pomegranates of 1659, Ink
Flowers of 1666, and Flowers of 1671, which reflect his interest and adaptation of Chan Buddhist concept through his works (fig.88, fig.27, and fig.28).151
In the early 1680s, Bada Shanren finally resigned his monk position and returned to the mundane world. However, interestingly and somewhat ironically, he unceasingly contained
147 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 28. 148 Ibid., 34 149 Ibid., 29. 150 James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644 (New York: Weatherhill, 1982), 5-13. 151 Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 497, and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 46-47. 42
Buddhist themes, especially lotus, while engaging more deeply with the Chan Buddhist theology and philosophy in his art. During this period, Bada expanded his boundaries of choosing subjects into various animals and insects, which are an extension of his Buddhist monk period (fig.31, fig.33, and fig.62).152 Bada’s Quince of 1689, Quince of 1690, and Flowers, Buddha’s Hand
Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod of 1692 moreover support his continuation of Chan Buddhist idea (fig.89-fig.91).153 Richard Barnhart suggests that Quince Forest (Mugualin) was the place where Shakyamuni and his disciples lived on the eve of the Buddha’s enlightenment and the quince is a symbol of protecting the dharma law of Buddhism, which is similar in appearance to the citron known as Buddha’s hand (foshou, 佛手).154
Bada frequently chose the lotus theme in his bird and flower paintings from 1690. He painted various types of lotus leaves and flowers in Lotus and Birds of 1690 (fig.1);155 he conveyed his creative use of well known Buddhist symbol, lotus; its flowers, stalks, leaves, and a pod create the dynamic spontaneous movement and deep spatial effect, while overlapping elements and expressing speeds. It is related to the spontaneity and simplicity of the Chan doctrine, which transmitted to the Chan paintings including figure paintings. The self-cultivation, self-realization, and self-expression of Chan Buddhism would also seem to be expressed through this handscroll.156 Bada Shanren’s paintings have thus been able to flourish because of Chan
152 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 90, 93, and 99. 153 Ibid., 105 and 111, and Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 47. 154 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 112. 155 Ellen B. Avril, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum, with Contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum, 1997), 98-99. 156 James Cahill, Three Alternative Histories of Chinese Painting (Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1988), 100-101, Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and 43
Buddhism, and he would seem to be inspired by Chan monks including Liang Kai and Muqi of the Southern Song period.157
He also represented the overwhelming lotus leaves and flowers with wet dark ink, and the satin material enhances the spreading and blending effect in another Lotus and Birds of 1690
(fig.39).158 More importantly, the final motif of the painting is lotus flowers, leaves, and stalks, which indicate his unavoidable engagement with Buddhist concept although he stayed in the secular world. His overwhelming lotus occurs more abstract and simpler in Birds and Ducks of
1690-91 (fig.68); the lotus leaves are almost intermingled together, and their shapes are rarely recognized because of the repetition of dark wet dots.159 The lotus stalks are also overlapping each other, which are difficult to distinguish which brush represents a rock or a stalk. His other lotus painting, Lotus and Duck of 1690-92, shows another kind of experiments in terms of gradational ink effect and various compositional play (fig.41).160 Bada moreover reflected his reminiscence of his past favorite subjects including flowers, lotus, and pomegranate in an album format in 1692. His Withered lotus leaf album, dated in1692, is almost same compared to his one of the earliest paintings of 1665, but the early lotus painting of 1665 now seems to be illustrated as the withered lotus (fig.92 and fig.24).161 He also continuously painted pomegranates, lotuses,
Calligraphy, 8th-14th Century (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 348, and Edmund Capon, Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, XIV-XXth Centuries, Catalogue Written by Edmund Capon and Mae Anna Pang (Sydney: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, 1981), 16. 157 Jan Fontein, Zen Painting et Calligraphy; An Exhibition of Works of Art Lent by Temples, Private Collectors, and Public and Private Museums in Japan, Organized in Collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970), 32. 158 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 118-9. 159 Ibid., 122 160 Ibid., 125. 161 Ibid., 132. 44 hibiscus, and chrysanthemums that he usually had dealt with them since his earlier years (fig.93- fig.97).162
Bada’s play with lotus flowers is, moreover, appeared in a new way; first, he frequently used a hanging scroll format, and second, he especially composed a large overwhelming lotus leaves and stalks in his paintings. There are two tiny little birds on the rock, while resting under the huge umbrella-like lotuses in Lotus and Birds, dated to 1692-1694 (fig.44).163 Although the sizes of duck’s body and lotus leaves in the previous painting, Lotus and Duck of 1690-92
(fig.41) have quite appropriate and somewhat realistic proportion, the overall proportion of the small birds and lotuses in Lotus and Birds, dated in 1692-94, is intentionally exaggerated in an extremely tiny size. On the contrary, the size of lotus is also illustrated in a huge size, expressing
Bada’s continuous Buddhist aspects in his life. The small bird can be Bada Shanren, himself, and the protective gesture of tremendously huge lotus leaves and flowers seem to represent a peaceful
Buddhist world. The canopy-like overlapped lotus leaves and their stalks that are completely covering two birds enhance this feeling. Bada, moreover, used the seal Zaifu (在芙) in 1691 and the name Zaifu shanfang (在芙山房, Mountain Studio in the Lotus) from 1692-96 that support his retained Buddhist tradition. Richard Barnhart has suggested that Bada’s many lotus works between 1690 and 1694 are “the visual embodiments of his name and identity” during that period.164 Bada created the same distinctive canopy-like lotus composition in Lotus, Birds, and
162 Ibid., 132 and 134. 163 Ibid., 137. 164 Ibid., 137. 45
Rocks of 1694, which demonstrates that he created this kind of creative composition in order to represent his wish, gaining peace in the Buddhist world (fig.98).165
Bada’s continuous use of lotus theme is also appeared in his later works. He only employed a simple rock, various lotus leaves, and lotus flowers in Lotus and Rock, dated to 1694-
95 (fig.99).166 He still dealt with lotus subjects in an album work of Lotus (fig.100).167 However,
Bada’s lotus leaves, flowers, and stalks strongly reflect his abstract manner with wet wash brushstrokes, the concise lines of flowers, and the composition of the album share the similar artistic vocabulary with his other lotus album of 1665 (fig.23). Bada’s pursuing peace under the
Buddhist world would seem to be represented in the Bird and Lotus leaf in the album, Orchid and
Rock, Bird and Lotus of 1700 (fig.101).168 During his later period, Bada conveyed his new interest in traditional landscape paintings including those of Dong Yuan, Dong Qichang, and Ni
Zan, and his deeper study about past poetry and calligraphy, which I will discuss in the next section. While focusing more on these studies, Bada retained to paint one of his favorite themes, lotus. He, however, illustrated his lotus painting in slightly different way. There is a small bird that is sitting on the rock, where is covered with soft grass-like materials. Bada’s bird is not sitting on the tough hard rock that is frequently appeared in his earlier works. Instead, it is sitting on the soft surface, which might reflect his obtained peace during his later years. The single long lotus stalk also bends down and is gently touching the back of the tiny bird that is perhaps the representation of Bada Shanren himself.
165 Ibid., 147. 166 Ibid., 156. 167 Ibid., 158. 168 Ibid., 193. 46
During his final years from 1703 to 1705, Bada still produced Buddhist-related paintings in his own concise and distinctive style. He painted Lotus Root and Buddha’s Hand Citron with the control of quick dry brushstrokes (fig.102-fig.103).169 These paintings reference his masterful skill in terms of managing space. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds, dated in 1703, contains the essence of the subject. Finally, Bada’s Lotus painting that was executed in his final year 1705 is demonstrated in tall strong lotuses (fig.60).170 The shape of lotus leaves are vary; the two left wet profiled leaves support the lotus flower, the whole middle lotus leaves are intermingled with each other, while using the less wet dark ink, and the right lotus leaves are getting dry compared to previous ones. Bada horizontally organized the various shapes of lotus leaves with different ink tones and ink washes, but he simultaneously reorganized the vertical composition of lotus leaves; the bottom lotus leaves are painted in thick black wet ink wash, the middle and the top parts of leaves are getting less dense than the frontal leaves, showing some sense of lotus stems. He moreover brilliantly managed the thick black lotus leaves by placing the light gray lotus in the middle of the right part of the whole ones, which controls the popup effect of heavy black and dark gray leaves, while creating a balance in a whole composition. The three lotus flowers are also vertically getting bigger that express his desire for much closer approach to the Buddhist paradise. Dawn Mast has noted that Chan painters were trying to express their cosmic insights through their works.171 The cosmic insight of Bada Sharen would seem to be expressed through the lotus theme. His use of diagonal lotus stalks creates the deep spatial effect, and the stalks seem to waver in the wind. The painting does not describe any other objects except lotus, which is one of his favorite themes. The flourishing lotus flowers reflect his acceptance of current
169 Ibid., 210. 170 Ibid., 217. 171 Dawn A. Mast, Symbolism and Iconography in Zen (Ch’an) Buddhist Plant, Animal, and Landscape Painting (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, 1994), 32. 47 circumstances, and it reveals his obtained peace in the Buddhist world.172 This lotus painting thus reflects Bada’s completed mature style in his final year 1705, and expresses his continuous favor of lotus theme throughout his lifetime.
2. Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist Syncretism in Bada Shanren’s Art
Bada Shanren’s Studies from the Historical Artistic Styles and the Synthesis of Neo-
Confucianism, Chan Buddhism, and Daoism into His Art
His reinterpretations from the historical styles and concepts may not be familiar to some scholars. This paper, however, will explore his adaptations of previous masters’ styles and the
Chinese three major philosophies into his art. First, I will consider Bada’s landscape paintings, poetry, and calligraphy. These examinations will offer general backgrounds in order to understand Bada Shanren’s reinterpretation of the three philosophical aspects in his bird and flower paintings including Lotus and Birds of 1690. His study of historical references as one of the basic foundations for his art enable Bada to emerge with his own unique artistic vocabulary.
Bada’s diverse careers provide good environments to contact with various historical sources. When he was young, Bada received an excellent education as a Ming imperial lineage.
His family was wealthy, and both, his grandfather and father, were prominent literati scholars and
172 For more information about his bird and flower paintings, see Zhu Da, Chu Ta: Selected Paintings & Calligraphy: [Exhibition] Vassar College Art Gallery, December 2, 1972-January 28, 1973, The New York Cultural Center (in association with Farleigh Dickinson University) February 28-April 14, 1973 (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Hamilton Reproductions), Li, Huangsheng, Badashanren zhuanqi (Wuhan: Wuhan daxue chubanshe; Taipei: Taiwan Hanxin wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1994), Zhu Da, Badashanren quanji, Vol. 1-5, Supl (Nanchang: Jiangxi meishu chubanshe, 2000), Zhu Da, Badashanren (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 2002), and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, “Recent Additions to the Asiatic Collections,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Vol. 53, No. 294 (Winter, 1955): 77. 48 artists. Bada studied Confucianism to become a knowledgeable literati scholar. After the collapse of the Ming dynasty, however, he forced to become a Chan Buddhist monk in order to survive under the Qing regime as a Ming imperial descendant. Until returning to the secular world in
1680, Bada was already well known as a Chan monk. Without saying it, he could acquire Chan
Buddhist knowledge during his monk period. 173 Bada’s admiration of Daoism could be traced in his poetry and paintings. He adopted Zhuangzi’s theme of transformation, in which natural objects could express human thoughts and feelings.
Bada Shanren’s study of the ancient sources is also illustrated in his poetry. These poems indicate his knowledge of Daoism and Confucianism. Among his numerous poetry, there are two poems are located on the painting, Old Plum of 1682 (fig.29). The first poem reads:
“You know, Wu Zhen, We are far apart from the others, and do not associate with them. Some are on the south side of South Mountain, others are on the north side of North Mountain. When I am old, I may have the chance to barbecue the fish, like King Wu, and take the pledge to wipe out the barbarians.” (Translation by Wang, Fangyu) 174
In this poem, Bada mentioned the reclusive Yuan painter Wu Zhen (1280-1354), who was a Plum
Blossom Daoist, and King Wu, who established the Zhou dynasty in the twelfth century BCE.
Wang explains that the action in which King Wu barbecued a fish symbolizes his resolve to conquer the Shang dynasty.175 The second poem says:
173 Helmut Brinker, Hiroshi Kanazawa, Andreas Leisinger, “Zen Masters of Meditation in Images and Writings,” Artibus Asiae, Supplementum, Vol. 40 (1996): 11-16. 174 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 53-54. 175 Ibid., 53-54. 49
“If we were able to get the roots back, the branches would still be wrong. It has never been that the earth is thin and the sky is fat. When I painted this plum blossom I thought about Zheng Sixiao. How can a monk be like the ancient sages, Boyi and Shuqi, who refused the food the new dynasty?” (Translation by Wang, Fangyu) 176
This poem also addresses the Confucian theme of loyalty and patriotism by mentioning a Song painter, Zheng Sixiao (1241-1318), who refused to serve the Mongols under the succeeding Yuan dynasty. Boyi and Shuqi, who lived at the end of the twelfth century BCE, refused to accept the rule of the Zhou dynasty and they eventually died of hunger as Confucian loyalty. These poems thus reflect Bada Shanren’s situation, refusing the Manchu rule as a Ming imperial descendant.177
These poems also suggest that Bada was familiar with historical texts and was aware of the
Confucianism and Daoism.
Bada’s calligraphy and landscape paintings illustrate his adaptations of the past styles and contents. Wang Fangyu has offered Bada Shanren’s interest about the calligraphy of Dong
Qichang (1555-1636) that had shown since the early 1670s.178 According to Sherman Lee and
Chu-tsing Li, a literati scholar Dong Qichang was “the first innovator of the late Ming individualists,” and Dong’s emphasis of creativity is transmitted to Bada Shanren.179 Bada’s calligraphy in Plum Blossoms, dated in 1677, is very comparable to Dong Qichang’s calligraphy,
176 Ibid., 54. 177 For more information about Bada’s resistance to Manchu, see Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 54-5. 178 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 48. 179 Sherman E. Lee, “The Two Styles of Chu Ta,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 4, No. 9 (Nov., 1958): 219 and Chu-tsing Li, “A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection,” Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 30 (1974): 51-81, 201-202. 50 which is in Colophon to Xingrangtie of 1609 (fig.104-fig.105).180 While Bada adopted the ease, swift, and fluid movement of Dong’s brushstrokes, he admired another well-known Confucius scholar, Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), of the Yuan dynasty.181 Bada expressed his interest in
Daoism and Buddhism through the inscription of 1689’s album painting that contains Zhuangzi’s theme and as well as Buddhism by representing lotus as an important symbol in the Fish, Lotus,
Goldfish, and Bamboo of 1689 (fig.36-fig.37).
Joseph Chang also states Bada’s study of previous masters’ calligraphy, poetry, and seals.182 Bada Shanren’s calligraphy that was produced in 1697 demonstrates his adaptation of the past poet, Song Zhiwen, in the Poem by Song Zhiwen (fig.106).183 Song Zhiwen was a poet during the Early Tang dynasty under the difficult political circumstance.184 In Landscape after
Dong Yuan and Calligraphy, dated to 1693, Bada wrote calligraphy that is a copied work of Chu
Suiliang (596-658), who was the writer in the Tang dynasty (fig.107-fig.108).185 The landscape painting that is accompanied with the Chu’s writing also reveals Bada’s study of Dong Yuan, who was one of the prominent Chinese landscape painters in the tenth century. He emulated Dong
Yuan’s style in Landscape after Dong Yuan of 1696 (fig.109).186 His interest in Tang calligraphy
180 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 45. 181 Ibid., 48, and Ellen B. Avril, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum, with Contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum, 1997), 75, and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 103 182 Chang, Joseph and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Painting s and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art: Smithsonian Institution in association with Weatherhill, Inc., 2003), 6-9. 183 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 179. 184 Ibid., 176. 185 Ibid., 145. 186 Ibid., 165. 51 indicates his knowledge of past Confucian texts, and the lower hill with soft gentle pale brushstrokes of both landscape paintings of 1693 and 1696 illustrates his pursuit of past masters’ artistic styles.
Bada’s growing interest in landscape painting and calligraphy had occurred since 1681.
According to Wang Fangyu, Bada had studied and emulated Dong Qichang’s calligraphy since the early 1670s, and Dong Qichang identified Dong Yuan as a leading master of the Southern
School of landscape painting.187 Based on historical records and extent works, Bada’s first extant landscape painting had been appeared since 1681. The Landscape seems to reflect the Ni Zan’s style in terms of its spare dry brushstrokes and limited forms in overall composition (fig.110- fig.111).188 After this painting, the landscape subject did not appear in Bada’s works until the late
1680s, but he began to produce the landscapes. The overall composition of the painting,
Landscape of 1689-90 is similar to that of the Landscape after Dong Yuan and Calligraphy
(fig.112).189 After 1693, Bada frequently dealt with the landscape subjects until his later years.
Although his many extant landscape paintings experimented the Dong Yuan’s style, Bada’s historical adaptations of the past masters’ landscape painting styles were not limited in that of
Dong Yuan. He studied the styles of previous masters such as Ni Zan, Wang Meng, Huang
Gongwang, Dong Qichang and Li Cheng. The Landscape of 1696-98 portrays the vocabulary of
Yuan masters such as Huang Gongwang’s constructive composition, Ni Zan’s empty pavilion, and Wang Meng’s rich and dense texture brushstrokes (fig.111, fig.113-fig.115).190 Bada also directly emulated the style of Dong Qichang in Landscapes after Dong Qichang of 1697 (fig.116-
187 Ibid., 144. 188 Ibid.,71. 189 Ibid., 70. 190 Ibid., 175. 52 fig.118).191 Bada’s landscape painting (fig.116) references Dong Qichang’s examination of Dong
Yuan’s style. Bada’s next landscape painting (fig.117) can trace Dong Qichang’s reinterpretation of Huang Gungwang’s style, and Bada other landscape painting (fig.118) reveals the reference of
Ni Zan’s manner. Bada’s Landscape of 1699 also reflects his adaptation of Li Cheng’s style
(fig.119).192 Li Cheng (919-967) was well known for describing the wintry scene and donkey rider (fig.120).193 Although Bada represented his painting with simple dry abstract brushstrokes than Li Cheng’s, the overall composition and the pose of his donkey rider are almost identical to that of Li Cheng.
