ART A T T H E CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE CONTRIBUTORS Ju-hsi Chou Arizona State University and The Cleveland Museum of Art Britta Erickson Stanford University Jonathan Hay NYU Institute of Fine Arts Lothar Ledderose Heidelberg University Chu-tsing Li University of Kansas Stephen R. MacKinnon Arizona State University Hsing-yuanTsao Reed College Richard Vinograd Stanford University ARTATTHE CLOSE OF CHINAS EMPIRE Edited by Ju-hsi Chou PH0EBUS O C C A S I O N A L PAPERS IN A R T H I S T O R Y VOLUME EIGHT General Editors Ju-hsi Chou and Emily Umberger Editorial Assistants Anne Gully Robin Burlingham Designed by Thomas Detrie Printed in the United States Copyright 1998 Arizona Board of Regents All Rights Reserved Arizona State University Vigorously Pursues Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity To Roy and Marilyn Papp, Collectors of Chinese Painting and Patrons for Phoebus CONTENTS Preface 9 The Significance of the Nineteenth Century for Modern Chinese History 11 STEPHEN R.MACKINNON Looking at Late Qing Painting with N e w Eyes 18 C H U - T S I N G LI Qian D u to Zhang Jing The Artist and the Patron 38 JU-HSI CHOU Z h o u Xian s Fabulous Construct The Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake 67 BRITTA ERICKSON A Forgotten Celebrity Wang Zhen(i86y-1938), Businessman, Philanthropist, and Artist 94 HSING-YUANTSAO Satire and Situation Images of the Artist in Late Nineteenth-century China 110 RICHARD VINOGRAD Painters and Publishing in Late Nineteenth-century Shanghai 134 J O N A T H A N HAY Calligraphy at the Close of the Chinese Empire 189 LOTHAR LEDDEROSE Glossary of Chinese Names and Terms 209 PREFACE We are pleased to dedicate this issue of Phoebus to Mr and Mrs L.Roy Papp, collectors of Chinese painting and patrons for this publication over the years. At the time when financial support for scholarly publications is waning within the University, it is their generous donation that enables us to continue our efforts. Phoebus 8 contains selected papers from the scholarly symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition, Transcending TurmoilPainting at the Close of China's Empire. The Phoenix Art Museum was the setting for these events, and the time was 1992. Just over six years later, this issue of Phoebus appears in print. In subject and in scope, Phoebus 8 coincides roughly with those of Transcending Turmoil. However, it also expands beyond the latter's range. While the majority of the articles deal with late Qing painters and paintings, two venture into print media and calligraphy. Reflecting this expanded range is the title itself: Art at the Close ofChina's Empire. JU-HSI CHOU 9 Romanization of Chinese characters in Phoebus 8 adheres to the pinyin system, with the following exceptions: Terms and names in titles of publications using different systems of romanization, for example The Literary Inquisition of Ch'ienlung (not Qianlong); Self-chosen names of modern Chinese scholars in the West, familiar through previous publications, for example YuYing-shih (not Yu Yingshi) and Wen Fong (not Fang Wen); Place names outside of mainland China, the usage of which is accepted internationally, for example Hong Kong (not Xianggang) and Taipei (not Taibei). The Significance of the Nineteenth Century for Modern Chinese History S T E P H E N R. M A C K I N N O N Historically no one has ever doubted the importance of the century as a bridge separating the calm, confident, almost beatific peace of Qianlong s eighteenth century from the iconoclastic, nationalistically insecure, and revolutionary nature of twentieth-century China. For the Chinese literati, the world was turned upside down between 1800 and 1900, and it was an agonizing process. Because of the usually negative characterization of the nineteenth century as one of disintegration, there is a need to take a fresh look at it and to highlight its positive contributions to modern Chinese history. The self-confidence of the Chinese upper class, often called scholar gentry or literati, was terribly shaken in the nineteenth century - so badly that it did not survive much longer than the Qing dynasty after it fell in i9ii-i2.Thus, the trauma of the nineteenth century was especially profound for those who produced most of the art w e are discussing in this volume. In American terms the experience was analogous to that which the landed gentry of the old South endured in losing the American Civil War, a trauma from which that class as well never fully recovered. The story of how a way of life for the Chinese literati, including its art, was threatened in nineteenth-century China by unprecedented foreign and domestic challenges is well known. What is hard to convey is how this crisis was compounded by the simultaneous impact of the external and internal blows which shook the upper social class and the culture to its roots. Narrowly speaking, both challenges from within and without were military in nature, but the cultural threat was more broad, deep and much more unusual. In quite different ways, the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion of the nineteenth century represented unprecedented ideological challenges to the established Confucian way of life. 11 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE The essence of the foreign crisis was a confrontation with the West, beginning in the 1830s in south China over opium smuggling, London and Boston's unfortunate choice of weapon to force free trade upon the Qing empire. The Chinese state was ill-prepared, resulting in a series of defeats in wars beginning around 1840 and ending with the sack of Beijing in i860, an event which led to the establishment of major Western collections of Chinese art in London, Paris, Berlin, and Boston. This crisis continued into the twentieth century, with further erosion of Chinese sovereignty occurring through the spread of treaty ports like Shanghai andTianjin, and the onslaught of Western missionaries and merchants, their goods and extra-territorial privileges. By the end of the century, the confrontation with the West threatened the self-confident Sinocentric world view and the social privileges of the ruling gentry class as well as their economic and political positions. What made the situation so much worse was the simultaneous uprising of Chinese peasants in the form of the Taiping and Nian rebellions which almost toppled the dynasty and destroyed the way of life of China's scholar gentry, especially those living in the Yangzi River valley around the art centers of Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. To some extent the Taiping and other rebellions were products of new socioeconomic forces that undermined the social order after 1800: overpopulation, technological stagnation and declining standard of living. Early in the nineteenth century, scholars of the jingshi school (Wei Yuan for example) recognized that something was seriously wrong and began the search for solutions within Confucian traditions. Historians still argue about how closely the Taiping were linked to the Western threat, considering the half-baked Christianity and radical social programs which the rebels espoused. The Taiping rebellion lasted from 1850 to 1864 and over thirty million people died, and millions more were displaced. The devastation in the lower Yangzi region especially was catastrophic. The experience traumatized a generation of peasants as well as their highly educated landlords and overlords. It also militarized Chinese society, with effects that persist into the present. Because of the dynasty's failure to suppress the rebellion, the scholar gentry organized regional armies to defend its property, family and culture. Although by the 1870s the 12 T H E S I G N I F I C A N C E OF T H E N I N E T E E N T H C E N T U R Y Taiping, Nian, and Moslem rebellions were suppressed, China's upper classes would never be the same.These rebellions from below occurred at the same time as the foreign threat; when Beijing was sacked by the British and French in i860 much of the Yangzi region was in control of the Taiping. 1 The impact of all this turmoil on the artists whose work we are considering must have been great. With so much pain and hardship around them, China's literati were forced to look deep within, to tradition, either to find strength by refining established styles or simply to escape. The most important general of the period, Zeng Guofan, was renowned for the classical poetry and calligraphy he brushed during campaigns against the Taiping. Yet warrior literati like Zeng also recognized that innovation was necessary to preserve Chinese tradition. The Taiping rebellion was ultimately suppressed through the purchase and use of foreign cannon by the literati-led regional armies.2 Moreover, the pervading sense of crisis produced a clarity of vision, reflected I think in the quality of works on display in the exhibition, Transcending Turmoil. An example is the life and work of Ren Xiong (1820-1857), a major artistic influence on the period. He fought with the imperial troops against the Taiping rebels around Nanjing. His self-portrait is breathtaking and bold. (See Vinograd, 'Satire and Situation/ figure 9.) Clearly the artist saw himself as living in the eye of the storm. The inscription on his self-portrait expresses a distinctly modern form of self-doubt: What thing from within the vast cosmos is this before my eyes, with fleeting smile and body awry? I have long been aware of and anxious about important affairs, but am confused about what to grasp hold of and rely upon. 3 Ren Xiong's tormented self-portrait fits the conventional view of the nineteenth as a tragic century for the Chinese elite who were unable in the end to solve unprecedented foreign and domestic challenges. Certainly this view has merit, but in the rest of this essay I wish to suggest another, more positive, view of the nineteenth century, its art, and the insecure scholar gentry class that produced it. New perspectives have sprung from the global changes that have occurred over the last few years. The end of the cold war, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the demonstrations of 13 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE May and June, 1989, at Tiananmen in Beijing are events which have forced historians to reevaluate and to ask new questions about the course of modern Chinese history To a striking degree, the twentieth century appears to be ending much as it began, with the world absorbed in ethnic and religious rivalries, arms buildups, and small wars as well as freewheeling economic development. Asia is no exception. With the fading of the revolutionary Communist state on the mainland and of Nationalists in Taiwan, China looks different. In analyzing modern Chinese history, new paradigms have become the order of the day.4 The Nationalist and Communist revolutions with their Leninist parties look much less important historically than they did twenty years ago. With this change, the nineteenth century acquires new possibilities as a different kind of historical bridge. The emphasis is less on failure and more on the nineteenth-century roots of a more moderate, culturally balanced society and state shaped by concern with economic development. We can see more readily today the positive aspects of what the Chinese literati elite were trying to accomplish during the nineteenth century in terms of statecraft; this should make us more receptive to their art. Specifically, concerted efforts were made in the nineteenth century in three areas which are of renewed interest: first, an intellectual revival of Confucianism; second, the emergence of a new comprador elite in the treaty ports as pioneers in modernizing the economy; finally, in the realm of political history towards the end of the century, the significance of a 'liberal' (in the Western sense) press and groups of reformers within government. In the mid-nineteenth century there was a major revival of Confucian statecraft which Mary Wright called the 'last stand of Chinese conservatism/ 5 How scholar statesmen like Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and others remolded the tradition under the banner of selfstrengthening (ziqiang) is a well-known story.6 Certainly the revival of the Confucian spirit is a major theme which informs the art in this exhibition. Moreover, the Confucianism in modern dress that these literati figures tried to practice in nineteenth-century China resembles that which is being credited today for the late twentieth-century economic successes of Japan and South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Intellectually, the writings of contemporary Confucian thinkers like Yu Ying-shih, Tu Wei-ming, and others are in the tradition of mid-nineteenth-century essayists, poets and artists.7 14 T H E S I G N I F I C A N C E OF T H E N I N E T E E N T H C E N T U R Y The comprador merchant was a new class created by the treaty ports and the semi-colonial nature of the coastal economy during the nineteenth century. Like the nouveaux riches throughout the centuries and around the globe, merchants such as Zheng Guangying patronized artists, expanding the market place for Chinese painting within and outside of China. As recent studies have shown, their energy, innovation, and sophistication were considerable.8 Cantonese merchants became important as patrons of the arts.9 Again we find the antecedents of the Chinese business classes who are transforming the south China coast today and driving up prices in the art markets of Taiwan and Hong Kong. Finally the liberal political expressions which resurfaced in Taiwan and briefly in 1989 in Beijing were rooted in the nineteenth century. It was in the treaty port atmosphere of Shanghai and Tianjin that a modern press came into being in the late nineteenth century. For the first time there was discussion of freedoms for the individual, rights for women, parliamentary democracy, and so on.10 A tradition was established f r o m Feng Guifen to Yan Fu to Liang Qichao in which the political ideals of John Stuart Mill were mixed with Confucian traditions. Eventually the attempts at political reform which these ideas spawned brought down the dynasty, only to see liberal political influence eclipsed by the rise of Leninist parties in the 1920s, eclipsed but not dead. As we have seen, the liberal voice resurfaced recently with Wei Jingshen and Fang Lizhi.The demand at the very least for a free press is growing. This tension between the liberal and autocratic political traditions, which lies behind the struggle for the political future of Hong Kong, for example, dates back to the nineteenth century and it, too, is expressed in at least some of the paintings in the exhibition. Thus historically the nineteenth century can be seen positively or negatively depending on what one is looking f o r - w h a t kind of bridge to the twentieth century seems relevant. Either the nineteenth can be viewed negatively as the root of China's intractable problems of overpopulation, poverty and identity crisis, or more positively as suggestive of the possible patterns that are resurfacing as China redirects towards a more capitalist and modern future. Taking a fresh look at the positive dimensions of the nineteenth century reminds the historian of choices or alternative directions present at any point in time. Perhaps there has been too much attention 15 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE paid to the inevitability of the communist revolution and the rise of Mao in the twentieth century Overemphasis on iconoclasm and the failures of the nineteenth century has clouded understanding of the accomplishments of the nineteenth-century Chinese elite in terms of art, statecraft, and economic development. There was much more going on in the nineteenth century than is usually acknowledged in most standard accounts. The recognition in its artistic legacy of the possibility of more positive and complex interpretations of the century is part of what the exhibition and symposium, Transcending Turmoil, has accomplished. 16 T H E S I G N I F I C A N C E OF THE N I N E T E E N T H C E N T U R Y Notes 1. See John K. Fairbank and K. C. Liu, editors, The Cambridge History ofChina, X and XI: Late Ch'ing 1800-1911 (New York, 1980). 2. Mary C.Wright, Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: theTung-chih Restoration, 1862-18J4 (Stanford, 1957). 3. Jonathan D. Spence,The Search for Modern China (New York, 1992), 815. See also Richard Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits, AD 1600-1900 ( N e w York, 1992), 128-130. 4. On new paradigms see debates in Modern China, XVII, number 3 (July 1991); XIX, number 2 (January, April 1993). 5. See note 2. 6. Most important are the many works in Chinese and English by Liu Kwang-ching, summarized most recently in Jingshi Sixiang Yu Xinxing Zhiye (Statecraft Thought and the New Enterprises) (Taipei, 1990). 7. See the essays including those by Yu andTu in China in Transformation, a special issue of Daedalus, CXXII, number 2 (Spring, 1993). 8. Yen-p'ing Hao, Bridge between East and West: The Comprador in Modern China (Cambridge MA, 1970), and The Commercial Revolution in Nineteenth Century China: The Rise ofSino-Western Mercantile Capitalism (Berkeley, 1986). 9. RalphCroizier,ArtandRevolutioninModernChina:TheLingnan(Cantonese) School ofPainting, 1906-19JI (Berkeley, 1988). 10. The most comprehensive work in Chinese is Fang Hanqi, Zhongguo Jindai Baokan Shi (History of the Modern Chinese Press) (Shanxi, 1981). See also Andrew Nathan, Chinese Democracy (New York, 1985). 11. Hao Chang, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and Intellectual Transition in China (Cambridge MA, 1971) and Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis: Search for Order and Meaning, 1890-1911 (Berkeley, 1990), as well as Benjamin Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (Boston, 1964). 17 Looking at Late Qing Painting with New Eyes C H U - T S I N G LI In the study of Chinese history and culture, the late Qing has been a rather strange period. The Chinese do not like to mention it much since the whole period marks a long series of humiliating military defeats by Western powers and Japan. In literature and other aspects of culture, this period is often regarded as one of decline, filled with satirical novels and sentimental stories, but nothing spiritually uplifting. However, for scholars outside of China the late Qing marks a new beginning in Chinese history when the Chinese, with their long period of self-centered isolation broken, began to face the challenges from the rest of the world. In the scholarship on Chinese history in America, Europe, and Japan, perhaps more books and doctoral dissertations have been written on this period than any other. Yet, in art history, this period has been almost a non-entity until recently Most scholars, in their teaching of Chinese art, usually stop in the eighteenth century. Museums as a rule seldom collect paintings of this period. Even though there have been some dissertations on artists from this period (one on Ren Yi and one on Zhao Zhiqian, for example)1 they are regarded almost as anomalies. But in the last several years things began to change. Chinese historians gradually came to see the late Qing as the period in which the Chinese began to show signs of modern development, especially during the Taiping Rebellion and the reform movements. There has been a new interest in literature of this period, especially in the variety and vitality of late Qing novels. Many of them have been rediscovered and recently published. In art, there has been a definite move away from the strict literati point of view and a new look at the art of the period, especially the Shanghai School. In the new attitude toward art, many art works hitherto considered unimportant are receiving greater attention, such as the newly discovered paintings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the woodcuts of the Yangliuqing Studio inTianjin, and the New Year's woodcuts. 18 L O O K I N G AT L A T E QING P A I N T I N G Several interesting developments during the last twenty years have also helped to create a greater interest in the art of the late Qing period. A considerable number of paintings of the late Qing began to come out of mainland China in the early 1970s due to special circumstances during the Cultural Revolution. Collectors in Hong Kong, Taiwan and abroad became interested in them. Then auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's, began to promote late Qing paintings. In the mid-1980s, a collector-dealer gave a large collection of later Chinese paintings to The Metropolitan Museum in New York. At about the same time Jeannette Elliott Shambaugh of Tucson gave a collection of modern Chinese paintings to the Phoenix Art Museum which included a considerable number of late Qing works. The culmination of all these activities is this exhibition, Transcending TurmoilPainting at the Close of China's Empire, 1J96-1911.2 Despite this new situation, it is necessary to fight against certain prejudices that still exist, both in China and abroad, concerning late Qing painting. First, among most of the traditional critics, it is still regarded as a period of decline in art. According to this view, traditional literati painting in this period only repeated ideas and styles of the Four Wangs and their followers down to the Qianlong period. The court in Beijing was no longer interested in painting and did not patronize artists. The major new school of painting, the Shanghai School, was looked down upon by critics, somewhat like the Baroque artists in Europe in the early days. Second, there seems to have been no great artist in this period with a similar standing and extensive influence as those great masters of the past, such as Dong Yuan and Jing Hao of the Five Dynasties; Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui of the Song; Zhao Mengfu, Huang Gongwang, NiZan, and Wang Meng of the Yuan; Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, and Dong Qichang of the Ming; the yimin masters such as Bada Shanren, Shitao, and Gong Xian; and the Orthodox painters such as Wang Hui and Wang Yuanqi of the early Qing. As a result of all these circumstances, it is quite necessary for us to take a good look at late Qing paintings, to reevaluate individual painters as well as entire schools and the whole period, and to single out achievements of certain painters and their significance in the history of Chinese painting. In addition, we have to look at these paintings in the light of the historical, social, and cultural developments of the period. 19 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE When we look at traditional Chinese painting, from the Song to the early Qing period, we generally look for a number of characteristics. First is the relationship of the painting to what it depicts, whether mountains, trees, flowers, figures, or animals. The closer this relationship is, the better. This means that the painter must have the technical facility necessary to capture his object in nature. Second is the relationship of the painting to what it derives from, namely the works of the masters of the past. The artist usually draws from his own teacher or the past masters but transforms them into something new. Third is the relationship of the painting to how the painter feels. The deeper he can express himself in his painting, the better. In looking at the paintings of the late Qing, we of course still have to follow these three basic approaches but perhaps with different weight. In their relationship to what they depict, these paintings seem to have gone beyond the range of objects in the past to include a wider group of things in nature. It seems that painters in this period did not feel bound by all the traditional limits and felt free to explore something new. In the same way, in their relationship to past masters' works, late Qing painters seem to be less tied to the past than before. In many ways they attempted to find models not in the classical ones but in common and everyday life or in the folk tradition. There is also a broader range of feelings and emotions that artists expressed. It is in these differences that we can see late Qing painting with new eyes. During the late Qing period, Chinese society went through many great changes which are only beginning to be understood. Although military defeats have been regarded as negative elements in Chinese history, they did bring many positive changes. The most important was the opening up of the treaty ports to foreign trade which radically changed the whole economic situation in China. Shanghai, which had been only a small town up to the nineteenth century, suddenly found itself the new economic and commercial center of the whole country. The other ports, Guangzhou (Canton), Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou, and Ningbo, also became regional centers, especially Guangzhou. The establishment of foreign concessions with extraterritorial rights was a great insult to the sovereignty of the Chinese but it enabled extensive contacts between the Chinese and Westerners and, thus, considerable cultural exchange. In addition, a new class of merchants emerged in these treaty ports. Many of the merchants worked for 20 L O O K I N G AT L A T E QING P A I N T I N G foreign companies and thus came to live in the foreign settlements. With their new wealth and their new status under foreign protection, they climbed the ladders of Chinese society and achieved a new sense of power in their ports. Indeed, many of them became new patrons of paintings. With the rapid development of the treaty ports there appeared a gap between these wealthy, foreign-oriented cities and the relatively poor, traditional towns and villages in the vast area of China. These port cities, with the introduction of new industries from abroad, began to attract the migration of peasants hoping to become workers. It did not take long for many of the regional artists to realize that, in order to gain patronage for their art, they too must go to Shanghai to make their livings. As a result, Shanghai became a melting pot for Chinese from many different regions. In art, they introduced some new styles which merged with the prevailing ones in Shanghai to form ever new ones. The new patronage in these port cities was very different from the one before which was mainly made up of high officials and local gentry. They preferred the literati tradition, attempting to follow the taste of the scholar-officials. But in the port cities the new merchants did not have the educational background of the literati, although some of them did aspire to the same taste as the officials. These merchants gradually developed a taste of their own, not so highbrow in standard but more popular in subject matter, drawn directly from real life or from legends and stories from the past, more appealing in style, with exaggerated and showing ostentatious characteristics. Colorful, decorative and dramatic, the style of Shanghai became a new language in its own right. The artists themselves also underwent a considerable change. Even during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, in the eighteenth century, many of the artists working in Yangzhou were already selling their works without qualms. No longer pretending to be pure literati, those who went to Shanghai during the nineteenth century definitely sought their fortunes as professional artists. Even some of the artists from literati families were doing the same although they painted in the very traditional literati style. Selling was important and Shanghai was where merchants reigned. The prosperity of the city assured a good market for artists to sell their artworks. It attracted artists from all over the country. 21 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE The eighteenth century already saw the merging of literati and professional tastes in Yangzhou. But the major artists there, especially the so-called 'Eight Eccentrics' were mainly literati. Some of them acquired jinshi degrees and served as officials, some even at the court in Beijing. Others came from literati families with good backgrounds in poetry, calligraphy, and painting. A few may have come from lower status, but they seemed to aspire to be literati painters. As a result, most of their works tried to blend the 'three supremes' of poetry, calligraphy, and painting together into one. In artistic expression, these works were basically literati, although their artists wanted to sell them. In contrast, the nineteenth century was very different. Whereas a few painters such as those represented in Transcending Turmoil Huang Yue (1750-1841), Huangjun (1775-1850), YaoYuanzhi (1776-1852), Tang Yifen (1778-1853), Dai Xi (1801-1861), and others such as Zhang Zhiwan (1811-1897) and WengTonghe (1830-1904) - still served as high officials and painted in the typical literati style, 3 a majority of the artists active in Shanghai did something quite different. Determined to make a living with their works, they painted whatever was pleasing to the public.Their subjects may have come from legends, folk tales, novels, drama, history, Buddhist and Taoist deities and their stories, famous personages and beauties from history and literature, or from people and events of everyday life. Sometimes these Shanghai artists generated a way of their own between the literati and the professional. They would take up subjects from the literati, such as landscape and flower-and-bird, but treat these subjects differently, with only their signatures and without any poems. In other words, they tended to blend literati and professional elements in their own ways, in a variety of manners. Let us take a look at some of the paintings of this period with new eyes. First, in strict literati tradition, a number of painters still followed the Four Wangs' manner while trying to incorporate some innovations. A number of them, such as Huang Yue, Yao Yuanzhi, Tang Yifen, Dai Xi (figure 1), Z h a n g Z h i w a n , and WengTonghe, mentioned above, were well-educated, having passed several examinations and served at court or in the provinces. For them, naturally, the great literati tradition was their basis and they aspired to continue it. During the late Qing there were quite a few painters working in the literati tradition, such as Wang Xuehao (1754-1832), Huangjun, Tang Yifen, Gu Yun (1835-1896), Wu Guxiang (1848-1903), Lu Hui (1851-1920), 22 L O O K I N G AT L A T E QING P A I N T I N G Figure 1. Dai Xi, Landscape. H a n g i n g scroll, dated 1837. Collection of R o y and Marilyn Papp, Phoenix. 23 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE He Weipu (1844-1925), Gu Linshi (1865-1930), and some others.4 Most of them came from literati or well-to-do families but in this period they found it necessary to go to Shanghai to make a living with their paintings. As a w h o l e , they aspired to be the equals of the great painters of the past. They had a good command of brushwork and basic techniques; they were acquainted with the manners of the past masters; they tried to express the same ideal to be hermits in a secluded world of their own, away from the dusty world, as a way to come to terms with nature and the universe. However, their world was no longer the same as before. As a whole this group of painters continued a nostalgia for the literati ideal. Consequently, their works have to be looked at with 'old eyes,' or traditional literati standards. The strength of the literati tradition lies in its long and solid achievements in technique, theory, and expression. Works of the masters of the past of many centuries are always great inspirations to young aspirants. No matter what happens in Chinese art, this always remains the ideal to be fulfilled. Typically, in the late Qing, as shown in Transcending Turmoil, many works show that this tradition was still alive and well. But as the nineteenth century moved on, we can see a number of departures from this orthodoxy. While this school as a whole is known for its special interest in the pure beauty of brush and ink, some of the nineteenth-century painters tried to exploit this further. One of them is Ren Yu, the youngest of the so-called Four Rens and the son of the oldest of the group, Ren Xiong. His landscapes seem to be in a group of their own; he was very interested in patterns and formal quality and less dependent on ancient models. 5 The interesting designs he developed in the depiction of mountains and rocks show his boldness in this direction. Ren Yu has generally been regarded as the least prominent of the Four Rens but his innovations should be recognized as a major contribution. Another innovator out of the literati tradition was Wu Qingyun (died 1916), a native of Nanjing who spent most of his life in Shanghai. He seems to have been in Japan for some time where he might have come into contact with elements of Western painting. In his landscapes, he attempted to combine cloudy mountain scenes in the tradition of Mi Fu and Gao Kegong with the atmospheric effects and strong light-dark contrasts found in Western watercolors. 6 In order to show more realism than in literati works, he also depicted houses, 24 L O O K I N G AT L A T E QING P A I N T I N G pagodas, boats, bridges, and peasants and fishermen in the countryside. Perhaps one can say that he brought the literati tradition to the mundane world as a reflection of the new taste of Shanghai. If Shanghai still continued the orthodox literati tradition that prevailed in the Jiangnan region before, Guangzhou, the southernmost treaty port which had been opened to the West since the early sixteenth century, produced something quite different in regard to this tradition. Artists in Guangzhou did not try to follow the Four Wangs until well into the nineteenth century. Because of its distance from Jiangnan, its artists had different outlooks. A case in point was the influence of Shitao during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The influence of some other yimin painters was also strong in this area, but most interesting were some of the innovations they introduced as new literati expressions. The most creative was Su Renshan (1814-1850) whose works show a tremendous imagination and ingenuity in both conception and expression. 7 For someone whose short and tragic life was confined mainly to the south, in Guangdong and Guangxi, such an expression is the work of a genius. Unfortunately, because of his personal problems, there was no follower to continue his creative achievements. As a whole, landscape painting was no longer the dominant genre in the late Qing; it was flower-and-bird painting that became the major type of presentation of this period. In flower-and-bird paintings, the late Qing is a great period with many innovations. The standard type, usually done in fine lines, bright colors and elaborate details, followed the tradition of court paintings. Quite a few painters in the late Qing showed very strong technical skill and a sense for the highly decorative. Zhang Xiong, Wang Li, Zhu Cheng, and some others show that, even within this tradition, they made certain departures from this court style. 8 In the work of the brothers Ren Xiong and Ren Xun, the two oldest of the Four Rens, there was quite an innovative spirit, although they started from some of Chen Hongshou's ideas of the late Ming period. Their works tended to turn flowersand-birds into either some unusual patterns with very decorative colors and interesting outlines, or into free and bold brush work with imaginative composition and formal design.9 Perhaps one of the most important developments of flower-andbird painting in the art of the late Qing was a new merging together of calligraphy and painting. There had been a long history of this in 25 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE China, but the late Qing development had a character of its own. During the Qianlong period, some painter-calligraphers, such as Jin Nong and Zheng Xie, brought the two arts together into one to reach a new height. At the same time, the exciting development in calligraphy based on carved inscriptions on ancient stelae led to new sealcarving and stele-style calligraphy. Both of these trends paved the way for some important developments in the late Qing. Wu Xizai (1799-1870) was the first to paint flowers-and-birds in a purely calligraphic manner.10 With ink only, he handled his subjects in a variety of tonal qualities, fully showing the potential of calligraphic strokes in painting. Wu Xizai paved the way for the next calligrapher-painter, Zhao Zhiqian (1829-1884), who was an expert in stele-style calligraphy and a painter of flowers-and-birds. 11 Again the two arts were combined very well. Zhao used a considerable amount of color in his works, but in his use of lines he combined them with colors into one expression. A third painter along this line, Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) continued Zhao's development and brought this blending of calligraphy and painting to a new height. 12 With flowers and plants as his main subject matter, he achieved a greater sense of unity between calligraphy and painting by making the lines more calligraphic at the expense of form. These three painters were generally grouped together as the Metal and Stone School (Jinshi Pax) since they followed scripts from both stelae and seals in their calligraphy and also applied them to their paintings. They are one branch of the literati school with their own special characteristics. In true literati tradition, they were all well educated in the classics, passed some government examinations, served as officials in some local areas, but decided to devote their time and energy to the pursuit of the arts, including poetry, calligraphy, and painting. The combination of calligraphy and painting makes their works more surface-conscious, two dimensional, and semi-abstract. Although flowers, trees, plants, rocks, and other objects are quite recognizable, their lines are filled with the energy and vitality typical of calligraphy. The poems are often written in the same style as the flowers and plants are painted. Together, calligraphy, painting, and poetry play equal roles in the compositions of the paintings. This approach is similar to that of seal-carving since all the characters, usually in stylized 26 L O O K I N G AT L A T E Q I N G P A I N T I N G form, must be placed in the square area of the seal in a beautiful and innovative composition. It is something that attracted the attention of many of their contemporaries. The Shanghai School is a term applied to a large number of painters living in Shanghai during this period. In Haishang Molin, a compilation of the painters of Shanghai by Yang Yi, printed in 1919, a total of 741 names is included. 13 This is a very large number of painters for a city such as Shanghai which did not gain importance as an urban center until the nineteenth century. Although the book covers all the painters and calligraphers who either lived or came as visitors in this area from the Song until the early years of the Republic, a majority of them, probably more than two thirds of the total, lived in the late Qing period. This means that about five hundred artists were active in Shanghai during the period of a little over a century. From this point of view, Shanghai was a great flourishing center for painting and calligraphy in the late Qing. In this respect, we should examine the works of whom I consider the greatest master of the late Qing, Ren Yi or Ren Bonian (1840-1895).14 He was born the first year of the Opium War into the family of a rice merchant, who had an education in the classics, though not enough to pass examinations, and who was a self-trained painter, especially in portraiture. Growing up in his native Shanyin, now Shaoxing, Ren learned to paint from his father and was able to master portrait painting when still quite young. In 1861, when he was twenty-two, he was forced to join the Taiping army when Shanyin was invaded by the rebels. During the chaotic period of the Taiping invasion, Ren Yi's father died. Soon he was able to leave the army, but due to the disruptions caused by the war he had to make a living by selling paintings in Shanyin and some of the nearby cities such as Ningbo, one of the new treaty ports, Hangzhou, the largest city in the province of Zhejiang, and Suzhou, on the north bank of Lake Tai. Finally in 1868, at the age of twenty-nine, he went to Shanghai to seek his fortune. When he was fifteen, he probably met one of the painters in his home district, Ren Xiong (1823-1857), w h o was in the same clan. 15 Eighteen years older than Ren Yi, he was well-established as a painter when Ren Yi came of age. Indeed, he must have been an inspiration since Ren Xiong was the one who developed a style from an earlier painter in the same district, Chen Hongshou of the early Qing period. From Chen's manner of exaggeration and distortion from archaic 27 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE models, Ren Xiong perfected a manner that echoed Chen s approaches on the one hand but turned to his own way of depicting figures on the other. 