Miffed that his tutor ranked him below his cousin because of inferior calligraphy, Dong Qichang at the age of sixteen dedicated himself to a study of the great calligraphers of the past. By the end of the century, he had become the most influential calligrapher of his age. Although Dong championed the aesthetic of monochromatic ink styles, he indulged in decorative effects in this album, using gold flecked paper with occasional mineral colors for the paintings and choosing a satin ground for his sleek cursive script. Each of the eight leaves, except number seven, is an homage to a past master paired with excerpts from Tang-dynasty landscape poetry. Despite the broad range of styles Dong imitated, the landscapes are remarkably similar to one another and reflect Dong's own intellectual approach to painting most of all.
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明 董其昌 山水詩畫 冊
Title:Landscapes and poems
Artist:Dong Qichang (Chinese, 1555–1636)
Period:Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Date:early 17th century
Culture:China
Medium:Album of eight double leaves; ink, gold, and color on gold-flecked paper and ink on satin
Dimensions:12 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. (32.1 x 23.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng, 1989
Object Number:1989.372a–h
Inscription: Artist's inscriptions and signatures
Leaf A (3 columns in semi-cursive script):
Imitating the brush style of Beiyuan [Dong Yuan 董元, active 930s–960s]. [Signed] Xuanzai
倣北苑筆意。玄宰
Leaf AA (4 columns in large cursive script):
Shadowy pines, burbling water, In the cool of the night someone is not sleeping. Above the western peak still is the moon. Distant memory evokes the scene in front of the plain retreat. [Signed] Dong Qichang
[Translation by Shi-yee Liu]
松暗水涓涓，夜涼人不眠。 西峰月猶在，遙憶草堂前。[1] 董其昌
Leaf B (3 columns in semi-cursive script):
Imitating the brush style of Huanghe shanqiao [Wang Meng 王蒙, ca. 1308–1385]. [Signed] Xuanzai
擬黃鶴山樵筆意。玄宰
Leaf BB (4 columns in large cursive script):
He who drinks daily from the Stream of Powdered Gold Shall live at least a thousand years! Then he will be presented to the Jade Emperor, Riding beneath a plumed canopy in a carriage drawn by soaring blue phoenixes and spirited young dragons. [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Marilyn and Shen Fu. In Roderick Whitfield with addendum by Wen Fong, In Pursuit of Antiquity: Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Morse. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1969, p. 202.]
日飲金屑泉，少當千餘歲。 翠鳳翊文螭，羽節朝玉帝。[2] 其昌
Leaf C (3 columns in semi-cursive script):
Water Village Imitating the brushwork of Zhao Gan (10th c.). [Signed] Xuanzai
《水邨圖》，擬趙幹筆。玄宰
Leaf CC (4 columns in large cursive script):
Ten thousand almond trees by the riverbank Burst freshly into bloom after one night’s wind. All over the park, colors dark and light Are reflected there in the green waves. [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Irving Y. Lo. In Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1975, p. 164.]
萬樹天邊杏，新開一夜風。 滿園深淺色，照入碧波中。[3] 其昌
Leaf D (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Imitating the brush style of Huang Zijiu [Huang Gongwang黃公望, 1269–1354]. [Signed] Xuanzai
仿黃子久筆法。玄宰
Leaf DD (4 columns in large cursive script):
At the bottom of the ocean lies a bright moon, Which is rounder than the wheel in the sky. With just a bit of its light, One could purchase an eternity of spring. [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Shi-yee Liu]
海底有明月，圓于天上輪。 得之一寸光，可買萬古春 。[4] 其昌
Leaf E (3 columns in semi-cursive script):
Painted in the brush manner of Yunlin’s [Ni Zan, 1306–1374] Cold and Verdant Mountains. [Signed] Xuanzai
雲林《寒山蒼翠圖》筆意。玄宰
Leaf EE (4 columns in large cursive script):
Slender apricot trees pillar my hermitage, Fragrant grasses thatch it; Mountain clouds drift through it-- Clouds, could you not better make rain for needy peasants? [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Marilyn and Shen Fu. In Roderick Whitfield with addendum by Wen Fong, In Pursuit of Antiquity: Chinese Paintings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Morse. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1969, p. 200.]
文杏裁為梁，香茆結為宇。 不知棟裏雲，去作人間雨。[5] 其昌
Leaf F (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Guo Heyang’s [Guo Xi郭熙, ca. 1000–ca. 1090] Hills Clearing in the Evening. [Signed] Xuanzai
郭河陽《平崗晚霽》。玄宰
Leaf FF (4 columns in large cursive script):
White stones have emerged in the little stream. A few red leaves are hung. The days are growing cold. No rain has fallen on the mountain paths, but whew, The bright green air to the garments seems to hold! [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Robert Payne et al., in The White Pony: An Anthology of Chinese Poetry from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Newly Translated. The John Day Company, New York, 1947, p. 182. Dynasty: Sui-Tang.]
荊谿白石出，霜寒紅葉稀。 山路原無雨，空翠濕人衣 。[6] 其昌
Leaf G (3 columns in semi-cursive script):
A fledgling will be raised to become a grand crane; Seeds will be cultivated into tall pines. [Signed] Xuanzai
養雛成大鶴，種子作高松 。 玄宰
Leaf GG (4 columns in large cursive script):
“What is there in the mountains?” you ask— Many a white cloud on mountain peaks. But these are pleasures for me alone, I can’t take and send them to my Prince. [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Stephen Owen. In Stephen Owen, The Poetry of the Early T'ang. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977, p. 5.]
山中何所有，嶺上多白雲。 只可自怡悅，不堪持贈君。[7] 其昌
Leaf H (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Fang Fanghu’s (Fang Congyi方從義, ca. 1301–after 1378) Misty Mountains. Painted by Xuanzai.
方方壺雲山。玄宰畫。
Leaf HH (4 columns in large cursive script):
By chance to have come beneath the pines, With a boulder for pillow, I sleep care free. Blind, in these mountains, to calendared days, Care not, as the cold wanes, what year it be! [Signed] Qichang
[Translation by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa) 黄宏發. In “Classical Poems in English”, http://chinesepoemsinenglish.blogspot.com/2014/01/ ]
Mr.and Mrs. Wan-go H. C. Weng , New York (until 1989; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Brush: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy," March 12–August 14, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, p. 88, cat. no. A13-051.
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