Therefore, the artworks of Bada Shanren reveal his continuous study and interest in previous master’s artistic styles from paintings, calligraphy, poetry, and past texts. Some scholars would have assumed that Bada Shanren was not interested in historical styles, but his study of historical resources could become a basic foundation to Bada Shanren’s artistic achievement as a fully mature artist. Bada used the past masters’ poetry in order to reflect his current emotions and thoughts, and he frequently emulated the past calligraphers’ writings from the Tang dynasty.
Bada, moreover, broadly studied the prominent masters’ artistic styles such as those of Dong
Yuan, Li Cheng, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, Wang Meng, and Dong Qichang. He also reinterpreted their styles in order to create his own distinctive artistic vocabulary.
The History of Syncretic Philosophical Concepts and Artistic Styles in Bird and Flower
Painting from a Southern Song Artist to Bada Shanren
191 Ibid., 180. 192 Ibid., 188. 193 Peter C. Sturman, “The Donkey Rider as Icon: Li Cheng and Early Chinese Landscape Painting, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 55, No. ½ (1995): 61. 53
In this section, I will explore the syncretic philosophical concepts and artistic styles in his art, while examining his specific artworks. I will also convey the continuous artistic vocabulary from a Southern Song artist, Muqi, to Bada Shanren in order to emphasize Bada’s synthetic philosophical aspects in his art. First, his bird and flower paintings represent Chan (Zen)
Buddhist concepts, which were well known during the Southern Song dynasty. Bada’s works of art reveal a close relationship with Muqi’s paintings. Bada also examined Shen Zhou’s bird and flower paintings. Shen Zhou (1427-1509) was one of profound Confucian painters of the Wu
School during the Ming period. Moreover, after the late Ming dynasty, many contemporaries had pursued the eccentric and individual mode through their art and literature.194 Under the social environments, Xu Wei (1521-1593) was favored by many contemporaries as one of the expressionistic and distinctive artists. Bada Shanren as their later generation also admired their art. The continuous use of art historical styles and philosophical references in Bada Sharen’ art thus enables him to achieve his unique and individual artistic style as a mature artist.
Chan Buddhism began to flourish during the Tang dynasty, and in the Song dynasty, its philosophical concept is transmitted to Neo-Confucianists. Daoism is also adapted to Neo-
Confucian scholars. The synthesis of Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian concepts thus seemed to begin from the Song dynasty.195 James Cahill has said that from the Southern Song period “artists invested their images with metaphorical meaning transcending the mundane associations of the objects and scenes they portrayed.” 196 According to Brinker and Hershock, Chan (Zen) Buddhism
194 Wai-kam Ho, “Late Ming Literati: Their Social and Cultural Ambience,” in Chu-tsing Li and James C. Y. Watt, The Chinese Scholar's Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period: an Exhibition from the Shanghai Museum (New York, N. Y.: Asia Society Galleries in Association with Thames and Hudson, 1987), 23-36. 195 Valorie Malenfer Ortiz, Dreaming the Southern Song Landscape: the Power of Illusion in Chinese Painting (Boston: Brill, 1999), 8. 196 James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644 (New York: Weatherhill, 1982), 5-13. 54 unified Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism in the Song period. 197 It might be one of the reasons why literati painters such as Wang Meng and Shen Zhou could easily adopt Chan
Buddhist concepts and transformed these ideas through their artworks. As a result, the emphasis of spontaneity and simplicity of Chan doctrine transmitted to Chan paintings and even literati paintings as a way of representing “self-cultivation, self-realization, and self-expression” by Chan monks and literati scholars.198 The idea, which Chan monks could gain their obtained enlightenment through expressing the cosmic insights, seems to share with Daoist concepts.199
Chinese paintings thus become more diverse because of synthesis of Chan Buddhism, Neo-
Confucianism, and Daoism, and these philosophical concepts and artistic styles gradually spread to many later generations after the Southern Song period.200
Most bird and flower paintings until the Southern Song dynasty were illustrated in accurate, realistic, and colorful manner, and frequently these are accompanied by symbolic meanings such as representing prosperity of the rulers.201 Some painters including Muqi, however, produced monochrome ink painting as a new kind of bird-and-flower genre. Muqi was
197 Helmut Brinker, Hiroshi Kanazawa, Andreas Leisinger, “Zen Masters of Meditation in Images and Writings,” Artibus Asiae, Supplementum, Vol. 40 (1996): 11-16, and Peter D. Hershock, Chan Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), and Peter D. Hershock, Chan Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005). 198 James Cahill, Three Alternative Histories of Chinese Painting (Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1988), 100-101, and Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th-14th Century (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 348. The terms, “self-cultivation, self-realization, and self-expression” come from Edmund Capon, Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, XIV-XXth Centuries, Catalogue Written by Edmund Capon and Mae Anna Pang (Sydney: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, 1981), 16. 199 Dawn A. Mast, Symbolism and Iconography in Zen (Ch’an) Buddhist Plant, Animal, and Landscape Painting (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, 1994), 32. 200 Jan Fontein, Zen Painting et Calligraphy; An Exhibition of Works of Art Lent by Temples, Private Collectors, and Public and Private Museums in Japan, Organized in Collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970), 32. 201 For more information about previous and court bird and flower paintings, see Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th-14th Century (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 177. 55 the Chan painter in the thirteenth century. His artistic style and motif were continuously practiced in Chan monasteries during later periods in China and Japan, and adopted by prominent literati artists such as Shen Zhou, and then Muqi’s motifs and styles were notably appeared by Bada
Shanren’s artworks.202 According to a historical record that is written by Chuang Su (ca.1298), a monk painter, “Muqi was an expert in paintings of dragons, tigers, secular figures, geese, and various other subjects. Muqi desiccated and pallid rustic wildernesses are certainly not for elegant diversion, but are suitable only for a Buddhist’s chamber or a Daoist’s hut as a complement to the pure and secluded atmosphere.”203 Instead of realistic and colorful paintings, Muqi thus produced monochrome ink paintings with simple brushstrokes and various ink tones, and simultaneously he intermingled Chan Buddhist and Daoist concepts through his life and art. Muqi’s Persimmons in the mid-thirteenth century illustrates his use of light and dark brushstrokes, while representing the unripe and ripe persimmons (fig.121).204 One attributed Muqi’s work, Dove and Bamboo, demonstrates his simple and expressive composition, various ink tones, and quickly managed brushstrokes (fig. 122).205 Another attributed bird painting, Myna Bird on Trunk of Pine, reveals his simple but strong composition of a myna bird on a pine trunk (fig.123).206 The bird seems to meditate, and the body of bird that is looking back is unusual and less natural. It is a somewhat
202 James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 17. 203 Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge, Mass.: Published for the Harvard-Yenching Institute by Harvard University Press, 1985), 138-9. According to Bush, the original document located in “Hua-chi pu-i (A Supplement to the Hua-chi), preface dated 1298. 204 Sylvan Barnet, Zen Ink Paintings (Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1982), 76-77. 205 James Cahill, Sogen-ga: 12th-14th Century Chinese Painting as Collected and Appreciated in Japan: March 31, 1982-June 27, 1982, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley: The Museum, 1982), 34. For more information about Muqi’s bird painting, see Jan Fontein, Zen Painting et Calligraphy; An Exhibition of Works of Art Lent by Temples, Private Collectors, and Public and Private Museums in Japan, Organized in Collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970), 32-4. 206 James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 33. 56 strange gesture than other normal birds in bird and flower paintings, which seems to express
Zhuangzi’s metaphorical meaning or Buddhist meditational practice.
Muqi was also interested in everyday life objects that are related to the Chan Buddhism and Daoism. His Drawings from Life: Birds, Vegetables, and Flowers of 1265 shows his interest in everyday life objects (fig.85).207 His Turnips in the handscroll presents how Muqi described the essence of normal objects in simple but distinctive manner as a way of practicing or representing
Chan concepts (fig.85). Pomegranates in the handscroll also illustrates Muqi’s interest in abstract style with monochrome ink, containing the essence of the subjects (fig.86).208 Another painting,
Hibiscus demonstrates Muqi’s simple mode, but it reflects his further developments of dealing with natural objects, while creating some sense of dynamic momentum in the flower (fig. 87).209
The monochrome ink painting is supposed to be less realistic than polychromatic ones, but rather his depiction of everyday life objects are more believable because of capturing the essence of the subjects, which is connected to Daoist and Chan Buddhist themes. Muqi’s another bird painting,
Two Myna Birds on Hillock, also represents his creative spatial organization, while delivering some sense of narratives (fig. 124).210 Muqi also depicted some distinctive characteristics of mynas instead of describing detailed and realistic features, and focused more on the gestures and positions of the birds in the whole composition. Muqi’s paintings thus embody the various symbolic meanings from Daoism and Chan Buddhism, which have been transmitted to his followers including Confucian scholars.