16 This style was continued by his brother, Ren Xun (18351893), w h o was twelve years younger, but five years older than Ren Yi. Both of them became mentors of Ren Yi. Their styles became the basis of his development. In his early works, Ren Yi w a s indebted to the two senior Rens, who painted in the tradition of Chen Hongshou. Figures and objects are archaicized by stylization of lines and shapes, patternization of details, and exaggeration of features (figure 2). Archaism is the key to this early period and he executed all the details of the paintings with great care and facility. H e was especially interested in the manipulation of lines, shapes and colors to show decorative and expressive effects. Facial features, garments, chairs, objects on tables, trees, rocks and other details are done in his arbitrary manner, very different from their shapes generally known to us but full of archaic flavor. In contrast to this, he developed another manner quite early in his life, namely portrait painting. Perhaps as a result of some Western influence, the late Qing was a period of portrait making. Very different from the official portraits of earlier periods, these informal paintings were of contemporary people, usually seated in garden settings, with realistic depictions of facial features and somewhat free handling of draperies. 17 The figures are quite alive and close to life, showing a trend toward realism in the late Qing. However, the paintings that won him the greatest acclaim in Shanghai were the flower-and-bird type. A m o n g all the paintings he painted during his lifetime, no doubt the largest number fall into this category. Still deriving from Chen Hongshou and the two older Rens, he depicted flowers, plants, trees, birds, and animals sometimes in archaic, expert outlines and rich colors, including gold that he used quite often, and sometimes in broad, free brushwork and interesting colors in the socalled 'boneless style' (figure 3). In these paintings, he shows the full development of his own personal style that enjoyed great popularity in Shanghai. Skillfully composed on the two dimensional surface, his works show a very strong sense of form, a great awareness of decorative quality and a spirited vitality of brushwork. Ren Yi was such a versatile artist that in subject matter, technique and style he shows a tremendous range. In addition to archaic figures, portraits, flowers-and-birds, he also painted animals, people from all 28 L O O K I N G AT L A T E Q I N G P A I N T I N G Figure 2. Ren Yi, Presenting Spring Felicities. Hanging scroll, dated 1872. Source: Paintings byRenBonian, plate 1. 29 1 Figure 3. Ren Yi, Plantain and Hydrangea. Hanging scroll, dated 1882. Source: Paintings by Ren Bonian, plate 4. L O O K I N G AT L A T E Q I N G P A I N T I N G walks of life, legendary and historical figures, stories from poems, novels and drama, and landscapes. In these works he is not only noted for his brushwork, colors, compositions, and sense of form, but also for his new taste, such as a sense of humor, especially in his figures and animals. T h e sense of h u m o r is one of the most typical aspects of the Shanghai School, made especially interesting and important by Ren Yi. First it is found in Ren s depictions of animals and birds. Indeed, as shown mostly in their eyes, they seem to have taken on the characteristics of human beings.18 This, of course, is not new, for in the works of Bada Shanren in the early Qing we can already find some of the birds or fish or other creatures with quizzical expressions. Ren seems to have broadened this not only in birds but also in horses and goats and in human beings. Sometimes they appear to be very self-conscious; sometimes they are rather naive; sometimes they show humorous expressions. Again this sense of humor is typical of the new taste developed in Shanghai. Another typical type of painting in Shanghai was of figures, especially of Buddhists and Daoists, and ladies. Although this type can be traced back to the middle Ming painter Qiu Ying, its popularity during the late Qing had something to do with the society in Shanghai. Perhaps a parallel can be drawn from the ukiyo-e prints of actors and courtesans in Japan, for both the Shanghai type of figure paintings and the ukiyo-e were products of a new merchant class taste. The Shanghai paintings ranged in subject from female beauties based on traditional novels and drama in works of such artists as Gai Qi (1777-1828) (figure 4), Fei Danxu (1801-1850) and Wang Su (1794-1877)19 to legendary figures such as Z h o n g Kui the demon queller, 20 the Eight Immortals, the Three Gods of Luck, Fortune and Longevity, the Buddha, Guanyin, luohan, and many others, in the works of Ren Yi and most typically Qian Hui'an (1833-1911) (figure 5). In Guangzhou, both Su Renshan and Su Liupeng 21 developed their own ways of depicting historical and legendary figures. Most of these figures had existed for centuries in the folk tradition in China. But in the late Qing they became subjects of works for popular artists in connection with the wishes of the newly rich society. It is interesting to look at the painting development of late Qing with new eyes. Without the emperors and their courts as arbiters of taste, literati painting, while generally regarded as the mainstream, 3i ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE V) f M^i^^^^^mJ"1:1 f • Ifm ,VV v .'•< - Figure 4. Gai Qi, Yuzhen's Conversion to Dao. FromAlbumofFamonsWomen.Collection of Roy and Marilyn Papp, Phoenix. 32 L O O K I N G AT L A T E Q I N G P A I N T I N G Figure 5. Qian Hui an, Eight Immortals in Birthday Celebration. Hanging scroll, dated 1908. Source: GuotaiMeishu GuanXuanji, I, plate 3. 33 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE served as an ideal but failed to attract the main body of young artists. The domination of the Four Wangs and their descendants was over. The new artists were not seeking approval or acceptance from the court or the cultural elite but from the newly prosperous of the port cities. While some members of this group did aspire to be patrons of the literati tradition, a majority followed their own tastes. These merchants were mostly self-made people who came from families of artisans and peasants. When young, they began as apprentices in certain trades or foreign companies. By hard work and luck they rose through the ranks to become entrepreneurs or compradors. Most of them got ahead in connection with foreign trade and in time some of them became extremely rich in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other ports. With their wealth they became patrons of the arts. Their taste was then a combination of highbrow and middlebrow. With this development new approaches and aesthetics were needed to define their tastes. Again, like the Baroque in the West, what was once looked down upon as vulgar and bizarre, late Qing painting, when studied in its proper light, could become just as interesting and exciting as the Renaissance and other periods. The taste in Shanghai and Guangzhou and other treaty ports was looked down upon by the elite in similar fashion. Luckily, there has been gradual appreciation of this for some time. First, the people who got their early training in Western art, some in Japan and some later in Europe, began to appreciate artists such as Ren Yi and the whole group of Shanghai painters. Then came the Communist artists and critics, w h o showed great respect for these artists because of their plebian backgrounds and their interest in the folk tradition. N o w with Chinese art seen in a whole range of traditions and potentials, the art of the late Qing is also regarded as one of the most interesting in the history of Chinese art. Indeed, if we take the twentieth century point of view to look at the art of the late Qing we can find some fascinating materials which had not been accepted as fine arts before. There were book illustrations, some done by well-known painters, that are quite elegant and exquisite.22 There were New Year's woodcuts, colorful and attractive, which, aside from depicting guardian deities, show a whole variety of subjects from everyday life, with humor and drama.23 There was also some pictorial journalism, probably used as propaganda. Others show the impact from abroad in oil painting depicting scenes in Hong Kong 34 L O O K I N G AT L A T E Q I N G P A I N T I N G and Guangzhou. 24 One of the most interesting types of painting was a kind of Chinese trompe l'oeil, in the depiction of a number of pages from books. 25 They give us a sense of vision in late Qing China. The new aesthetic in late Qing was basically formed by a variety of artists from many parts of China who went to Shanghai with the overt purpose of selling their paintings as a way of making a living. Because of the new cosmopolitan society dominated by foreign-oriented merchants and entrepreneurs, the patronage of art also underwent a considerable change. While literati ideals still prevailed, these artists tried to bring in many different elements to enrich this tradition. Some introduced techniques and practices of ancient scripts from stone stelae; others took some ideas from Western watercolors and oil paintings; still others found interesting ideas from folk art; some depicted people and animals from everyday life. What they did was to transform all these elements from the mundane to the level of literati expression without vulgarizing or debasing the quality of art. From this point of view, the art of the late Qing, instead of imitating and repeating the ideas of the early and middle Qing, took on new life to become an art in its own right. 35 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Notes 1.James Soong, A Visual Experience in 19th-century China: Jen Po-nien (1840-95) and the Shanghai School of Painting (PhD dissertation: Stanford University, 1978), and Elizabeth Bennett, 'Chao Chih-ch'ien (18291884), A Late Nineteenth Century Chinese Artist: His Life, Calligraphy and Painting (PhD Dissertation: Yale University, 1984). 2. This exhibition traveled to the Denver Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Art, and the Hong Kong Art Museum after it had opened at the Phoenix Art Museum in August, 1992. Claudia Brown andju-hsi Chou cocurated the exhibition and coauthored the accompanying catalog (Phoenix, 1992). 3. See Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, respectively numbers 1,4,12, 13-16, and 17-18. For works by major officials, Zhang Zhiwan (1811-1897) and Wen Tonghe (1830-1904), see Robert Ellsworth, Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (New York, 1986), II, P031.01, Album of Landscapes, and P044.01, Landscape, respectively. 4. For Wang Xuehao's work, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 9-11. For Wu Guxiang's, see number 58. For Lu Hui's, see numbers 79-80. For the works of Gu Yun and He Weipo, see Ellsworth, Later Chinese Painting, II, P033.01, Huaisu in the Banana Grove and P062.01, Album of Landscapes, respectively. For an example of Gu Lingshi's painting, see P068.01, A Ting-tzu near a Stream. 5. For a fine treatment of landscape motif, see his Meditation in a Cave, published in Ellsworth, Later Chinese Painting, II, P041.02. 6. For paintings by Wu Qingyun, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 81-82. 7. For works by Su Renshan, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 98-102. For in-depth studies of this artist, see Pierre Ryckmans, The Life and Work ofSu Renshan: Rebel, Painter and Madman, 1814-1849? (Paris and Hong Kong, 1970), two volumes; and Guangzhou Art Gallery and the Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Art of Su Liupeng and Su Renshan (Hong Kong, 1990). 8. See Transcending Turmoil, numbers 51 (Zhang Xiong), 52 (Zhu Cheng), and 77 (Wang Li). 9. Examples of their flower painting can be seen in Masterworks ofShanghai School Painters from Shanghai Museum Collection (Hong Kong, 1991), figure 15 (Ren Xiong) and figure 44 (Ren Xun). Also see Transcending Turmoil, number 63, for a bolder attempt by Ren Xun. 10. For Wu Xizai's painting, see Transcending Turmoil, number 87. 36 L O O K I N G AT L A T E QING P A I N T I N G 11. For Zhao Zhiqian, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 89-93. Also see the PhD dissertation by Elizabeth Bennett, cited in note 1 above. 12. For the art ofWu Changshuo, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 94-96. 13. A reprint of HaishangMolin (Taipei, 1975) is known to contain 691 entries. Some of these entries also mention related artists. In this version, an index is appended for easy reference. 14. For a comprehensive study of Ren Yi's biography, see Ding Xiyuan, Ren Bonian (Shanghai, 1989). Also see Hans van der Meyden, T h e Life and Works of Ren Bonian (1840-1896)/ Oriental Art, new series, XXXVIII, number 1 (Spring 1992), 27-40. 15. For Ren Xiong's art, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 59-61, displaying an impressive range of themes and styles. 16. For an example of Ren Xiong's linkage with Chen Hongshou, see Transcending Turmoil, number 59, Enchanting Vignettesfrom the Past. This album was published under the title of Yao Meibo Ti Ren Weichang Renwu Shi'er Zheng (Shanghai, 1919). 17. For an example of Ren Xun's figure style, see Masterworks of Shanghai School, figure 45. See also Vinograd's paper in this volume. 18. For an example, see Transcending Turmoil, number 68. 19. For Gai Qi's work, see also Transcending Turmoil, numbers 29-31. For Fei Danxu's figure paintings, see number 35. For Wang Su, see number 38. 20. For an example of Zhong Kui, see Huang Shanshou's rendition in the collection of the Phoenix Art Museum. It is published in Transcending Turmoil, number 38. 21. See Transcending Turmoil, numbers 97 (Su Liupeng) and 100-101 (Su Renshan). 22. See Jonathan Hay's article in this volume. 23. For examples of popular prints and New Year's woodcuts, see an exhibition catalog of folk art in the Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Chinese Folk Art (Hong Kong, 1995). Seeju-hsi Chou's introduction, 11-21. 24. See Hong Kong Museum of Art, Late Qing China Trade Paintings (Hong Kong, 1982), with an essay by Joseph S. P. Ting. 25. See Nancy Berliner, 'The "Eight Brokens:" Chinese Trompe-L'oeil Painting,' Orientations (February 1992), XXIII, number 2, 6iff. 37 Qian Du to Zhang Jing The Artist and the Patron JU-HSI CHOU The Phoenix Art Museum is fortunate to possess, among its treasures from China, a handscroll, Longing to Roam, by Qian Du (1764-1845), an artist of a unique turn of mind and style (figure i).1 It is a scroll of modest dimensions, with the surface of the painting itself measuring 30.8 x 114.9 cm. It also bears a title, a colophon by the artist, and a series of laudatory inscriptions at the tail end, extending its length considerably beyond the pictorial portion. In the painting itself, Qian Du presents the viewer with a vista of the West Lake.The beginning section displays, at the bottom register, a low hill, which gives way to a city wall, the gate of which sports an upper story. The city wall then descends and becomes invisible, while its leftward direction is continued by a row of bushes and trees that point to a small isle.This is perhaps the site of HuxinTing, or 'Pavilion in the Heart of the Lake / It features a pavilion and roofed corridors, which encircle the vegetation within. To its right, a vermilion fence, erected in the water, frames a patch of lotus blossoms. Beyond the Huxin Ting, the lake unfolds its expansive surface. Shores and land formations are seen across at the top of the scroll, with more architectural splendor, among which is a Buddhist sangha, perhaps the Shengyin Temple. Here is the familiar sight of willows lining the shore. Toward the left, a bridge in purple is topped by a kiosk, recalling those alongside the Su Causeway. 2 At the very end of the scroll, land mass begins to emerge into view, and hillocks enclose a cluster of thatched cottages. At the upper portion, acres of lotuses, grown in the paddy fields, stretch beyond the horizon. In the middle of the lake, a small boat, carrying a scholar and a crane placed within a tall basket with its neck stretching above the opening, stirs up ripples in its otherwise calm surface. In terms of style, the scroll is quintessential^ Qian Du. The approach is tenuously based on the Wu school of Wen Zhengming. Parenthetically, the artist was, at the time, the only major figure to 38 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G emerge from Hangzhou who did not succumb to the overwhelming impact of the orthodox school.3 From his point of view, the Wu school heritage consisted in a deliberate orchestration of landscape motifs and a chromatic perception of images and reality. However, the careful orchestration here does not so much dwell on exquisiteness of motifs, the interior of which are slightly roughened, as on their coherence; the chromatic images are never just bright, but are purposefully inverted. The colors verge upon the iridescent, with malachite green, ochre, and vermilion to accompany the ink passages. Seen in this light, Qian Du's work is quite unlike those by his precursors in the sixteenth century. The latter favored an ethereal vision, above and beyond the earthly.4 The present painting, however, is laden with an eerie atmosphere.Though the surface is richly chromatic, the picture is not exactly cheerful. The image maybe familiar, but it is neither commonplace nor transcendent. It is an enchanting vista or dream, but it is also disturbingly silent. In this silence, it unveils an undercurrent of melancholy, as if there is a sense of the lost horizon. The artist's colophon is set at the very start of the scroll. The space there appears to have been preplanned for the purpose. Its content sheds light on the circumstances leading to this painting and also to its theme. In the colophon, Qian Du dedicates the painting to Master Jiehang: My province, Zhejiang, is well known for its scenic lakes and hills. Master Jiehang is chagrined because he has not set foot there. This autumn, he and I met at a travel lodge in Daliang. Over the wine, he requested me to portray the scene [in the series] of Yuanyou Tu (Longing to Roam). I have left: my native place for a long time. With respect to the hills and water in my native land, I have frequently sought them in my dreams. [In response to his request], I have produced this scroll. Toward the end of it, there are several units of thatched cottage and ten mu of lotus. This is my villa, the Songhu Villa. 5 May you, in your official capacity, travel to this land sometime in the future. This Fisherman of the Mid-Lake shall greet you in a boat, so that together we may hold hands and recite poems amidst the reflecting waves and green peaks. I wonder when we can fulfill this wish! On the fifteenth day, ninth month, the fewxwdyear of Daoguang (1823). 39 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 1. Qian Du, Longing to Roam: The First Picture - Drifting in a Boat on the West Lake. Handscroll, dated 1823. Phoenix Art Museum. From this very brief description of the circumstance, w e m a y b e able to ascertain several facets of which the painting itself bears the imprint. Qian D u a n d j i e h a n g , whose f o r m a l name is Z h a n g J i n g (1776-1835), met at a travel lodge at Daliang, that is, Kaifeng - an encounter between a painter and an official. 6 Qian D u was originally from the city of Hangzhoubutby 1823 when the painting was done he had been away f r o m his native place for an extended period. A peripatetic traveler, Qian Du fled his home, leaving behind a loveless marriage and a daughter, for w h o m he maintained a fatherly affection. (From the artist's disciple, Cheng Tinglu, it is known that an earlier sickness and a miraculous herbal cure had diminished Qian Du's fondness for the opposite sex and rendered him impervious to any womanly charm). 7 By 1823, when he would have been in his forties, Qian Du had, after spending some time in the capital, served briefly in the provincial bureaucracy in Yunnan and left it to be essentially on the road, seeking patronage among literati and officials. Carefree 40 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G he was, not to be burdened with bureaucratic duties. However, due to his skill as a poet and painter, and also his illustrious family backg r o u n d - the son of a Provincial Administrative Commissioner (rank 2b) and the brother of a Hanlin Academician Reader-in-Waiting as well as other brothers of lesser official ranks - Qian Du had little trouble in winning his way into the circles of the wealthy and powerful. 8 Still, seen against father's and siblings' achievements, his chosen path represented to his contemporaries a decline, putting the artist in a marginal state. On the other hand, Zhang Jing the official was blessed with a brilliant future. From Shaanxi, he had taken the jinshi degree roughly two decades before. He was a newcomer to the capital, assigned to the Grand Secretariat (neige zhongshu). Youthful and brash, he had been prone to bold gestures and inclined to entertain in grand style, cavorting with his friends in drinking bouts.9 He was, however, a man of talent. While perhaps curbing his own excesses, 10 he also performed splendidly in assigned posts, either by quelling local uprisings or in efficient supervision of river control. As a result, Zhang Jing rapidly climbed the ladder of success. In 1823, a f e w months before the encounter with the artist, he had just been promoted to 41 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE the post of taishou, the prefect for Runing in Henan province. It is likely that he was paying a visit in his official capacity to Kaifeng, which was not far away. So the two men, an artist and an official, met and perhaps dined in a setting from which the scroll was the outcome. It was not their first meeting as they had been on friendly terms. A year before the artist had dedicated a fine album to the official even though he was ill at the time. 11 Thus, we may assume that the Kaifeng gathering was a jovial occasion, free from the sort of awkwardness and formality attending initial encounters between strangers. It was there that Zhang Jing, who had never visited the West Lake but harbored a passionate desire to do so, made a reasonable request: a painting about the scenic site from a painter who had come from that region and had a villa near the lake. The painter readily consented. Consistent with the friendly atmosphere, the artist's dedication bears a personal note, espousing a w a r m sentiment and a sincere invitation. To suit the gesture to the desire, he rendered the aforementioned boat, carrying its human and avian cargo toward a cluster of thatched cottages. These would have to be the Songhu Villa which, as Qian Du himself described, was in the midst of several mu of lotuses. A touch of ambiguity surrounds the boat and its cargo. We notice in the boat only a single figure, certainly not the combination of the host and visitor predicted in the colophon. Given that the boat heads toward Qian Du's estate, where he perhaps appears in the interior of one of the cottages, this individual must be the visitor, Zhang Jing. The crane inside the basket cage adds a symbolic dimension: w h o s o e v e r associated with it w o u l d have to be a hermit, a recluse, or an immortal, someone who had cast aside worldly attachments. Around the West Lake, memory of Lin Pu's association with plum blossoms and crane (meiqi hezi, or 'the prunus as his spouse and a crane as his child') was never far away.12 Of course, if the symbolism were to be applicable, it would not have been Zhang Jing of the present but of the future. To confirm this, we only need to refer to the poem by Zhang Shu (1781-1847, Appendix, number 19 in the segment of appended inscriptions). A close friend of the official, Zhang Shu had visited the West Lake before and therefore saw the pictorial scene succinctly: Once, from the South Lake, I [had made my way to, and] boated on the West Lake. 42 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G The spring breeze blew gently on my thin robe. I laughed at the ministerJia [Sidao], his estates in ruins on the Ge Hill. Around the Crane Pavilion, where the plum trees grew old, I sought [the traces of] Lin Pu [the hermit]... Now it is you who, on the boat, is searching for the hidden vistas. The West Lake appears as a clear mirror of blue... 13 Transformation Is Qian Du's West Lake an accurate depiction of the setting? Is this a cartographical rendering? Hardly. When we view the Lake as depicted in the scroll, let us be mindful of Qian Du s confession that he had been away from Hangzhou for a number of years. In view of his long absence, his depiction of the West Lake may not be as accurate in scale or in physical features as we would wish. 14 The few essential landmarks he includes, the city wall to the east of the West Lake, the HuxinTing, a bridge along the Su Causeway (probably one of the six, formerly with a pavilion atop its arching profile) and nearing Gushan, with its temple and other structures, were essentially isolated from memory. Their positions are hardly, to use a term drawn from modern sculpture, site-specific. In the painting, the most notable element is the Songhu Villa. As he describes it in the inscription, it consists of several units of thatched cottage and ten mu of lotuses. That in fact is the dominant landmark in the scroll, one which may be the last to be seen, but which, in a significant way, represents Qian Du s vantage point. In retrospect then, this is not so much the West Lake but Qian Du's vision of it. There is a personal angle, something seen from his own perspective - from his own Songhu Villa. It is a vista familiar to him, in past experience and in his dreams. The other landmarks in the painting, instead of being treated in their own terms, are being brought to the proximity of the Villa. Consequently, the hierarchy of scale is contrary to the direction of the viewing. The initial appearance of the low hills and city wall in the lower register, which w e noticed first, are diminutive and more 'distant' in perception. Gradually, however, as the Villa comes into sight at the very end of the scroll itself, the land becomes monumental, and his thatched cottages and the environment take on a degree of grandeur rivaling any of the known sites around the West Lake. One might suggest that this 43 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE is the emotive core of the painting. From here, w e may retrace the steps and encounter these landmarks farther and farther away, all the time with a diminishing scale and distance as a critical and accompanying factor. Finally, let us not ignore the fact that the painting constitutes a dialogue, a dialogue between the painter and his patron. It may also be regarded as a veritable invitation. It is Qian Du's West Lake and he is opening his door to the honorable guest. Both turn their eyes to the Lake, one lost in vivid memories and another receiving a maze of signals and colors to illuminate his land of fantasy. Depicted this way, the scene confirms Qian Du's dreaming of the past and Zhang Jing's anticipation for the future. T h e West Lake, with its architecture of vermilion hues, the willow-studded shorelines, and the hills of malachite greens and rich ochre, turns eerily luminous and quiet. Here the past and future merge, and dream and fantasy are now fused. The Tipping of Scale: The Artist and His Patron It is axiomatic that, once the painting is done and leaves the artist's hand, it begins to enjoy a separate existence. In this case, it is certainly true; its fortune became entangled to a large degree with the man to w h o m it was dedicated and in whose hands it turned into a possession of pride, apparent in that the scroll was shown a number of times, to friends and colleagues, officials and literati - men of eminence, with w h o m Zhang Jing came into contact (see Appendix). Later, the scroll began to acquire the sort of accouterments known and familiar to us, that is, a title in bold calligraphy by a prominent individual, and then post-scripts and colophons by admirers at the tail end. Twenty individuals have left their traces. Between Yao Wentian (1758-1827) in the frontispiece and M u z h a n g ' a (1782-1856) at the v e r y end of the sequence there was nearly a decade of time involved. To be exact, the total span was nine years. Their presence and comments trailed Zhang Jing's rise in fortune. It began with his appointment as the taishou of Runing, continued through his guancha post overseeing the circuit of Kai G u i C h e n X u (Kaifeng, Guide, C h e n z h o u , Z h e n g z h o u and Xuzhou) to his growing prestige and power as the Director-General of the G r a n d Canal, first overseeing the Eastern sector at J i n i n g (1824-1826) and thence to the Southern sector at Huaiyin (1826-1833).15 With every ascending step, his own aura brightened considerably. By an inverse ratio, the artist's stature was being diminished. It was a case 44 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G of political power translated into social and financial advantage, against which an artist like Qian Du appeared vulnerable. Zhang Jing already was showing a passion for collecting paintings and painters.16 As the Director-General, presiding over the critical issues of river control and with an immense budget at his command, he was a formidable presence and able to extend his network of patronage. 17 Consequently, his studio title of Erzhu Zhai, the Twin-Bamboo Studio, gained a degree of fame in posterity.18 A number of literati and artists in the late Qing gravitated toward Zhang Jing. 19 The scale tipped in favor of the patron. In the Phoenix scroll most of the inscriptions were written for Zhang Jing. While the inscribers faced Qian Du's painting, they appeared to have ignored him as its author and to have presented their written and poetic celebrations in honor of Zhang Jing.20 Mostly, the inscribers reminisced about their previous enjoyment of the West Lake or shared a desire to travel to such a scenic and enchanting site, to 'borrow the mist and vapor to nurture our heart and soul/ 21 And, the image of Lin Pu, associated with prunus and crane, was lurking in the background. That association had been made tangible by the artist and further confirmed by the writers. That was, of course, flattering to the politician Zhang Jing who, in ways that had become fashionable, was compelled to display a reclusive bent. But the eclipse of Qian Du is lopsided. No one even praised Zhang Jing for having chosen the right artist to initiate the series of Yuanyou Tu. Were the writers conscious of Qian Du at all? Yes, of course. Some were his friends and patrons as well or about to become so. But in deference to Zhang Jing, from whom the request for title and inscriptions had come, the artist was allowed to receded into the background. Of them only a humble scholar like Chu Fengchun (Appendix, number 13) was sympathetic enough to observe: The Old Man of Songhu has a mind of his own. He wielded a brush and depicted the spring in the Su Causeway. On the Causeway, weeping willows number in the tens of thousands. In these cottages, he told us he had been residing. The invitation extended, and the team of children on bamboo horses were ready to greet, It was lucky for him to invite the man of rising fortune. 45 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE That was the extent of praise for our artist. It may be that Qian Du at the time had not attained the same degree of fame as he later did. In the reticence so manifested among the inscribers, we note a widening chasm between the official on the one hand and the artist on the other. If Z h a n g Jing was advancing, Qian Du was not. Regardless of the painter's illustrious family background, he was a painter for hire. The First of the Series Zhang Jing imposed his will by ordering a series of ten, for which Qian Du was but one of the artists at his bidding. Qian Du was, however, the first artist to respond to Zhang Jing's request and he painted additional works within the series. In so doing, he was made to celebrate and make public the official's desire to roam. Serial paintings were a familiar sight by the nineteenth century. Zhang Jing, as well as Qian Du, was following a well-established convention. Antecedents were plentiful, ancient, immediate past and contemporary. The classic examples of 'the Wangchuan Villa/'The Thatched Cottages of Lu Hong,' 'Eight Scenes of Xiao and Xiang' need no introduction. In the more immediate past, the court of the Qianlong era indulged in grand projects of ceremonial dimensions and magnificence that often required serial undertakings. 22 The multiple views of the 'Bishu Shanzhuang' and 'Yuanming Garden' or those of cities and scenic sites are examples. In the nineteenth century itself, perhaps as a distant reflection of historic antecedents and court practices, we can observe rising enthusiasm and involvement, with many literati acting to find ways to celebrate ideas or possessions. A Mongol literatus, Fashishan (1753-1813), had his Niche of Poetry painted a number of times, with fourteen painters cooperating. 23 Another, Guo Lin (1767-1831), commissioned paintings of his studio, the Lingfen Guan, by contemporary artists, among whom was Qian Du himself.24 Qian Du also painted the Sixteen Scenes of the Yan Garden for Jiang Yinpei, one of the inscribers of the Phoenix scroll (Appendix, number 17).25 We may mention another series, The Dream Journeys, set forth by an obscure literatus, Yang Changnian. 26 On the strength of the title, we are certain that it was similar to the Yuanyou Tu series, though more extensive in coverage. It attracted several tens of painters, among whom was Tang Yifen (1778-1853), who contributed no less than three very fine works. Yang Changnian had neither the prestige nor the 46 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G wealth of Zhang Jing to command artists to do his bidding. Besides relying on friendship to exact cooperation from his peers, Yang must have sought, humbly and abjectly, for the inclusion of the three paintings that Tang Wen, the grand old master, eventually consented to paint. Returning to the Yuanyou Tu series, it stemmed from Zhang Jing's profound sense of privation and the resultant desire to mend this gap in his experience. Thus he longed to travel through a whole series of scenic and historic sites, those which he had not had opportunities to visit before. Of these, the West Lake was the first and Qian Du happened to be at Kaifeng to quench a portion of his thirst. If curiosity had initially inspired the desire, that motive soon took on a proportion of grandeur as Zhang Jing engaged contemporary painters to bring a degree of reality to it. Further invitations to inscribe the scrolls represented a wide-ranging public display and celebration. Indeed, when Qian Du acknowledged in his inscription that it was a Yuanyou Tu, he made it clear what his patron had in mind. Further confirmation comes from Yao Wentian (1758-1827) (Appendix, number 1), a venerable statesman and a worthy calligrapher in his own right. 27 He was asked, and consented to write, the title Longing to Roam: The First Picture, with 'Drifting in a Boat on the West Lake' as a subtitle.28 In addition, Chen Yongguang (Appendix, number 9) and Wu Songliang (Appendix, number 16), writing at the end of the scroll, provided several tantalizing hints that the series was to include Mt Lu, Mt Yandang, Mt Huang, Mt Emei, and so on. The best evidence comes from the aforementioned Zhang Shu, who, by 1831, had seen the whole series of the Yuanyou Tu and had written inscriptions on all of them.29 The titles given to his poems are identical to the pictorial themes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Drifting in a Boat on the West Lake Waterfall at Mt Lu Ocean of Cloud at Mt Huang Seeking Scenic Wonders at Mt Yandang Viewing the Waterfall at MtTiantai 30 Boating [on a stream] below Mt Wuyi Viewing the Plum Blossoms at Dengwei Visiting Fishermen by the Yan [Zhitui] Shore Viewing Snow on Mt Emei Leaning on a Staff at the Wangchuan [Villa] 47 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE The sites are familiar. Each carries a different degree of historic significance while being spectacular in scenery. Those were places where Zhang Jing had not been and longed to be; that was the key to the selection process. Since he had come from the province of Shaanxi and by 1823 had served in Henan and Shandong and had made visits to cities like Yangzhou or Zhenjiang, we could understand why he favored those outside of his limited experience. As it stands, the list takes him, imaginatively, over several provinces. Most of these scenic sites lie south of the Yangzi River,31 with one exception, number ten, the Wangchuan Villa, the famed villa to which the great poet and painter, Wang Wei, retired after an official career that ended in disgrace. This celebrated site is not far from Zhang Jing s native land of Fushi; oversight, more than anything else, must have been the reason for his failure to visit it. But the fact that it was near his native place might also explain why it was listed last, as it would be the most accessible should he retire, perhaps, at the end of the projected grand tour/ Just as at West Lake, an undercurrent of reclusive urges may have been present through the series.To cite a few examples: Lin Pu in number one, Yan Zhitui in number eight, and Wang Wei in number ten are salient archetypes, worthy of emulation for those worn down by onerous official duties. On the other hand, considering that Zhang Jing was still upwardly mobile, the reclusive bent was not so focused or perhaps seemed to be a case of public posturing. That might not be so a few years later when Zhang Jing's river control effort did not succeed as before and demotion, if not disgrace, hastened his retirement.32 Returning to the Yuanyou Tu series, it was begun by Qian Du in 1823 and it is clear that individual paintings were done at various times between that year and 1831, by a number of artists.33 Casting a wide net, Zhang Jing selected artists among those whom he encountered along the way and upon whom he had lavished attention and rewards. This was the case with Qian Du who, not only given the honor of starting the series, three years later painted the fifth in the series, Viewing the Waterfall at Mt Tiantai.34 Another case was Zhu Henian, a well known scholar painter, from whom Zhang Jing coaxed a commitment for two paintings (number two, Waterfall atMtLu and number three, Ocean of Cloud at Mt Huang).35 A third case was the patron's encounter with Sheng Dashi, who is better known as the author of a treatise, Xishan Woyou Lu, which chronicled the art scenes in the first half of the nineteenth century. Zhang Jing entrusted him with the task of rendering Viewing Snow on Mt Emei, the ninth painting in the series.36 48 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G At times, Zhang Jing had to rely on friendly help in order to discover painters who might match his expectations. Chen Yongguang, a scholar-official and an inscriber of the Phoenix scroll, kindly obliged; he found an able painter in the person of Hujiusi, the son of a Qianlong era court painter, Hu Gui. 37 This resulted in number four, Seeking Scenic Wonders atMtYandang, dated 1825,38 and, in addition, an album representing a complete set of the ten YuanyouTu.39 Was Zhang Jing always pleased with his artists or those Yuanyou Tu they painted? The case of Hujiusi, whom he recruited when the subject of Mt Yandang apparently posed a grave challenge to the skills of existing personnel, is indicative of his own rising expectations and occasional failures to meet them. Regarding Viewing Snow on Mt Emei, not only did he have Sheng Dashi paint it, but in 1830, Zhang requested another painter, Wang Gonghou of Shandong, to try out the same theme.40 Since only Wang's painting has survived the vicissitudes of the last hundred or so years, it is difficult to determine whether Sheng s preceded his, or vice versa. Such a repetition cannot but suggest that one of them must have appeared doubtful to Zhang Jing. However, one should not be surprised that Qian Du's paintings were consistently held in high esteem by the patron. It is not our purpose to praise Qian Du at the expense of other artists also engaged in the series; each had his strengths and weaknesses. Qian Du was the exception to the orthodox modes, in which Zhu Henian and Sheng Dashi found their niches. The parameter of his style may even be more commodious in nature than theirs in adjusting itself to, or dealing with, the specific topographical contours of the sites. When inspired, it can fill the interior of the scenes with a resonance of subtle thoughts and richly endowed emotive tone beyond the visual and the ordinary.41 The main evidence of Zhang Jing s trust lies in his own actions and decisions. Not only did he put Qian Du in charge of two paintings in the series but also, in 1832, one year after the series had been completed, he made clear to the artist a wish for him to try the theme of the Wangchuan Villa again.42 A previous attempt by an unknown artist had not satisfied the taste of the patron. In addition, as circumstances then had changed considerably, there was greater urgency for him to enforce his desire. This was when the Director-General knew that his days were numbered, as he looked to the prospect of finally returning home, in the vicinity of which lies the famous site. Regarding this request, Qian Du not only obliged, but rose to the occasion.43 Having been inspired by Xu Ben and Tang Yin s renditions of the same theme, 49 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE so he claimed, he transformed the familiar subject into a silent vista of undulating hills and enclosed cottages; a figure, perhaps Zhang Jing himself accompanied by a young servant, chances upon this place with a new sense of wonder. Between the patron and the artist, the relationship appears to have endured no less than a decade. Starting from 1822 or earlier, the aforementioned album for Z h a n g Jing in the Shanghai Museum collection, painted at the time when the artist was in a sickly state, testifies just how invaluable Qian Du regarded the relationship. Some evidence suggests that Zhang Jing had lavished many financial rewards on the artist, and had placed him under his care, requesting little other than asking him to paint for him. This relationship survived and became ever stronger after the artist began the series of Yuanyou Tu and, in 1832, reached a crescendo in The Wangchuan Villa. In the last days of their relationship, in 1833, Qian Du continued to produce works of importance for his patron. There is, for example, a commissioned work, Shugangjiyou Tu (Picture Recording the Visit to Shugang), in which the artist documented a visit by Zhang Jing and his friends to Shugang in Yangzhou.44 Of greater emotional impact is a smaller painting, in which he bade farewell to Z h a n g Jing whose official career had collapsed and who was looking homeward. This is the Taihua Wenzhong Tu (The Sound of Bells at Mt Taihua), focusing on Mt Hua as the chief landmark of Shaanxi, the sacred mountain of the West.45 As Sheng Dashi described it, it was a painting done in light ink, where the subtle washes in varied shades of grays led to effects that are misty and indistinct, carrying an undercurrent of unnamable sorrow, suitable to the occasion.46 Conclusion Did Zhang Jing ever fulfill his dream of visiting West Lake or any of the sites about which he entertained his fondest dreams? Judging from his circumstances, it appeared that he was hampered by his official posts, most of which were in the Central Plains, Henan and Shandong, and lastly in Qingjiang Pu, Jiangsu. It m a y b e that he never had the leisure to do so - especially after his assumption of duties as the Director-General of the Grand Canal.47 So said Wu Songliang, a poet and an inscriber of the Phoenix scroll: 50 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G Millions under the firmament are suffering. Heaven sent a man of heroic disposition to give succour. Today, the extraordinary deed was to block the ocean waves. However, your original wishes were but to journey to different mountains. Such desires were hampered and the imperial favors so difficult to repay. Your heart is weary and your hair turns white. When can you hire a boat to MtTiantai? Myriad peach blossoms hold a thatched door.48 Indeed, as Zhang Jing reached the top, he began to attract criticism. After becoming the Director-General of the Eastern sector, a series of setbacks, culminating in a major flooding, must have been sufficiently disappointing that he had neither the time nor the inclination to dream about his lands and mountains of fantasy. In 1833, he was discharged and returned home, his hope and future shattered and his spirit broken. 