207 Ibid., 28. 208 Ibid., 34 209 Ibid., 29. 210 Ibid., 35. 57
James Cahill proposes that the styles of Chan paintings were absorbed into literati painting after the Yuan dynasty, and among literati painters, Myna Bird and Bamboo of Zhao
Yong, dated in 1349, reveals a similar artistic vocabulary of Muqi (fig.125).211 A Confucian scholar, Zhao Yong, was born in 1289 as the second son of Zhao Mengfu, but although his death date is unclear, he was still alive until 1359 based on the inscription in Men and Horses of his father, Zhao Mengfu.212 Zhao Yong held his official position in Beijing and Wuxing, and was also a painter like his father, specializing in traditional manner of horse and landscape paintings.213 Zhao Yong’s painting, Myna Bird and Bamboo, was produced in monochrome ink painting, and the overall composition of the bird and the bamboo is quite similar to Muqi’s Myna
Bird on Trunk of Pine (fig.123). Although their head gestures are different, their voluminous bodies, gazes, and angled leg positions are comparable. Both birds are also less natural and less realistic; instead both artists, Zhao Yong and Muqi seemed to focus more on expressing their bird’s inner feeling or thought that derives from Daoist and Chan Buddhist concepts. Even though
Zhao’s brushworks are less sophisticated and less mature than those of Muqi, his various uses of ink resemble Muqi’s monochrome bird paintings. The Confucian scholar, Zhao Yong, thus absorbed the artistic style of the Chan monk, Muqi, who already combined Buddhist and Daoist ideas through his artworks. This might also support that the intermingled Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist concepts had already happened since that time. After the Song dynasty, scholars and monks freely became friends and exchanged their artistic styles and intellectual interests.214
211 John M. Crawford, Chinese Calligraphy and Painting in the Collection of John M. Crawford, Jr. (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1962), 108-9 and pl. 30. 212 Ibid., 109. 213 Ibid., 109. 214 For more about the relationship between literati and Chan monks, see Richard E. Vinograd, “Wang Meng’s Pien Mountains: the Landscape of Eremitism in Later Fourteenth Century Chinese Painting,” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1979). He explains their relationships and cultural exchanges through showing Wang Meng’s contact with Chan Buddhist monks. 58
Under these circumstances, Bada Shanren would seem to easily become a Chan monk after the
Ming’s collapse.
Muqi’s Daoist and Buddhist themes and artistic style are also transmitted to a Ming dynasty Confucian scholar, Shen Zhou.215 Shen Zhou, who was considered as the founder of the
Wu School, was born in Suzhou and lived almost as a hermit like a Daoist.216 He was an influential figure to later generations, especially Suzhou artists.217 Fong states that Shen Zhou studied Neo-Confucianism, particularly that of the Ming School of the Mind, which emphasized the self-possessed insight and the philosophy embraced “the Daoist and Chan belief in the mysticism of nature and advocate quiet sitting as a method of self-cultivation on the path to enlightenment,” and argues that “Shen Zhou’s philosophy of quiescence as a dynamic principle, a condition of both receptivity and action, and demonstrate his belief in an intuitive response to nature and the validity of self-possessed artistic knowledge” are presented throughout his
215 This historical adaptation is well investigated by James Cahill. For more information about their lineage, see James Cahill, The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period (Berkeley: University Art Museum, 1971) and James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 17-41. 216 Osvald Siren, A History of Later Chinese Painting, Vol. 1-2 (London: The Medici Society, 1938), 68-9. For more information about Shen Zhou’s life and art, see Chen, Zhenghong, Shen Zhou nianpu (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 1993), Shen Zhou, Shen Zhou shanshuihua jingcui= Shenzhou shanshuihuajingcui (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin meishu chubanshe, 2005), Zidu, Wumen huapai, Shen Zhou- Wumen School of Painting. Shen Zhou (1427-1509) (Beijing: Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe, 2004), Sherman E. Lee, “The Literati Tradition in Chinese Painting,” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 108, No. 758 (May, 1966): 254, and Shen zhou shishe, Feng qi Changcheng yuan (Taipei shi guxiang chubanshe, min guo 66, 1977). Also, for more information about Shen Zhou and Wu School, look at Sherman E. Lee, “Some Problems in Ming and Ch'ing Landscape Painting,” Ars Orientalis, Vol. 2 (1957): 474, Kathlyn Liscomb, “Wang Fu’s Contribution to the Formation of a New Painting Style in the Ming Dynasty,” Artibus Asiae, Vol. 48, No. ½ (1987): 38, and Chu-tsing Li, “A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection, Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 30, A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection [Contains Vol. 1: Text, and Vol. 2: Plates](1974), 51-2, and 81. For Shen Zhou’s wealthy status, see Kathlyn Maurean Liscomb, “Social Status and Art Collecting: The Collections of Shen Zhou and Wang Zhen,” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Mar., 1996): 111. 217 Marilyn Fu, Studies in Connoisseurship, Chinese Paintings from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in New York and Princeton (Princeton, N. Y: Princeton University Press, 1973), 7. 59 artworks.218 Another important art historian, Richard Edwards, also emphasizes Shen Zhou’s examining various natural subjects, while expressing Shen Zhou’s love of archaism and reflecting spontaneity in his art. 219 The Neo-Confucian scholar, Shen Zhou, revealed the self-possessed insight that is from Daoism and Chan Buddhism, and his syncretic idea and the psychic energy in his art delivered to later generations including literati painters.220
Shen Zhou also reflected his syncretic philosophical meanings through his bird and flower paintings. He frequently described the pomegranate in Pomegranate and Melon Vine and
Pomegranates (fig.126-fig.127).221 These pomegranates are the symbol of fecundity and the seeds of the pomegranate represent the seeds of the human beings, especially sons in Chinese culture.222
Shen Zhou’s Pomegranates can be traced in the manner of Muqi (fig.86). The shapes and leaves of pomegranates illustrate Shen’s use of Muqi’s style and composition; the branches of the pomegranates begin from the bottom and the left branch is slightly lower than the right one. Like
Muqi, Shen Zhou would seem to enjoy everyday life objects.223 His Turnips resembles its
218 Wen Fong, “The Literati Artists of the Ming Dynasty,” in Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 377-378. 219 Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (1427-1509) (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1962), 70-71, and Richard Edwards, “Shen Chou and the Scholarly Tradition,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 24, No. 1, Oriental Aesthetics (Autumn, 1965): 48-9. For more information about the specific example of Shen Zhou’s study about historical style, see Joan Stanley-Baker, “Repainting Wang Meng: Problems in Accretion,” Artibus Asiae, Vol. 50, No. ¾ (1990): 175 and 217-219. 220 Cahill has suggested the relationship between literati scholar and Chan Buddhism. He says that Wang Meng and Shen Zhou followed the description of mundane subjects that was normally favored by Chan Buddhism from the Southern Song period. For more about information, see James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644 (New York: Weatherhill, 1982), 5-13. 221 Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (1427-1509) (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1962), pl. 46-A, and James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 34. 222 Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (1427-1509) (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1962), 75. 223 For more information about Shen Zhou’s bird and flower painting, see Gugong bowuyuan, Ming sijia huaji: Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Dang Yin, Qiu Ying (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin meishu chubanshe, 1993). 60 depiction of the turnip like that of Muqi (fig.128 and fig.85).224 Although the subject, Peony, is illustrated in Muqi’s different subject, Hibiscus, the overall composition, in which the tree begins from the right bottom of the surface, and one flower with similar kinds of leaves, reveals comparable artistic vocabulary with the use of monochrome ink medium (fig.129 and fig.87).225
The birds of Shen Zhou are, however, represented in more expressive manner. Two Young Crows of Shen Zhou reflects his more meditational mood like a Chan monk or a Daoist in nature
(fig.130).226 This simple monochrome depiction of two birds looks calm and peaceful, revealing his preference of self-possessed insight in his art. Another bird and flower painting of Shen Zhou,
Two Myna Birds on Hillock, also supports his adaptation of Muqi’s artistic manner (fig.131 and fig.124).227 These paintings are comparable using exactly an identical subject and an overall composition. Two birds of Shen Zhou and Muqi however switch their positions from the left to the right; Muqi’s right bird is appeared in the left side of Shen Zhou’s painting, and Muqi’s left bird is shown in the right side of Shen Zhou’s painting. When Shen Zhou switched the position of two birds, he changed the location of Muqi’s grass that was in the right side of the screen into the center of the surface. Shen Zhou brilliantly moved Muqi’s grass with the right bird. Two paintings indicate Shen Zhou’s adaptation of Muqi’s style, and simultaneously emphasize that how Shen Zhou studied the past styles and how he played with them into his own artistic
224 James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 31. 225 Ibid., 29. For more information about Shen Zhou’s flower painting, see Wildenstein and Company, Great Chinese Painters of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, XV to XVIII Centuries: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Asia Institute, March 11 to April 2, 1949 (New York: Asia Institute Society, 1949), 16. Also, Shen Zhou’s preference of in monochrome for bird and flower painting, look at Saehyang P. Chung, Yun Shou-p’ing (163301690) and the Orthodox Tradition of Chinese Bird-and-Flower Painting (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1984), 52. 226 Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (1427-1509) (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1962), pl. 50-A. 227 James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 36. 61 vocabulary. The bird and flower paintings of Shen Zhou also demonstrate his some sense of synthetic philosophical aspects.