49 Under the circumstances, even his first and foremost wish, Boating on the West Lake, eluded him. He died two years later, not a contented recluse as he had vainly hoped, but a failed politician. Of all of those mentioned in the ten Yuanyou Tu, the site to which he still had access was the Wangchuan Villa, which lies in the vicinity of his own native place, Fushi. A number of artists and literati left Qingjiang Pu in 1833 after Z h a n g Jing's fall from grace. Some stayed on, including Qian Du. Conceivably, Zhang Jing may have been instrumental in introducing them to his successor, Linqing (1791-1846). An erudite Manchu who took over the post as the Director-General of the Southern sector from 1833 to 1842, Linqing inherited some of these artists while perhaps extending his network of patronage to others. Among the remaining artists, he favored Sheng Dashi,50 who had been enticed by the favorable conditions at Huaiyin, and wrote a preface to Sheng's treatise, Xishan Woyou Lu. He also took to Qian Du readily. For this new Director-General Qian Du painted at least two works, one pertaining to the Dan Garden which Linqing inherited from Zhang Jing, 51 and another entitled Ocean and Mountain, Cloud and Sun.52 If Qian Du's parting gesture to Zhang Jing was imbued with a touch of sadness, the new paint- 5i ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE ing, dated 1839, six years after the new Director-General's assumption of duty featured him as a lordly figure ascending to MtTai to view the sunrise. The backdrop was a sea of clouds and ocean waves. Qian Du put much effort into outlining and applying washes to the cloud formations, the result of which was declared an 'original vision.' 52 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G APPENDIX A listing of the inscribers for the Boating on the West Lake can be an indication of the vortex of associates and associations that surrounded Zhang Jing's life journey, from 1823 onward. They wrote the title or the inscriptions at the tail-end segment and did so either in Beijing, where Zhang Jing had to report to the court, or in the provinces, in cities and offices where he was posted. 1. Yao Wentian (1758-1827), a major scholar and official, attracted the attention of Emperor Qianlong and ascended to the height of heading, as a Han Chinese official, the Censorate, and also the Ministry of Rites.53 He was, of course, not among the first ones to set eyes on the scroll; but must have written its title in 1824 between the ninth and eleventh month. That was when Zhang Jing was promoted from his prefect title to a provincial circuit in Henan, the Kai Gui Chen Xu circuit. 2. Liu Binshi, a jinshi of the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801), followed an official course to the post of the Vice Minister of the Left, Ministry of Justice. He is also known to be a ci poet. From the long poem he inscribed on the painting, we know that a marriage was being arranged between the two families, his own and Zhang Jing's. Consequently, he must have been the first to have seen, and to have been invited to inscribe, the Phoenix scroll. 3. From Haiyan, Zhejiang, Zhu Fangzeng (died 1830), like Liu Binshi, also obtained the jinshi degree in 1801. In 1815, he was assigned to Moujing Hall as a part of the editorial staff in charge of compiling Shiqu Baoji and Midian Zhulin, catalogs of imperial collections of calligraphy, painting and religious images. In 1824, he gained the appreciation of the Daoguang Emperor for his skill at versification which led to his promotion to the Academician of the Grand Secretariat and the Vice Minister, the Ministry of Rites.54 4. A precocious child, Bao Guixing (1765-1826) the poet also enjoyed official success. In time, he reached the height of the post of Vice Minister in the Ministry of Work. A careless slip so angered the Jiaqing Emperor that the latter stripped away his titles and told him to stay in the capital, to reflect on his erroneous ways. However, within five years, he was pardoned but given a lower title, 53 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE bianxiu (junior compiler). In 1823, he had assumed the post of an Academician Reader-in-Waiting, and then was to be transferred as the Vice Commissioner in the Office of Transmission. That was when he encountered the Phoenix scroll, probably in Beijing. A student of Yao Nai, the famous Tongcheng scholar and essayist,55 Bao Guixing in the capital must have made a considerable impression. In 1803, he had taken under his wing a group of younger and highly promising students who went on to become, in various ways, the pillars of society. Among them was Muzhang a, the last one to inscribe the Phoenix scroll. 5. Wu Cihe (1778-1826) was one of the respected literary figures at the time, known for his poetic skill and achievement in the bianti wen, emphasizing antithetical parallelism. A Suzhou native, Wu succeeded to his father's official career and made the rank of jinshi in 1809. From 1822 to 1825, he was the Education Intendent in the province of Henan. His inscription was written in the MidAutumn Festival in 1824, in the examination hall at Xuchang. He addressed Zhang Jing as a taishou, at the time when Zhang was still a prefect of Runing. 6. From Qiuxian, Shandong, Liu Daguan began only as a bagong of 1777, a modest Graduate for Preeminence - without the prized jinshi degree. However, he appeared to have cultivated a reputation in belles-lettres and also in the art of calligraphy. His inscription on the scroll dates to the twenty-first day of the seventh month, 1824, earlier than Wu Cihe's. At the time of inscription, he was perhaps assigned to the Waterway Circuit in the Eastern Sector as a Surveillance Commissioner. He also was on friendly terms with the artist, Qian Du, who was familiar with his collection of old paintings, which included, among others, a Wen Zhengming in the style of Liu Songnian and a Tang Yin.56 7. A nephew of Yuan Mei,57 the literary giant of the eighteenth century, Yuan Tong appeared to be quite well known among his contemporaries as a lyricist in ci poetry, though he died young. Dwarfed by his uncle, he left a poetic collection known by the title PengyueLou Shici Gao. He served as a magistrate of Ruyang, Henan, when it is likely that he came to know Zhang Jing well and was subsequently invited to inscribe the scroll. 54 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G Since the two families, of Yuan and Qian, were friendly toward each other, it is very likely that YuanTong had known Qian Du since their childhood. However, the ci poem he wrote was addressed to Zhang Jing the official and not to Qian Du the artist. 8. About Wu Yuhui, we know very little. He was a literatus from Haining. When he was at Runing, Zhang Jing requested an inscription from him. In the inscription, Wu Yuhui addressed the official as taishou, the prefect of Runing. As Z h a n g Jing's tenure lasted between the fifth month of 1823 to the ninth month of 1824, we can safely date the inscription within this time. 9. Like Bao Guixing, Chen Yongguang (1768-1835) was also a student of the famous essayist Yao Nai of theTongcheng school. A jinshi of 1801, he made his way to the post of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites (2a). His inscription is undated but the context favors 1824 or thereabouts, through dated inscriptions before and after. From the content, it appears that he had been to Hangzhou and the West Lake before but that he had not explored it thoroughly. Subsequent assignments to the court essentially kept him in Beijing where most likely the inscription on the Phoenix scroll was written. He too shared Zhang Jing's desire to travel to the famous mountains, Mt Lu, Mt Huang and the Five Sacred Mountains. Chen Yongguang was to return to the West Lake later and commissioned Fei Danxu to render a painting of Walking in the Bamboo Grove in the Taoguang Temple.58 10. Zhang Bofan is another case of the unknown. He was a native of Piling, or Wujin in Jiangsu; his inscription is dated 1824. He also addressed Z h a n g J i n g as taishou, affirming that he saw and inscribed the painting in Runing. 11. Another inscriber who not only received the jinshi degree in 1801 but was the first among the equals, or the zhuangyuan, is Gu Gao (i763-i832).Trustedby Emperors Jiaqing and Daoguang, he enjoyed smooth sailing in his official career, reaching vice ministerial rank and serving in a number of ministries. Together with Zhu Fangzeng, he also served, in 1815, on the editorial boards of Shiqu Baoji and Midian Zhulin; this allowed him access to the collection of paintings and calligraphies in the Qing palace. He was known 55 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE to be a calligrapher and amateur painter, and his biographer and friend, Chen Yongguang, mentioned that he had done fans for the emperor. G u G a o took pride in his own painterly skill; as a result, he mentioned in the inscription that only recently he had painted three paintings as imaginary scenes, just as Zhang Jing s j o u r n e y was, at the time, equally imaginary. Although Gu G a o was sent to oversee examinations in Zhejiang in 1823 and 1824, he spent most of his time in the capital and may have inscribed the scroll there.59 12. Yang Yizeng (died 1833) was an effective censor and official through the Jiaqing and Daoguang eras. In the 1820s, when he inscribed the Phoenix scroll, he served as the Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review (Dali Si) and then Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Left. 13. C h u Fengchun's life story is k n o w n only in the m o s t g e n e r a l terms.60 A native of Suzhou with scholarly credentials and an occasional painter, his calligraphic skill is partial to the clerical style with which he inscribed the Phoenix scroll. His inscription here is dated 1824. 14. Chen Songqing was an older cousin of Chen Wenshu, w h o will appear among the list of the inscribers. A native of Hangzhou, he attained the rank of Vice Minister in the Ministry of Rites. 15. Fei Gongyan is another unknown who inscribed the poem at the examination hall at Xuchang (Xuzhou), Henan. It is possible that he did so with Wu Cihe (number 5 above) or w h e n Z h a n g J i n g became the overseer of the circuit of Kai Gui Chen Xu. 16. Wu Songliang s inscription is dated to the eleventh month of 1824. A student of Weng Fanggang (1733-1818) and Jiang Shiquan (17251785), Wu Songliang carved out a niche for himself in poetry and received approbation f r o m elderly poets at the time. Even Yuan Mei was impressed enough to praise his poetic achievements. Indeed, it has been said that his fame was international in scope, as it reached Korea and Japan. A juren of 1800, he was privileged to hold an appointment as a secretary in the Grand Secretariat. Around 1830, he took an appointment as zhizhou (Department Magistrate) in Guizhou and died in the post. 56 QIAN DU TO Z H A N G J I N G 17. Jiang Yinpei (1768-1838) inscribed the painting in 1825 when Zhang Jing had already taken up the appointment as the Director-General of the Grand Canal at the Eastern sectorJ i a n g Yinpei served in Shandong in various magisterial capacities and was one of the fine officials at the time. By 1825, when he wrote the inscription for the Phoenix scroll, he had retired from officialdom. J i a n g became friendly with Qian Du around 1822 but for seven years had not received any paintings from him. Only in 1829, did Qian Du present him with an album of Sixteen Scenes ofYan Garden, his own estate in Changshu. The artist did not even visit the garden but conjured up these scenes from his imagination. 61 18. A Hangzhou native, Chen Wenshu (1775-1845) certainly was a major figure in belles-lettres.62 Poetic precocity earned him respect and a pairing with his equally well-known cousin, Chen Hongshou (1768-1822). A student of Ruan Yuan (1764-1849), Chen received his juren degree in 1800. In his official career, he went no further than magistracy in a series of major cities in Jiangsu, including Changshu, Shanghai, and Jiangdu. In the last city, he successfully dealt with river control. After 1823, he retired to his native place and had a villa by the shore of the West Lake. This did not prevent him from resuming an official career as a magistrate in Anhui. He died in the post. Chen Wenshu was keenly interested in painting and wrote a series of poems introducing and celebrating artists from Hua Yan onward. It is titled Hualin Xinyong, which also features, among contemporary artists, Qian Du. 63 We have already mentioned that the Chen and the Qian families were fairly close and the two men were on intimate terms. His inscription on the Phoenix scroll is dated 1826, when Zhang Jing had moved from Jining to Qingjiang Pu to govern over the Southern sector. 19. Zhang Shu (1781-1847) has already been mentioned several times in the course of this paper. He was one of the inscribers who saw the whole series of Yuanyou Tu and contributed poetic celebrations to each painting. From Wuwei, Gansu, Z h a n g Shu was a prolific writer and a wide-ranging scholar. In his official career, he was as upright as he was stubborn, willing to challenge his superiors, so it is not surprising that he never went beyond the magisterial rank. 57 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Z h a n g Shu's poem on the first Yuanyou Tu was written in either 1826 or shortly afterwards, and the whole set of ten was completed by 1831. 20. MuzhangVs (1782-1856)64 appearance as the last inscriber in the Phoenix painting is not exactly felicitous. It was a prophecy of Zhang Jing's doom. It was Muzhang a, withTao Shu (1779-1839), who was sent by imperial command to investigate what went wrong in the river control during the last years of Zhang Jing's tenure. We are not certain of the date of his inscription here. Twice this powerful Manchu official was sent to the South to investigate failures in flood control, in 1827 and in 1832. Following the sequence of the inscriptions in the Phoenix scroll, Muchang a s follows those of Jiang Yinpei, Chen Wenshu and Z h a n g Shu, which are either dated 1825 or, very likely, afterwards. So it is not far-fetched to suggest that he wrote his during the first visit. In 1827, the circumstances were not serious and, in spite of the setback, Zhang Jing's standing in the court remained firm. On the second occasion, which essentially brought about the end of Z h a n g Jing's political career, the Manchu's arrival may have assumed a far graver turn. Zhang would have had neither the inclination nor the proper occasion to invite the increasingly powerful official to comment on his reclusive desire. Later, Muzhang'a advocated negotiation and compromise with the British in the Opium War, which erupted in the years 1840-42. For that unpopular stance, he faced dismissal during the Xianfeng reign. 58 QIAN D U T O Z H A N G J I N G Notes . Published in Paul Moss, The Literati Mode: Chinese Scholar Paintings, Calligraphy and Desk Objects (London, 1986), number 30; and Claudia Brown andju-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's Empire, 1796-1911, (Phoenix, 1992), number 21. As a nineteenth-century artist, Qian Du has not received much attention. Of secondary sources, TodaTeisuke's article on his painting in the Osaka Municipal Art Museum is perhaps the most informative, 'Strolling in the Moonlight Around the Yii-shan Hermitage/ in BijutsuKenkyu, number 203 (September 1963), 37-43. Toda raised the issue of his birth and death years, which remain unresolved. Since Qian Du was the seventh in the order of siblings and since we know that the fifth brother, Qian Lin, was born in 1763, he had to have been born after that year. See also LidaiRenwu Nianli Tongpu (Taipei reprint, 1963) which favors 1764-1845 as Qian's birth and death years. These dates appear to be reasonable. . Today only the Jade Belt Bridge (Yudai Qiao) is topped by a pavilion. During the Qianlong period, however, all the bridges along the Su Causeway had similar upper structures. See the pictorial rendering of the West Lake in Liang Shizheng and others, Xihu Zhizuan (Wenyuan Ge Siku Quanshu edition), juan 1,4ob-4ia. In addition, writers of inscriptions in the Phoenix scroll never mentioned the Jade Belt Bridge; they focused on those along the Su Causeway. SeeChu Fengchun s inscription, dated 1824. . In Hangzhou during the late Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang periods, Xi Gang, Fang Xun, and, later, Dai Xi, were the key proponents of the orthodox school. See my article/Ming Idealism and Landscape Painting/ Phoebus 1 (Tempe, not dated.), 75-90. It is not certain whether Songhu Bieshu is the same as Ye'ou Zhuang as mentioned by ChengTinglu in his biographical profile of Qian Du in Songhu Huazhui, 1. This text is included in Yang Jialuo editor, Yishu Congbian (Taipei, 1968), XVI. Just in case they are the same, it would have been located, as ChengTinglu states, beneath Mt Baoshi, to the north of the lake. . For Zhang Jing's biography, see Zhang Shu, ZhangJiehou Suozhu Shu (Taipei, 1976), VII, 1991-2004; QingGuoshi Guan editors, QingshiLiezhuan, in Zhou Junfu, compiler, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan (Taipei, 1985) 100:309316; Li Huan, editor, Guochao Qixian Leizheng Chubian, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 157: 255-268; and He Shaoji, He Shaoji Shiwen Ji (Changsha, 1992), 991-994. 59 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 7. See the biographical sketch in Qian Du's Songhu Huazhui, i.This was authored by Cheng Tinglu, Qian Du's disciple, in 1850 when the master had already passed away. Most of the materials in this profile had been supplied to Cheng Tinglu by the artist himself. However, since Cheng did not meet his teacher until 1834, when the master was quite old, some of the recollections may either be faulty or wrongly recorded. For example, Qian Du's father never held office in Yunnan. Thus the story about Qian Du having fallen from the cliff and miraculously survived could not have taken place there. See Cheng Tinglu, Meng'an Jushi Zibian Nianpu (Yihai Congbian edition), entry under the fourteenth year of the Daoguang reign (1834). 8. Of all the brothers, Qian Lin was the most successful in his official career. Being ajinshi of 1808, he reached the Academician Reader-in-Waiting (rank 4b) in 1823. See Wang Xisun's biography in Min Erchang editor, BeizhuanJi Bu, in Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 120:530-535. Qian Mei (1761-1803) was ajinshi of 1799 and received appointment as the secretary to the Bureau of Appointments, Ministry of Personnel (rank 6a). Qian Shu, the eldest son of Qian Qi, was a painter and a seal carver; he too had a career in government and was made a department magistrate in Kaizhou, Guizhou (rank 5b). 9. See Zhang Shu's preface to Zhang Jing's Erzhu Zhai Shiwen Ji, in Zhang Jiehou Suozhu Shu, IV, 3268. 10. Qian Zhonglian and others, QingshiJishi (Jiangsu, 1989), XII, 8309, cite Wang Xiaotang's Lixia Outan and also Lixia OutanXubian, praising Zhang Jing for his knowledge and achievement and describing him as a 'Confucian official' of his generation. This change could only have come about as he aged and limited his immoderation. 11. This took place in 1822. Qian Du, and perhaps Zhang Jing as well, was in Wancheng, Hubei; Qian Du was sick in the second month when he painted the album. The album is currently in the collection of the Shanghai Museum; see Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Tumu,V (Shanghai, 1990), Hu 14301. It was published by Youzheng Bookstore in 1919, under the title Qian Shumei Shanshui Renwu Ce (Album of Landscapes and Figures by Qian Shumei). 12. See inscriptions and colophons attached to the Phoenix scroll. 13. See his inscription at the end of the Phoenix scroll. Also, see his Zhang Jiehou Suozhu Shu, XII, 3776. 14. After having examined the scroll, Pan Gongkai, a native of Hangzhou and the director of the National Academy of Art, was certain that its painter did not know the location of specific sites at the West Lake. 60 QIAN DU TO ZHANG JING 15. See Wang Huzhen and Wu Weizhu, Qingdai Hechen Zhuan, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 56: 235, which gives the dates of Zhang Jing's appointment to the post; he occupied the post in the Eastern sector from 1824 to 1826 and was transferred to the Southern sector from 1826 to 1833. Even though discharged earlier, he stayed on in the post to await the arrival of his successor, Linqing. 16. This may be gathered in Fan Zengxiang's words. Fan was pleased that he was able to acquire a number of paintings formerly in the Erzhu Zhai collection. He was especially delighted by Qian Du's paintings from that collection, praising them as lofty, elegant, exquisite and dense/ See his Fanshan Ji (1893 edition), juan 19, i9a-b. For a further appraisal, see Fan s inscription appended to Taihua Wenzhong Tu in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing. He wrote, with unusual bluntness: 'Zhang Jiehang began his career in an unorthodox manner (zaliu). He had pretensions to connoisseurship. His collection contained works from the Song to the Ming periods, and a majority of them were fakes. However, he sought to recruit [artists] such as Qian Meixi (Qian Shu?), Wang Jiaogui (Wang Xuehao), Qian Shumei (Qian Du), Gai Yuhu (Gai Qi), and so on by lavishing money on them and bringing them into his staff, so that they could conjure up mist and clouds [for his enjoyment]. Works of this nature tend to be excellent.' It appears that Zhang Jing's collection was dispersed after his grandson had passed away. A number of paintings fell into Fan Zengxiang s hands. 17. In Qingjiang Pu, Huaiyin, which was the seat of the Director-Generals office overseeing the Southern sector of the Grand Canal, it had an annual budget ranging from four to five million taels of silver during thejiaqing and Daoguang eras.This enormous sum did not always result in success regarding river control but induced a variety of corrupt practices. The officials were known for their lavish life style, comparable to export merchants in Guangdong, the salt merchants of Yangzhou and Hankou, and copper merchants of Suzhou. See Jin Anqing, Shuichuang Chunyi (Beijing, 1 9 8 4 ) , 34. Also see Wei Yuan in his essays on river control, in Wei YuanJi (Beijing, 1 9 7 6 ) , I, 365-366. He made some general estimates that the cost of river control during thejiaqing reign surpassed greatly that of the Qianlong period, and that in late Qianlong the cost increased several times over that of the beginning of the dynasty. It came to be that an assignment in the office of the Director-General virtually turned into a 'gold mine/ 18. See note 16 above. 61 ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE See note 17 above. Of some interest was the invitation Zhangjing extended to Qian Yong, author of Liiyuan Conghua (Taipei, 1 9 8 2 ) , 5 4 0 , to be his house guest at the Dan Garden for a period of four years, 1 8 2 9 - 1 8 3 3 . Like his fellow artists, Qian Yong also produced a set of twenty-four poems celebrating the beauty of this spacious garden, famed for its lotus pond, willow, peach, and pear trees. Surprisingly, Qian Yong did not mention Qian Du at all in the segment on painters in his Liiyuan Conghua, 2 9 7 - 3 0 9 , even though he must have known him in the inner circle of Zhangjing at about that time. It can be argued that Qian Yong wrote the segment on painters prior to his meeting with Qian Du. One indication is that many of the painters mentioned there were active during the late Qianlong period, a generation or two before Qian Du s time. A number of them either had been or were to become Qian Du's friends and patrons as well. Examples are Chen Wenshu, Chen Yongguang and Jiang Yinpei. For Chen Wenshu, who was friendly with the Qian family, Qian Du painted a number of paintings, as recorded in Chen's preface to his Songhu Huazhui, 1-2. In 1834 Qian Du painted a Taiyizhou Teaching His Grandson, for ChenYongguang, recorded in Guo Baochang, Zhizhai ShuhuaLu (no date), 35; currently, this painting is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. For Jiang Yinpei, Qian Du painted the album, Sixteen Scenes ofYan Garden, published in Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, number 22. For this poetic line, see Chen Yongguang's long poem in the segment of inscriptions in the Phoenix scroll. For example, the imperial tours to the South during the Kangxi and Qianlong eras inspired magnificent scroll paintings by major artists of the time. See Maxwell Hearn, 'Document and Portrait: The Southern Tour Paintings of Kangxi and Qianlong' in Phoebus 6, number 1 (Tempe, 1 9 8 8 ) , 9 1 - 1 3 1 . For an assessment of the range of themes and styles in court painting, see Nie Chongzhen, Qingdai GongtingHuihua (Beijing, 1 9 9 2 ) . See Li Fang, Yangke Duhua Lu (preface: 1915; University of Hong Kong Library, MF132y),juan 4, 5a-i2a.This contains five paintings, authored either in groups or by individuals. Postscripts by Wang Zhenyun and Fashishan were dated to the fifteenth year of Jiaqing, 1810. To mention but a few well-known artists at the time, there were Huang Jun, Zhu Henian, Zhu Ben, Zhu Angzhi, Yao Yuanzhi, and Zhang Yin. The paintings were done within a span of several years, ending in 1803. See Songhu Huazhui, juan 2,41. In addition, Guo Lin's preface to Sheng Dashi's Xishan WoyouLu,in Huashi Congshu, IV, 3-4, mentions that Sheng 62 QIAN DU TO ZHANG JING painted the ninth version of the Lingfen Guan. Sheng himself mentions thatjiangjing of Renhe painted the eighth version. 25. See note 20 above. Also, Qian Du joined Dai Xi and a number of lesser known artists in celebrating the Meihua Shuwu (The Plum Blossom House of Learning). This album is in the Roy and Marilyn Papp collection, published in Heritage ofthe Brush (Phoenix, 1989), number 40. 26. For this series, seeTang Yifen, Qinyin Yuan Shiji (Taipei, 1971), II, 1140, in the postscript by Yang Changnian. 27. Yao Wentian, an aging patriarch among officials, was stationed at the capital in his capacity as the Censor-in-Chief of the Left. It is quite possible that between assignments Zhang Jing would return to the capital to report to the central authority. It was then he could make his personal request from a man who enjoyed a sterling reputation as an official of integrity and as an accomplished calligrapher. 28. Even though Yao Wentian did not set a date for his writing of the title, it had to take place around i824.This was almost a year later than the painting itself. By this time, as Yao's dedication makes very clear, Zhang Jing was no longer the prefect of Runing but had been promoted to a level commensurate with the title of guancha, a reference to his assignment to an administrative circuit in Henan which took place roughly around the ninth month of 1824 before his further advancement, a mere two months later, to be the Director-General of the Grand Canal, the Donghe (Eastern segment) atjining. See Appendix, number 1. 29. See ZhangJiehou Suozhu Shu, XII, 3775-3782, also 5ii7-5i24.This set of poems is included in the so-called 'Nanzheng Ji' (The Southern Expedition), datable to 1831. Also, we may cite Wu Songliang s inscriptions to the YuanyouTu series in his Xiangsu Shanguan Shichao (Preface date: 1818), part I: Guti Shichao, juan 14,7a-8a;juan 16,4b-5b. 30. Sherman Lee, Chinese Landscape Painting (Cleveland, second edition, 1962), figure 107. The whereabouts of this painting is unknown. As Sherman Lee has indicated, it is accompanied by thirteen colophons. See page 151. 31. Since we are not in possession of Erzhu Zhai Shiwen Ji, we cannot discern the travel pattern of Zhang Jing. We do know that he had been to the south before, for instance to Yangzhou. See Chen Yongguang, 'Shugang JiyouTuji/ in hisTaiyizhouWenji (QingsongTang edition), juan 4,2ia-23a. Even better is Fan Zengxiang s account of this painting, which fell into his hands. This bore the inscription by Zhang Jing himself. Zhang mentioned that he had been to Yangzhou several times, thirty years before this 1833 visitation to Shugang. If he had been to Yangzhou then he also 63 ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE could have visited Zhenjiang at about the same time. See his series of poems on Mt Jiao, in Wu Yun, editor, Jiaoshan Zhi (Taipei, 1975 reprint of 1 8 6 5 edition), II, 1 2 2 6 - 1 2 3 3 . 32. Like all stars who rise to the top, Zhang Jing was destined to fall. The challenge facing the Director-General of the Grand Canal was the awesome power of Nature herself, and failure at his task could lead to instant disgrace and banishment. See, for instance, an eye-witness account of the banishment of Zhang Wenhao, the Director-General of the Grand Canal at the Eastern sector from 1820 to 1821 and at the Southern sector for a few months in 1824. It was while he was at the latter post that a huge storm destroyed protective measures and caused the water of Lake Hongze to pour out uncontrollably. As a result, areas like Huai'an and Yangzhou were severely flooded. Zhang Wenhao was relieved of his post and imprisoned before his banishment to Eli. See Jin Anqing (and Ouyang Zhaoxiong) in Shuichuang Chunyi, 48-51. On page 73, Jin further explained that, in the case of river control officers, the legal codes governing their conduct (and the rewards and punishments) were patterned after the military. Consequently, high officials could be executed.The severity of these measures deterred many who otherwise might have been interested in such appointments. SeeZhang Shu, ZhangJiehou Suozhu Shu, XII, 3775-3782, relative to the set of poems on the ten Yuanyou Tu. These poems were completed in 1831, after the paintings themselves. 34. Sherman Lee, Chinese Landscape Painting, 131. Apoem by Qian Du, perhaps on this painting, is recorded in Li Junzhi, Qing Huajia Shishi, in Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 76: 631. Qian Du might have also painted number 10, TheWangchuanVilla, since a painting of that theme remains. See Zhongguo Gudai ShuhuaTumu, X (Shanghai, 1993), Hu 1-4307. However, this painting was done in 1832 and post-dates the series of Yuanyou Tu, all of which had been completed by 1831. 35. Zhongguo Gudai ShuhuaTumu, X, Jin 7 - 1 6 6 5 and Jin 7 - 1 6 6 6 respectively. 36. XishanWoyouLu,juan 4, 67. Sheng Dashi mentions however that Zhang Jing had a series of twenty-four paintings under the broad heading of the 7iianyowTwseries.Thatmayhavebeen a misunderstanding. 37. Zhongguo Gudai ShuhuaTumu, X, Jin 7 - 1 7 3 6 . See the inscription by Yao Yuanzhi, an official and literatus who narrated the circumstances leading to the painting. For Hu Jiusi, see Qian Yong, Liiyuan Conghua, 308. Hu Jiusi was the son of Hu Gui, a court painter during the Qianlong reign and 33. 64 QIAN D U T O ZHANG JING still active around 1799, the fourth year of thejiaqing era. With respect to both the father and the son, it was said that they displayed a style bridging Wen Zhengming and Dong Qichang. 38. Zhongguo Gudai ShuhuaTumu, X, Jin 7-1736. 39. For Hu Jiusi's album, see Fan Zengxiang, FanshanJi,juan 1 9 , 1 9 a . 40. Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Tumu, X, Jin 7-i770.This was dated 1830, on a summer day. See also, Jin 7 - 1 7 7 1 , an album of twelve leaves, depicting the scenes ofjiangnan. For a brief biography of Wang Gonghou, seeYu Youlin and others, Gaomi Xianzhi (Taipei reprint of 1935 edition), II, 877. 41. Admittedly, Qian Du's style also has its limitations. He was far more at home with themes as intimate and lyrical as the West Lake and might not have risen to the challenge were the scenery as monumental as Yandang or Mt Huang. 42. For the WangchuanTu, see note 34 above. It was once published under the title of Qian SonghuHua ShanshuiJuan (Shanghai, 1928). The artist mentioned that he was inspired by Xu Ben andTangYin s versions ofthe same subject. 43. Qian Du himself did visit Lantian, Zhang Jing s native place, where the venerable estate of Wang Wei was located, and consequently, not unlike Boating on the West Lake, it was a re-creation from memory. 44. See Chen Yongguang,fShugangJiyouTuji,' mentioned in note 32 above. Fan Zengxiang, in his Fanshan Ji,juan 19, i9a-22a, also mentions this painting. Currently, this painting is in the collection of Michael Shih, Tainan. For a reproduction of the work, see the auction catalog of Unique Art Collections,Taipei, 1996 January 28, lot number 170. 45. This painting is listed in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. See Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Mulu, II (Beijing, 1985), Jing 1-6173. 46. Xishan Woyou Lu,juan 3,46. 47. Chen Yongguang, 'Shuganjiyou Tuji/ 23a, which mentioned that as late as 1833 Zhang Jing still did not have the chance to visit West Lake. 48. Wu Songliang, Xiangshu Shanguan Shichao:Jinti Shichao (Preface date: 1 8 1 8 ) , juan 16, 9a. 49. The fact that he died merely two years later after ending his official career suggests the impact of this loss on him. 50. See his preface to Sheng Dashi's Xishan Woyou Lu, 2. He met Sheng in 1833, when he assumed the post of the Director-General in the Southern Sector, replacing Zhang Jing. Two years later he acceded to the request to write a preface. 51. The Dan Garden was located in QingjiangPu, the seat of the office of the 65 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 52. Director-General of the Grand Canal (Southern sector). See Qian Yong, Liiyuan Conghua, 540. The fan painting can be seen in Beijing Hanhai Art Auction Corporation, Chinese Fan Paintings (6 October 1995), lot number 6 0 2 . This is recorded in Chongyi, Xuanxue Zhai Shuhua YumuJi ( 1 9 2 1 ) , juan 1, 3oa-3ia. 53. 54. For a fuller biography, see Hummel, Eminent Chinese, 9 0 1 - 9 0 2 . See Qian Zhonglian editor, QingshiJishi, XII, 8 3 0 6 - 8 3 0 7 . Also see Zhao Ersun editor, Qingshi Gao, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 9 2 : 2 1 4 - 2 1 5 ; also Li Huan editor, Guochao Qixian Leizheng Chubian, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 14 7 : 7 6 9 - 7 7 5 . See Hummel, Eminent Chinese, 9 0 0 - 9 0 1 . 56. Qian Du, Songhu Huayi (Yishu Congbian edition), 25 and 27. 57. See Hummel,Eminent Chinese, 955-957. Also see Arthur Waley, Yuan Mei: Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet (Stanford, 1 9 7 0 ) . 58. See his essay of the same title, included inTaiyizhou\Venji,juan4,29a-3oa. 59. See his biography by Chen Yongguang included in Li Huan's Guochao Qixian Leizheng Chubian, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 1 4 7 : 7 6 1 - 7 6 7 , in particular, 763. 6 0 . Jiang Baolin, MolinJinhua, Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 7 3 : 4 9 7 - 4 9 8 . 61. See the inscription by Zong Xun in Sixteen Scenes ofYan Garden, which transcribes a poem by Jiang Yinpei from his Oumu ShanfangShicun. Unfortunately, this album has never been published in full. See Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, number 22. 62. See Hummel, Eminent Chinese, 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 for a biographical sketch. 63. Included in Qingdai Zhuanji Congkan, 7 9 : 4 8 9 - 4 9 0 . 64. Hummel, Eminent Chinese, 582-583. 55. 66 Zhou Xian s Fabulous Construct TheThatched Cottage ofFan Lake BRITTA E R I C K S O N In the middle of the nineteenth century, Zhou Xian (1820-1875), a patron of the arts from the Shanghai area, created an imaginary estate for himself, the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake (Fanhu Caotang). This was a retreat he dreamed of building in place of his actual home. Remarkably, Zhou Xian endowed the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake with a sense of solidity by encasing his mental image of the fictitious locale within an elaborate network of visual and textual representations. He wrote the primary text describing the estate, the 'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake' (Fanhu Caotang Ji, see Appendix), and produced a painting of the estate, now lost. Furthermore, he acted as the catalyst for the creation of at least two additional paintings of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, as well as two major inscriptions concerning the estate. The two surviving paintings are handscrolls entitled the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake (Fanhu Caotang Tu).1 Ren Xiong (1823-1857), an important nineteenth-century artist, painted one of the handscrolls, a tour deforce in a minutely detailed blue-and-green (qinglii) style (figure i).The other work, rendered in ink on paper, is the product of more than thirty artists, including Tao Qi (1814-1865), Huang Ju (i796?-i86o), and ChenXun (died i860) (figure 2).2 One of the two inscriptions referred to above is appended to this collaborative painting. Yang Xian (1819-1896) records a series of poems he authored commemorating the estate and describes the context of the poems. Xu Jin (about 1834-1862) wrote the other inscription, which he appended to ZhouXian's painting; although the painting was lost, the inscription survives. Correspondences between the visual and textual images of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake indicate the extent to which Zhou Xian controlled his program to establish his fictitious domain as a legitimate entity, albeit a cerebral and idyllic one. A repeated reference to Zhuangzi serves as a leitmotif in his program; by tying the 67 ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE [d] Figure 1. Ren Xiong, Picture of the Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake, dated 1855. Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 35.8 x 705.4 cm. Shanghai Museum. Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake to a revered ancient philosopher, the painter projects the authority of the past onto the imagined estate. The two surviving handscrolls and their place within the structure of Z h o u Xian s fabulous construct f o r m the core of this paper. We shall consider the inscriptions to the extent that they provide an understanding of the patron's desires regarding production of the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. Z h o u Xian apparently strongly influenced Ren Xiong's work. Ren Xiong's painting agrees with Z h o u Xian s description of the estate and picks up on the refer68 ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT M ence to Zhuangzi. Ren Xiong also furthered ZhouXian s goal of legitimizing the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake through his choice of painting style, the ancient blue-and-green style which ties the estate to the past emphatically, as does the reference to Zhuangzi. The blue-andgreen style also idealizes the estate by linking it to the world of the immortals, whose dwellings often were rendered in this manner. Ren Xiong contributes additionally to the idealization of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake through his use of motifs conveying gentility and immortality. Zhou Xian had composed his 'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake' by 1858. We know this because during that year he inscribed it, along with a few additional notes, and appended it to Ren Xiong's 69 ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE [h] painting of the Thatched Cottage (see Appendix). At that time, Zhou Xian was in his late thirties, at the peak of his social position. Born in 1820, he was a native of Xiushui, which is halfway between Hangzhou and Shanghai in the present-day prefecture ofjiaxing. 3 Like his ancestors, Zhou Xian spent periods of time away from his home, residing temporarily at the sites of his various military and government posts, including that of district magistrate. His major military effort was to lead troops against theTaiping rebels, for which he was awarded the rank of the Blue Feather. Subsequently, his fortunes declined. Towards the beginning of the Tongzhi period (1862-1874), Zhou Xian was dismissed from a post in Xinyang, a district now forming part of Suzhou 70 ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT prefecture, supposedly following an argument with a higher official.4 According to Zhang Mingke, author of Hansong Ge Tanyi Suolu, he then went to Suzhou, where he sold paintings to support himself.5 He died in 1875. Since the name, the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, in part explains Zhou Xian s invention of his imaginary retreat, we shall take it as the starting point of our investigation. At the beginning of the essay, 'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake/ he wrote: This retired scholar is a native of Zuili. His home is adjacent to Fan Li Lake. From the lake, he has drawn the name of his abode, 7i ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE calling it the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake; and from the Thatched Cottage, he has derived his own name, the Retired Scholar of Fan Lake (Fanhu Jushi). From Zhou Xian s equating of Fan Lake with Fan Li Lake, we know that the historical personage of Fan Li was the chief inspiration. He alluded to Fan Li because he saw parallels between his own life and Fan Li's. Fan Li was a statesman of the Spring and Autumn period and he helped the King of Yue conquer the state of Wu. When it appeared that continued government service would be expected of him, he chose to flee into the countryside. Zhou Xian likened himself to Fan Li because he too served the government, and also aided the army. The most telling parallel between Fan Li and Zhou Xian is that, having exerted themselves extensively on behalf of their countries, they then desired to escape the bounds of duty. The latter longed to escape responsibility as the former had done; he retreated to the imaginary estate, the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. The fact that Zhou Xian constructed an imaginary retreat is complicated by the estate's ties to the real world. First, Fan Li Lake, the proposed site of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, is located inside of the South Gate of the town ofJiaxing. Second, Zhou Xian s actual home was titled the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. In his Fanhu Caotang Yigao (Writings Left Behind from the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake), he specifies that Ren Xiong spent three years studying his painting collection at the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. 6 Still, we can be certain that the elaborate estate featured in the'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake' was fictitious. In the latter essay, Zhou Xian describes theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake as an estate he had planned to build. He says, speaking of himself in the third person, 'he has always planned to buy two or three qing (one qing is equivalent to 6.67 hectares) of land at the shore of the lake, and to live there, giving theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake as its name/ 7 It seems that he wished to move his residence to a very desirable site within the town of Jiaxing, while retaining the name he was already using for his present home. During the late 1850s, when he catalyzed the production of the textual and visual images of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake, Zhou Xian might have believed that he would actually build a new residence in Jiaxing. Then his career had not yet 72 Z H O U XIAN'S FABULOUS C O N S T R U C T begun to diminish. However, by the mid-i86os his fortunes had changed and the proposed estate did not develop beyond its original status as an elaborate escapist fantasy. Why was Zhou Xian s desire for escape from responsibility so strong that he invested extensive effort in the creation of an idyllic, imaginary estate? The power of his escapist sentiment lay in the fact that China was in great turmoil. The country's educated elite, including Zhou Xian himself and some of his associates, felt responsible for holding the country together. Furthermore, few residents of Jiangnan were untouched by the violence and destruction of theTaiping Rebellion. Zhou Xian s sense of stress was heightened by the fact that, while he dreamed of a quiet life, he led troops in battle against theTaiping army. The existence of Zhou Xian s 'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake/ and his painting of the estate are evidence of the hold the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake had on Zhou Xian s imagination. The extent to which he was able to project this hold onto his cohorts is demonstrated by Yang Xian s and Xu Jin's inscriptions, as well as by Ren Xiongs handscroll and the collaborative painting of the estate. Members of Zhou Xian's circle would have been susceptible to the power of his dream because they, like him, felt the difficulties of the times. Ren Xiong in particular responded to his patron's vision and invested such effort in his Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake that it became one of his major works, in part because he was similarly distressed by the state of contemporary life. His particular anguish arose from the fact that he had great difficulty supporting his family through his painting.8 In addition, he may have had a heightened awareness of military problems because of his possible involvement with the army in a civilian capacity.9 By the late 1840s, Zhou Xian was at the center of a coterie of artists and men of letters, including contributors to the collaborative Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake handscroll such as Huang Ju and Chen Xun. Zhou Xian chronicled his activities and interactions with colleagues in his Fanhu CaotangYigao, frequently mentioning Huang Ju and ChenXun as travelling companions. A seal carver who followed the style current in his native Hangzhou, ChenXun chose to reside in Suzhou.10 Huang Ju, foster father to Ren Xiong's wife, 1 1 also lived in Suzhou, although 73 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE he was a native of Songjiang. He painted a variety of subjects, including landscapes in the style of Wang Hui (1632-1717), flowering plants in the style of YunShouping (1633-1690), figures, and beautiful women. 12 One chapter of Zhou Xian s Fanhu Caotang Yigao was devoted to a biography of Ren Xiong, 'Ren Chushi Zhuan (Biography of Ren the Recluse)/ 13 In it, Z h o u Xian states that he met the artist in 1848, in Hangzhou. He immediately invited him to be a guest at his home, permitted him to study his painting collection, and included him in the artistic gatherings he hosted. At that time, Ren Xiong was twentyfive years old and only recently had left his impoverished home in Xiaoshan to look for a more fulfilling life. When the two met, Zhou Xian was but twenty-eight, just three years Ren Xiong s senior; their lives quickly became intertwined. Indeed, the most detailed information we have concerning the younger man s activities starting in the late 1840s comes from ZhouXian's biography of him. Much of Ren Xiong's life from 1848 on was spent with his friend, Zhou Xian, and members of the latter's circle, travelling to famous beautiful places in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. Zhou Xian was close enough to the artist to write familiarly about his struggle to support his family through his painting. The w a r m regard which Zhou Xian held for Ren Xiong is demonstrated by the sensitivity with which he wrote of the latter's death from tuberculosis in 1857, at age thirty-four.14 As mentioned earlier, at least three paintings entitled the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake date from Zhou Xian s lifetime. Zhang Mingke, in his Hansong Ge Tanyi Suolu of 1908, stated that Zhou Xian himself painted a handscroll of that title;15 the painting s location is unknown. The second work, RenXiong's handscroll, belongs to the Shanghai Museum. The third, collaborative, handscroll also is in the collection of the Shanghai Museum. One or more inscriptions are associated with each of the three paintings. In 1858, Z h o u Xian appended his long description of the estate, the 'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan L a k e / to Ren Xiong's handscroll. Xu Jin, a fellow Xiushui native and holder of the juren degree, wrote a preface to Zhou Xian's painting of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake; Zhang Mingke includes this preface in his Hansong Ge Tanyi Suolu.16 Yang Xian, a wealthy patron of the arts, added a colophon to the collaborative handscroll following a meeting with 74 Z H O U XIAN'S FABULOUS C O N S T R U C T Zhou Xian in 1858. Yang Xian, who lived in Suzhou, was a calligrapher and scholar of epigraphy, specializing in Han stele scripts. As a poet, his writings reflect his concern over the state of China. The Picture of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake (figure 1), painted in ink and color on silk, is one of Ren Xiong's major works, done in 1855 when he was at the height of his creative career, at age thirty-two. Z h o u Xian s influence on the handscrolFs style and content was substantial, no doubt because he was a central figure in Ren Xiong s life, as both patron and friend. Because this handscroll so closely reflects Z h o u Xian s specifications for his estate, it holds an important place in the latter s creation of his complex symbolic fiction, theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake. Notes in Z h o u Xian s Fanhu Caotang Yigao afford us the opportunity to observe how the relationship between Z h o u Xian and Ren Xiong changed f r o m that of benefactor and protege to one more closely approximating that of equal friends. In 1850, when the two men had known each other for two years, Ren Xiong made a painting of the Qiantang River at Z h o u Xian s request. According to Z h o u Xian s record of this painting in his Fanhu Caotang Yigao, they crossed the Qiantang River together, whereupon Z h o u Xian'immediately instructed (zhu) the Recluse (Ren Xiong) to make a drawing of it so that he could keep [the drawing] at theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake as a record of having seen it.'17 The suggestion that Ren Xiong records the scene may have been phrased politely, but the artist no doubt was obliged to follow the suggestion, being at that stage an unrecognized artist dependent upon Zhou's goodwill. 18 By 1855, the year Ren Xiong painted the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, their relationship had changed due to his enhanced stature as an artist. Z h o u Xian's notation in his Fanhu Caotang Yigao concerning the creation of the Thatched Cottage handscroll contains no hint that he expected Ren Xiong to make such a painting for him. He simply states within the narrative of the 'Biography of Ren the Recluse' that, 'For Z h o u Xian, he painted the long painting, the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. T w o zhang in length (one zhang is equivalent to 3.33 meters), it was to be declared remarkable/ 1 9 In terms of sheer size (35.8 x 705.4 cm), the Picture of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake is equalled in his oeuvre by only the 120-leaf Album of Paintings after Poetry by YaoXie,20 and the labor he lavished on detail is absolutely 75 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 2. Tao Qi and others, Picture of the Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake, late 1850s-early 1860s. Handscroll, ink on paper. Shanghai Museum. unmatched. This devotion is a reflection of the strong ties of affection that had grown up between the two men during their years of association. The long inscription appended to the handscroll by Z h o u Xian indicates the value he attached to the painting. The collaborative Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake (figure 2) was painted over the course of several years, with most of the contributions made to it during 1859 and 1861, judging from the participating 76 ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT artists' dated inscriptions mounted following the painting. The view of the imaginary estate presented in this handscroll does not correspond closely to Ren Xiong's. The degree to which Z h o u Xian directed the artistic programs of the two works may be ascertained by comparing their imagery with that of his 'Record of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake.' Such a comparison will reveal a very close correlation between Z h o u Xian's essay and Ren Xiong's painting, and a much lesser one between the essay and the collaborative work. We can only speculate as to the role played by Z h o u Xian's own painting, now lost. Presumably its content would agree with that of the 'Record of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake,' and the other two Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake paintings would therefore agree with its imagery to the same extent that they agree with that of the essay. Although both Ren Xiong and the artists w h o created the collaborative work may have seen Z h o u Xian's handscroll prior to painting their own images of the estate, it seems unlikely that Z h o u Xian would have held up his own rendering as a model for Ren Xiong, w h o m he would have considered the superior artist. At first glance, Zhou Xian's description of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake, as appended to Ren Xiong's handscroll, appears to have little relation to the latter's image of the estate. They seem to be similar only to the extent that they both present a conglomeration of buildings and vistas typifying an idyllic estate set on a lake, including pavilions, bridges, and bamboo groves. Upon further examination, however, the visual and textual images show a very close correlation. Ju-hsi Chou has previously noted the fidelity of Ren Xiong's image to Z h o u Xian's description. I shall return to his comments on the Picture of the Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake below. Whereas space considerations do not permit a vista by vista comparison of Z h o u Xian's text with Ren Xiong's painting in the present essay, quotes from Z h o u Xian's descriptions of two of the vistas will serve to exemplify the details contained in the essay, and a comparison of these two descriptions with the relevant images in Ren Xiong's painting will exemplify the extent to which the handscroll correlates with the description. Zhou Xian describes two multistoried buildings, the Ceremonial Cap Building and the Northern Hills. Of the former he says: D o w n towards the east and to the north of the ridge, amongst trees and luxuriant, fragrant vegetation, a tall building rises up. 77 ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE It bears resemblance to an ancient conical ceremonial cap; therefore, it is called the Ceremonial Cap Building. Vermilion columns reach toward the sky; green pillars cast their gaze downward [to the scenery below]. Taking in the lake girded by mountains, the view is always changing. The western part of this building is linked to a dwelling that is called the Little House of Spring Trees. ...21 In the painting, tall columns adorn the multistoried Ceremonial Cap Building, which is set amidst trees, on a rise with a view of both lake and mountains, exactly as Zhou Xian relates. RenXiong's Ceremonial Cap Building is attached to the Little House of Spring Trees, which is hidden by dense foliage. Earlier in his essay, Zhou Xian states: From theThatched Cottage and heading towards the north, low ridges rise and fall, declivities descend and ascend. There are luxuriant trees and elegant rocks, and the foliage is so lush and verdant that it obscures the sun. In the midst [of this setting] are two-storied dwellings and studios, whose windows are secluded and elegant; this is known as the Northern Hills. To the east of the hills are tall pines, standing apart like the Five Statesmen.... Ren Xiong s painting places the Northern Hills adjacent to a cluster of pines. The trees with which Ren Xiong surrounds the collected buildings of the Northern Hills are dense, and cause the windows to be secluded, just as Z h o u Xian stipulates. Indeed, throughout this painting the vistas correlate well with the description, in a manner similar to that of the above two examples. We can obtain a macro-view of the correspondence between Zhou Xian s text and Ren Xiong s image by considering a diagram of the handscroll (figure 3), labelled with the appellations used in the essay, in concert with a tentative map of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake (figure 4) based on Zhou Xian s description. Whereas other versions of the map would be possible, this one fits both Z h o u Xians and RenXiong's descriptions of the estate. Each of the buildings and vistas mentioned by Z h o u Xian appears in RenXiong's painting, and the spatial relationships between them are consistent from essay to painting. In fact, the two versions of the estate are very closely related. 78 ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT Gull Nest House of Ci Poems Among the Flowers Northern Hills Boat Pavilion Rockery Round Hollow Kiosk of the Water and Cloud Qin Bamboo Ravine Southern Chamber Gallery Torrents Ceremonial Cap Building Sedge Village Little House Square of Spring Trees Studio Western Chamber of Thatched Trumpet Creepers Cottage Gourd Belvedere Figure 3. Diagram of Ren Xiong s Picture of the Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake, with buildings labelled according to Zhou Xian s 'Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake/ ZhouXian's description of the estate does not list the components of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake in the exact order in which they would appear to someone perusing the land in a single visual sweep. He backtracks, hampering attempts at an orderly visualization. Making a comparison even more difficult, Ren Xiong's image of the estate does not present it from a single viewpoint; rather, the viewer moves gradually through the landscape, circling the lake, and changing the direction of his vision, thus seeing each element from a shifting point of view. Ren Xiong leads the viewer clockwise around the lake, directing the viewer's gaze sometimes to the right, towards the lake, and sometimes to the left, away from the lake, usually toward rocky hills. This explains the way in which the lake disappears and then reappears. While it is not entirely logical to see one structure, such as the Kiosk of the Water and Cloud Qin, from one side, and immediately thereafter another building, the Southern 79 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Northern Hills [~| Studio Under the Pines Square Studio |—j Gourd Belvedere Rockery Little House of Spring Trees House of Ci Poems Among the Flowers j—| —1 Kiosk of Water Caltrops 1 | | Gull Nest Round Hollow Pavilion Bamboo Chamber Ravine Gallery Southern Torrents Path of Viewer Kiosk of the Water and Cloud Qin Figure 4. Tentative Map of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake. Torrents, from the other side, this sudden shift in viewpoint is a serviceable device for the artist. The change in the direction of the viewer's gaze occurs twice, the other time being between the House of Ci Poems A m o n g the Flowers and the Kiosk of Water Caltrops. These two changes of direction allow Ren Xiong to begin the handscroll with the image of a gradually increasing mass of land, and finish with a diminishing land mass, in this way bracketing his view of the lake with fairly standard opening and closing segments. Because the collaborative handscroll depicts fewer buildings and landscape elements than does Ren Xiong s handscroll, it necessarily has fewer opportunities to illustrate Zhou Xian's description of the estate. In fact, not many segments appear to be related to his description at all. We can associate structures illustrated in the handscroll with specific buildings named in the 'Record of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake' only tentatively. For example, behind the large building in the middle of the painting, which presumably is theThatched Cottage, is a building housing a qin. This could be the Kiosk of the 8o ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT Water and Cloud Qin, although it certainly is not located on the opposite side of the lake from theThatched Cottage, as Zhou Xian states it should be, but instead may even be attached to theThatched Cottage. Behind that building is a two-storied structure that could be either the Ceremonial Cap Building or the Northern Hills, both of which are described as multistoried. Despite the detailed description of these two buildings in the essay, the multistoried building in the collaborative handscroll cannot be identified with either of them with any assurance. As with Z h o u Xian's description of the Ceremonial Cap Building, the lake is within view, but we do not know if mountains are also. It is adjacent to theThatched Cottage, as is the essay's Northern Hills, but it is not surrounded by ridges or rugged rock formations, and there are no nearby pines. Why are the two handscrolls related to Z h o u Xian's description in such differing ways? We do not know when he actually authored the description of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, although he inscribed it and mounted it at the end of Ren Xiong's Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake in 1858, the year after the artist's death. The close correspondence between Ren Xiong's visual image and Zhou Xian's textual image strongly suggests that one was modelled on the other. Ju-hsi Chou believes that the correlation between Ren Xiong's image and Z h o u Xian's description indicates that Z h o u Xian's essay, 'though recorded later than the painting itself, must have been in an early draft and made available to the artist.'22 This seems the most likely explanation, particularly considering a subtle literary allusion made by Zhou Xian, and reflected in Ren Xiong's painting. This literary allusion is discussed below. The men who painted the collaborative Picture of the Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake could well have been familiar with both Ren Xiong's visual and Zhou Xian's textual versions of the estate, both of which predate the collaborative handscroll. The fact that the work was done by a large number of men over a span of years, with no single mind organizing an overall program, would account for the fact that the painting neither depicts the estate in detail, nor do its images correlate to those of Ren Xiong and Zhou Xian, assuming that the artists would have desired such a correlation. A few images are common to both handscrolls, but not present in Zhou Xian's description: 81 ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE these include the introductory passage with willows on shallow spits of land, the flower-covered lattice, the low outdoor table topped with an array of potted plants, theTaihu rock, and cranes. It is possible that the two handscrolls share these elements because Ren Xiong s painting influenced the subsequent rendering; it is also possible that both handscrolls drew these images from Zhou Xian's lost painting. Zhou Xian's effort to legitimize his imaginary estate produced a series of contemporary textual and visual representations. References within those texts and images to early Chinese visual conventions and literature carry an additional legitimizing force. Written documentation includes inscriptions on each of the three paintings, one of them being the long colophon composed by ZhouXian and mounted at the end of Ren Xiong s handscroll. According to Zhang Mingke, many men added inscriptions to Zhou Xian's painting, the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, which now is lost. Of these inscriptions, Zhang Mingke found the most noteworthy to be a preface authored by Xu Jin. 23 For the most part, unlike Zhou Xian's very detailed and specific inscription on Ren Xiong s handscroll, Xu Jin's preface describes Zhou Xian s painting in vague terms suitable for any idealized image of a lakeside retreat. Included with these imprecise descriptions, however, are two comments deserving attention. The first is Xu Jin's suggestion in reference to Zhou Xian's handscroll that, 'another Wangchuan Villa has been painted.' 24 The second is his statement that 'the several tens of gong (a unit of land equivalent to 179 centimeters) [of the estate] are divided into nineteen views.' 25 Both comments further the legitimization of Zhou Xian's imaginary estate, the first through reference to the revered original estate painting byWang Wei (701-761), the second through an allusion to Zhuangzi that is specifically explained by Yang Xian in his 1889 inscription on the collaborative Picture of the Thatched Co ttage ofFan Lake. Yang Xian's inscription begins with fifteen brief poems describing vistas of theThatched C ottage, and finishes with the following comment: I recall that in 1858, Cunbo (ZhouXian) and I were staying in the capital at the same time. He took out a picture and directed me to write [a series of] quatrains of six-word lines, one quatrain per scene. Now, the Thatched Cottage was but a fable of Cunbo, who 82 Z H O U XIAN'S FABULOUS C O N S T R U C T had taken the yuyan shijiu as the basis for the nineteen scenes of the Thatched Cottage. Long ago, my draft had been lost during the turbulent time. I rediscovered it from piles of old papers, except four verses were missing.26 Ju-hsi Chou has noted the significance of the allusion to Zhuangzi in Yang Xian s inscription; therefore I quote his summary of the situation: This place [that is, the Thatched Cottage], so stated Yang Xian, was but a fable, or yuyan, alluding to Zhuangzi's chapter nineteen, particularly the first line: eyuyan shijiu or 'imputed words make up nine tenths of it/27 Here the numeral shijiu is taken literally to mean nineteen, thus resulting in the number of scenes in the painted scroll of Fanhu Caotang.28 The reference to Zhuangzi through division of the Thatched Cottage into nineteen vistas is extremely persistent. It appears in Zhou Xian s listing of precisely nineteen structures in his 'Record of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake' and is reiterated through Ren Xiong's representation of the same nineteen structures described by Zhou Xian.29 It recurs in XuJin's statement that the landscape in Zhou Xian s painting is divided into nineteen views, and is stated explicitly by Yang Xian in his inscription written at Zhou Xian s request. Clearly, this reference was engineered by Zhou Xian to help establish theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake as a significant entity. The Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake is related to Zhuangzi's chapter nineteen in a more subtle fashion. As Ju-hsi Chou has noted, Burton Watson states that'yuyan or "imputed words" refers to words put into the mouths of historical or fictional persons to make them more compelling/ 30 Paralleling this process, Zhou Xian s aim was to make his imagined estate more compelling, and less of a fable, through linkage with Zhuangzi, a revered historical figure. The network of contemporary text contrived by Zhou Xian was to anchor the estate in people's minds further. While Ren Xiong is best known for his innovative technical and stylistic adaptations that were the basis for the Shanghai School manner of painting, he refers to the ancient blue-and-green style for his interpretation of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake. His choice of this style contributes to Zhou Xian's program of legitimizing the 83 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, while simultaneously emphasizing the estate's idyllism.The antiquity of the blue-and-green style suggests that the residence is long-established, and the fact that this style often was used in paintings of celestial dwellings serves to idyllize the retreat. Ren Xiong further adds to the idyllic aura of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake through his inclusion of motifs redolent of gentility or symbolizing immortality Ren Xiong employed the blue-and-green style infrequently, and then almost exclusively in paintings of legendary or other-worldly beings or locations. As an accomplished practitioner, he revived the style and passed it on to his artistic successors. The antiquity of the blue-and-green style had led to a convention equating it with ideal times and places and Ren Xiong did not stray outside this convention. Examples of his works in this style include the following: Female Immor- tal Riding a Deer,31 Mending the Official Robe,32 Album of Buddhist Fig- ures33 andPaviHon in Enchanted Mountains.34 The first three are figure paintings with landscape settings. The female figure riding a deer is a fairy or immortal, and the Buddhist figures represent an other-worldly state of being which Ren Xiong stressed by using the blue-and-green style. In Mending the Official Robe, the heavy color application and stylized leaves and clouds, characteristic of the blue-and-green style, lend an aura of antiquity and reverence to the image. Pavilion in Enchanted Mountains depicts an uninhabited dwelling located high in the mountains, and has been given its title because of the style in which it was rendered; whereas no title is inscribed on the painting, the stylized rocks and clouds and heavy application of green pigment imply that the location is enchanted or other-worldly. Like Pavilion in Enchanted Mountains, the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake is uninhabited. In the latter work, the landscape is attractive and fecund, and the many structures are furnished with items, such as a qin, an arrangement of potted plants, and shelves of books, suggesting a cultivated life. Although both the natural and the man-made components of the setting are designed to afford residents of theThatched Cottage a most pleasurable life, the only inhabitants Ren Xiong has portrayed are the cranes, symbols of immortality. The absence of human inhabitants, combined with the use of the blueand-green style, serves to elevate the image of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake above the mundane world. This is in sharp contrast to the 84 Z H O U XIAN'S FABULOUS C O N S T R U C T collaborative handscroll, the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, which is populated by a variety of figures, and which is tied to nineteenth-century life through its rendition in the painting style popular among men with scholarly aspirations, namely ink deployed on paper after the manner of such seventeenth-century orthodox landscape artists as Wang Hui. The most startling aspect of the two handscrolls entitled Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake is the fact that they represent an estate imagined by a contemporaneous figure in very concrete terms and for his own satisfaction. Whereas many earlier Chinese paintings depict locations grounded in fact or in established fiction (for example, well known legends, poems or novels), few, if any, spring entirely from the artist's or patron s imagination.TheThatched Cottage is an imaginary place that lacks the weight of legend, which otherwise could lend texture credence to a fictitious location. Zhou Xian sought to establish his imaginary estate through the program of paintings and inscriptions done by and for him to describe and memorialize the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. Furthermore, references to early literary and painting traditions within the inscriptions and paintings serve to legitimize the estate through association. In particular, the allusions to Zhuangzi and Ren Xiong s employment of the blue-and-green style link the estate to the past. Ren Xiong's Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake was the most effective vehicle for establishing the estate, in part because of the handscroll's concordance with Zhou Xian's 'Record of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake,' and in part because of RenXiong's ability to draw on historical painting traditions to create a detailed, and therefore convincingly concrete, rendering of the estate. 85 A R T A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE APPENDIX Record of the Thatched Cottage ofFan Lake by Zhou Xian This retired scholar is a native of Zuili. His home is adjacent to Fan Li Lake. From the lake, he has drawn the name of his abode, calling it the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake; and from the Thatched Cottage, he has derived his own name, the Retired Scholar of Fan Lake. When this retired scholar was young, he accompanied his father w h o served in various parts of Zhejiang. In his prime, he traveled extensively in the South. Last year, the [Taiping] rebels invaded Jiangnan. This retired scholar changed to military dress and directed troops in the recapture of the three towns of Jiading, Zhenjiang and Guazhou. Having accumulated merits in the military, he was then going to brave the wind and dust as an official [in a distant location]. Thus, in regard to [the Thatched Cottage of] Fan Lake, he hasn't spent a single day in residence there. However, he has always planned to buy two or three qing (one qing is equivalent to 6.67 hectares) of land at the shore of the lake, and to live there, giving the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake as its name. The Cottage will be six or seven columns in width, and the rooms will be bright, open, and spacious. The willow's luxuriance will complement the profound beauty of the trees and flowers. This will be a place for reading and writing and also for entertaining guests. If you look eastward, then you can see winding shores and crooked sandbars, as well as pavilions and kiosks connected with one another. When summer turns to autumn, the lotuses produce flowers as beautiful as fine embellished silk. The Thatched Cottage faces the lake, and the view from there is without limit. In the middle [of the lake], there is a small mound large enough to dwell on, with tall rushes and great reeds growing densely upon it. They could be cleared away [to create] an area for a small dwelling with short railings and low eaves, and there one could lie down and rest, or fish. Because [this dwelling] is surrounded by reeds, it will be named Sedge Village. Ducks, gulls, and other kinds of water fowl are tame enough to be approached. [One could] establish a narrow kiosk over the water and connect it with a board [to walk over], naming it the Gull Nest. [We would] call it thus because it floats like a gull, and it is just right as a nesting place for water fowls. 86 ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT To the south of Sedge Village gorges intermesh with torrents, and to the west they join up with a lofty peak. In ancient times, my native place was known to be a land of marshes. The flat wilderness extended for hundreds of li without a single mound big enough even to fill a basket [of earth]. This retired scholar must gather earth and pile up rocks in order to create layers of mountain peaks and ridges. [The earth formations will consist o f ] tall ones, including the sharp point of a tall hill, and various kinds of high pointed mountains; both singular peaks and successions of rising peaks, including those standing alone like a great hall and those densely grouped; and lofty peaks including those with many large rocks and others with rocks unevenly scattered. The layered mountain barriers and piled-up peaks display hundreds of forms and thousands of shapes. To the right of theThatched Cottage, one will be filled with an agreeable spirit coming from the west. Even if one holds up the tablet (an accouterment of court attendance) through the entire session of court, it will never be enough to make one bored [with being at the Thatched Cottage]. From theThatched Cottage and heading towards the north, low ridges rise and fall, declivities descend and ascend. There are luxuriant trees and elegant rocks, and the foliage is so lush and verdant that it obscures the sun. In the midst [of this setting] are two-storied dwellings and studios, whose windows are secluded and elegant; this is known as Northern Hills. To the east of the hills are tall pines, standing apart like the Five Statesmen. The coiling branches [and foliage] form a cover; when the wind comes they make a sound like the ocean waves. A library lies underneath, exuding a sense of purity and emptiness divorced from the world; and this is the Studio Under the Pines. This retired scholar enjoys composing ci poems: his writings include Fanhu Ciji (Collection of Ci Poems by Fanhu). Once he gathered all the works of ci poets from the SouthernTang, Northern Song and later, and stored them away in the House of Ci Poems A m o n g the Flowers. The balustrades and railings on all sides have a variety of flowering plants spreading together over them, including floating purple and lofty red blossoms. During all the four seasons [the flowers] do not dwindle.The bamboo laces are woven together so as to screen the flowers from a path that connects with the Studio Under the Pines. 87 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Moving to the east, there is the Kiosk of Water Caltrops. The winding shores and whirling water all are filled with water caltrops and lotuses. Wind [blows through] the galleries [of the Kiosk of Water Caltrops], water [reflects onto] the railings, and numbers of bamboo mats [grace the floors, creating an atmosphere] clean and cool. Following the water's edge and turning to the south, [the view] suddenly opens onto a limpid lake. A pavilion stands in the water. This is the Boat Pavilion, as in [the expression] 'one boat sailing through five lakes/Via a bridge one can then reach the pavilion, which is exquisite in architectural details. The appearance of the waters and the clouds, with its continuously flowing fullness, is never fixed. This retired gentleman once acquired a qin; it is of dark lacquer [adorned with] beautiful inlay, and its rhythm and tone are antique. Its belly bears the inscription, shuiyun (water and cloud), and it is a work remaining from the Southern Song period. Because of this qin, this retired scholar has named this dwelling the Kiosk of the Water and Cloud Qin [as a means of] noting its existence. From this kiosk to the Boat Pavilion and to the Kiosk of Water Caltrops, they all are separated from the Thatched Cottage by the lake. Following the shining girdle [of the lake's edge] with one's eyes around towards the east from theThatched Cottage, [these buildings] are there amongst the winding banks and spits of land. A rocky peak rises ruggedly from the western hills. As it heads south, it gradually dwindles down and winds around to form gullies. All the streams in the hills come gurgling northward to pour into the lake. Where compressed torrents wear a path between cliffs, there are white sand patches and green bamboo, isolated in the extreme. Here will be placed a [building] several columns wide, called the Southern Torrents, joined on the east to the Kiosk of the Water and Cloud Qin. Also, there is a narrow path which goes northwards to where you can cross the lake and can then reach Sedge Village. Following the mountain torrents upstream towards the west, [there will be] cliffs and ravines extreme and deep, with clear streams encircling the ravine. The studio built across the ravine is the Ravine Studio. Across the Ravine Studio, after ten or twenty paces, a valley spreads out before the diminishing ridges. Covering the valley and the lower portions of the hills is a dense, concealing growth of bamboo (including dwarf bamboo). There is built a secluded dwelling of five 88 Z H O U XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT or six jian (ajian is an intercolumnar unit), its winding corridors silent and secretive. The sunlight cannot pierce through to the ground, so the earth and the moss are always moist, tinting the screens and doors green; and this is the House of Bamboo. When this bamboo-filled valley comes to an end, the hills return to embrace it once more. The peaks enfold the winding stone path [in a manner that seems] carefully planned. There is a hall of ten hu in height (a hu is an ivory tablet about one meter long), so secret and peaceful that it is just right for relaxing; this is the Round Hollow. There is another path that turns from the Hollow towards the north, in concert with the rising peaks. Here the interior 'bones' are all exposed, a disordered mass of stones standing together. The complex array of rock forms includes some with sheer faces, some grouped together, some planted upright, some lying on their sides, some joined together, and some widely spaced, some singular in appearance, and some nicely matched. The exquisite cottage revealed here will be a place for seclusion and the topic available for poetry is the Rockery. The Gourd Belvedere hugs the side of the mountain and [is set] in the midst of the forest, with its eight windows open to the world. It is to the north of the Rockery and, because it [seems to] hang like a gourd, it is named the Gourd Belvedere. Thereafter the colors of the hills yield to the kingfisher hue, and the clouds and mists join against the blue sky. When the worldly dust no longer blows and all is silent, the music of Nature suddenly resounds. To the left, an osmanthus thicket on the cliff produces fragrance, and the flowers on the ground offer up their beauty A dwelling a square zhang (3.33 meters) in size is just right for autumn pleasure, and is called the Square Studio. Down towards the East and to the north of the ridge, amongst trees and luxuriant, fragrant vegetation, a tall building rises up. It bears resemblance to an ancient conical ceremonial cap; therefore, it is called the Ceremonial Cap Building. Vermilion columns reach toward the sky; green pillars cast their gaze downward [to the scenery below]. Taking in the lake girded by mountains, the view is always changing. The western part of this building is linked to a dwelling that is called the Little House of Spring Trees. Interwoven branches and dense foliage fill the four directions with their fragrant shadows, 89 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE always verdant whether it is sunny or dimmed. From the front [of this House] the Thatched Cottage can be reached. To the right of the Thatched Cottage will be built a water kiosk. There is the fragrance of duckweed, and the shadows of water grasses ripple over the curtains and mats: this is the Western Chamber of Trumpet Creepers. The Thatched Cottage is meant for this retired scholar who, following retirement after a successful career, plans to use it [as a place] to tend to his mother and to compose his own writings. What place does not have beautiful scenery? The reason he must remain at Fan Li Lake is that this is the place where his ancestors roamed and fished, so he does not dare to abandon it. From the past up through the present, among gentlemen of wealth, there has not been one without a famous garden which also, at its zenith, was absolutely worth visiting. However, [those gardens whose owners] are without the virtue and righteousness [necessary] to uphold their foundation, and are without the literary adjuncts that would enhance their reputation, are unable to compete against the Thatched Cottage. In the seventh month of the year yimao (1855), the fifth year of Xianfeng, a friend of this retired scholar, Ren Xiong ofXiaoshan, made this depiction of the Thatched Cottage. Three years later, in the sixth month of the year wuwu (1858), I, this retired scholar, have committed this record of the Thatched Cottage to writing. 