Shen Zhou’s artistic style and philosophical concepts were conveyed to Xu Wei of the late Ming dynasty. Cahill has argued that Xu Wei admired the “generous spontaneity” of Shen
Zhou, and the spontaneity and immediacy of Xu Wei’s paintings are also related to the styles and concepts of Southern Song Chan Buddhist painters such as Liang Kai and Muqi.228 Xu Wei was born in 1521 as a native of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, and had not only a gifted talent in painting but also in drama, literature, and calligraphy.229 Although his life was in poverty and mental disorder until his death 1593, his painting style impacts on a number of contemporaries and even later generations including Bada Shanren. Xu Wei’s works also indicate some stylistic similarities with those of Muqi and Shen Zhou. Xu Wei’s Pomegranate reflects the continuation of artistic vocabulary from Muqi and Shen Zhou to Xu Wei (fig.132, fig.86, and fig.127).230 First, the overall composition is quite similar; the main branch begins from the left bottom side of the scene, and the main pomegranate is slightly facing to the left, and more importantly, the diagonal composition of the branch from the lower left to the upper right in three paintings give some sense of dynamic movements, and simultaneously these pomegranates seem to create the perfect balance between the lightness and heaviness. Three paintings also reveal how Xu learned from
228 James Cahill, The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period (Berkeley: University Art Museum, 1971), 115-116. 229 Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 230. For more information about Xu Wei’s life and art, see James Cahill, Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368-1580 (New York: Weatherhill, 1978), 159-163, Saehyang P. Chung, Yun Shou-p’ing (163301690) and the Orthodox Tradition of Chinese Bird-and-Flower Painting (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1984), 55, and Wildenstein and Company, Great Chinese Painters of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, XV to XVIII Centuries: a Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Asia Institute, March 11 to April 2, 1949 (New York: Asia Institute Society, 1949), 30-4. 230 James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 35. 62 previous master’s artistic styles; Muqi’s pursuit of simplicity and Shen Zhou’s spontaneous composition are illustrated in Xu Wei’s painting. Xu Wei, however, added his own artistic taste to the pomegranate in much looser manner than those of previous masters. Xu’s abstract brushstrokes enhance more dynamic momentum than Muqi’s. Xu’s much simpler and spontaneous mood thus would seem to be derived from Muqi and Shen Zhou, who reflected their syncretic philosophical aspects through their art.
Another flower painting of Xu Wei, Peony, also supports the continuous use of previous two masters’ styles (fig.133, fig.87 and fig.129).231 Although Muqi illustrated the hibiscus, and
Shen Zhou and Xu Wei described the peony, their styles and compositions portray some similarities. First, Muqi’s flower and that of Shen Zhou mirror the same composition; the main trunks begin from the bottom right side, and each flower accompanies with many simple leaves.
On the other hands, the peony tree of Xu Wei starts from the bottom left side. At first glance,
Xu’s composition looks completely different from those of two masters’ works. If the top part of the painting, however, switches the left side in ninety-degree angles, the composition of the painting is almost matched with those of Muqi and Shen Zhou (fig.134). The location of peony is also similar with that of Shen Zhou, and the placement of leaves is illustrated in Muqi’s manner.
The overall compositions moreover start from the bottom right side to the top left side depicts the same dynamic effects. Xu’s Peony is represented in more liberal and looser way with splash-like ink as well as his Pomegranate, but the overall artistic vocabulary indicates Xu’s continuous conversation with the past Chan monk and literati scholar.
Finally, some sense of syncretic philosophical aspect and artistic style reach a high peak in Bada Shanren’s works. Bada reflected his fluent knowledge about Confucianism through his
231 Ibid., 30. 63 calligraphy and poetry, and used Buddhist themes and objects through his seals and painting subjects. He enriched his artistic vocabulary by transforming the simplicity and spontaneity of
Chan doctrine into his bird and flower painting. He also chose everyday life objects, birds and flowers, which came from Chan Buddhism and Daoism, while emphasizing psychological and metaphorical aspects of Zhuangzi in Daoism.
Bada’s bird and flower paintings convey the artistic synthesis, while playing with past masters’ works. The Myna Bird on Branch of Bada Shanren and the Myna Bird on Trunk of Pine of Muqi demonstrate comparable styles between two masters (fig.135 and fig.123).232 Cahill has stated that Bada could know the Muqi’s painting style through his relationship with Chan
Buddhism, and has argued that Bada could not have Muqi’s painting, but like Shen Zhou and others, Bada could see some imitated or copied old paintings to which he had access, some of them preserved in monasteries he visited or lived in, and could imitate from a contemporary practice of this kind of painting by monk-amateurs.233 Bada’s gloomy, angry, or unhappy bird is facing in the left side, and the bird is on an angular branch without leaves, which refers the dry branch in winter. The bird of Muqi is, however, facing in the backside of the screen, while showing the backside of its body. It is very hard to recognize the facial expression of the bird; it might be sleeping or meditating. Muqi’s bird stands on the huge pine trunk, which would seem to refer the stable situation of the bird, but Bada’s bird stands on a dry thin winter branch that looks unstable than that of Muqi. These two paintings, however, reflect comparable artistic styles between two artists. First, suppose if two paintings are placed on the same space, and look at the
Muqi’s painting, and then flip Bada’s painting and fold it over Muqi’s painting. Two paintings reveal the similar composition. Second, Bada’s painting seems to illustrate the reversed scene of
232 Ibid., 33. 233 Ibid., 34. 64 the Muqi’s painting, which viewers cannot see. Although Muqi’s bird might be meditating or sleeping, Bada transformed Muqi’s bird into his own bird in order to represent his feelings and thoughts as a metamorphic object of Daoism, especially Zhuangzi. It can be Bada’s expansion of
Muqi’s scene, while adding his new narrative story. Bada Shanren thus seemed to elaborate
Muqi’s narrative story beyond illustrating certain styles and elements with syncretic psychological and philosophical meanings.
Two myna birds in Lotus and Birds of Bada Shanren reveal his use of Muqi and Shen
Zhou’s styles (fig.39, fig.124, and fig.131). The position of Bada’s two birds are almost identical to Muqi’s; the lower left bird and the upper right bird are facing in the left side of the painting, and their poses are also quite similar. As discussed above, the two birds of Shen Zhou switched their positions from Muqi’s composition, and thus three masters portrayed similar manners in their paintings. Chu-tsing Li has said that the Wu School, in which Shen Zhou was one of the key members of the painting school, reestablished the Yuan tradition and claims that ink bird and flower painting in the Yuan dynasty was continued to the Wu School’s artists such as Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, and then Xu Wei adopted “literati’s ideal of expressing their inner feeling,” which was also transmitted to Bada Shanren and Shitao.234 Instead of directly following previous masters’ styles, Bada, however, added his own ideas and created his own taste. Like Shen Zhou’s switching of location, Bada more emphasized facial expressions and gazes of two birds than
Muqi and Shen Zhou’s works, which represents his favor of Zhuangzi’s metamorphosis and Chan
Buddhism. The Hen of Shen Zhou and the Hen and Chick of Bada Shanren share the similar
234 Chu-tsing Li, “A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines: Chinese Paintings in the Charles A. Drenowatz Collection,” Artibus Asiae. Supplementum, Vol. 30 (1974): 51-81, 201-202. 65 styles (fig.136 and fig.33).235 Wen Fong has noted that the inscriptions of this album, the Hen, address Shen Zhou’s ink play and his representation of mind images rather than botanical illustration.236 The both paintings show psychological mood that is from Zhuangzi in Daoism.
The overall composition of two paintings is similar; the hens are walking from the right to the left, and the angle of the pose is almost same. Bada, however, enhanced the mixture of dry and wet brushstrokes, rather than simply following Shen Zhou’s calligraphic dots and lines. Bada
Shanren thus absorbed the Confucian, Daoist, and Chan Buddhist ideas and past masters’ styles, which enabled Bada to create his own distinctive artistic styles.
Bada also conveyed a close relationship with Xu Wei. Bada’s Pomegranates recalls a close adaptation from that of Xu Wei (fig.88 and fig.137).237 Although the overall composition is somewhat different, the diagonal movement of both paintings is parallel. The hanged and the right pomegranates also look similar to those of Muqi and Shen Zhou (fig.86 and fig.127). Bada moreover investigated the style of Xu Wei in the Lotus after Xu Wei (fig.138-fig.139).238 Richard
Barnhart proposes that “Bada’s inscription on the painting consists of a poem and the notation, imitating Tianchi Daoren’s painting (fang Tianchi Daoren hua) and Tianchi Daoren is Xu Wei, whose wet ink, free and splashed ink wash, and truly mad behavior offer an important precedent
235 Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 379. 236 Ibid., 379-380. 237 Ibid., 497. 238 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 147. 66 for Bada Shanren.”239 Bada also directly copied the poem of Xu Wei in his painting (fig.139), which indicates how Bada deeply admired Xu Wei’s paintings.240
Lotus and Birds of 1690 in the Cincinnati Art Museum reflect Bada’s syncretism of three philosophical traditions (fig.1). First of all, Bada’s use of lotus motifs reveals his retained relationship with Buddhism, and simultaneously his use of lotus pod references him as a descendant of Ming imperial lineage. The poem on the painting also indicates his Confucian knowledge. The poem says:
“I once saw in the heart of the lotus seed That the lotus flower had its roots. At Ruoya splitting the lotus pod, It is the young gentleman in the painting.” (Translation by Lee Hui-shu)241
Barnhart explains that the lotus in the poem is “the young gentleman in the painting,” and
Langhunzi here translated as “young gentleman” and is actually a term of reference to the emperor, who may be referred to as Langjun. On that basis, if it is read even more literally, langjunzi could be translated as a child of the emperor, or more broadly “imperial descendant,” and lotus pod contains his imperial roots and argued that the poem represents his personal reflection.242
239 Ibid., 147. 240 Ibid., 147-8. 241 Ibid., 115. 242 Ellen B. Avril with contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum), 75 and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 115. 67
Bada Shanren also represented Daoist aspect through everyday life objects. Wang
Fangyu and Sherman Lee have suggested that Bada Shanren began to show his growing interest in Daoist concepts of transformation and metamorphosis that is from Zhuangzi’s philosophy.243
Hui-shu Lee also proposes that Bada adopted Daoist classic, especially Zhuangzi’s theme, which is about the transformation of ordinary objects with human expressions by exampling the sparrow and gold fish in Zhuangzi, while stating the gold fish in Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo of
1689 would seem to refer Bada’s nobility, Ming imperial lineage (fig.36).244 Hui-shu Lee has argued that “Bada’s creatures have strikingly human expressions that add to their mystery and that evoke strong feelings,” and especially emphasizing his Ming lineage and Zhuangzi’s theme are frequently represented in Bada’s works from 1689 to 1692.245 Bada’s interest in the philosophical concepts of transformation and metamorphosis in Zhuangzi had been grown from the late 1680s, and he transformed the natural objects as Bada Shanren himself in his paintings.246
Using everyday life objects are also derived from Chan Buddhist doctrines. James Cahill has stated that from the Southern Song period artists, especially Chan monks invested the mundane objects as their representation of metaphorical meaning.247 According to Cahill and Fong, and
Edmund Capon have suggested that the emphasis of spontaneity and simplicity of Chan doctrine
243 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 66-69, and Sherman E. Lee, “The Two Styles of Chu Ta,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 45, No. 9 (Nov., 1958): 216. 244 Hui-shu Lee, “Bada Shanren's Bird-and-Fish Painting and the Art of Transformation,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 44 (1991): 12-15, and Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 103. 245 Hui-shu Lee, “Bada Shanren's Bird-and-Fish Painting and the Art of Transformation,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 44 (1991): 7, 18. 246 Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 66. 247 James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644 (New York: Weatherhill, 1982), 5-13. 68 transmitted to Chan paintings and even literati paintings as a way of representing “self- cultivation, self-realization, and self-expression.”248
Based on their research, I add my own interpretation to the Lotus and Birds in
Cincinnati (fig.1); the painting unfolds Bada’s spirit of transition, as it would be a narrative story.
The painting begins with two kinds of rocks; one big rock that might represent the inescapable power of the Qing government, and the one small rock that symbolizes powerless Bada Shanren himself as a Ming loyalist. Another type of symbolic narrative illustrates two happy birds— possibly the power of the Qing or the Manchu people during that period—and one gloomy, lonely bird—likely Bada Shanren himself. However, he continuously emphasized his Ming imperial lineage through the lotus pod, then Bada transformed himself as a duck, but simultaneously, he pushed the duck into the backside of the screen that might represent his past life, and the right plantain leaf seems to push the duck to let it swim to the past. Finally, the left plantain leaf and stalk completely block the screen in order to prohibit the duck’s moving forward movement, which might express his gesture to forget his past worry and agony. Moreover, the left plantain leaf points out the poem and his name, Bada Shanren, in order to encourage him to venture in a new direction or to represent his new desire or will. Bada Shanren’s Confucian sensibilities, already seen in earlier works, emerge in the poem, which reference his lineage; his continued engagement with Buddhism is conveyed through his use of lotus flowers, a pod, and leaves. Bada also portrayed his psychological and personal emotions and thoughts through natural objects, which refer to Daoism and Chan Buddhism. The philosophical syncretism of his worldview is thus expressed in Lotus and Birds of 1690 in the Cincinnati Art Museum.
248 James Cahill, Three Alternative Histories of Chinese Painting (Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1988), 100-101, and Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th-14th Century (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 348. The terms, “self-cultivation, self-realization, and self-expression” come from Edmund Capon, Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, XIV-XXth Centuries, Catalogue Written by Edmund Capon and Mae Anna Pang (Sydney: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, 1981), 16. 69
This chapter first investigates general views about Bada Shanren’s eccentricity, and then suggestes his appearance of insanity was feigned as a way to escape from the Qing government’s interference. Bada Shanren may also be considered one of the eccentric talents to emerge during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, a period when individualism in behavior and artistic style enjoyed favor among certain social and cultural circles.249 Chan Buddhist aspects in Bada
Shanren’s art and life bear an important relationship to his eccentricity. I focus on his use of names, seals, and bird and flower paintings, including Lotus and Birds in Cincinnati, which reflect Bada’s continuous engagement with Buddhism. After resigning his monastic position around 1680, Bada returned to the mundane world, but still adopted some Buddhist-related names and seals by referring him as Bada Sharen (八大山人) from 1684 to 1705, Zaifu (在芙) from
1691-92, Zaifu shanfang (在芙山房) from 1692-96, Heyuan (何園) from 1699 to 1705, and Shide
(拾得,十㝵) from 1702 to 1705. His artworks reveal Bada Shanren’s continuous conversation with Chan Buddhism such as using the lotus theme and Chan Buddhist concepts of spontaneity concept from 1665 until his death 1705. Thus, I argue that Bada Shanren continue to express
Buddhist ideas through his paintings even after he left the temple.
Finally, this chapter traces bird and flower paintings from Muqi, Shen Zhou, and Xu
Wei, to Bada Shanren, while conveying Bada Shanren’s syncretism of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism in his art. I, first, investigate Bada’s continuous studies of historical poetry, paintings, and calligraphy from previous masters such as Dong Yuan, Li Cheng, and Dong
Qichang. I also argue through examining his bird and flower paintings, including Lotus and Birds
249 For more about cultural background during that time, see James Cahill, Fantastics and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting (New York: Asia Society; distributed by Abrams, 1967), 16-88. Cahill argues that Dong Qichang supported the beginning of eccentricity and individualism, while talking about fantastic and bizarre masters of the late Ming such as Chen Hongshou, Bada Shanren, and Shitao. 70 in Cincinnati, that these art historical studies and syncretic philosophical references enabled Bada
Shanren to emerge with his own artistic style and as a fully mature artist.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we find that the stylistic evolution in Bada Shanren’s painting came to a crucial point of transition around 1690 that is well exemplified in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s
Lotus and Birds. New visions of space and newly self-expressive brushstrokes create images to challenge the viewer. At the same time, his changes in life status were intertwined with philosophical and religious impulses that emerge in this period as a form of a philosophical syncretism. The Cincinnati handscroll brings together these two aspects of his art, his spontaneous brushwork and his profoundly individualistic subject matter in a way that comes to define Bada Shanren’s most characteristic works of art.
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Appendix: Figures
Fig.1. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Birds. Dated November 16, 1690. Handscroll, ink on paper, H. 37.5 x L. 330 cm. Cincinnati Art Museum. Source: Ellen B. Avril, Chinese Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum, with Contributions from Nora Ling-yun Shih (Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Art Museum, 1997), 98-99.
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Fig. 2. Detail of Fig.1. [Photography by Mina Kim)]
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Fig.3. Detail of Fig.1. [Photography by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 4. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 5. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 6. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 7. Detail of Fig.1. [Photography by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 8. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 9. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 10. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 11. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 12. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 13. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 14. Detail of Fig.1. [Photograph by Mina Kim]
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Fig. 15 Huang Anping (active late seventeenth century). Geshan xiaoxiang (Portrait of Geshan, Zhu Da). 1674. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Bada Shanren Memorial Museum, Nanchang. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 39.