90 ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT Notes 1. While a simpler designation for the paintings would be the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake/1 am calling each the 'Picture of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake'to avoid confusion with the name ofZhou Xian's estate, the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, and the name of one of the buildings on that estate, the Thatched Cottage. 2. Most of the artists who contributed to the collaborative handscroll were so minor that they do not appear in the standard encyclopedias or artists' dictionaries. 3. For Zhou Xian s biography, see Jin Youchen' s account included in Zhou Xian's Fanhu Caotang Yigao (not dated). Also see Zhang Mingke, Hansong Ge Tanyi Suolu (A Record of Discussions on Art in the Hansong Pavilion) (Preface dated 1908; Shanghai, 1988 reprint), 64; YangYi, HaishangMolin (Shanghai Ink Forest) (Shanghai, 1919), 63; and Yujianhua editor, Zhongguo MeishujiaRenmingCidian (A Dictionary of Chinese Artists) (Shanghai, 1981), 493. 4. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64. 5. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64. 6. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan 1,15b and 16a. 7. For the full text in translation, see the Appendix. 8. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan 1,17a. 9. See Ding Wenwei, preface to Ren Xiong'sLiexianJiupai (Drinking Cards with Illustrations of the Immortals) (1854). 10. Yu, ZhongguoMeishujiaRenmingCidian, 1028. 11. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan 1,16b. 12. See Jiang Baoling, MolinJinhua (preface dated 1852), juan 16, iob-na. Also see Yu, Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian, 1168. 13. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan 1, i5b-i8b. 14. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao Juan 1, i7a-b. 15. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64. 16. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64-65. 17. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan 1,7a-8a. 18. This image of a patron instructing an artist to record an event as it occurred is reminiscent of EmperorTangTaizong commanding Yan Liben (died 673) to paint some exotic birds he had been watching. See Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai Minghua Ji (A Record of Famous Painters of All the Dynasties) (Huashi Congshu edition), juan 9,104. 91 ARTATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 19. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigaojuan 1,17a. Ren Xiong painted this album for his second major patron, Yao Xie (18051864), in 1 8 5 1 . It is in the Palace Museum, Beijing. 21.1 thankJu-hsi Chou for generously sharing his translation of Zhou Xian's 'Record of theThatched Cottage' with me, and for correcting mine. 22. Ju-hsi Chou,'The Rise of Shanghai,'in Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's Empire, 1 7 9 6 - 1 9 1 1 (Phoenix, 1 9 9 2 ) , 163. 23. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64-65. 24. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64-65. 25. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 65. 26. DedicatedtoKezhai, that is, WuDacheng(i835-i902), Yang Xian wrote the inscription in the tenth month, the year ofjiehou ( 1 8 8 9 ) of the Guangxu reign. I thank Yin Chuang, Senior Lecturer, Department of Asian Languages, Stanford University, for his help in deciphering Yang Xian's handwriting. 27. Ju-hsi Chou, whom I quote, notes that he has used the Burton Watson translation, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York and London, 20. 1 9 6 8 ) , 303. 28. Brown and Chou,Transcending Turmoil, 163. 29. The nineteen structures are the following: The Thatched Cottage, the Sedge Village, the Gull Nest, the Northern Hills, the Studio Under the Pines, the House of Ci Poems Among the Flowers, the Kiosk of Water Caltrops, the Boat Pavilion, the Kiosk of the Water and Cloud Qin, the SouthernTorrents, the Ravine Studio, the House of Bamboo, the Round Hollow, the Rockery, the Gourd Belvedere, the Square Studio, the Ceremonial Cap Building, the Little House of Spring Trees, and the Western Chamber of Trumpet Creepers. 30. Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, 341, note 252. 31. This round fan from the Suzhou Municipal Antique Store Collection is reproduced in Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Tumu (Illustrated Catalog of Ancient Chinese Calligraphy and Painting), VI (Beijing, 1 9 8 7 ) , Su 3-137. 32. There are two extant versions of this hanging scroll, one in the Xu Beihong Memorial Hall, Beijing, and the other in the Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, California. The latter, which is more likely to be genuine, is reproduced inBritta Erickson, 'RenXiong's Final Dated Work, Mending the Official Robe,' Stanford University Museum ofArtJournal, XXIIXXIII, 6. The former is reproduced in Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Tumu, I (Beijing, 1 9 8 6 ) , Jing 13-13. 92 Z H O U XIAN'S FABULOUS C O N S T R U C T 33. This album of sixteen leaves from a private collection in the People's Republic of China is reproduced in Zhongguo Minjian Micang Huihua Zhenpin (Treasured Paintings in Private Collections in China) (Nanjing, 1989), 59-7434. This album leaf is reproduced in James Soong and Jung Ying Tsao, Chinese Paintings by the Four Jens: Four Late Nineteenth Century Masters (San Francisco, 1977), 27. 93 A Forgotten Celebrity Wang Zhen (1867-1938)} Businessman, Philanthropist, and Artist HSING-YUAN TSAO The name Wang Zhen is unfamilar to most young people in today's China. Even worse, he has been almost unknown in his own country for more than forty years, and his paintings are collected principally outside of China. It is not an uncommon situation under the Communist regime that some celebrities who lived prior to the founding of the People's Republic, and who were involved in various political activities, suffer the fading away of their names. A considerable part of modern Chinese history is covered in this way by a great gray mist of political ambiguity. In the case of Wang Zhen, who was better known as Wang Yiting, two other factors have negatively affected his reputation: his having worked for the Japanese as a comprador, and the support he gave to, and admiration he received from, the Nationalist regime. 1 A decline in his popularity was thus more or less inevitable after the founding of the People's Republic. Wang Zhen's relative obscurity today demonstrates again that art history has not been free from the influence and sometimes domination of politics, especially when the artist himself was an activist on the political and cultural stage. It was only in 1988 that a book on his art was published in Shanghai.2 Ironically, its publication was sponsored by a Japanese company as an expression of gratitude for what Wang Zhen had done after the great 1923 earthquake in Tokyo. 3 In contrast to his relative obscurity in recent times, the 1931 edition of Who's Who in China presented Wang Zhen with more titles of social involvement than, seemingly, any individual could bear. Besides being a comprador and an artist, he was also known as: ...chairman of the board of directors of Wah Cheng Fire and Marine Insurance Company; director of the Chinese Electric Power Company; chairman of the Shanghai City Chamber of Commerce; vice chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce; 94 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY chairman of the board of directors of the Bureau of Municipal Affairs for Shanghai City; in charge of communications, and of Agriculture, Labor and Commerce under Dr SunYat-sen s regime in the first year of the Republic; founded the Lung Hua Orphanage; served on the committee, either as chairman or member, of the Anti-Kidnapping Society; the China Philanthropic Association; the China Red Cross Association; the Shanghai Public Benevolent Cemetery; the Z u n g T s i T a n g ; the China International Famine Relief Association; Lester Hospital; the Government Famine Relief Commission; the Huai Ho Conservancy; the Buddhist Laymen's Society; the Kure Karma Buddhist Association; and about fifteen other minor institutions of charity and forty institutions of education, including the Great China University;... Bureau of Municipal Affairs, Municipality of Greater Shanghai.4 From this list, one can assess the many facets of Wang Zhen s life and accomplishment. He was, during his time, one of the key figures in the business sector and was also among those with a measure of political clout. And last, he was a Buddhist layman, a believer in its teaching and its messages. In his time, he could have accomplished all of these only in the treaty port of Shanghai which, after the Opium War of 1839-42, was a metropolis on the rise, and in which old norms could be reaffirmed and new ones sprang into being. Nowhere else could he, a simple apprentice-turned-comprador, rise so quickly and associate with so many institutions and organizations in the city while cutting across the boundary between the native and the foreign. Wang Zhen the Man Wang Zhen was born in 1867 in Shanghai as the second generation of an immigrant family from Wuxing in Zhejiang province. At age fifteen, he became an apprentice in a traditional bank known as qianzhuang, owned by Li Pingshu. At the same time, he studied Japanese in the Guang Fangyan Guan language school. Later, he acquired a compradorship in ajapanese firm, the Dada Shipping and Transportation Company, which was to merge with another company to form the Riqing (Japan-Qing) Shipping and Transportation Company He worked in these companies steadily and used them as the bases for his rapid rise in fortune and prestige. This continued unabated until the outbreak of the war in 1937, when anti-Japanese sentiment 95 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE was strong. Soon after the Japanese occupied Shanghai, a disillusioned Wang Zhen felt the need to prove his loyalty to his own country. Resisting approaches from the Japanese occupation government to serve its causes,5 he decided to leave for Hong Kong, only to return the next year, fatally ill. He died the morning after having arrived in his beloved city.6 Wang Zhen s artistic training began in the family, with painting a passionate preoccupation of his father. In 1882, when Wang Zhen was sixteen, he studied painting withXuXiang, a disciple of Ren Yi (1840-1895). Later Ren Yi noticed this talented youth and agreed to receive him as a disciple. For a period of time Wang Zhen's painting can be linked directly to this Shanghai artist, the personification of Haipai (School of Shanghai). In about 1914, when Wu Changshuo arrived in Shanghai, Wang Zhen seized the opportunity to become his student; he shifted his allegiance and style to this master, with whom he was often mentioned. He was reported to be decisive as a businessman; 7 as a painter he was prolific, turning out a large volume of works in little time and flooding the growing market with his personal visions.8 This then is our man, who linked business to art in what might appear to be an odd combination. His concerns were multiple and he had many personas and likely endured inner torment because of them. He was a Japanophile, 9 just as he was a patriot, a conflict of enormous dimensions at his time. A Japanese visitor, Sawamura Yukio, was startled by the contrast between his westernized manner and his Chinesestyle residence;10 he also observed the chameleonic shift in mood and expression when Wang Zhen changed topics from business to art. 11 Wang Z h e n was a private man, so w e know little about his inner thoughts, but just as apparent was his penchant to direct his energy outward as a way to transform society for the better. As much as he was a man of action and of organization, which the 1931 Who's Who in China made eminently clear, he was also one of idealism and peace, tinged with Buddhist compassion and a belief in karmic retribution. He nearly put himself on the line for the revolutionary cause, but pulled back at the last minute to care for, so it was said, his aged mother.12 Ultimately he was a man of tradition, pushed by circumstance to be at the vanguard, though he himself was less than modern. 13 Thus, if self-doubt began to plague him, there was always a religious conviction to which he could appeal: 96 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY Time lingers not, even as I scratch my hair. The erstwhile schoolboy now is an old man. What have I done in all my life? I look at the mirror, feeling but old and gray. By the window then, Let me drink from the inkwell, Let my bald brush freely crisscross [the paper surface] - this well-loved, worn broom. When exhiralation rises, I can dispense with wine. Poems and verses well up easily and are sung.14 I believe the waves of doom have gone on a very long time; The Heaven is crippled and the world is covered in dust. How many know that I have stood alone and faced the storm! I only pray to the Buddha to raise his hand. With a peaceful heart, I wrote this on my birthday.15 This was written in 1936, two years before his death, when an aging Wang Zhen thought that he had made his peace on the eve of Japanese invasion. Little did he realize that he was to face yet another, his most severe, moral test. Wang Zhen the Philanthropist As a successful businessman and a Buddhist, it was natural for Wang Zhen to be involved in relief and charity work, both governmental and private. The 1931 edition of Who's Who in China, cited above, listed a number of organizations with which he was connected. He was also the founder of the Longhua (Lung Hua) Orphanage, which eventually was to perish in 1937 in Japanese bombings. In 1919, when the five provinces of Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu endured floods, Wang Zhen, enlisting Wu Changshuo's help, painted and printed a great many pictures of refugee victims to raise funds. 16 The extent of his involvement in charities was such that it was said that: In Shanghai there were no charities without Master [Wang]'s involvement. If his name was not found in the trustees list of any charity, it would not be persuasive enough to call on people's support. By and large, charitable groups were not well financed. Yet, in their attempts [to render aid] often they strove for the utmost. As a result, their income was not able to meet the expenses and they had to turn to Master [Wang] for help... Master [Wang] 97 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE used to say that 'in charitable activities, people naturally are willing to contribute money/ On those occasions when [charitable organizations] could not raise funds, Master [Wang] would come up with his own paintings and calligraphy and raise huge sums of money for them. 17 On the one hand, it was his social skill and contacts among the wealthy and powerful that enabled him to raise money when necessary, and on the other, he could call on his own artistic skill as a potential source for needed funds. One of his best works is an album entitled Yinguo Fenming (Karma Illuminated) which features, among others, the beggars and homeless victims of famine (figures 1-3). It is clear that his depictions of refugees and street people were not done simply out of curiosity, but stemmed from a deeply ingrained sense of compassion and sympathy. We shall return to this album. Wang Zhen and Art Associations Such was Wang Zhen's zeal for charitable activities that one of the first art associations he joined was the Yu Garden Charitable Association, founded in 1909.18 In purpose and nature, this was a new, emerging phenomenon, different from the elegant gatherings in Shanghai's past such as those led by LiTingjing, Wu Zonglin, or Jiang Baolin. 19 The association membership was predicated neither on social class nor on literary accomplishment but was open to artists at large. It allowed members to gain financially in activities undertaken at the association s site, but also endeavored to establish viable funds to aid in disaster relief. Subsequently, Wang Zhen joined other art organizations as well. There was the HaishangTijin Guan, which featured many renowned artists and for which Wang Zhen served at times as chairman. There was also the Shanghai Shuhua Yanjiu Hui (Shanghai Research Association of Painting and Calligraphy) for which he served as a trustee.This was an enlightened organization that attempted to bring together artists of divergent approaches, both Chinese and Western, before conflict and intolerance were to damage the united front.20 In the thirties, Wang also lent his support to the efforts of Sun Xueni, Qian Shoutie, and HeTianjian in establishing the Chinese Painting Association. Its manifesto was new for the time, breaking through the isolationist tendency to espouse an international outlook. In particular, it was mindful of the depressed state of China and 98 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY Chinese painting in the light of potential and actual threats from rival cultures and traditions, especially from Japan: In today s world, when comparisons across cultures are inevitable, everywhere it makes us feel ashamed and angry In particular, it is the ever-weakening state of our painting circle that compels us to realize how heavy a burden [we must bear] in the coming years. We can no longer allow this to slide or just blame each other. It can be seen that countries in Europe and America are doing their utmost to fully develop their own cultural heritage in order to express their national identities. And the art of painting is truly the best tool through which to express cultural values. From the standpoint of its disposition, it is that through which life and morality can be brought to their highest level. The Japanese are akin to a stepchild (nephew) of our culture. Even so, because of their temperament and system, they are not able to be exactly like us. However, in their propaganda in international cultural forums, they often consider themselves as the masters of the eastern artistic heritage. This causes us to realize, most profoundly, the folly of not striving for self-renewal... We often hear that countries in Europe and America, as well as our eastern neighbor Japan, all have painting associations. An overview will find a variety of organizations, some public and some private. Some were organized by the painters themselves, and the government provided them with vital support. Others were led by the government, inline with whose guidance the artists took part in organizing them. Some were brought to being by virtue of social forces, on account of which painters had a chance to unite. Others came into being solely by virtue of the actions of the painters themselves.21 Through his activities in these organizations, Wang Zhen made his presence felt. He was, unlike other artists of his time, an organization man, emboldened by his experience in the business world. One may even go so far as to state that he derived a degree of self-identity by associating with other artists. It can be observed that he rarely if ever played the role of an instigator. More likely, with his financial strength a major consideration in everyone's mind, he served as a key supporter whenever and wherever funds were short. He was an artist himself and also a patron saint' for other artists, often assisting 99 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE them to arrange exhibitions, sell works, and introduce them to new patrons, including his Japanese clients. 22 An example is his skillful maneuver to promote Wu Changshuo into what maybe termed superstardom. Beginning from the days when this master settled in Shanghai, in about 1914, when he could scarcely rely on selling his paintings for subsistence (a fan from his hand could barely fetch 200 wen), Wu Changshuo reached the apex of artistic fame and became one of the best known figures in painting, in both Shanghai and Japan. 23 We shall not deny Japan a critical role in bringing out his genius. So says Wang Geyi in his Memoir: Master Changshuo's painting was highly thought of in Japan. Consequently, even when members of the Japanese cabinet came to Shanghai, they would hold dinner parties at the Six-three Garden (a Japanese residence house in the Hongkou district) and issue an invitation to Master Changshuo. [Wang] Yiting and I would accompany Master Changshuo to dine in the Six-three Garden in a car sent by them. After the usual politenesses, Master Changshuo would invariably paint a few strokes before going into the dining hall... A f t e r Master Changshuo died, those Japanese friends organized a small exhibition [of his paintings] in the Sixthree Garden in his honor.24 And later, Wang Zhen himself rode on Wu Changshuo's coattails to fame. Their names were often linked as two of the finest in Shanghai.25 Wang Zhen as an Artist Wang Zhen s art belonged in an urban setting. His was not the classic, orthodox style, then under increasing attack from contemporary critics as being irrelevant to society.26 Neither, however, did he adopt the westernizing style in order to force a decisive break with the past. As mentioned above, his lineages were twofold, that of Ren Yi the Haipai artist, brilliant, flashy and effervescent, and that of Wu Changshuo, the master of calligraphy and seal carving, who introduced the antique spirit of jinshi into his painting. From Ren Yi, he learned to polish his technique and to master the figurative and various motifs and effects. From Wu Changshuo, he took the driven impact and irresistible tempo for his own usage. In fusing the opposites, he emerged as an artist of a f o r c e f u l vision, recognizable amidst Shanghai's diverse trends. 100 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY Paralleling this swing in style and approach was his change of conceptual framework, from T a r t pour Tart' to Tart pour la vie' thematically and also in terms of the usage of art as a means to raise funds for charitable activities, including support for art associations. This explains the prolific quantity of Wang Zhen's work in existence, often made up of repeated images and replications as much as of original works and brilliant innovations. 'L'art pour la vie' could easily merge with Buddhist beliefs and compassion: this would prove to be a forceful motivation for Wang Z h e n . Or to put it in another way, it was because of his Buddhist beliefs that he evolved an idea approximating T a r t pour la vie/ In thematic terms, social concerns are not evident, perhaps, in his early paintings. For instance, his 1892 Landscape with Buffaloes and Herdboys closely followed his teacher, Ren Yi, and was based on one of his works. 27 Gently composed, with delicately applied pale ink and light colors, it is different in style and appearance from those later paintings we normally associate with Wang Zhen. Another painting, A Hen and Chicks in the Jilin Provincial Museum, done a year later, reflects considerable influence from Ren Yi.28 Neither of these paintings shows any indication of the social concerns he embraced later. What interested him in both was the vocabulary of art and the expressiveness of color and ink, purely artistic considerations. It was later that Wang Z h e n felt an urgency regarding contemporary ills and began the search for solutions. In the aforementioned album, Yinguo Fenming painted in 1913, half of the leaves depict street people in contrast with the other half which depict several subjects ranging from genre scenes to scholars and Buddhist saints.29 His depictions sometimes approach caricature. The underlying sentiments are compassion, sympathy, and, to a degree, impatience toward those who were indifferent. The inscription on the first leaf (figure 1), which features a family of four rendered homeless by a flood, highlights the belief in karmic retribution: Disaster comes, south of the Yangzi and north of the Huai. People can hardly survive without food. Once they were very rich. Now they've become poor to this extent. The wife is weeping with hunger, and the children wailing for food: Such a sad and miserable scene it is... Alas, when they were rich, they did not give succor to the poor. 101 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 1. Wang Zhen, Yinguo Fenming (Karma Illuminated). Album, datedi9i3, leaf a. Ching Yuan Chai collection. Figure 2. Wang Zhen, Yinguo Fenming. Album, dated 1913, leaf b. Ching Yuan Chai collection. 102 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY Figure 3. Wang Zhen, Yinguo Fenming. Album, dated 1913, leaf e.Ching Yuan Chai collection. He was speaking as a philanthropist and leader of relief organizations, pointing his finger at those misers who had not extended a helping hand toward the needy and warning about the future consequences of such callousness. Underscoring the urgency was a cry for the karmic law, to compel people to be charitable. Thus the last line could have had a powerful impact on potential donors. The second leaf of the album (figure 2) portrays a simple beggar holding a long bamboo stick, confronting a barking dog. The last lines in his poetic inscription read: ... My two feet have covered the worldly trails. One shoulder carries all the sadness from the past to the present. I no longer take any food given in contempt; You, the village dog, should not bark at me anymore. Pride in poverty is the theme of this leaf, a firm conviction insofar as Wang Zhen was concerned. It also reminds us of the Longhua Orphanage, in which he offered food and shelter to over a hundred people. Not merely charity but respect for human dignity was foremost in Wang Z h e n s intent. If broadened, this was the attitude that could lift China out of her abject humiliation in the early twentieth century. 103 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Far more enigmatic is the fifth leaf in this album (figure 3). Here Wang Zhen depicts a man sitting on the ground, his mouth open, attempting to shout. His left hand holds a bell and the right a leash linked to a little dog with a big container in its mouth, walking toward passersby and begging from them. The blind man s staff and a basket are laid by his side. The title for the leaf is 'Dao is silent/ Why does this man utter no words? With a stick and a bell, he stays on the street shouting everyday, all daylong. Those who understand the Way (Dao) would give him pennies or offer food. Those who do not understand the Way ignore him as dumb. The Dao is silent, for it matters not whether the beggar shouts or cries. However loud his cries, for those unwilling to help they fall on deaf ears. This album represents Wang Zhen s belief about life in the cycles of birth and rebirth, as do most of his Buddhist paintings and paintings of popular subjects. They harbor his simple and yet profound desire for a better life and society for all human beings. This sense of universal fraternity that filled his paintings and inscriptions on them went beyond narrow nationalism. It was this sentiment that moved him to raise a huge sum of money for the victims of the great earthquake of 1 September 1923 in the Tokyo area. A large proportion of W a n g Z h e n ' s paintings are Buddhist in subject, fulfilling at least two functions, to serve the needs of clients, thus satisfying certain obligations, and to fulfil his own religious duties. Some are solidly composed and very powerful; in brushwork and in imagery, he displays a full mastery. Especially after he became a disciple of Wu Changshuo, Wang Zhen's brush moved directly from the cautious into a state of sureness and boldness. The Bodhidharma in the University Art Museum at Berkeley, California, is a good example (figure 4). Aside from the image, the most intriguing aspect is the halo that Wang Zhen rendered; it is almost invisible until one observes the painting for a long time and from different angles, after which the variegated ink tones begin to reverberate. In this alone one can discover the innovative power of Wang Zhen, who combines two visual languages, traditional Chinese and western European. The arrangement of elements is also interesting; one observes that he made most of the objects in the painting similar in size. A tree on the top of a cliff is 104 mm f i bfriA *v£U Figure 4. Wang Zhen, Bodhidharma. Hanging scroll, undated. University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. A R T A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE not much larger than the figure, and the cliff and distant mountains are mingled together into an area of paler and darker ink patterns. The figure, although depicted in a simple and most casual way, is solid in posture, expression, and mood. The whole painting is in perfect balance and in harmony with the theme: detachment from worldly life and entrance into the eternal. Conclusion There is no doubt that Wang Zhen was a complex individual, one whose life from rags to riches is in itself a remarkable story. The metropolis of Shanghai was a crucible for his emergence as well as a place where he could win acceptance, however humble his beginnings. Wealth won him social status, charity won him universal esteem, and art brought him personal satisfaction. There used to be literati artists and professional artists, but the comprador artist is indeed a unique phenomenon, not seen before the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Did his post demean his art? No, it lent him a breadth of vision and an acuteness of perception. In a city where power and corruption were synonymous, he was one of the few innocents. Even in the last days, when he found himself torn between a country that he loved and another that he admired, he managed to exit in grace. He was an passionate individual, a true celebrity, and an extraordinary artist. And yet, he has been almost totally forgotten in his home country and cast into a state of political ambiguity. Only through his works of art has his existence attained salvation. 10 6 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY Notes 1. See Wang Renze/WangYiting in MinguoRenwuZhuan, IV (Beijing, 1984), 255-260. 2. See WangYitingShuhuaJi (A Collection of Wang Yiting's Calligraphy and Painting) (Shanghai, 1 9 8 8 ) . Wang Zhen was far better known outside mainland China in regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. See Cathay Art Museum, Bailong Shanren Wang Zhen Shuhua Daguan, (Taipei, 1982), in three volumes. 3. Shenbao (Shanghai News) (5 September 1 9 2 3 ) , 3. 4. See entry under Wang Zhen in Who's Who in China, Fourth Edition (Shanghai, 1 9 3 1 ) , 4 1 5 - 4 1 6 . 5. Sawamura Yukio, ShanhaiJimbutsu InshoKi, (My Impression of Shanghai Figures) (Tokyo, 1 9 3 0 ) , 1 8 - 1 9 . Sawamura Yukio was an accredited journalist for the Osaka Daily News in Shanghai. Also see Chen Dingshan, Chunshen Jiuwen (Taipei, i 9 6 0 ) , II, 2 6 . At the approach ofJapanese visitors, 'Yiting shut his door and refused to step out. Chronically ill, he asked for nothing but dying; thus the Japanese dared not force him/ 6. See Qiu Yu, 'Coming Back From Wang Yiting's Memorial Service/ Shenbao ( 1 5 November 1 9 3 8 ) , 3. In the memorial service, there were no Japanese present at all. One western name, however, appeared on the guest list. 7. Xi Nan, 'Wang Yiting in My Memory, 1/ Shenbao (15 November 1 9 3 8 ) , 3. 8. Some of Wang Zhen's paintings are so carelessly painted that one would think they were produced quickly to meet the needs of clients. The highly mobile and modernized city of Shanghai offered Wang Zhen an art market to produce as much as he could. It is true even now that if one were to organize a Wang Zhen exhibition, one could find hundreds of his works without difficulty. His prolific output in fact devalued his art. Even though he also painted some truly fine works, art historians and connoisseurs tend to lump his all too numerous works of careless quality with his best work, and to judge the artistic level of the whole as not outstanding. 9. See Chen Sanli, Bailong Shanren Tihua Shi (Poetic Inscriptions for Painting by Bailong Shanren) (Shanghai, 1 9 3 6 ) , 1 , 1 5 . One of Wang Zhen s trips to Japan took place in 1931. On that trip, he led a group of well-known artists such as Zhang Daqian, Qian Shoutie, Wang Geyi and Zheng Manqin. His impression was vividly recorded: 'With my walking stick, my visit here has become a memorable event, as though I were walking in pictures all day long/ 107 A R T A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 10. Sawamura, Shanhai Jimbutsu, 18-19. Incidently, Wang Zhen s residence, the Zhi Garden, was in the old Chinese city, Nanshi (South Market). 11. Sawamura, ShanhaiJimbutsu, 19. 12. See Wang Renze,'Wang Yiting,' 257. 13. Wang Zhen was a man who treasured traditional values. ChenDingshan, in his Chunshen Jiuwan, II, 26, records: 'after Wu Changshuo died, the price of his painting dropped dramatically. But [Wang] Yiting bought them all at a high price. Even when he encountered cases when it was Wu Dongmai who painted under his father's name, he still bought them without asking any questions.' In addition, to commemorate Wu Changshuo, he and Wu Dongmai founded the Changming Academy which was staffed by the master's friends and students, such as Cao Zuochao, Pan Tianshou, He Tianjian, Ren Jingshu, Hu Dinglu, Wu Zhongxiong, Xue Feibai, Zhu Wenyun, Zhu Lesan. See Wang Geyi, Wang Geyi Huiyi Lu (Shanghai, 1982), 76-77. At the time when Lin Fengmian and others were pioneering a revolution in art, Wang Zhen was personifying the traditional ideal of loyalty to one's teacher. Accordingly, the Changming Academy tended to be traditional in outlook in its curriculum. The following story was told to me by the Canadian art historian, Ralph Croizier, who in turn cited Pang Xunqing as a source: In an art school where Wang Zhen was the director (presumably the Changming Academy), students wanted very much to paint from human models, but feared Wang Zhen's objection. So they would set up a model and paint when Wang Zhen was not around. As soon as he appeared at the gate, students would hide the model immediately and pretend to be doing something else. 14. The original text mentions wuyan (quatrain) and qiyan (poem with seven-character lines). 15. Quoted from Wang Yiting ShuhuaJi, nianpu, 2. 16. This event is reported in the Wang Yiting Shuhua Ji, nianpu, entry under 1919. It is also related in Wu Changshuo's nianpu, see Wu Changshuo ShuhuaJi (Taipei, 1985), entry under the same year. 17. See Xi Nan, 'Wang Yiting in My Memory,' 18. 18. For this art association, seeYangYi, HaishangMolin (Taipei, 1975), entry 438, under Qian Hui'an, which reprints its charter. Gao Yong and Li Pingshu were among the organizers. See also Qian Huafo and ZhengYimei, SanshinianLaizhi Shanghai (Shanghai in the Past Thirty Years) (Shanghai, 1984), 61. 19. For these gatherings, see Gao Yong's preface to HaishangMolin, ia. 20. This Shuhua Hui was organized by collectors and artists in Shanghai in 1910, with Li Pingshu at the helm. For the growing intolerance among artistic factions after the May Fourth Movement, see Chen Duxiu, A letter 108 A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY to Lii Zhi,' in Lang Shaojun, Lun Zhonguo Dangdai Meishu (On Chinese Modern Art) (Nanjing, 1 9 8 8 ) , 2 0 . In this correspondence, Chen Duxiu made it clear that he tried to eliminate the orthodox heritage: An orthodox school such as this, which became an icon that allowed people to worship it blindly, should be done away with; otherwise, it would be the biggest obstacle to our importing realism and refining Chinese art/ 21. See Hu Huaisheng, 'Shanghai di Xueyi Tuanti' (Research and Art Associations in Shanghai) in Shanghaishi Tongzhi Guan Qikan (Shanghai, not dated), number 334, 9 0 2 - 9 0 3 . 22. Thus, he participated in an art exhibition in Paris in 1930, organized by Xu Beihong who visited Wang Zhen right after returning from France and who thus became acquainted with more artists in Shanghai. 23. See Qian and Zheng, Sapshinian Lai, 55: After [Wu Changshuo] became friendly with Yiting, the former would correct the latter's writing, and the latter would bring in art business for him by using his comprador office and the name of the Japanese Riqing Shipping Company to be receiver of Wu Changshuo's paintings.' 24. Wang Geyi Huiyi Lu, 89. 25. See Chen, ChunshenJiwwen, II, 24: 'Whenever people talked about who were the most famous artists [in the city], the answer was always Wu Changshuo and Wang Yiting.' 26. See note 20, Chen Duoxiu's letter. Also Lin Fengmian, in Zhonguo Huihua (Hong Kong, Furang Shufang 1974 reprint of the 1946 edition), 44. Chen Duxiu launched an attack on Chinese traditional art: 'Chinese art has long been separated from the living world. Chinese people have been used to seeing art as something that has nothing to do with them. Therefore, art is art, and life is life. Art expresses neither its time, nor the artist's individuality. It is neither Tart pour Fart," nor Tart pour la vie.'" 27. See Claudia Brown andju-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's Empire (Phoenix, 1 9 9 2 ) , figure 76. One of the intriguing features of this work is that most of the objects depicted in it are in pairs: two buffaloes, two boys, two trees, two geese, and two groves of bamboo. This could be due to the penchant of the Chinese folk tradition for auspicious symbolism, or may simply be due to compositional needs. 28. Photograph of this painting is unavailable. 29. According to the inscription appended to the album, Wang Zhen kept this album for an extended period, writing at the end that 'this album was painted seventeen years ago; no matter whether [it] be an immortal, a Buddhist, a beggar, or a vagrant, so long as it came to my mind I would paint it.' His keeping it for so long indicates that he was fond of it. 109 Satire and Situation Images ofthe Artist in Late NineteenthCentury China RICHARD VINOGRAD The photograph of a Hong Kong Artist at Work (figure i) made sometime between 1868 and 1872 by the Englishman John Thomson offers a documentary glimpse of the role of the artist and of some of the conditions of artistic production within the later nineteenth-century Chinese cultural horizon. 