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Fig. 16. Bada Shanren. Fish and Duck. 1689. Handscroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 68-9.
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Fig.17. Detail of Fig.16.
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Fig. 18. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf a, “Melons,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 43.
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Fig. 19. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf b, “Taro,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 43.
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Fig. 20. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf f, “Narcissus,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 43.
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Fig. 21. Bada Shanren. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf k, “Pine blossoms,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 49.
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Fig. 22. Bada Sharen. Flower Studies. 1659-60. Leaf m, “Pine tree,” with inscriptions, from an album of fifteen leaves, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 49.
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Fig. 23. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf b, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 85.
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Fig. 24. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf c, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 85.
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Fig. 25. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf e, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 84.
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Fig. 26. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1665. Leaf f, Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Freer Gallery of Art. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 84.
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Fig. 27. Bada Shanren. Ink Flowers. 1666. Sections of a handscroll, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 47.
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Fig. 28. Bada Shanren. Flowers. 1671. Handscroll, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 46.
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Fig. 29. Bada Shanren. Old Plum. 1682. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 53.
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Fig. 30. Bada Shanren. Crap-apple Flowers. 1682-3. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Collection of Wang Hao. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 53.
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Fig. 31. Bada Shanren. Flowers and Insects. 1683. Leaf f, “Grasshoppers and lotus leaves.” Album of eleven leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Gift of Mrs. George Rowley in memory of George Rowley. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 90.
115
Fig. 32. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf a, “Swallow.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 93.
116
Fig. 33. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf b, “Hen and chick.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 93.
117
Fig. 34. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf c, “Bulbul and day lily.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection. Source: (Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 92.
118
Fig. 35. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Crabs, and Other Subjects. 1683. Leaf d, “Duck.” Album of ten leaves, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuuzo Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 93.
119
Fig. 36. Bada Shanren. Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo. 1689. Leaf a, “Fish.” Four Album leaves mounted as a handscroll, ink and ink and color on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 103.
120
Fig. 37. Bada Shanren. Fish, Lotus, Goldfish, and Bamboo. 1689. Leaf c, “Goldfish.” Four Album leaves mounted as a handscroll, ink and ink and color on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 103.
121
Fig. 38. Bada Shanren. Myna Birds and Rocks. 1690. Hanging scroll, ink on silk. Private Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 113.
122
Fig. 39. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Birds. 1690. Handscroll, ink on satin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bequest of John M. Crawford, Jr., 1988. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 118-9.
123
Fig. 40. Bada Shanren. Myna Birds and Rocks. 1690. Leaf b, “Myna birds and rocks,” Two handing scrolls, ink on satin. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Nelson Fund). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 121.
124
Fig. 41. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Duck. 1690-92. Hanging scroll, ink on silk. Inokuma Nobuyuki Collection, Chokaido Foundation. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 125.
125
Fig. 42. Bada Shanren. Birds, Bamboo, and Rocks. 1692. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 130.
126
Fig. 43. Bada Shanren. Two Mynas on a Rock. 1692. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Han Pei-yuan Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 136.
127
Fig. 44. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Birds. 1692-94. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Kanaoka Yuzo Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 137.
128
Fig. 45. Bada Shanren. Two Birds. 1692. Leaf a. Two album leaves, ink on paper. Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 138.
129
Fig. 46. Bada Shanren. Two Birds. 1692. Leaf b. Two album leaves, ink on paper. Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 138.
130
Fig. 47. Bada Shanren. Fish. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 149.
131
Fig. 48. Bada Shanren. Bird, Fish, and Rock. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Museum Rietberg, Zurich, C. A. Drenowatz Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 151.
132
Fig. 49. Bada Shanren. Small Fish, Rock, and Other Subjects. 1695. Leaf e, “Rock.” Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Mushakoji Saneatsu Memorial Hall. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 158.
133
Fig. 50. Bada Shanren. Anwan Album. 1694. Leaf d, “Two quails.” Album of twenty-two leaves, ink and light color on paper. Sumitomo Collection, Sen-oku Hakko kan, Kyoto. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 159.
134
Fig. 51. Bada Shanren. Anwan Album. 1694. Leaf g, “Bird and grapevine.” Album of twenty-two leaves, ink and light color on paper. Sumitomo Collection, Sen-oku Hakko kan, Kyoto. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 159.
135
Fig. 52. Bada Shanren. Anwan Album. 1694. Leaf n, “Two quails.” Album of twenty-two leaves, ink and light color on paper. Courtesy, Sumitomo Collection, Sen-oku Hakko kan, Kyoto. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 159.
136
Fig. 53. Bada Shanren. Two Geese. 1700. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 194.
137
Fig. 54. Bada Shanren. Two Eagles. 1699. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 199.
138
Fig. 55. Bada Shanren. Eagle. 1700-1. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 199.
139
Fig. 56. Bada Shanren. Two Eagles. 1702. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. C. C. Wang Family Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 198.
140
Fig. 57. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf l, “Day Lily.” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 210.
141
Fig. 58. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf b, “Small bird on a branch.” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 211.
142
Fig. 59. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf j, “Bulbul.” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 211.
143
Fig. 60. Bada Shanren. Lotus. 1705. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 217.
144
Fig. 61. Bada Shanren, Flowers, Rabbit, and Other Subjects, 1684. Leaf d, “Fish.” Album of nine leaves, ink on paper. Chen Wen His Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 98.
145
Fig. 62. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Rabbit, and Other Subjects. 1684. Leaf f, “Rabbit.” Album of nine leaves, ink on paper. Chen Wen His Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 99.
146
Fig. 63. Bada Shanren. Myna Bird on a Rock. 1690. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 114.
147
Fig. 64. Bada Shanren. Myna Birds and Rocks. 1690. Leaf a, “Myna Birds, Old Tree, and Rocks,” Two hanging scrolls, ink on satin. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Nelson Fund). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 121.
148
Fig. 65. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf a, “Ducks and old tree,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 121.
149
Fig. 66. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf b, “Ducks and rocks,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 122.
150
Fig. 67. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf c, “Sparrows, rocks, and plantain,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 122.
151
Fig. 68. Bada Shanren. Birds and Ducks. 1690-1. Leaf d, “Sparrows and lotus,” Four hanging scrolls, ink on satin. Arthur M. Sackler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 122.
152
Fig. 69. Bada Shanren. White Jasmine. 1694. Album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 152.
153
Fig. 70. Bada Shanren. Two Birds. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 153.
154
Fig.71. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, shi Chuanqi yin (釋傳綮印, seal of Monk Chuanqi). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 246.
155
Fig.72. One of Bada Shanren’s Signatures, Signature of Chuanqi (傳綮). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 251.
156
Fig.73. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 248.
157
Fig.74. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 248.
158
Fig.75. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 249.
159
Fig.76. Seal of Bada Shanren (八大山人). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 250.
160
Fig.77. Signature of Bada Shanren (八大山人). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 246.
161
Fig.78. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Zaifu (在芙, In the Lotus). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 249.
162
Fig. 79. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Zaifu shanfang (在芙山房, Mountain Studio in the Lotus). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 249.
163
Fig.80. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Heyuan (何園, Lotus Garden). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 249.
164
Fig.81. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Heyuan (何園). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 249.
165
Fig. 82. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Shide (拾得). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 250.
166
Fig.83. One of Bada Shanren’s Seals, Seal of Shide (十㝵). Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 250.
167
Fig.84. Bada Shanren. Calligraphy Colophon to sutra, (Ba da renjuejing). July 11, 1692. Album leaf, ink on paper. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 261.
168
Fig. 85. After Muqi (d. after 1279). Drawings from Life: Birds, Vegetables, and Flowers. 1265. Section of a handscroll, ink on paper, 44.5 x 1017.1 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 28.
169
Fig. 86. After Muqi (d, after 1279), Pomegranates. Detail of the Fig. 85. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 34.
170
Fig. 87. After Muqi (d. after 1279), Hibiscus. Detail from the Fig. 85. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 29.
171
Fig. 88. Bada Shanren. Sketches from Life. 1659. Leaf 7 “Pomegranates” Album Leaves, ink on paper, National Palace Museum, Taipei. Source: Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 497.
172
Fig. 89. Bada Shanren. Quince. 1689. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 105.
173
Fig. 90. Bada Shanren. Quince. 1690. Album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent by the Edward L. Elliot Family Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 111.
174
Fig.91. Bada Shanren. Flower, Buddha’s Hand Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod. 1692. Four album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 47.
175
Fig. 92. Bada Shanren. Birds and Flowers. 1692. Leaf g, “Withered Lotus,” Eight album leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent anonymously. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 132.
176
Fig. 93. Bada Shanren. Birds and Flowers. 1692. Leaf c, “Pomegranate,” Eight album leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent anonymously. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 132.
177
Fig.94. Bada Shanren. Birds and Flowers. 1692. Leaf h, “Lotus, Bamboo, and Rock,” Eight album leaves, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Lent anonymously. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 132.