1 There is information within the frame, and also this side of the lens, in the circumstances of the photographic project. The painter is a kind of portraitist-by-proxy himself, specializing in individual and group portraits, along with harbor scenes, and probably working from photographs to produce oil paintings. There are thus several levels of transposition and substitution implicated in the image, from photograph to painting in the case of the artist displayed at work, and back to photograph through the proxy of the camera in the case of the seemingly objective and effortless photographic print: the artist representing, represented artlessly. The seeming candor and artlessness of the photograph are of course open to question. The photograph seems to dispense with the standard apparatus of artistic image construction, part cultural and literary stereotype, part iconographic convention, in favor of an immediate glimpse of the artist's labor, thoroughly deromanticized. In fact, the photograph is the product of complex processes and situations. The project of which this image forms a part can be variously construed as documentary, ethnographic, or touristic, and the situation might be candid or staged. The photograph seems to aim not at an explicit portrait but at something more like a register of professional technique, and the implication of a depersonalized record mirrors the activity of the painter at work, distanced from the ordinary relational encounters of portraitist and portrait subject. The status of the subject as specimen has some implications for the claimed no SATIRE AND SITUATION ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE status of the (unseen) photographer as privileged observer. Whereas the photographer sees, and represents, seemingly effortlessly and comprehensively, the painter labors at a particular replication. There are implications, respectively, of autonomy and subservience, part technologically based and part culturally determined. Although Thomson s photograph is an outsider's vision, technically and presentationally untraditional, and seems to disregard customary narratives of the artist's role and identity, it conveys its own implied narratives of position and production. These bear on both the painter and the photographer and have some affinities with representations of painters that appear in the more culturally central milieu of the nineteenth-century Shanghai art world. The artist is a craftsman first, displaying the tools of his craft, brush and mahlstick, in the act of practice. He is in the business of replication, most likely of photographic images in oils, surrounded by examples of his production specialties and by signs of the commercialization of his craft. He is both subservient to his task of replication, and compliant to the photographer's objectifying vision. As represented here the artist is not unlike the image of the painter as faithful limner presented in Qiu Ying's Spring Morning in the Han Palace handscroll, except that the Hong Kong artist is cut off from any social relationships other than the indirect ties of the marketplace, marked by the surrounding disembodied images of his diverse clientele.2 Thomson's career embodies a submerged narrative of the photographer as a purveyor of images who travels to distant cities to make his way in the world. It is an account echoed closely, and curiously, in the life of RenYi (Bonian, 1840-1895), who moved from his h o m e region of Zhejiang to Suzhou and Shanghai in search of a career.3 Ren's profile Portrait of Gao Yongzhi (figure 2) similarly echoes Thomson's photograph of the Hong Kong painter in its profile presentation of an image of an artist; otherwise, Ren's portrait occupies a distant position on a contemporary grid of mediality, sociality, and cultural space with Thomson's photograph. Ren Yi's 1877 portrait of the twenty-eight year old painter reflects contact with European representational modes but, unlike Thomson's photographic image of the artist from just a few years before, it is less a representation of artistic performance than an exemplification of it. Functionally, it is primarily a birthday picture, but the sociality of the image extends to its production as a collaboration between Ren 112 Figure 2. Ren Yi (1840-1895) and Hu Yuan (1823-1886), Portrait of Gao Yongzhi Beneath a Tree, dated 1877. Shanghai Museum. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 130.9x48.5 cm. ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Yi as portraitist and Hu Yuan (1823-1886) as supplementary painter of setting and scenery. There is a still broader social function for the image as well; it belongs to an extensive series in Ren's oeuvre that documented, and presumably solidified, Ren's relationships with a contemporary community of artists, including images of the painters Hu Yuan, G a o Yong (Gao Yongzhi, 1850-1921), Sha Fu (1831-1906), Zhang Xiong (1803-1886), Ren Xun (1835-1893), Xugu (1823-1896), and Wu Changshuo (1844-1927).4 The signs of Western pictorial impact in the heavy shading of face and robe are counterbalanced and even contradicted by strong traces of dynamic brush-and-ink movements in the rendering of robe contours, pine tree, and rock, whose functions as signs of personal production, rather than reproduction, are at least as crucial as their symbolic import. The need for such assertions of the personal and the social is only increased by the co-presence of Western representational features, and the chief impact of the West in this context may have been as much the stimulation of this kind of reaction as direct influence on representation, although there is substantial evidence of Ren Yi's knowledge of Western pictorial images and techniques and of his practice of preparatory pencil sketches in the Western manner.5 Ren Yi's recorded denunciations of Western moral culture, at any rate, are couched in reactive terms, including a protective citation of traditional Confucian familial and social relationships as valued and threatened.6 If one major axis of concern for images of nineteenth-century artistic roles lay along a contemporary grid - of foreign cultural intrusion and competition with the reproductive technology of photography - another was bound up with historical precedents and paradigms. Some of the issues involved are addressed by the juxtaposition of related images: Ren Yi's Portrait ofWu Changshuo Enjoying the Cool Shade of Banana Palms (figure 3), which seems to correspond in most structural features with a painting of a little more than a century before, Luo Ping's Portrait of Jin Nong's Noon Nap Beneath Banana Palms (figure 4). The images have in common seated figures with bared torsos under banana palms, holding round leaf-fans; Ren Yi's knowledge of Luo Ping's precedent composition is documented in Ren's inscription on another painting.7 There are some parallels as well in the circumstances of the portraits and relationships between artist and portrait 114 SATIRE AND SITUATION subject. Both involve teacher-pupil relationships, though with markedly different dynamics. Luo Ping's portrayal of his teacher maintains, on the surface at least, the more traditional portrait situation, with the senior and prestigious sitter painted by the student who is junior in age and status and subservient in role. Ren Yi's portrait of his slightly younger painting student, Wu Changshuo, reverses those age and role relationships; the status relationships are less clear. Wu Changshuo had a reputation in calligraphic and literary accomplishment that Ren Yi lacked, and some of Ren's recorded comments to Wu indicate an awareness of Wu's higher status and some effort on Ren's part to cultivate or flatter him.8 In fact, the composition of Ren Yi's portrait of Wu Changshuo beneath banana palms is almost exactly matched in an earlier Portrait of Zhang Xiong and in an undated portrait of an unknown subject; thus Ren's image of Wu might be seen as part of a series that functioned as means of cultivating well-known artists and of signaling Ren's relationship to them.9 Our awareness of Ren's repeated uses of this portrait formula alters our sense of its significance and its relationship to its models. Rather than a unique reference to the portrait and the relationship of Jin Nong and Luo Ping, it appears to be a ready pattern, with an aura of multiple, if not mass, production and an implication of professionalism and commercialization. The existence of multiple versions of this painted portrait type brings up the contemporary presence of photographic portraits as a competitive medium, whether or not any specifically photographic qualities or impact can be discerned in the painted portrait. In this light, Ren Yi's portrait images beneath banana palms take on the qualities of a reproducible template. Luo Ping's Portrait of Jin Nong is more complex than appears on the surface. It harbors an implication of surreptitious capture of the master by his follower in an unguarded moment, in ways that call up the complex interdependencies of teacher and student, particularly in the case of a student who ghost-painted for his teacher as did Luo Ping.10 Moreover, the portrayal of relaxation and casual attire carried, even for contemporary viewers, imputations or recollections of Jin Nong's reputation for homoerotic behavior and an aura of impropriety, far less innocuous than the first impression of an image of an artistic demeanor and disregard of formality. 115 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 3. RenYi (1840-1895), Portrait ofWu Changshuo Enjoying the Cool Shade of Banana Palms. Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 129.5 x 58.9 116 cm. SATIRE AND SITUATION 1 m lUiansmM; Figure 4. Luo Ping ( 1 7 3 3 - 1 7 9 9 ) , Portrait of Jin Nong's Noon Nap Beneath Banana Palms, inscription dated 1760. Shanghai Museum. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper. 117 1 * * * ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Thus Ren Yi's Portrait ofWu Changshuo Enjoying the Cool Shade of Banana Palms acquires some of its impact and significance from its positioning against both contemporary photographic practice and historical painting sources, irrespective of the differences in Ren's relationships to those pictorial categories. Connections with photographic images of artists such as Thomson's would presumably have been resisted by Ren along with other Westernizing practices but the status of his portrait of Wu Changshuo as one of a standardized series nonetheless draws it into the context of photographic production and reproduction. Ren Yi's connections to Luo Ping's Portrait of Jin Nong's Noon Nap were more specific and deliberate, but the portrait of Wu Changshuo has a different impact from its model, in part due to its very situation ofbelatedness and dependence on the earlier work, but especially because of its qualities of physicality, verging on gross corporeality. Where Luo Ping's portrait of Jin Nong is reticent, even vaguely apparitional in its evocation of the subject's sleeping, dreaming state, Ren's portrait ofWu has an inescapably fleshy, sensual presence. This mode of presentation distinguishes Ren's portrait both from the less visually assertive eighteenth-century artist portrait and from the seeming effortlessness and disembodied character of photographic production. At the same time, the insistent solidity and corporeality of Ren's work may owe something to the need to compete with the vividness and verisimilitude of photographic portraits. The effect of Ren Yi's presentation of Wu Changshuo is difficult to characterize precisely, in part because it depends so much on the circumstances of the image, in the ways mentioned above and also due to its place in a larger series of portraits of other artist-friends of Ren, and other images of Wu Changshuo in particular. In comparison to Jin Nong's Noon Nap, Ren's Wu Changshuo Enjoying the Shade moves in the direction of satire, or at least a heightening of the satirical elements implicit in that earlier work to a more blatant and inescapable level. Jin Nong's Noon Nap supports an initial reception in terms of the sitter's assumption of a conventional, rustic persona in an environment of relaxed retreat, although the extended implications of the image are if anything subversive of the image of the artist as an exemplar of high-minded refinement. Ren Yi's related portrait of Wu Changshuo seems deliberately to cast the artist in terms of an appetitive, embodied sensuality that distances the image at the outset 118 SATIRE AND SITUATION from most of the conventional associations of cultivated artistic identity in the Chinese portrait tradition. The invocation of Luo Ping's precedent image of Jin Nong thus seems more a matter of parody than paradigm. The outspoken sense of physicality, corporeality, and embodiment that pervades so many nineteenth-century artist portraits, both in imagistic terms and reflected in the contents of accompanying textual inscriptions, is worth some further consideration. By and large, earlier artist portraits rather de-emphasized the body in pictorial terms, with summary treatments of all but the portrait head, sometimes reflecting a technical practice of leaving the painting of heads and bodies of portrait figures to different specialists. Most earlier artist-portraits convey standards of formal harmony of the portrait figure or active enjoyment of the sitter's surroundings, but there are some examples which manifest qualities of bodily tension, distortion, or ungainliness that foreshadow the directions of nineteenth-century portraiture. Chen Hongshou's (1599-1652) self-portraits, with their tense concealment or contortions embodying mental states, or Kuncan's (1612-1675 or earlier) self-image as an alienated, tree-dwelling Chan eccentric, or Luo Ping's image ofJin Nong as an ungainly luohan are prominent, but unusual, cases. 11 Whereas earlier artist-portraits of this type embody deep-seated anxieties and alienations, the late nineteenth-century artists, especially as they are represented by RenYi, are rendered rather as appetitive and discomfited, with accompanying inscriptions often conveying a tone of complaint. The critical thrust of the portraits seems to become reflexively directed at the artist-subjects, more than at the surrounding culture. Some features of that redirection are indicated in the juxtaposition of another pair of portraits, Jin Nong's Self-Portrait of 1760 (figure 5), and another of Ren Yi's images of the artist Gao Yong, Gao Yongzhi as a Calligraphy Beggar (figure 6). Despite the evident similarities between images of standing figures in profile, holding long staffs, the portraits are separated by a wide gulf in presentation and emphasis. Jin Nong's self-portrayal is nearly disembodied, with his long robe outlined by a tentative line, conveying little sense of the body beneath. It is embedded in a textual matrix of art-historical references, so that Jin Nong's present identity is further fragmented in a series of distant historical reflections and comparisons. 12 Gao Yong, on the other hand, is portrayed with an uneasily contained muscular intensity, tightly gripping his staff, 119 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE ****** fitl%% film / ifliil A " if It M aa if*** TVtfl iBj* ^ Figure 5. Jin Nong (1687-1764), Self-Portrait: Walkingwith a Staff, dated 1759. Palace Museum, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. ?» U ir. A? ?? >i ^n 11 aA t it m 120 SATIRE AND SITUATION his tunic billowing with dynamic folds suggestive of the energy beneath, and with the concrete tools of artistic production at his feet. Ren Yi's portrait of Gao Yong as a calligraphy beggar also raises the issue of satire or parody in representation. The 1887 portrait of Gao Yong bears a long inscription by the painter Xugu, added in the same year at the request of artist and subject, which provides some evidence of the contemporary climate of reception for such an image. Moreover, because the text is based on a longer composition written by Xugu for Wu Changshuo, it may offer some broader illumination on questions of tone in portraits of artists as beggars or in otherwise straitened circumstances. The inscription, translated in part, reads: Yongzhi is a Department Magistrate and an excellent man; he is skilled in calligraphy and partial to it, calling himself 'the calligraphy beggar/ He enjoined Ren Bonian to paint a small portrait of him, with his hair like a bramblebush, with rent clothes and raising an open basket in which are stored brushes and inkstones. It conveys an extremely poverty-stricken, cramped and restrained demeanor; seeing it makes one suddenly laugh uncontrollably It's only an entertainment, without having rousing qualities. I also use an entertainment to inscribe it: Tn Wu City the pan-pipe sound is music for a fine day; why so much trouble to study calligraphy and bear calligraphy debts? Calligraphy debts are without respect, and evading them is not easy; everywhere everyone knows the calligraphy beggar. With wild hair and rough clothes he captures the idea of calligraphy; carnal eyes straight forward, not yet willing to sell... Diligently practicing calligraphy day after day is called a disease of immaturity; loving one's own outlined characters, isn't that excessive? Seeing me discuss calligraphy, heart all at once intoxicated; the skill is itching, to take it in the fingers and manipulate [the brush] is like scratching the itch.' 13 Xugu's text suggests that the portrait conception was first a source of entertainment and laughter, and his own poem is likewise a playful entertainment. The most obvious source of humor in the depiction is the contrast with Gao Yong's actual circumstances; Gao was by all accounts a prosperous figure, well connected and with a large art collection.14 His portrayal as a calligraphy beggar may have been satirical on several levels: a parody of artists' traditionally exaggerated 121 ART A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE -Hi* ii A 4 J if** Figure 6. RenYi (1840-1895), Portrait of the Painter Gao Yongzhi (1850-1921) as a Calligraphy Beggar, dated 1887. Palace Museum, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper. 122 SATIRE AND SITUATION Figure 7. RenYi (1840-1895), Portrait of the Hengyun Mountain Man (the painter Hu Yuan) as a Traveling Beggar, dated 1868. Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on paper, 147 x 42 cm. 123 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE complaints about the difficulties of their lot; a reference to Gao Yong's obsession with calligraphy, which verges on an impoverishing addiction, even if a cultural one; and, in a thorough reversal of traditional values, a comment on the contemporary absurdity of one who refuses to sell his artistic product. Each of those subjects of satire had, of course, a more serious counterpart: the relentlessly commercial environment for artistic production in late nineteenthcentury Shanghai; the genuine financial pressures faced by many artists, at least episodically; and the widespread addiction to opium which claimed Ren Yi among its victims. This image had a considerably earlier precedent in Ren Yi's related profile portrait, dated 1868, of his friend and painting collaborator Hu Yuan as a beggar (figure 7). 15 Since Hu was also a prosperous painter well-connected to banking circles in Shanghai, some satirical intent also seems likely, although the early portrait may have reflected some genuine distress having to do with Hu's repeated examination failures. 16 The later beggarportrait, of Gao Yong, moves in the direction of a more pronounced physicality; by the late 1880s, a commitment to art is cast primarily in terms of an appetite. The taste for satire was well-established in the nineteenth-century literary sphere, following the rise of the genre in the previous century.17 Some of the most acute observations of pervasive corruption in late nineteenth-century society appears in the writings of Wu Woyao (1866-1910), whose vignettes of late Qing urban life focus on events in Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, andTianjin around the time of Ren Yi's late career, from the mid 1880s to the late 1890s.18 His stories are populated by officials, scholars, merchants, courtesans, and artists, involved with themes of bribery, swindle, sexual infatuation, and opium addiction. Stories of forgery and venality among artists and art dealers are especially relevant to our understanding of the context of late Qing portraiture, and some artists active in Shanghai are mentioned by name, including RenXiong's son RenYu (1854-1901), and Ren Yi's collaborator Hu Yuan.19 Poorly educated poets who pass themselves off as painters in newspaper advertisements and who farm out paintings to professional artists for profit, sometimes mismatching recycled poems to inappropriate paintings, are one subject of Wu's ridicule.20 This type calls to mind the professional painter of reproductions documented in Thomson's photograph. The predilection 124 SATIRE AND SITUATION of salt-merchant collectors of antiques for damaged works and notable seals, making them easy targets for forgery and fraud, is another subject of satire.21 The high prices paid for portrait paintings in contrast to other genres such as flowers and birds is mentioned in another vignette, shedding some further light on motivations for the popularity of the genre in the nineteenth century. 22 And contemporary artists active in Shanghai are criticized for their notoriously bad character, ranging from the outright chicanery, opium addiction, and boastfulness of the portraitist Ren Yu, to the excessive money-consciousness of Hu Yuan.23 Ren Yi's portrait of Hu Yuan as a beggar dates from a couple of decades before the time Wu Woyao was writing about, but our sense of the sincerity of that pictorial persona is influenced by those later literary characterizations. The case of Hu Yuan points up the importance of situation and circumstance for understanding the tone and significance of imagery. Satire and parody depend on some stable foil - norms of value, morality, and behavior - to play against for full effect. The situation of late nineteenth-century China, and especially of sites of immigration, economic dynamism, and multiculturalism such as Shanghai, offered a rich urban spectacle of diverse social behaviors and mores, but very little stability, and thus satire and ridicule are often double-edged, and often reflexively self-directed. The roles of official, scholar, artist, and merchant had at least a long-term, culturally well-established set of values and expectations attached to them, however, and it is no accident that these types are so important inWuWoyao's satirical vignettes. Some of those roles figure prominently in another of Ren Yi's portraits of Wu Changshuo, his Portrait of the Poverty-Stricken Official of 1888 (figure 8). Wu's poem and introduction on the subject of the painting make it clear that his roles were the occasion for self-ridicule: I sought [Ren] Bonian to depict this portrait image, titling it Portrait of the Poverty-Stricken Official. Wearing a summer hat, clothed in thin silk ceremonial long gown, uprightly standing with hands folded in a bow of greeting, his appearance can be sneered at. Those who are well acquainted with me will all point to it saying: T h i s indeed is Wu Kutie (Changshuo).' I accordingly inscribed a poem to describe its intent, and in order to ridicule myself: 125 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Pl it k * \ A 'f-fr tiitl i j» & ^ A f jit-s*,* * * i vt** a** fib* ^ 7 * ufak ii n n 1 i * < *» « Figure 8. RenYi (1840-1895), Portrait of Wu Changshuo as a Poverty-Stricken Official, dated 1888. Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 164.2 x 77.6 cm. 126 SATIRE AND SITUATION Prominent officials dwell in the official hall; minor government servants walk in the summer heat. Putting on the official's belt, hastening to the outside gate of the yamen (public office and official residence); during the hottest days ofJune, sweat falls like rain. Summoned with a call, only then does one dare enter; mind and spirit are first fainthearted, and stop. Asked to reveal what I have seen; wanting to answer, but afraid of provoking disputes. Self-conscious of my poverty-stricken intellectual's demeanor; fearing to infuriate the great prefectural official. Timorously forced to prevarications; respectfully hang my hands and hunch my body in a bow... In depicting this what was his (Ren Yi's) purpose? He pitied my government-servant's feelings of bitter sorrow... Following the multitude, compel myself to hasten; hang my head and yield to classes and groups... Brushing away dust on the wall and hanging my portrait; drink to it with weak spirits and strained wine. Facing the shadow-image and draining the goblet countless times; immovable - 1 myself am guest and host at once. For the time being make the intoxicated military official look; grasp the cup - you sir, and you!24 Wu Changshuo's poetic self-ridicule, and the related portrait image, are remarkable in being self-instigated. Still more noteworthy is the possibility that the image was, in effect, an imaginative forecasting of indignities and complaints he had not yet experienced as an official, as Shan Guolin's research would suggest.25 In that case, the poem and painting would have involved a kind of double-level satire: self-ridicule of Wu Changshuo's official ambitions, and an exposure of the degraded lot of office-holders in the late Qing. Both poem and portrait painting suggest the gulf between emblem and actuality. Wu is portrayed wearing his emblems of rank uncomfortably and a bit absurdly, and they are described as a sweat-producing burden. The painted portrait embodies a direct counterpart of the poetic self-ridicule, in the self-confrontation with the portrait image hung on the wall described at the end of Wu's poem. This portrayal may have taken, as a point of departure and contrast, another image 127 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 9. Ren Xiong (1823-1857), Self-Portrait. Palace Museum, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 177x79cm. 128 SATIRE AND SITUATION of self-confrontation: Ren Xiong s monumental Self-Portrait (figure 9) from about three decades earlier. Despite the vast differences in tone and impact between the two portraits, they share some unusual structural and presentational features that suggest a possible intended reference to the earlier work. Both portraits are of impressive size, dominated by a purely frontal figure, standing in striking isolation without any indication of setting or background. Both figures clasp their hands in front of their torsos and are shown with feet splayed apart, legs separated by firm vertical folds of cloth. Ren Xiong's confrontation was with his image in a mirror, as noted in his bold inscription, and his self-portrayal is the paradigm of physical embodiment in nineteenth-century portraiture. Despite the angry, muscular presence of his self-portrait, however, the inscription reveals him beset with anxieties and doubts: In the vast world - what lies before my eyes? I smile and bow and go around flattering people [in hope of] extending connections, but aware of what affairs? In the great confusion, what is there to hold on to and rely on? ...What is more pitiful is that even though the mirror [shows] my black eyebrows exchanged [for white] and worldly dust covering my white head, I am still completely like a racing steed without plans. What is even more of a pitiable impediment is that the historians have not recorded even a single, light word about me... [But] who is the ignorant one? Who is the virtuous sage? I already am completely without any idea. In the flash of a glance, all I can see is a boundless void.26 The political and social circumstances that engendered Ren Xiong's anxieties were not unrelated to the sources of Wu Changshuo's dissatisfactions. However, just as Wu Changshuo's frontal figure is pictorially diminished in comparison to Ren Xiong's, pushed farther back in space and smaller in scale, folded in on himself rather than aggressively confronting his uncertainties as does Ren Xiong's selfimage, so Wu's complaints over poverty and discomfort seem diminished in comparison to the scale of Ren Xiong's elemental confusions about his place in the world and in history. If Ren Xiong retained existential uncertainties about his position in the world, Ren Yi seems to have been content with the diminished role he formulated in his portrait images of other artists. Ren Yi's inscription at the lower left of his Three Friends group portrait 129 Jt u m% § it ** A. £ « 5t i A SATIRE AND SITUATION hanging scroll of 1884 (figure 10) records his satisfaction at being invited to join his patrons in the depiction: '[Zhu] Jintang and [Zeng] Fengji, the two sirs, charged me to sketch their portraits, and moreover allowed me to sit among them, calling it The Three Friends - fortunate indeed, fortunate indeed.'27 Ren s rather fawning pleasure at being invited to join his subjects masks a fundamental irony of his situation: the artist is raised to a position of at least conditional social equality with his sitters (albeit with calculations of position and status carefully maintained), but he (and his self-portrait image) also becomes, among the piles of paintings owned by his host, the collector/fan shop owner Zhu Jintang, an object on display, not so different from the array of images for sale and reproduction in the studio of Thomson s artist at work (figure 1). Figure 10. RenYi (1840-1895), Three Friends - Self-Portrait with Zeng Fengji and Zhu Jintang, dated 1884. Palace Museum, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper. 131 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Notes 1. SeeJohnThomson, China and Its People in Early Photographs: An Unabridged Reprint of the Classic 1873-74 (New York, 1982), 1: Plate 4. See also Richard Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits -1600-1900 (New York, 1992), 141-142. 2. See Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self colorplate 4 and pages 15-16 for Qiu Ying's painting. 3. For a recent discussion of Ren Yi's biography, see Hans van der Meyden, T h e Life and Works of Ren Bonian ( 1 8 4 0 - 1 8 9 6 ) : An Attempt to Strip the Artist's Biography of Some Apocryphal Fabrications,' Oriental Art, XXXVIII, number 1 (Spring 1 9 9 2 ) , 2 7 - 4 0 . 4. For reproductions and discussions of several of these portraits, see Vinograd, Boundaries ofthe Self, 1 3 0 - 1 5 5 . 5. See DingXiyuan, Ren Bonian (Shanghai, 1 9 8 9 ) , nianpu,43-44; also the discussion in van der Meyden, T h e Life and Works of Ren Bonian,' 33-34. 6. Discussed and translated in Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's Empire 1796-1911 (Phoenix, 1992), 181-182. 7. See Vinograd, Boundaries ofthe Self, 132. 8. See Vinograd, Boundaries ofthe Self, 132. 9. Reproduced and discussed in Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self 1 3 2 - 1 3 5 , figures 67 and 68. 10. See the extended discussion of this painting in Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self, 9 2 - 1 0 0 . 11. Vinograd, Boundaries ofthe Self, colorplates 6 and 8, and figures 32 and 60. 1 2 . Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self, 1 1 6 - 1 1 8 . 13. Ding, Ren Bonian, nianpu, 82-83. 14. Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, 1 7 9 - 1 8 0 . 15. Vinograd, Boundaries ofthe Self, 1 4 6 - 1 4 9 , figure 78. 1 6 . Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, 1 2 6 - 1 2 8 , 1 7 9 - 1 8 0 . 17. See Timothy C.Wong, Wu Ching-tzu (Boston, 1 9 7 8 ) ; and Margery C. Anneberg, T h e Chinese Novel of the Nineteenth Century and Late Ch'ing Period: A Short Literary and Social History with Special Reference to the Kuan-ch'ang hsien-hsing chx (MA Thesis: University of Washington, 1 9 5 2 ) . 18. Michael Wai-mai Lau, Wu Woyao (1866-1910): AWriter ofFiction ofthe Late Ch'ing Period, (PhD dissertation: Harvard University, 1 9 6 8 ) . 132 SATIRE AND SITUATION 19. See the translation of Wu Woyao's vignettes by Shih Shun Liu, Vignettes from the Late Ch'ing: Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades (Hong Kong, 1975). 20. Liu, Vignettes from the Late Ch'ing, 36. 21. Liu, Vignettes from the Late Ch'ing, 199-201. 22. Liu, Vignettesfrom the Late Ch'ing, 168. 23. Liu, Vignettes from the Late Ch'ing, 168-170. See also Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, 193-194. 24. A Chinese transcription of the poem and inscription appear in Ding, Ren Bonian, nianpu, 91-92. The long poetic inscription visible on the main body of the painting to the viewer s left of the figure of Wu Changshuo is by his and Ren Yi's contemporary Yang Xian (1819-1896). 25. See Shan Guolin and others, editors, Haishang Minghuajia Jingpin Ji (Masterworks of Shanghai School Painters from the Shanghai Museum Collection) (Hong Kong, 1991), 306; for another account of Wu's official service during Ren Yi's lifetime, see van der Meyden, 'The Life and Works of Ren Bonian,' 34. 26. See Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self, 128-130 for a full rendering and discussion of this inscription and portrait. 27. See the text in Ding, Ren Bonian, nianpu, 62; also the discussion in Vinograd, Boundaries ofthe Self 143-144, figure 74. 133 Painters and Publishing in Late Nineteenth-century Shanghai JONATHAN HAY The relationship between the art world of Shanghai and the city's publishing industry during the first two decades of the Guangxu reign, from the mid-i870s to the mid-i890S, is complex enough to deserve several essays. Here, I shall focus on just one of its aspects: the massive involvement of Shanghai-based painters in providing designs for illustrated books closely related to their normal production as painters. These books provide rich material for thematic study, in particular of the late nineteenth-century Chinese representation of metropolitan experience; in this essay, however, while I will make a number of such points in passing, I want to defer thematic interpretation in favor of a preliminary survey of the material and a discussion of underlying issues. Since illustrated books of this period have attracted little scholarly attention, this means classifying the books in question by genre and date and providing information on their contributors and contents. One of the implications of taking seriously the mass of printed images is that it then becomes impossible to treat Shanghai painting adequately without taking into account the contributions of those painters to the publishing industry with its very different economic and social relationships. As I shall try to show later, one can legitimately use the evidence of the books to explore the larger question of the public space of painting in late nineteenth-century Shanghai, and in the process shed light on the role of illustrated books in China's emergent mass culture. As part of this project I will attempt to trace the figure of a specifically Chinese modernity in the painting of the immediate pre-1895 period, a period understudied by historians of modern Chinese culture who, I think it is fair to say, have been more interested in modernity as a movement than as a social condition. I shall return to the question of the public space of Shanghai painters' illustrative work in Section III following the survey of the material in Section II. At the outset it is necessary to say something about the place of images more generally in Shanghai's publishing 134 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I industry during this period, since the upsurge of books illustrated by painters was part of a larger transformation of the role of illustration in the city's visual culture. I IMAGES, MAGAZINES, BOOKS The relationship between artists and publishing has, of course, along history in China. What made the period from the mid-i870s onwards so different from any previous one was the introduction of lithographic printing into China (by 1876), which quickly came to dominate the pictorial component of the publishing industry.1 In contrast to the slow and artisanal technology of woodblock printing, the photo-lithographic process allowed mechanical transfer of the brushed design to the printing surface, permitting the rapid production of an image that was entirely faithful to the artist's original design. As Chao Xun writes in his postface to the 1888 ZengguangMingjiaHuapu (see below): 'In Shanghai, ever since lithographic printing became popular, illustrated books have flourished. Woodblock artisans are no longer indispensable, and it is possible to reproduce [images] down to the last hair. This is truly a happy event in the world!' The new printing technology not only encouraged artists of all kinds to participate in the publishing industry, but also made it possible to incorporate illustration into China's emerging mass culture. We should not assume from this, however, that all illustration was reproduced by lithographic means; woodblock illustration was still a force, perhaps because at its best it created a more intimate, craftsmanlike effect. Lead-plate printed illustrations were found in Western-sponsored publications by the early 1870s, and copperplate printing, with its more precise definition and crisp textural quality, became available to a Chinese public through Japanese expertise, though it did not come into common use until the 1900s. In these new technological circumstances, several distinct systems of image production came to coexist and interact within Shanghai's publishing industry during the two decades following the mid-i870S. Illustrations in Missionary Publications One of the most novel of these was a matter of reproduction rather than production. The facsimile reproduction of Western illustrations at this time belongs, in a broader perspective, to a much longer 135 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE history of the reproduction of foreign illustrations and other images; in decorative and tourist art this goes back to the early eighteenth century, and in religious imagery to the end of the sixteenth. In the late nineteenth century, their sudden influx into print media starting in the 1870s was due in part to the effort by the Chinese state after 1868 to translate technical works, often illustrated, a project concentrated at the Zhizao Ju (Jiangnan Arsenal) in Shanghai.2 To a far greater degree, however, their introduction into the informational environment of Shanghai was a by-product of the educational activities of Christian missionaries. As has been demonstrated and documented by Adrian Bennett, Protestant missionaries not only published several monthly magazines from the 1860s onwards, but engaged in a massive translation of relatively accessible scientific and technical literature which came to fruition in the 1880s and 1890s.3 The bulk of this activity was concentrated in Shanghai.4 It has been suggested that for their illustrations these publications made use of engraved plates donated by foreign publishers, one result of which was that text and illustration did not always match.5 By 1877 there were six Chinese-language periodicals, 6 of which three specifically Shanghai publications regularly carried illustrations: Wanguo Gongbao (The Globe Magazine, 1875-1883 and 1889-1907) which was the successor toJiaohuiXinbao (literally 'Church News/1868-1874), Xiaohai Yuebao (The Child's Paper; 1875-1915, which moved from Guangzhou to Shanghai in 1875, having been founded in 1874)/ and Gezhi Huibian (The Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine, 1876-1877,18791881,1890-1891). Bennett, writing of the JiaohuiXinbao, notes that: In the first two volumes, especially, Allen supplied his readers with pictures of many animals and plants, as well as illustrations of biblical passages. In later volumes, scientific illustrations appeared more frequently on such subjects as the universe, trains, mining techniques, and the physiology of the human body.8 In an 1875 handbill announcing the forthcoming publication of the Gezhi Huibian, its editor, John Fryer, wrote: 'The Magazine will contain as many illustrations and engravings as can be procured/ 9 It also included illustrated advertisements. This list of illustrated missionary publications was extended in 1880 with the establishment of a pictorial magazine using copperplate engraving, TuhuaXinbao (literally T h e Illustrated News,' 1880-1913).10 136 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I Several missionary-established institutions provided a focus for book translation, notably: the Shanghai Polytechnic Institute, established in 1875 as a public library of scientific books; the affiliated publishing house, Tushanwan Yinshuguan; a School and Textbook Committee, which reported in 1886 that 104 Chinese-language books had recently been published under missionary auspices; 1 1 and the Chinese Scientific Book Depot, a bookshop founded in 1884. The 1896 catalog for the bookshop lists 371 books, maps, charts, and globes, including many works translated under the auspices of thejiangnan Arsenal. 12 Of particular interest from an art historical point of view are books and charts on geometry, anatomy, zoology, ornithology, and botany. Three drawing manuals were available: QixiangXianzhen (Engineer's and Machinist's Drawing Book, by Leblanc), LunHua Qianshuo (First Lessons in Drawing), and HuaxingTushuo, 1885 (Aids to Model Drawing, by F. Calmady Richardson).13 The 1894 catalog of Fryer's publications includes three other drawing manuals: HuatuXuzhi (listed as 'Engineering Drawing'), XihuaXuzhi (listed as 'Drawing and Sketching'), Xihua Chnxue (listed as 'The Art of Drawing and Sketching'), of which the last brought together a series of articles originally published in the magazine Gezhi Huibian.14 Similar articles appeared in the Xiaohai Yuebao.These publications complemented the drawing classes offered by the Shanghai Polytechnic Institute, taught by Liu Bizhen. Journalistic Illustration A second system of image production grew up around the journalistic representation of material life and contemporary events. The first true pictorial magazine (huabao) that focused upon images was an innovation of this same period, a purely commercial magazine published by Ernest Major as an offshoot of his Shanghai newspaper, Shenbao (established 1872). Entitled Yinghuan Huabao (literally'Wide World Illustrated News'), it appeared irregularly for only five issues between 1877 and 1880 and was essentially the work of British illustrators in Britain. Chinese captions were added in Shanghai. 15 Chinese artists seem not to have become involved in journalistic illustration until 1884 and the founding of the celebrated pictorial magazine, Dianshi Zhai Huabao, produced using photo-lithography as a supplement to Shenbao (over 4,000 images between 1884 and 1898). Contemporary Chinese and foreign life became the objects of intensive journalistic representation at the hands of a team of specialist illustrators recruited 137 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE for the purpose, of whom Wujiayou (died 1893), better known as Wu Youru, was probably the first and certainly the most important.16 Characteristically, these artists adopted elements of Western pictorial technologies as part of a hybrid, up to date representational mode. The magazine thus added a new chapter to the long history of Sino-Western art in which Chinese and Western traditions of representation were combined to create distinctive hybrid forms for both domestic consumption and export. Dianshi Zhai Huabao also followed the example of the earlier missionary-established illustrated magazines in including from time to time reproductions and adaptations of illustrations from Western publications. 17 Moreover, there were additional inclusions of 'paintings' and illustrated stories (on which more below) that gave the magazine a complex visual character. As an extension of his newspaper enterprise, Major had gone on to found one specialist publishing house and bookshop called the Dianshi Zhai Lithographic Publishing Works (Dianshi Zhai Shuju or Dianshi Zhai Shuhua Shi, established in 1876),18 and another, also specializing photo-lithographic publishing, called the Shenchang Shuju or Shenchang Shuhua Shi.19 He also acquired, in 1884, a Chinese photo-lithographic publishing house, Tongwen Shuju, which specialized in re-editions of rare old works, some of them illustrated. The illustrators serving these various enterprises likely began for the most part as artisan painters (huagong), and came from a variety of places.20 Three of the best-known, Wu Youru, Zhang Qi (Zhang Zhiying, Wu's early mentor),21 and Jin Gui, came from Suzhou in which theTaohua Wu area of the city had two long traditions, both of which are relevant here: the design of New Year's prints and the production of hack and fake paintings in the Tang Yin/ Qiu Ying figure tradition.22 However, he and the others probably gained their knowledge of Western drawing processes either through the Shanghai Polytechnic Institute or through the missionary-sponsored publications mentioned earlier. The first, unsuccessful rival to the Dianshi Zhai Huabao was the lithographed Cilin Huabao (literally 'Pictorial of the Grove of BellesLettres') of which a few issues were published in 1888.23 More successfully, in 1890 Wu Youru left Dianshi Zhai to set up his own pictorial magazine, Feiying Ge Huabao which, although it was published by a different publisher (Hongbao Zhai), was nonetheless sold through the Shenbao distribution network. This magazine began by following the Dianshi Zhai Huabao model very closely, with seven out of ten pages 138 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I devoted to news illustration. On the other pages he introduced three ongoing series of images: contemporary Shanghai women, legendary and fictional women, and animals. After one hundred issues, in 1893 Wu handed the magazine over to a former fellow Dianshi Zhai artist, Z h o u Quan (Zhou Muqiao), under the new name of Vdying Ge Tuji Huabao. Under Zhou's regime, the number of pages was expanded to twelve, of which half were devoted to traditional figure subjects and the other half to news illustration. Three additional separate sheets were included as a free gift, one illustrating a novel, a second providing a sequel to the seventeenth century WushuangPus illustrations of historical figures, and a third representing contemporary women. Wu Youru, for his part, established a new magazine entitled Feiying Ge Huace, in which he dispensed with all news illustration and images of contemporary women to concentrate on painters' traditional figure subjects. However, his death later in 1893 brought an end to the publication. Zhou Quan, meanwhile, after producing Feiying Ge Tuji Huabao for a year, followed Wu Youru's example and in 1894 changed its name to Feiying Ge Tuji Huace, at the same time eliminating its j ournalistic component. 24 The move back toward painting by both artists was probably also a calculated move to claim the higher social status of a successful painter by distancing themselves from the more functional work of journalistic illustration. Given the book publishing enterprise associated with Dianshi Zhai, it was only natural that once the magazine illustrators were in place the publisher would draw upon them for the illustration of books with a similarly journalistic character. One of the first priorities was the representation of the more famous Shanghai sights. Thus, in the same year, 1884, that saw the founding of Dianshi Zhai Huabao, Dianshi Zhai published Shenjiang Shengjing Tu (Illustrations of the Famous Sights of Shanghai).25 Many of the subjects of the sixty outstanding images by Wu Youru are also found in a woodblock-printed work by another publisher, Shenjiang Mingsheng Tushuo (Illustrated Notes on Shanghai Sights), also from i884.26The forty-two illustrations by an unknown artist in the latter publication, printed in red, depict the most up to date exoticisms of the metropolis, from photography to rickshaws, with an economic lyricism. However, these two 1884 books were not, strictly speaking, the first illustrated guides to contemporary Shanghai sites and life. Ge Yuanxu's general guidebook, Huyou Zaji (1876, second edition 1878), already contained a series of 139 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE woodblock depictions of the flags of different nations, and for its 1878 translation into Japanese was furnished with a frontispiece landscape illustration by a Japanese artist active in Shanghai, Yasuda Rozan. 27 T h e representations of current events in Dianshi Zhai Huabao, Feiying Ge Huabao and Feiying Ge Tuji Huabao also have their equivalent in b o o k illustration. Typical of the genre is an account of the suppression of theTaiping Rebellion published by Wenchao Guan. Entitled Dangping Fani Tuji (Illustrated Record of the Suppression of the Long-haired Rebels), it contains twenty-four illustrations by an unidentified illustrator and includes a preface which discusses the social function and dangers of illustration. 28 Illustrations to Fictional Texts The conjunction of the late nineteenth-century explosion of middlebrow fiction and the introduction of lithographic printing (the two being closely related) led to the renewal and even modernization of one long-standing system of printed image production. It had long been a practice of publishers of novels and plays to include illustrations, but the days of the late Ming and early Qing when they did not hesitate to include large sets of illustrations were long gone. By the nineteenth century, the broadening of the audience for the printed versions of novels and related fictional texts had led to the emergence of cheaper woodblock-printed editions for which elaborate illustrations were a dispensable luxury. The common practice was to include, at the beginning of the novel or play, nothing more than a series of more or less schematic portraits of the principal characters, justifying the addition of the term xiuxiang to the title. This all changed, however, with the advent of photo-lithography which encouraged a return to the illustration of the text in addition to, or instead of, the introductory portraits, just when the market for novels and plays was entering a new stage of expansion. In the wake of Major's entry into lithographic publishing, a number of publishing houses using the new technology appeared in the 1880s and early 1890s, i n c l u d i n g T o n g w e n Shuju (established 1881), H o n g w e n Shuju (established 1882), Feiying Guan (established 1887), Baishi Shanfang, Jishi Shuju, Hongbao Zhai Shuju, and so on. Even the venerable Saoye S h a n f a n g developed a lithographic division.29 From the later 1880s onwards, in books whose pictorial component was announced by the addition of terms such as huitu, tuhui, quantu, xiuxiang, zengxiang, or buxiang to the title, densely 140 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I detailed illustrations became common under a number of forms. While they are sometimes grouped together at the beginning of the first volume, they may also be grouped together at intervals in the text or interspersed throughout the text on separate pages. As one might expect, the Dianshi Zhai illustrators were well placed to take advantage of the new demand. In one case a work of contemporary fiction was initially serialized in illustrated form in Dianshi Zhai Huabao: WangTao s SongyinManlu, illustrated by Wu Youru (figure i). The complete book was later published as Xinyin Suben SongyingManlu Tushuo (A New Reduced-size Illustrated Edition of SongyingManlu).30 Wu Youru also supplied the illustrations for Huitu Hou Liaozhai Zhiyi (An Illustrated Sequel to Liaozhai's Records of the Strange; publisher: Jishan Ju) which by 1896 was already in its fifth printing.31 However, there was no question of the Dianshi Zhai artists monopolizing fiction illustration, since the genres favored by the professional painters of the day included modes of narrative and landscape representation that could also be adapted to illustrative purposes. Thus, the illustrations to Zengxiang Sanguo Quantu Yanyi (Complete Illustrated Sanguo Yanyi with Additional Portraits; publisher: Saoye Shanfang, 1894) are the work of a highly accomplished follower of Qian Hui an.32 Similarly, the 1892 Zengping Quantu XihuJiahua (Complete Illustrated Anecdotes of the West Lake with Additional Comments; publisher: Wenxuanju) has images by a painter close to Ren Yi and Hu Gongshou; another edition of the same text (Xihu Jiahua; publisher: Yunji Shuju, 1892) boasts as its frontispiece eighteen views of the West Lake by a follower of the leading Zhejiang landscapist, Yang Borun. Advertising Imagery It was also in the 1870s that advertising entered the visual culture of Shanghai, eventually constituting a separate and major system of image production. GezhiHuibian was one missionary-established magazine to carry advertisements, while Shenbao included advertisements with simple visual imagery. From 1884 on, Major additionally tried to draw upon his house artists to make advertisements a regular feature of Dianshi Zhai Huabao. The call for advertisements required information to be sent in just ten days ahead of time, and sought to attract advertisers with the promise of reaching an audience that would not spend time reading but would be attracted by the magazine's pictures.33 The early pages of advertisements, from the mid-i88os, juxtapose images 141 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 1. Wu Youru, illustration to WangTao's story, 'Xu Huixian' from the series Songying Manlu. From Dianshi Zhai Huabao 43 (1885). 142 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I of machines (water pumps, lithographic printing presses) copied from Western publications with depictions by the Dianshi Zhai illustrators of business premises whose products or services were being advertised. In these latter advertisements one largely sees publishing concerns, bookshops, and the paper and fan shops in which paintings were sold (figure 2). As Yu Yueting has pointed out, these advertisements were often for different parts of the Shenbao publishing empire.34 We might also include here, as a form of advertising, the calendars that Shenbao began to distribute free to subcribers in 1885, and which in that year were illustrated with opera scenes,'all the work of famous artists/35 II SHANGHAI ART BOOKS AND THEIR IMAGES, 1875-1895 Although the above systems of image production differ functionally and aesthetically from the art book illustrations to be examined below, I have discussed them at some length because they need to be borne in mind as constituting collectively the silent term against which the system that is the focus of this essay took on meaning. This system consists of printed images that adhered closely to the normal practice of painters, both in their subjects and their aesthetic. Indeed, in this case the artists involved were either practising painters, for whom illustration was simply a useful extension of their normal activity, or illustrators affirming a separate identity for themselves as painters. This corresponded precisely to the needs of the publishing industry which in this domain was seeking to provide paintings in printed form, taking advantage of the reproductive potential of the lithographic process, usually, to produce what I shall call, for lack of a better term, art books/ Ideally the artists were to be presented and perceived as painters rather than as specialist illustrators. The thirty or so art books from the period of about 1875 to 1895 that I will introduce here (undoubtedly more remain to be identified) include thousands of images by more than ninety contemporary artists.36 In the face of this daunting mass of material, the relationship of image to text offers a pragmatic means of categorization, beginning with a distinction between: a) books in which illustrations and text are of comparable importance. These tend to be books of pictures on a specific subject with accompanying commentary (.xiangzhuan, xiangzan, tuji, tushuo, hua- zhuan, and so on), and 143 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE « t J i t t t t - f i t - I M f A . t i 4r • ! & A - « # * « if— 14 t 4 . i/L ^ jfc. f t 4 t 4 tfft 4t is 4ft t 1$ Ji M. € & • f t i * £ # £ * % 1- £ * m. 4- f Figure 2. Jin Gui, 1889 Dianshi Zhai Huabao advertisement for the JiuhuaTang letter paper and fan shop. From the 1983 Guangdong Renmin Chubanshe reprint, 16/73b. 144 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I b) books in which the textual component is secondary to the illustrations, the images themselves providing the raison d'etre of the publication. These books are generically termed huapu (or huazhuan in an old meaning), literally, painting manuals. They were sometimes the work of a single artist and sometimes the result of a collaboration of many artists. As the differences in terminology suggest, this is by no means a purely formal taxonomy but correlates with different publishing genres as these can be traced in late nineteenth-century Shanghai. Refining this schema slightly, the art books fall into three relatively well-defined genres which come together not only through formal similarities but also through intertextual references: books of pictures with accompanying commentary, single-artist huapu, and collaborative huapu. In practice the art books were the result of a collaboration between painters, calligraphers and writers, with writers often doubling as calligraphers. For reasons of space, however, the presentation that follows is restricted to the painters' role in each publication. Consequently it has to leave almost entirely out of consideration the problems of image-text relationships and of collaboration among professionals of different kinds. The focus, in other words, is not on the art books themselves in all their complexity, but on the production of images for one particular publishing context. Books of Pictures with Accompanying Commentary As had traditionally been the case, books of pictures with corresponding texts in this period almost always concentrated on a single theme. It is hard to discern a pattern to the themes chosen beyond the fact that they almost always focused on the human figure. One can appropriately begin by noting the woodblock reprint of about 1877, with a new preface by Sha Fu (1831-1906), a leading Suzhou painter, of Gaoshi Zhuan Tuxiang (Illustrated Biographies of Hermits) - a book first printed in Suzhou in 1857 with illustrations by the Xiaoshan artist, Ren Xiong (1823-1857). This was one of four books, designed by Ren Xiong in the 1850s, which anticipate later the Shanghai practice of artist involvement in book production in much the same way that Ren Xiong's practice as a painter was a seminal influence on Shanghai painting.37 The connection can be seen in direct form in a publication of 1879, whenTongwen Shuju reprinted another of Ren Xiong's four 145 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE books, the Jianxia Xiangzhuan, but added to Ren's thirty-three pictures an additional thirty-nine new images by a different artist under the n a m e X u Jianxia Xiangzhuan.38 In the mid-i88os a third of Ren Xiong's books, Yu Yue Xianxian Xiangzan (Illustrated Biographies of Former Worthies of Zhejiang) was being offered for sale in a lithographic reprinting by Dianshi Zhai. 39 The year 1886 saw the publication of a lithograph-printed edition by Tongwen Shuju, of all four of Ren Xiong's books under the title Ren Weichang Xiansheng Huazhuan Sizhong (Master Ren Weichang's Four Sets of Illustrated Biographies). Not only did this incorporate the 1879 additions to the Jianxia Xiangzhuan but now the uncompleted Gaoshi Zhuan Tuxiang was expanded to ninety images by an unidentified illustrator.40 This edition of Ren's books is also notable for the alterations made to some of Ren's own illustrations. As first published, these had depended for their effect on the large expanses of space left blank within the frame, but in the 1886 edition the space is almost completely filled by a calligraphed version of the biographical text that had originally been kept separate in printed form. 41 While this change has been decried as a defacement of Ren Xiong's design, it can be considered more positively as a reappropriation, in which the striking feature is the almost compulsive fusion of image and text, instruction and entertainment. Several new works of this kind appeared during the 1880s. In 1881 the Wuxi artist Pan Jin furnished the designs for a woodblock-printed book of portraits of characters from The Tale of the Three Kingdoms, entitled Sanguo Huaxiang, apparently published in Guangdong (Tongyin Guan).42 In 1882, responding to the success of an 1879 Zhejiang art book, Honglou MengTuyong (Illustrations with Poems to The Dream of the Red Chamber), based on an album of paintings by Gai Qi (1744-1829), the Dianshi Zhai (Shenchang Shuhua Shi?) publishing house brought out a sequel using the designs of an artist from Jiangyin to the north of Suzhou, WangYijie. Wang's book, entitled Zengke Honglou Meng Tuyong (Expanded Illustrations with Poems to The Dream of the Red Chamber), included 120 portraits instead of the original fifty.43 Again, there are texts on the pages facing the images. Wang Yijie's sequel seems also to have been successful, giving rise the following year, 1883, to a companion work depicting 160 male and female figures from history, also published by Dianshi Zhai's Shenchang Shuhua Shi. Entitled Yiixiu Tang Huazhuan (Illustrated Biographies from the Hall of Nurtured Elegance), the book maintained the format of pictures with a 146 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I Figure 3. Wang Yyie, SelfPortrait, from Yiixiu Tang Huazhuan (1883), juan 3. 147 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE facing text. Wang Yijie included an unannounced self-portrait on the final page of the third juan (figure 3). One of the striking features of this book is its close relationship to the books designed by Ren Xiong thirty years earlier; many of the images rework Ren Xiong s designs, keeping the basic ideas but giving them new forms. The self-affirmative demonstration of skill takes Wang s work far beyond any simple visual plagiarism, turning the reworked images into a homage to Ren Xiong. Another intertextual reference was introduced by the inclusion of a preface by Pan Jin, designer of the 1881 Sanguo Huaxiang. Even more obvious was the reference in the title to an eighteenth-century work of the same kind, Shangguan Zhou's Wanxiao Tang Huazhuan, which was reprinted by Dianshi Zhai around the same time.44 Ren Xiong's younger brother, Ren Xun, made his own contribution to the genre the following year, 1887, with Lidai Mingjiang Tu (Pictures of Famous Generals of History), published by Dianshi Zhai, a work comprising one hundred pictures, each accompanied by biography and commentary.45 The military theme reflects nationalist preoccupations in the wake of China's defeat in the Sino-French war of 1884. Aside from warriors, historical figures and fictional characters, the other main subject of books of pictures with accompanying commentary was women, as seen in the various contributions to the subgenre of baimei (hundredbeauties) depictions. Thus in 1887, the Suzhou artist Qiu Shouyan designed a work called Xinzeng Baimei Tushuo (One Hundred Commented Pictures of Beautiful Ladies), which is clearly modelled on the two eighteenth-century works, BaimeiXinyong (New Encomia to One Hundred Beautiful Ladies, 1755) and Lidai Mingyuan Shici (Poems to Famous Elegant Beauties of History, 1773, reprinted by Dianshi Zhai in this period under the title Lidai Mingyuan Tu).46 Qiu Shouyan's book was no doubt the model for the one hundred beauties that Wu Youru depicted between 1890 and 1893 over the same number of issues of the Feiying Ge Huabao under the title Guiyan Huibian.47 There were also more radically updated versions of this same baimei genre. In 1887, another branch of the Shenbao publishing empire, Wenchao Guan, published an ostensibly journalistic set of fifty portraits of contemporary courtesans, entitled JingyingXiaosheng (Mirror Reflections and Sounds of Flutes). The portraits were accompanied on the facing pages by encomia written by, for the most part, Suzhou literati in a variety of scripts. This book was technically and commercially unusual in that it was printed by the copperplate method 148 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I in Tokyo; this accounts for the sharpness of definition essential to its luxurious decorative character. The illustrations were by the Zhejiang artist Xu Genglang, a minor follower of the highly influential Zhejiang figure painter, Fei Danxu (1801-1850).48 It only took five years for another publisher, Huayu Xiao Zhuju, to take advantage of photo-lithography to produce an updated version ofJingying Xiaosheng under the less elegant title of Haishang Qinglou Tuji (Annotated Pictures from the Pleasure Houses of Shanghai, 1892). In this smaller-format and presumably cheaper work, Xu Beisheng's original fifty portraits (which are now associated with different names and biographies) are interspersed with fifty new ones attributed to the otherwise unknown 'Master of the Qin Garden, from Siming' (Mt Siming, in Zhejiang). A second, expanded edition of Haishang Qinglou Tuji was published in 1895. The additional illustrations in both editions were also pirated, in this case from Wu Youru's one hundred images of contemporary women that had recently been published in Feiying Ge Huabao under the collective title Huzhuang Shinu:49 Wu's successor, Zhou Quan, also contributed to this genre in the form of a giveaway with each issue of Feiying Ge Tuji Huabao under the title Shizhuang Shinu. Single-artist Huapu (Painting Manuals) Single-artist huapu have a long history, going back to the Song dynasty, and were sporadically produced all the way through to our period. Only two earlier nineteenth-century publications need be mentioned here, however, as direct antecedents of the Shanghai examples. One is Liu Yin s 1838 WuxiangTingHuagao (Draft Sketches from theWuxiang Pavilion) which uses the term huagao in its title, thus making a connection between the landscape illustrations and the secrets of the studio that will be discussed below; Liu Yin, from Ningxiang in Hunan, served as a court painter. The second is Zheng Ji's MenghuanJu Huaxue Jianming (Explanations of the Study of Painting by the Recluse Menghuan). Published in Guangzhou during theTongzhi period (18621874) in five juan, it anticipates the Shanghai interest in self-promotion disguised as instruction. The earliest example of a Shanghai single-artist huapu known to me is a very fine woodblock-printed book of pictures of miscellaneous subjects entitled Renzhai Huasheng (The Painting Achievements of Renzhai), Renzhai being an artist from the Ningbo area of northern Zhejiang by the name of Chen Yunsheng (1820-1884). Originally pub149 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 4. C h e n Yunsheng, Winter Landscape, f r o m Renzhai Huasheng 150 (1878), 2/15. PAINTERS AND P U B L I S H I N G IN S H A N G H A I lished by Fugu Huanshe, the first edition of this work comprises four volumes of 160 images in all; it bears a frontispiece dated 1876, several prefaces dated 1877, and a title slip dated 1878 (figure 4). The preface writers include suchjiangsu painters as Hu Yuan (1823-1886) from Songjiang, W u T a o (1840-1895) from Jiaxing, and the young Huang Shanshou (1855-1919) fromWujin. RenYi (1840-1896) from Shanyin (Shaoxing) in Zhejiang, already recognized as the preeminent portraitist of Shanghai, contributed a superb likeness of the artist.50 Other such printed portraits by RenYi must exist, since, according to his contemporary, Zhang Mingke (1828-1908), RenYi was in great demand for frontispiece portraits for the publications of writers.51 Chen Yunsheng s book was soon pirated by a Japanese publisher who undercut the price of the original edition, to the despair of the artist.52 It may also have been quickly reprinted in a lithographic edition, since it is advertised in a Dianshi Zhai price-list of the mid-i88os.53 In the wake of Chen Yunsheng, an artist from Nanjing, Wang Yin, published a series of five woodblock-printed painting manuals devoted to specific genres. These books, however, were published, not in Shanghai, but in Osaka (though they were sold in Shanghai as well as Japan).54 While based in Shanghai in the 1870s, Wang Yin had found a market among Japanese customers, which led to an invitation to visit Japan, and ultimately, since he was highly appreciated, to a decision to base himself there. An apparently lucrative arrangement led to his design of Yemei Shipu (Paintings of Rocks by Yemei, 1881), Yemei Lanzhu Pu (Orchids and Bamboo by Yemei, 1882), and, according to various sources, Yemei Renwu Pu (Figures by Yemei).55 A fourth manual devoted to plum blossoms, Yemei Meipu, did not follow until 1891; it was printed in Shanghai.56 All but the figure manual were reprinted together in China at a later date by a Hefei publisher. Along with these single-genre huapu, however, Wang Yin also produced one huapu of a very different kind, in which he included his scaled-down versions of 116 Chinese paintings from collections in the Kyoto-Osaka region. The book was printed in Osaka in 1883 under the title Yemei Huapu: LidaiMinggongZhenji Suoben, but again was sold in Shanghai as well as Japan.57 During the 1880s, several other artists joined Chen Yunsheng and Wang Yin in designing their own huapu selections. In 1885, a gifted painter from Haining in Zhejiang, MaTao, designed two volumes of illustrations to poems entitled, respectively, Shi ZhongHua (Paintings in Poems; figure 5) and TingyunXiaoxie Huasheng.58 M a T a o is also 151 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE -t- Figure 5. MaTao, Figures Looking at the Moon's Reflection,fromShi Zhong Hua, Rongbao Zhai 1986 reprint, original edition 1885. 152 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I reported to have produced another huapu known under the title Jingjiang Huapu, probably published some time in the 1880s.59 Chou Ju-hsi has noted that Ren Xun produced a huapu devoted to arhats, Shiliu Luohan Yingzhen Tu Huapu (Painting Manual of Pictures of the Sixteen Arhats) printed not in Shanghai but in Xiaoshan.60 Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian notes the publication, in 1886, of a manual by one of Ren Yi's students, Yu Li (1862-1922, from Shanyin), entitled TingyuLou Huapu (Manual from the Pavilion for Listening to the Rain).61 Ren Yi's own work was made available to the general public in 1887 through a woodblock-printed (?) huapu entitled Ren Bonian Xiansheng Zhenji Huapu (Manual of Genuine Paintings by Master Ren Bonian), published by a certain Hu Weidan who owned the paintings. Fan formats predominate in the 100 images, but in keeping with its title, the manual represents every aspect of Ren Yi's work with the exception of portraiture.62 Two years later, in 1889, Xiuwen Shuju published a very fine lithographic edition of the work of Yu Li under the title Shanyin Yushi Huagao (Draft Sketches by Master Yu of Shanyin). 63 Unlike Ren Yi's huapu, which faithfully reproduces a variety of painting formats, the designs in Yu Li's manual were produced specifically for the book to standard dimensions (figure 6).64 The best-known huapu of all, however, was a new, lithographic edition of the landscape volume of the Jiezi Yuan Huazhuan (Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, 1679) published in 1888 on the basis of designs apparently produced by a student of the Jiaxing artist Zhang Xiong (1803-1886), Chao Xun (1852-1917), also a native of Jiaxing. Through its numerous later reprints, this has become the version of the manual with which most people are familiar today. The 1888 designs are rather free copies of the original ones by Wang Gai and have their own distinctive late nineteenth-century character, reflective of the style of Zhang Xiong. 65 Curiously, Haishang Molin mentions another edition from the 1880s, this too instigated by Zhang Xiong. According to this account, Zhang Xiong entrusted the project to another of his students named Z h o u Yong, who completed the more than four hundred designs in less than three months, only to die shortly after at the age of twenty-eight, having exhausted himself. The book was printed by Zhang Yi who, like Zhang Xiong, was from Jiaxing.66 The entry on Zhou Yong in Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian also mentions this edition, comparing it favorably with the Chao Xun-designed version.67 153 A R T A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I Finally, there can be little doubt that in giving up Feiying Ge Huabao in favor of the non-journalistic Feiying Ge Huace, Wu Youru was selfconsciously entering huapu territory.68 Indeed, a number of the printed compositions are also known in painted versions.69 Zhou Quans Feiying Ge Tuji Huace must similarly have had the character of a serialized huapu. Collaborative Huapu (Painting Manuals) It was through collaborative huapu that Shanghai painters (distinct from illustrators) were most thoroughly implicated in book production. As in the other two genres, the pioneering examples date from the later 1870s. The 1879 Hudie Qiu Zhai Suocang Huace (An Album of Paintings in the Collection of the Master of the Butterfly Autumn Studio) includes works by both ancient and modern artists. Among the latter were such prominent Shanghai artists as HuYuan, Qian Huf an (1833-1911, from Shanghai), Zhang Xiong, RenYi, Yang Borun (1837-1911, from Jiaxing), Zhu Cheng (1826-1899/1900, from Jiaxing), Wang Li (1813-1879 or 1817-1885), Ren Xun (1835-1893, from Xiaoshan), Sha Fu, Hu Zhang (1848-1899, fromTongcheng in Anhui) and MaTao.70 The Master of the Butterfly Autumn Studio was a government official by the name of Tang Guangzhao. According to Haishang Molin (1920), Tang served in the Jiangsu region, at one point as magistrate of Nanjing, and was a skilled calligrapher in his own right. In the tradition of natives of Shexian in Anhui, he was a keen collector, accumulating a very large collection of calligraphy and painting.71 Although I have not been able to establish details of a second collaborative publication of the late 1870s, Shanghai Mingjia Huaniao Huagao (Flower-and-Bird Sketches by Famous Shanghai Artists),72 for the more ambitious Haishang Mingren Huagao (Sketches by Famous Shanghai Artists) published in a lithograph-printed edition by the Tongwen Shuju, about 1885, nine artists contributed one hundred images. 73 There were rocks from Z h a n g Xiong, figures from Qian Hui'an, figures and animals from Ren Xun, landscapes from Yang Borun, rocks, bamboo, and so forth from HuYuan (figure 7), and a diverse range of flowers and plants, birds, animals, and figures from Xu Xiang (from Shanghai). The roster of famous masters also includes the native Shanghai figure painter Shen Zhaohan (Shen Xinhai), a leading student of Qian Hui'an who had one of the several fan shops in the famous Yu Garden (Shf er Loujianshan Si). Deng Qichang from Nanjing contributed the chrysanthemums for which he was well155 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 7. Hu Yuan, Bamboo and Rock, from HaishangMingjiaHuagao (about 1886). 156 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I known,74 while orchids were supplied by a Suzhou painter, Zhou Jun, whose speciality they were. Presumably this book circulated in Japan as well, because one year later, in 1886, two of the designs by Shen Zhaohan were illustrated in a Tokyo art journal. Alongside these large-scale publications, there were also smaller ones such as the 1886 woodblock-printed Xihu Shiba JingTu (Eighteen Views of the West Lake) with landscapes by Yang Borun and flowers by RenYi, published by Yujing Tang. One collaborative huapu appeared not as a book, but in serialized form in the Dianshi Zhai Huabao, starting with the thirty-first issue in 1885. An announcement in Shenbao explained:75 In the two regions around Suzhou and Hangzhou famous painters are numerous. We have commissioned Messrs Ren Bonian (Ren Yi) (figure 8), Ren Fuchang (RenXun), Sha Shanchun (Sha Fu), and Guan Qu'an76 to paint, in advance, careful depictions of figures, flowers and plants, and birds and animals.77 For next month's second issue, the thirty-first issue of the journal, we are preparing to add two pictures to the front of the issue, without any caption, and afterwards will give [further pictures] away in each issue. In addition, the double page will not be cut, so that they can be separated to preserve the different achievements of the various artists, or kept together as a pair. In the future, once they accumulate it will be possible to mount them as an album: not only will those who want to do copies be able to treat them as a painting manual (huapu), but they will brighten your windows and purify your table - to enjoy the whole set will be the height of appreciation for the elegant man. Will you gentlemen give me leave in this? Although this giveaway huapu remains to be reconstructed, it is not unlikely that some of its images were incorporated into the huge collaborative manual that Dianshi Zhai published around the same time (1885-1886).78 A book of small dimensions but many pages, Dianshi Zhai Conghua (Collected Paintings of the Dianshi Zhai), is a gladbag assortment of images by Chinese painters old, recent, and contemporary, alongside others reprinted from Japanese illustrated books, in addition to illustrated books (both Chinese and Japanese) reprinted in their entirety. Although I have not seen any examples, much of the material had apparently already been published separately by Dianshi Zhai.To quote the preface: 'In recent years our press has printed more 157 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 8. RenYi, Han Xin Being Fed by the Washerwoman, from Dianshi Zhai Huabao 43 (1885). 158 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I than six hundred paintings of all kinds, and all that scattered material is here brought together. But there is scarcely a shortage of famous painters in this country, so we have also gathered a number of their images/There were, in fact, contributions from more than thirty contemporary artists, grouped by genre.79 One of the illustrators, Fu Jie, played a particularly important role in the publication, adding inscriptions to many of the Japanese images and supplying the calligraphed postface explaining the project. It was undoubtedly the accumulation of collaborative huapu through the late 1870s and 1880s that led the publisher (Hongwen Shuju) and editors of the 1888 version of theJiezi Yuan Huazhuan (Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting) to commission designs from a wide range of artists active in and around Shanghai for supplementary sections featuring the work of contemporary painters. These sections were each entitled Zengguang Mingjia Huapu. A great many artists participated, confirming Huang Shiquan s 1883 statement that The calligraphers and painters from different provinces who have gained a reputation from their art in Shanghai number upwards of a hundred at least/80 One of the notable features of the list of names is the large number of students and followers of a few leading masters: Zhang Xiong, Hu Yuan, Ren Yi, Zhu Cheng, and Qian Hui'an. Not unlike Dianshi Zhai Conghua, separate sections were devoted to landscape (one juan) (figure 9), and birds, animals, flowers and plants (two juan).81 It was not until 1897, however, that the final part of the reworked Jiezi Yuan Huazhuan, devoted to figure painting, was printed. It, too, included a one-juan appended selection of contemporary 'paintings' under the name Zengguang Mingjia Huapu:82 However, in another example of the many dating problems surrounding illustrated books of this period, a number of the images included are also known from a publication with an 1893 preface, Mingjia Shinu Huapu (Manual of Women by Famous Masters). Once again, the relationship between the two publications involved remains to be clarified. It is worth noting that in contrast to the roster of contributors to Dianshi Zhai Conghua, published at the home of specialist lithographic illustration, not one of the contributors to the Zengguang Mingjia Huapu belonged to the world of the specialist lithographic illustrators. Huapu Caixin (A New Painting Manual Selection), which I have only seen in a 1903 lithograph-printed edition put out by the Hongwen Ge but which is already listed in the 1896 catalog of the Chinese scientific 159 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 9. Yang Borun, Landscape, from Zengguang Mingjia Huapu (i888).Tianjin Shi Guji Shudian, 1987 reprint. 160 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I Book Depot, was probably originally published by YujingTang in 1888.83 Like Dianshi Zhai Conghua, and belying its title, this book incorporates previously published material such as the eighteen views of Hangzhou's West Lake by Yang Borun which are taken over from YujingTang s 1886 Xihu ShibaJingTu (Eighteen Views of the West Lake). Perhaps, then, there are earlier sources still to be found for the more than one hundred other images by fifteen artists. The already familiar names include Zhang Xiong, Qian Hui'an, Sha Fu, Ren Xun, Yang Borun, Shu Hao, HuYuan, Z h u Cheng, RenYi, PanZhenyong, Lu Peng, Cao Hua, and Tang Peihua.The selection also includes work by Dai Zhaochun, son of Dai Xi, and a jinshi of 1877. Finally, the 238-leaf Gujin Mingren Huagao (Sketches by Famous Artists Past and Present) was originally published by the publishers of Feiying Ge Huabao, Hongbao Zhai, in 1891.84 Looking forward f r o m the 1875-1895 period, collaborative art books continued to be published after 1895, but there were almost no new publications by the generation of artists that dominated the pre1895 period.85 Instead, most of the post-1895 publications involved a new generation of painters and need not concern us here.86 On the other hand, quite a number of post-1895 works made use of earlier material in ways that do require at least passing mention. Some may turn out to be later editions of otherwise unknown pre-1895 publications. Less straightforwardly, in certain cases earlier printed images were pirated, to be incorporated into new selections or even published under the name of a different artist. And in other cases, paintings by late nineteenth-century artists were posthumously used as designs for illustrated books. In the light of these later practices such diverse publications as MinghuaJijin (1897), HaishangErdaMingjiaHuapu (1924), Sanxi Tang Huabao (1924), Cungu Zhai Conghua (about 1925), and Sha Shanchun Renwu Shanji Huapu (about 1925) also deserve attention.87 Painters' Contributions to Other Print Media As a postscript, it should be noted that book publishing and journalism were not the only areas in which Shanghai artists became involved in graphic art. In the realm of color woodblock-printed New Year pictures (nianhua), for example, Qian Huf an created a number of influential designs, one dated 1890, for theTianjin (Yangliuqing) workshops.88 Bo Songnian has identified the source of certain other Yangliuqing nianhua designs as being images from two huapu based on huagao by 161 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 10. Zhu Cheng, Bird and Lotus Pod, from ZhuMengluHuaniaoJian, Changchun Shi Guji Shudian 1983 reprint of original edition, about 1892. 