178
Fig.95. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Buddha’s Hand Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod. 1692. Leaf c, “Hibiscus,” Four album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 48.
179
Fig.96. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Buddha’s Hand Citron, Hibiscus, and Lotus Pod. 1692. Leaf d, “Lotus Pod,” Four album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Joseph Chang and Qianshen Bai, In Pursuit of Heavenly Harmony: Paintings and Calligraphy by Bada Shanren from the Estate of Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2003), 49.
180
Fig. 97. Bada Shanren. Chrysanthemum. 1692. Album leaf, ink on paper. Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Koln. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 134.
181
Fig. 98. Bada Shanren. Lotus, Birds, and Rocks. 1694. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. C.C. Wang Family Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 147.
182
Fig.99. Bada Shanren. Lotus and Rock. 1694-95. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. L. and C. Rosshandler Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 156.
183
Fig.100. Bada Shanren. Small Fish, Rock, and Other Subjects. 1695. Leaf b. “Lotus,” Album of eight leaves, ink on paper. Mushakoji Saneatsu Memorial Hall. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 158.
184
Fig. 101. Bada Shanren. Orchid and Rock, Bird and Lotus. 1700. Two album leaves, ink on paper. Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Koln. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 193.
185
Fig. 102. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf e, “Lotus Root,” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 210.
186
Fig. 103. Bada Shanren. Flowers, Fruit, and Birds. 1703. Leaf h, “Buddha’s hand citron,” Album of twelve leaves, ink on paper. Collection of Mrs. Kiku Ishihara. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 210.
187
Fig. 104. Bada Shanren. Plum Blossoms. 1677. Leaf I, “Poem,” in semi-cursive script. From an album of nine leaves, ink on paper. Palace Museum, Beijing. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 45.
188
Fig. 105. Dong Qichang (1555-1636). Colophon to Xingrangtie. 1609. Section of a handscroll, ink on paper. The Art Museum, Princeton University. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 45.
189
Fig. 106. Bada Shanren. Poem by Song Zhiwen. 1697. Album of twenty-two leaves, ink on paper. Inokuma Nobuyuki Collection, Chokaido Foundation. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 179.
190
Fig. 107. Bada Shanren. Landscape after Dong Yuan and Calligraphy. 1693. Leaf. b, Two album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 145.
191
Fig. 108. Bada Shanren. Landscape after Dong Yuan and Calligraphy. 1693. Leaf. a, Two album leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 145.
192
Fig. 109. Dong Yuan (d. 962). Attrib. Wintry Groves and Layered Banks. 950. Five Dynasties. Hanging Scroll, Ink and slight Color on silk, 181.5 x 116.5 cm, Kurokawa Institute of Ancient Cultures, Hyogo, Japan. Source: Richard M. Barnhart, James Cahill, Wu Hung, Yang Xin, Nie Chongzheng, and Lang Shaojun, Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven: Yale University Press; Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1977), 97.
193
Fig. 110. Bada Shanren. Landscape. 1681. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Collection unknown. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 71.
194
Fig. 111. Ni Zan (1301-1374). The Rongxi Studio. 1372. Yuan Dynasty. Hanging scroll, Ink on Paper, 74.7 x 35.5 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Source: Robert L. Thorp and Richard Ellis Vinograd, Chinese Art & Culture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2001), 307.
195
Fig. 112. Bada Shanren. Landscape. 1689-90. Album leaf, ink on paper. Private Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 70.
196
Fig. 113. Bada Shanren. Landscape. 1696-98. Hanging scroll, ink and color on satin. Osaka Municipal Museum of Art. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 175.
197
Fig. 114. Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains ( 富春 山居圖 ). 1350. Handscroll, ink on paper, 33 x 636.9 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Source: Wen Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei. With contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 300-301.
198
Fig. 115. Wang Meng. Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains. 1366. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 141 x 42.2 cm. Shanghai Museum. Source: Robert L. Thorp and Richard Ellis Vinograd, Chinese Art & Culture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2001), 307.
199
Fig. 116. Bada Shanren. Landscapes after Dong Qichang. 1697. Leaf a, Album of six leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 180.
200
Fig. 117. Bada Shanren. Landscapes after Dong Qichang. 1697. Leaf d, Album of six leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 180.
201
Fig. 118. Bada Shanren. Landscapes after Dong Qichang. 1697. Leaf f, Album of six leaves, ink on paper. Wang Fangyu and Sum Wai Collection. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 180.
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Fig. 119. Bada Shanren. Landscapes. 1699. Leaf l, Album of twelve leaves, ink and light color on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bequest of John M. Crawford, Jr., 1988. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 188.
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Fig. 120. Li Cheng. Attributed to. Travelers in a Wintry Forest. Northern Song period, 975-1000. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 161.6 x 100 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund and Bequest of Dorothy Graham Bennett, 1972. Source: Peter C. Sturman, “The Donkey Rider as Icon: Li Cheng and Early Chinese Landscape Painting, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 55, No. ½ (1995): 61.
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Fig. 121. Muqi. Persimmons. Mid-13th century. Ink on paper, 35 x 29 cm. Ryoko-in, Daitoku-ji, Kyoto. Source: Sylvan Barnet, Zen Ink Paintings (Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1982), 76.
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Fig. 122. Attributed Muqi. Dove and Bamboo. Probably 13th century. Hanging scroll, ink on silk, 78 x 40.4 cm. Soshiro Yabumoto Collection, Tokyo. Source: James Cahill, Sogen-ga: 12th-14th Century Chinese Painting as Collected and Appreciated in Japan: March 31, 1982-June 27, 1982, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley: The Museum, 1982), 34.
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Fig. 123. Attributed Muqi (d. after 1279). Myna Bird on Trunk of Pine. Detail from a hanging scroll, ink on paper, 78.5 x 39 cm. Formerly Setsu Collection, Tokyo, from So Gen no Kaiga, pl. 73. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 33.
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Fig. 124. After Muqi (d. after 1279). Two Myna Birds on Hillock. Ink on paper. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 35.
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Fig. 125. Zhao Yong (b. 1289). Myna Bird and Bamboo. 1349, Ink on paper, hanging scroll, 45 inches high, 14 ¾ inches wide. Source: John M. Crawford, Chinese Calligraphy and Painting in the Collection of John M. Crawford, Jr. (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1962), 108-109 and pl.30.
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Fig. 126. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Detail of Pomegranate and Melon Vine. Detroit Institute of Arts (Cat. XXXII.). Source: Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (1427- 1509) (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1962), pl. 46-A.
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Fig. 127. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Pomegranates. Section of a handscroll. National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 34.
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Fig. 128. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Turnips. 1489. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 56.7 x 30 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 31.
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Fig. 129. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Peony. Detail of a hanging scroll, ink on paper, 154.6 x 68.1cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. From: Ming ssu-chia hua-chi (Tientsin: Tientsin People’s Art Publishing Co., 1993), pl. 98. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 29.
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Fig. 130. Shen Zhou (1427-1509), Two Young Crows. National Museum, Stockholm. (Cat. LVIII). Source: Richard Edwards, The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (1427- 1509) (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1962), pl. 50-A.
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Fig. 131. Shen Zhou (1427-1509). Two Myna Birds on Hillock. Section of a handscroll (MH 91). National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 36.
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Fig. 132. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Flowers, Fruits, and Other Plants. Detail from the handscroll, “Pomegranate.” ink on paper, 30 x 1053.5 cm. Nanjing Museum. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 35.
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Fig. 133. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Flowers, Fruits, and Other Plants. Detail from the handscroll, “Peony.” ink on paper, 30 x 1053.5 cm. Nanjing Museum. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 30.
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Fig. 134. Detail of Fig 133 that is switched to the left side in ninety-degree angles.
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Fig. 135. Bada Shanren. Myna Bird on Branch. Album leaf. From Pa-ta shan-jen hua-chi (Nanchang: People’s Press, 1985), pl. 16. Source: James Cahill, “Continuations of Ch'an Ink Painting into Ming-Ch'ing and the Prevalence of Type Images,” Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 50 (1997/1998): 33.
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Fig. 136. Shen Zhou. Drawings from Life. 1494. One of the album leaves, “Hen,” Album of sixteen paintings, ink on paper, 34.7 x 55.4 cm. Source: Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 379.
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Fig. 137. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Plants and Flowers. Detail from the handscroll, “Pomegranates”, ink on paper, 34.3 x 84.8 cm. Honolulu Academy of Arts. Martha Cooke Steadman Fund, 1960 (HAA 2710.1). Source: Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 497.
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Fig. 138. Bada Shanren. Lotus after Xu Wei. 1692-94. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Keith McLeod Fund. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Source: Wang, Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus Garden: the Life and Art of Bada Shanren, 1626-1705 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 147.
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Fig. 139. Xu Wei (1521-1593). Lotus and Crab. Undated. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 114.6 x 29.7 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. Source: Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palaces Museum, Taipei, with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H. N. Abrams, 1996), 231.
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