162 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I Qian Hui'an, Qian JishengRenwu Huapu and Qingxi Huapu, neither of which I have been able to find.89 In Shanghai itself, meanwhile, the advent of photo-lithography was leading to new forms of New Year's print, with Dianshi Zhai leading the way.90 The Dianshi Zhai Huabao reader could sometimes receive a free New Year's print in the New Year issue of the magazine. In 1888, for example, the print (hand-colored) was designed by one of the magazine's house illustrators, Jin Gui.91 Dianshi Zhai also offered for sale, as early as 1884, lithographic reproductions of paintings of auspicious subjects such as the immortal Magu, Liu Hai, and the Hehe twins, all available either mounted or unmounted. While some of these images were improbably attributed to early masters, others were the work of no less a contemporary artist than Ren Yi. Notably, Ren produced a large (about two meters high) New Year's Print of the assembled gods (city god, earth god, god of the hearth, and god of wealth). The print is unlikely to have closely resembled traditional hieratic depictions, however, since it was advertised as An Assembly of Gods in a Landscape, the landscape setting introducing an appropriately modern element.92 In fact, the interested Dianshi Zhai customer could choose from nine different lithographed paintings' by Ren Yi, most of which were not New Year's prints at all but rather straightforward substitutes for real paintings; they were in this sense closely related to his contributions to the Dianshi Zhai Huabao noted above and to the art books in general. Ren Yi's lithographed 'paintings' were available mounted as hanging scrolls or unmounted as single sheets of paper, sometimes with the choice of monochrome or (probably hand-added) color. Prices varied accordingly, ranging from one yuan six jiao for a mounted colored version of the Assembly of Gods, to a mere six fen for an unmounted sheet of a monochrome suichao tu. Alongside Ren's images, Dianshi Zhai proposed examples of work by various other contemporary painters, including Shu Hao, Zhou Xian, and Wang Yijie.93 All of the Dianshi Zhai offerings of this kind were in the hanging scroll format. Closely related are the books of decorative letter papers (jianpu) designed by Zhu Cheng for aTianjin publisher, Wenmei Zhai, in the 1890s. Zhu Menglu Huaniao Jian (Flower-and-bird Letter Papers by Zhu Menglu), a book of one hundred miscellaneous designs resembling in effect a large painting album, was first published by Wenmei Zhai, about 1892 (figure 10).94 There also exists a similar book (title unknown) designed for the same publisher by Zhu Cheng in 163 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 1894-1895, this a woodblock-printed accordion-mounted book with hand-added colors, a poor man s album of twenty four paintings' of bird and animal subjects.95 Finally, the jianpu by Zhu Cheng and others are not only interesting as publications in their own right, of course, but also serve as an indirect reminder that Shanghai artists designed letter papers for separate sale. It is particularly interesting that one undated jianpu, woodblock-printed in color, was published by the Jiuhua Tang (Hall of the Nine Treasures), which was one of the most important fan shops in late nineteenth-century Shanghai, representing Ren Yi and others.96 Ill PAINTING'S MODERN PUBLIC SPACE AS SEEN FROM PRINTED IMAGES It is in some ways easier to discern the emergence of modernity as a central concern of Chinese painting through the vast, seemingly peripheral body of printed images than through painting proper. The oblique vantage-point offered by the books reveals the transformation of painting as an institution, as a practice, and as a representational field. While many different historical processes combined to create a new and modern public space for painting in pre-1895 Shanghai, three are especially visible through the illustrated books. These are: the emergence of Shanghai as a commercial and cultural crossroads at the intersection of a region, a network of littoral cities, and the outside world; the development of a leisure market into which painting was incorporated; and the emergence of a new social mechanism of artistic celebrity. All three testify to a relationship between painting and mass culture long before the end of the century. Shanghai as Crossroads In the eighteenth century, Yangzhou's prosperity had drawn to the city artists from many other places, as well as from its own satellite towns. However, if the Yangzhou art world was the expression of a larger regional art world, the region with which it was continuous was essentially the Jiangbei region; artists might come to Yangzhou from Hangzhou in Zhejiang or Huizhou in Anhui, but these more distant places were not culturally bound to Yangzhou in the way that Yangzhou's satellite towns in Jiangbei were. By contrast, the Shanghai art world had a much more extensive regional character, systematically 164 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I incorporating the artists of a huge catchment area that covered the two provinces ofJiangsu and Zhejiang. 97 As Gao Yong, patron of Ren Yi andXugu, wrote in his preface to Yang Yi's Haishang Molin (1920): 'South and north of the Yangzi there are innumerable painters. It is impossible to know those who work locally or live in reclusion. But those who pack their brushes and follow the wind on their travels inevitably come to Shanghai/98 From this point of view, a closer antecedent than Yangzhou was Guangzhou, whose art world earlier in the nineteenth century demonstrated the same continuity with its surrounding region. All the artists cited above, whatever their origins, were Shanghai artists, taking on the sort of double identity- local and metropolitan - that had previously been more common among court painters. Correspondingly, the art books take shape through their numerous contributors as microcosms of this art world that was at once metropolitan and regional. In the case of Renzhai Huasheng, for example, the preface writers repeatedly make the point that Chen Yunsheng's landscape images specifically depict the local landscape of eastern Zhejiang province, of which Chen and most of the writers were natives. On the other hand, the book had a strong metropolitan dimension; not only had Chen Yunsheng been active in Shanghai, but all its other contributors were based in either Shanghai or Beijing. The Shanghai art world also had links with other cosmopolitan centers in China. This second axis of cultural geography can be seen in Zhu Cheng s letter-paper designs for theTianjin publisher, Wenmei Zhai; in the fact that the leading publishing house, Tongwen Shuju, publisher of lithographic reprints and sequels to Ren Xiong's books, was a Cantonese company; and in the prefaces contributed by Beijingbased writers to Chen Yunsheng s Renzhai Huasheng. An 1889 article, 'The Development of Lithographic Publishing in Shanghai,' notes the distribution of lithographic-printed books nationwide and mentions the presence of branch bookshops of the Shanghai companies in Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou. It would also be interesting to know to what degree other urban centers contributed to the production of illustrated books on the same model. Wenmei Zhai, for example, published a book of letter paper designs similar to Z h u Cheng's, using designs by aTianjin flower painter, Z h a n g Zhaoxiang." And it was a Shanghai-based artist, Lu Hui (1851-1920), who in 1896 took charge of the court-sponsored project of illustrating a Yuan dynasty text on princely education.100 165 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE The Shanghai art world thus took form at the intersection of a region (Jiangsu-Zhejiang) and a trans-regional network linking Shanghai and other cosmopolitan centers. However, the intersection is still more complicated since one also has to take into account Shanghai s links with the outside world (Japan, the West). With Guangzhou again as an antecedent, Shanghai's centripetal relationship to its surrounding region and interactive relationship with other large cities developed in tandem with a cosmopolitanism of international character. Western art historians have traditionally stressed Shanghai's connections with the West, seen in the domain of art books most significantly in the role played by Dianshi Zhai. As we have seen, Dianshi Zhai functioned as a force for a Western-oriented cosmopolitanism in Shanghai visual culture, initially in the area of pictorial journalism through the Dianshi Zhai Huabao, and subsequently in book illustration elsewhere by illustrators associated with the magazine. For the full-time painters, however, w h o were far more discreet in their experiments in hybridity, the more important axis was probably the one that linked Shanghai with Meiji Japan. In the absence of any detailed study of this question, the following points will give some idea of the importance of the connection. We have already seen that Chinese artists were commissioned for illustrated books by Japanese patrons (Wang Yin), and that Chinese images were reproduced in Japanese publications (Shen Zhaohan). Chinese artists also contributed prefaces to Japanese illustrated books. As early as 1875, Hu Yuan and Zhang Xiong contributed prefaces to a Japanese illustrated book entitled Seiwan Meien Zushi (Pictorial Record of the Blue SeaTea Gathering). This was a record of an exhibition of utensils used in the Chinese-style sencha tea ceremony, which was not only a favorite practice of Japanese Nanga painters but by this time had become part of Japanese urban culture. 101 These various book-related activities were part of a larger phenomenon of close ties between the Nanga painting world in Japan and the world of Shanghai painting between the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the SinoJapanese War of 1894-1895. Many artists were involved in this interchange in different ways. Some Shanghai painters, like HuYuan, Zhang Xiong, and Dai Zhaochun, never left China but had contact with Japanese artists and sold to Japanese customers in Shanghai, 102 and, as we have seen, participated in the Japanese art world through their prefaces to Seiwan Meien Zushi. Some formerly Shanghai-based 166 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I painters, such as Wang Yin, made a career for themselves in Japan. Among the other professional painters and calligraphers who visited Japan in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s were Chen Manshou, Feng Gengsan, Hu Zhang, Zhu Yinran, Pu Hua, andWu Qingyun.103 Finally, there are the Japanese nanga painters such as Yasuda Rozan (responsible for the frontispiece illustration to the Japanese edition of Huyou Zaji) who came to China to study and perhaps to work professionally, and who had connnections with leading Shanghai painters.104 Some of these individuals studied with HuYuan.105 Shanghai-Japan connections were not restricted to Nanga painting. Dianshi Zhai Huabao, for example, regularly included more or less fanciful representations of Japanese life which sometimes touched on the art world, for example, an account of an exhibition of painting in the Western manner. We have already seen that one Shanghai publisher was prepared to have a book(JingyingXiaosheng) printed inTokyo in order to take advantage of copperplate-printing technology unavailable in China, and that a Japanese publisher pirated Chen Yunsheng's Renzhai Huasheng. It should also be noted that Japanese copperplate printings of Chinese books were available in Shanghai through at least two publishing companies, Huiying Ge and Fuying Shuju. (The latter was a Japanese company that also published huapu).106 And Dianshi Zhai was willing to incorporate images from Japanese illustrated books, many of them of Ukiyo-e type, into its Dianshi Zhai Conghua. Indeed, the Japanese material in the Dianshi Zhai Conghua raises the question whether the interest in huapu painting manuals in China in the 1880s had anything to do with a knowledge of the innumerable Japanese gafu painting manuals of both Nanga and Ukiyo-e type that were produced throughout the nineteenth century.107 The Leisure Market Descriptions of Shanghai from as early as the mid-i870s reveal the existence of a huge and highly differentiated leisure market, that is, a network of commercially offered or sponsored services catering to the leisure time of the Shanghai population and visitors to Shanghai. WangTao's Yingruan Zazhi (1875) notes: the popularity of keeping birds as pets, the different kinds of theater available in the city, sightseeing in temples and gardens, displays of lanterns, flowers, and art objects (in shops) according to the season and the festival, the existence of a museum, and the practice of watching the rowing competitions of 167 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE the Westerners. The Shanghai guidebook HuyouZaji (1876 and 1878) has brief entries on many of the above, plus: Western restaurants (which also had Chinese customers), regional Chinese resturants, teahouses, Guangdong-style teahouses, opium houses, brothels, bathhouses, traditional Chinese theater, Western theater, horse-racing, Western magicians' shows, shadow theater, Japanese acrobats, Chinese fireworks, bird markets run by people from eastern Guangdong where Western birds could also be bought, the circus (Western-style), quailfighting, lotteries, and the study of English. A few years later, Huang Shiquan in his Songnan MengyingLu (1883) further enlarged the range of leisure activities to include: Japanese teahouses, which were now numerous, ballad-singers, story-tellers, riding in horse-drawn carriages, ice-skating, bowling, Western and Japanese-style brothels, fairground attractions, evening performances of theater, and newspapers, including ones written in non-literary language. Many of these leisure activities were also visually represented in Shenjiang MingshengTushuo (1884), Wu Youru's Shenjiang ShengjingTu (1884), and Dianshi Zhai Huabao (1884 onwards). In all the above-cited publications, one also finds massive evidence for what was, perhaps, the major leisure activity of the Shanghai Chinese population: observing the city's foreigners and everything associated with them. All of these activities are presented as part of a discourse of qi, the fascinatingly strange. Leisure is also one of the fundamental subjects of the art books, constantly reiterated through a choice of themes whose diversity obscures their shared context in urban leisure. Narrative themes allude to novels and the theater,108 and poetic themes to the still important place of poetry in elite social intercourse, as well as all the traditional activities such as flower-viewing or visits to the countryside that were now being recontextualized by metropolitan life with its intensification of the urban/ rural divide. Historical portraits refer to la petite histoire of story-telling and popular education; contemporary portraits of courtesans refer as much to urban gossip as to the leisure industry of prostitution, which was also signified clearly enough by the genre of meiren (beautiful women) paintings. The ubiquitous cats and birds represent two of the most important kinds of urban pet. Flowers direct the viewer toward gardens, parks and flower displays (often sponsored by businesses) but also to domestic spaces where potted flowers were fundamental elements of the decorative environment. 168 PAINTERS AND P U B L I S H I N G IN S H A N G H A I Still lifes and depictions of the ultimately edible have their context, needless to say, in eating: completing the circle, restaurants, like other leisure establishments, were prominently decorated with paintings. Although reading and picture-viewing were leisure activities in themselves, they receive little attention in the guidebooks, probably because these were primarily directed toward leisure activities of a public character. To be sure, the authors note Shanghai's flourishing publishing industry and register lithographic printing as an important innovation, but the consumption of books itself lay beneath the threshold of this kind of extreme public visibility. We have to look elsewhere to find attention to the reading activities implicit in the expanded production of novels, technical works, and illustrated books in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s. Paradoxically, it was visually rather than textually that late nineteenth-century urban society represented to itself most consistently its investment in reading. The book is ubiquitous in portraiture of the time: in the now standard photographic portraits, in Ren Yi's celebrated painted portraits of fellow professionals in the art world and the world of letters, and inWu Youru's printed pseudo-portraits of courtesans - all of which consistently establish a context of leisure for the sitter. It is entirely characteristic that Chao Xun, to whom went the credit for the reworking of theJiezi Yuan Huazhuan, should have included a portrait of himself, book in hand, in the ZengguangMingjia Huapu appended to the final part of the manual. For a better sense of how the books themselves were expected to fit into the leisure context, one can also turn to their prefaces. One of the many prefaces to Chen Yunsheng's Renzhai Huasheng is particularly illuminating. Written by a cer tain Wang Jixiang, it includes a description of the writer's first encounter with Chen's work, during a visit to the artist in the company of a friend. The artist brings out many examples of his work, then the book and, after calling for wine, the three men go through the book slowly, drinking and composing poems all the while. The scenario is one of literati friendship and community affirmed within a context of leisure, which establishes a model and guide for the reception and use of the book by the owner. This same model is often built into the structure of the books by the multiplication of contributors, all of whom observe the necessary fiction that their presence is the result of a leisure activity. (We need not assume that readers/viewers were unaware of this fiction; it is more interesting to 169 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE ask what kind of public would have found in this anonymity of the crowd an echo of its own situation). The leisure value for the reader/viewer would seem, then, to have combined instruction in basic literati skills (and thus social respectability) with entertainment of a kind that mixes high and low culture. These appear in different measure according to the book in question, but their combination nonetheless provides one way of discerning the contours of the public at which the art books were directed; it may be more accurate to think of the public as one that the art books were helping to bring into being. It was apparently not a literati public, but one for which literati culture had prestige as a model. Often, there is a fusion of instruction and entertainment that also suggests a certain cultural insecurity. More positively, one notes the consistent emphasis on quantity (multiplication of images and contributors, emphasis on variety) as well as a clear respect for skill. Finally, it was a public for which leisure, as an alternative to and reward for work, was a meaningful concept. In line with this, contemporary attempts to define the public for Shanghai painting agree that the painters were basically servicing the business community, as one might expect given the city's commercial character. They also agree - but here we have to take into account the class consciousness of intellectuals clinging to a literati heritage - that customers bought for show. WangTao, in the early 1870s, is not tender:109 The vast majority of those who do business in Shanghai are without discernment. When they want to take on airs of elegance, they spare no expense to buy calligraphies and paintings, and only pay attention to the name, without any real appreciation. Huang Shiquan in 1883 is no less disabused. After listing a selection of leading artists with their specialities, he continues: 110 The common crowd of butchers and vendors consider it a glory to own an example of their work. But the finest work does not necessarily come from the most famous artists, and the work of famous artists is not guaranteed to be fine. One person offers praise and the crowd echoes it. From this one can glimpse something of the lack of sophistication of common Shanghai people. And Zhang Mingke, writing somewhat later, keeps up the refrain, this time with regard to the public for a single artist, Zhu Cheng: 111 170 PAINTERS A N D PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I He worked as a painter in Shanghai and made a brilliant reputation for himself. In his late years he scorned fans and small-scale works, and yet his prices got ever higher and the demand ever greater. People in business all hoped to obtain a fan by him, considering it a great thing to be able to have one in their sleeves during their comings and goings. From this last account one can see that for this populace painting was not always associated with leisure, as with the fans integrated into the work environment as well. It would be a mistake, of course, to reduce the audience for Shanghai painting or for printed images to the city's commercial classes alone; one only has to think of Ren Yi's many portraits of fellow-artists and writers. However, one might be justified in speculating that the business public was the basis of an emerging mass market which did not preclude more specialized markets. Between Anonymity and Intimacy: Celebrity How many famous artists, mingjia, could there be? The titles of the collaborative huapu, Shanghai Mingjia Huaniao Huagao, Haishang Mingjia Huagao, ZengguangMingjia Huapu, Mingjia Shinu Huapu, make claims for the participating artists that are repeated in the prefaces and postfaces that frame these galleries of images. We are bringing together the famous artists of our time, say the publishers and editors; but the publishing enterprise in which they were engaged required 'famous artists,' even if they had to be invented for the purpose, or, in a less cynical interpretation, speculatively asserted as worthy candidates. For an early, if not quite contemporary, discussion of celebrity in the 1870s and 1880s we can turn to Wu Woyao's satirical novel, Ershinian Mudu zhi Guai Xianzhuang (Bizarre Happenings Witnessed over the LastTwenty Years), set during that period. Chapter thirty-five describes a social gathering in a Shanghai brothel at which an amateur painter is present. 112 In professional life Tang Yusheng is a maiban, a compradore, an English-speaking middleman between Western and Chinese business concerns, and the very model of the Shanghai self-made man: Yusheng said: T o become famous is easy as pie. Look at me: if I didn't think much of myself, I would have spent my whole life as nothing more than a maiban. But ever since I got to know a few personalities, painted that picture called Chanting Poetry in the Cottage for Whistling, and asked them to inscribe appreciations, 171 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE and then took their poems of appreciation and sent them all to the newspaper office to be printed in the paper - ever since then it's been a lot easier for little old ignorant me to go out and make friends.' Finishing speaking, he burst into loud laughter. Then he went on: That Chanting Poetry picture of mine has already been inscribed by more than two hundred people. Lyric poems, songpoems, songs, prose-poems - all the genres are there; and the calligraphy has standard, cursive, clerical, and seal scripts - every one of the scripts. All that's missing is a set of qu songs, but I'm thinking of asking someone to slap one on at the beginning, and then there will be nothing at all to regret.' After this, he stretched his hands out and, counting them out on his fingers, listed the names of all the people who had inscribed poems, naming lots of Master So-and-sos, Masters of Such-and-such a place, Recluse Soand-sos, Poet So-and-sos, Poetry Guest So-and-sos...on and on, one after the other, in an endless list. It is hardly necessary to underscore the many echoes in this story of the art books: the speculation in fame, the emphasis on large quantities, the shadow of an emergent mass culture, and the association of painting with merchants. The perception here is that fame is a form of capital, like wealth. Fame is capital because it can be turned into tangible gain, though the pay-off is not economic but social and psychological; the now famous maiban is welcome everywhere - he has access to others, contact with others, his isolation in a city of strangers falls away. But fame is further perceived as capital that is accrued through the manipulation of appearances, by a sort of sleight of hand. Already the choice of the maiban as exemplar of the practice is telling. It is in part the maiban s ability to talk, to use language, to manipulate, that made him wealthy. The maiban is also the one who understands the system, the mechanisms of quantities and exchanges. Thus Tang Yusheng understands the key role of newspapers in the public domain, just as he understands that his private artistic enterprise has to be on an oversized scale in order to attract the attention of the newspapers and the public. Above all he has realized that celebrity requires visibility We might also note that if the pay-off of fame lay in contact with others, that is, paradoxically a kind of private access or intimacy, this was already figured within the books in the illusion of community 172 PAINTERS A N D P U B L I S H I N G IN S H A N G H A I created by the accumulation of participants. This illusory community deserves a closer look. Fame had traditionally been associated with difficulty of access to the master's works, but now, through the art books, became associated with public exposure and accessibility. The artist was easily known to the viewer/reader, but only as a reputation;113 for the artist, meanwhile, the viewer/reader melted into a general public. Fame based on public exposure of artworks was thus the corollary and symptom of a relationship that had become anonymous. The lost organic social connection, meanwhile, was formalized within the book. That is to say, the assembly of artists as a group in certain books and the proliferation of prefaces in others, create an illusion of community where there is in fact only a profession. To be sure, the profession could and did lead to a sense of community, as explored by Richard Vinograd in his study of Ren Yi's portraits, but it rarely corresponded to the communities staged in the art books for commercial purposes.114The latter have more in common with the interminable list of names of ChenYusheng s fictional handscroll. The question of access, of intimacy, was also widely dramatized in the very aesthetic of the bare (or bared) monochrome images. The printed images of the art books correspond, in the painter s practice, to huagao, ink sketches of either a preliminary or a mnemonic nature.115 In fact, the very word huagao is incorporated into the titles of several of the books. The original sketches were not only used by the painter himself but also served as models for teaching apprentices, and as the bases for workshop production which would later be signed by the master. Now, however, they found a new use as the models for book illustrations, since the huagao was technically suited to reproduction processes that favored linear, black and white designs. Among the ancient functions of the huagao, it is probably its role as a teaching tool, a model for copying, that is most thoroughly preserved and developed by the art books, particularly the painting manuals. However, there are also cases where the book takes its cue from another of the huagao's functions, that of recording an achieved composition. Ren Yi's RenBonianXianshengHuihua Zhenji is of this kind, giving a relatively full account of the master's art. And there are many other cases in which the printed image reveals a closer connection with a third function of the huagao, as a preliminary, improvisatory sketch. Here, the image provided its own raison d'etre, the artist having created the design specifically for the purposes of the book. The connection between huagao 173 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE and illustration is as old as book illustration itself, but the quantities of images involved in the Shanghai art books gave the huagao mode of representation an unprecedented prominence, both for individual artists and for the painting profession as a whole. This new prominence had several implications, for the artist's practice, for artists' relationship to each other, and for the artist's relationship to the public. The visuality of Shanghai painting was defined at its borders by two contrasting approaches, one highly linear and patterned, the other abbreviated and spontaneous.116 Both approaches lent themselves to translation into huagao and printed-image form, but conversely were also open to modification in the light of the artists' experience with preparing designs for books. In other words, the door was open for the new prestige of the huagao to affect the style of 'finished' paintings. An important instance of this reverse effect can be seen in a new genre of monochrome paintings virtually indistinguishable from huagao. See, for example, Ren Xun's A Scholar and a Lady in a Garden (1882) in the Brooklyn Museum.117 A different kind of example is seen in the late work of RenYi, in the early 1890s, where his paintings display a specific abbreviated immediacy that can properly be termed huagao-likt. And again, Qian Hui'an in his late years placed increasing emphasis on the linear brush work of his paintings, at the expense of the colorwashes that had earlier balanced the brushwork. In cases like this, one can see that the contribution of book illustration to a Shanghai visuality lay not simply at the margins of the painter's practice, but at its center. Huagao were traditionally secret, shown only to the artist's students or assistants. The theft of an artist's huagao was a dramatic affair because it meant the loss of trade secrets. There is a lingering memory of the traditional system in the fact that huagao by RenYi were used for illustrations by his daughter, RenXia, in the Zengguang Mingjia Huapu. There is another memory of the old system in the alleged competition between RenYu and NiTian to obtain Ren Xiong's huagao after his death.118 The Shanghai art books drew on the traditional aura of secrecy around the huagao for their success; they promised access to the studio, a kind of intimate knowledge of the artist, introducing a voyeuristic thrill into the viewing experience. At the same time, they functioned on another level as a taste of what the purchaser of a real painting could expect and thus took on a certain function of advertisement. This created a new situation, because what amounted 174 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I to the open publication of an artist's huagao in the Shanghai art books relocated the sense of mystery which was the basis of the artist's aura. The mystery that once was a matter of trade secrets, as symbolized by huagao, now became associated instead with fame, as seen in the printed images of the books. This has a parallel in the area of artistic property. The artist's huagao, never actually seen in their pure form, were traditionally the basis of the artist's claim to a specific artistic and commercial territory; they were a hidden source of authority. After the rise of the art books, by virtue of their utterly public character they functioned to some degree as a way of patenting the artist's ideas. It was in the public domain that the artist now established his claim, using publicly what had previously been hidden. The public space of Shanghai painting, then, as seen from the illustrated books, was configured by the triple intersection of cosmopolitanism, leisure, and celebrity in their emergent modern forms; we are here at the beginning of a modern public space for painting in China. But with this conclusion, another conclusion suggests itself, one that introduces an opening into the argument I have been developing instead of imposing a closure. In the comparative perspective that any appeal to modernity calls for, it is not difficult to identify in Shanghai painting of the period 1875-95 reminiscences of familiar features of painting in, for instance, Paris during the second half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, the nexus - cosmopolitanism, leisure, celebrity- is itself one shared characteristic that merits careful exploration. But one must also be struck by the profound ambivalence of artists in both metropolises toward modernity, which in each case led to a coupling of modern means with a focus on the leisure spaces that seemed to afford a refuge from modernity's pressures. What this points to is not the superficial connections of'influence,' but structural homologies that only a truly global approach to the history of modern art can hope to explore adequately. 75 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Notes 1. The first lithographic printing presses were used by Shanghai's TushanwanYinshuguan. See Ji Shaofu editor, Zhongguo ChubanJianshi (Shanghai, 1991), 272. 2. On the involvement of missionary translators in Zhizao Ju translations, see Adrian A. Bennett, John Fryer and the Introduction of Western Science and Technology into Nineteenth-Century China (Cambridge MA, 1967). 3. See Bennett, John Fryer and his later MissionaryJournalist in China: Young J. Allen and His Magazines, 1860-1883 (Athens, 1983). The following discussion is based on Bennett's research. The question of image production in a Catholic missionary context in Shanghai is currently being researched by Wan Qingli of Hong Kong University. 4. Also important was theTongwen Guan in Beijing, established 1862. 5. Ji, Zhongguo ChubanJianshi, 332. 6. Bennett,MissionaryJournalist, 153 and 265, note 5. 7. Roswell S. Britton, The Chinese Periodical Press, 1800-1912 (Shanghai 1933), 56. The Shanghai XiaohaiYuebao is not to be confused with the journal of the same name published in Fuzhou, which was a separate enterprise. 8. Bennet,MissionaryJournalist, 99. 9. Cited by Bennett, John Fryer, 50. 10. Britton, The Chinese Periodical Press, 56-57. 11. Bennett,John Fryer, 60-61. 12. For the complete catalogue, see Bennett, John Fryer, 112-135. 13. Richardson's original work was published in 1880 byW and A.K. Johnston, Handbook Series, Edinburgh and London. 14. Catalogue of Educational Books, Works of General Knowledge, Scientific and Technical Treatises, etc., etc., etc., in the Chinese Language. Translated or Written by John Fryer, LLD (Shanghai, 1894). A copy of this catalog, published by the Presbyterian Mission Press, is in the collection of the Essex Institute. My thanks to Roberta Wue for making a copy of this catalog available to me. 15. Xu Zaiping and Xu Ruifang, Qingmo Sishi Nian Shenbao Shiliao (1988), 319. The initiative is attributed by Britton to the Shenbao editor, Qian Xinbo. See Britton, The Chinese Periodical Press, 69. 16. As to how they were recruited, Dianshi Zhai placed an advertisement in Shenbao during the sixth month of 1884, a month after the first issue of the magazine appeared (Xu and Xu, Qingmo, 84). Although the advertisement seeks famous artists (mingshou) to execute book illustrations, it is 176 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I significant that the candidates were asked to submit an example of their work on the model of the images in the Dianshi Zhai Huabao, to the same dimensions. Another advertisement at the same time invited artists to submit illustrations to be reproduced in the magazine, at a fee of two yuan per illustration (Xu and Xu, Qingmo, 336-337).This advertisement appeared also in Dianshi Zhai Huabao with an accompanying image of the contributing artist at work. 17. In 1983, Guangdong Renmin Meishu Chubanshe reprinted the entire run of the magazineln reduced form, unfortunately eliminating most of the advertisements and painters' contributions. For information on the magazine, I have largely depended uponYuYueting/Woguo Huabao de Shizu Dianshi Zhai Huabao - Chutan,' in Xinwen YanjiuZiliao 5 (1981). See also Britton,TheChinesePeriodical Press, 69-71; and Fritz van Briessen, ShanghaiBildzeitung, 1884-1898: Eine Illustrierte aus dem China des ausgehenden 19. Jahrhunderts (Zurich, 1977). See Yuen-sang Leung, The ShanghaiTaotai: Linkage Man in a Changing Society, 1843-90 (Honolulu, 1990), 190. According to Leung, the publishing works employed 200 workers. There were two Shenchang Shuhua Shi bookshops, one in the British and one in the French concession. Advertisements for both, incorporating representations of the premises, appeared in the Dianshi Zhai Huabao in the mid-i88os. None ofthe illustrators are among the twenty-five leading painters listed in Huyou Zaji (1876) and only one (Ge Zun) is included by Zhang Mingke in his Hansong GeTanyi Suolu (completed 1908). InYangYi s Haishang Molin (1920, Shanghai Guji Chubanshe Shanghai Tan Yu Shanghai Ren Congshu reprint 1989: 78), only one illustrator (Wu Youru) is given his own entry, but an appendix lists the following Dianshi Zhai Huabao illustrators and notes that they 'were famous at the time' [you shiming]: Jin Gui (from Suzhou), Zhang Qi (Zhang Zhiying, from Suzhou),TianYing (Tian Zilin), Fujie (Fu Genxin [from Yaojiangin Zhejiang]), Zhou Quan (Zhou Muqiao), He Yuanjun (He Mingfu), Ge Zun (Ge Longzhi, from Haining in Zhejiang), Jin Ding (Jin Naiqing, from Daxing in Hebei), Dai Xin (Dai Zilian), Ma Ziming, Gu Yuezhou, Jia Xingqing, Wu Zimei, Li Huanyao, Shen Meipo, Wang Zhao, Guan Qu'an, and JinYongbo. Many paintings by Wu Youru have survived today. See, for example, Shanghai Bowuguan Cang Haishang Minghuajia Jingpin Lu (Hong Kong, 1991), number 47. According to their respective entries in Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian, Ge Zun specialized in paintings of farming and fishing; Jin Ding 177 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE painted flower and bird subjects and was a calligrapher and seal-carver as well; and Tian Ying's 1890 painting of BoleJudging a Horse is now in the collection of the Nanjing Museum. Fu Jie contributed a calligraphed preface to Dianshi Zhai Conghua; see below. Presumably all of the illustrators continued to produce paintings which would have been more valuable given their new fame. 21. DonJ. Cohn identifies ZhangQi asWuYouru's mentor. SeeVignettesfrom the Chinese: Lithographs from Shanghai in the Late Nineteenth Century; edited and translated by DonJ. Cohn (Hong Kong 1987), 2-3. 22. The entry on Jin Gui in Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian (Shanghai, 1981), 555, notes that he and Wu Youru designed Taohua Wu New Year s prints, but at which point in their careers it is not clear. 23. Britton, The Chinese Periodical Press, 71. 24. On the Feiying Ge family of publications, see YuYueting, 'Guangxu Nianjian de Feiying Ge Huabao,7 Chuban Shiliao, VII (1987), 32-35. 25. See Shanghai Shifan Daxue editor, Shanghai Fangzhi Ziliao Kaoyuan (Shanghai, 1987), 464-465. 26. Published by Shanghai's Guan Keshou Zhai. There exists another journalistic book on Shanghai from 1884, also woodblock-printed, which may be the work of the same publisher, HaishangFanhuaTu (Pictures of Shanghai Prosperity). The relatively few illustrations are largely portraits of courtesans, perhaps based on photographs. 27. Cited by Zheng Zu'an in his preface to the 1989 Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, ShanghaiTan yu Shanghai Ren Congshu reprint of Huyou Zaji, 5. 28. There also exists a Wu Youru Huitu Ping Changmao Shu (Account of the Suppression of the Long-hairs with Illustrations by Wu Youru), put out by an unknown publisher in Shanghai in 1893. My thanks to Roberta Wue for this informaion. I have not yet been able to determine the relationship between the two works. 29. These leading publishers are mentioned inji Shaofu's discussion of lithographic publishing in his Zhongguo Chuban Jianshi, 271-276. On Saoye Shanfang, see Zheng Yimei, Juyou Sibai Nian Lishi de Saoye Shanfang,' in Shubao Huajiu (Shanghai, 1983), 79-81. 30. For the serialization, seeYu/Woguo Huabao de Shizu,' 156.The bookis listed in Xu and Xu, Qingmo, 332. 31. Numerous other examples in the Dianshi Zhai style could be cited, for example the quite fin cTuhui Wu Caizi Qishu (Novel of the Five Young Talents, with Illustrations) published by Datong Shuju in 1888, and provided with introductory portraits and illustrations in the text by an 178 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I unidentified artist. In a different genre, another high-quality example is the extremely small format Huitu HaishangKanhuaJi (Record of Looking at Flowers [that is, visiting brothels] in Shanghai, with Illustrations), published by Shanghai Shuju in 1894. 32. In the mid-i88os, Tongwen Shuju in Shanghai advertised what may have been an earlier version of the same book, under the name Zengxiang Sanguo Quantu. See the text ofTongwen Shuju s advertisement for the newly published Liao Zhai Tuyong, in Dianshi Zhai Huabao, issue number 93 (1886). 33. See the call for advertisements illustrated in Cohn, Vignettes from the Chinese, frontispiece. 34. Yu/Woguo Huabao de Shizu/155. As noted above, the 1983 Guangdong Renmin Meishu Chubanshe reprint of the magazine generally omits the original advertisements, but a few can still be seen, for example one for the JiuhuaTang paper and fan shop. I would like to thank Roberta Wue for drawing this to my attention. 35. Xu and Xu, Qingmo, 82.Two such early calendars, one with opera scenes distributed by Shenbao in 1889, and the other with journalistic scenes of Shanghai distributed by a lottery ticket company in 1896, are reproduced in Li Zhao, Shanghai Youhua Shi (Shanghai, 1995), 37. 36. Of course, one has to distinguish the minority of artists who illustrated entire books, or contributed to several different books, from the majority who contributed only a few images, in some cases only a single one. 37. The first of the four, Liexian Jiupai (Drinking Cards with Immortals), published in 1854, was inspired by Chen Hongshou s seventeenth-century designs for drinking cards. The only texts in this work were an introduction, a postscript and the brief inscriptions around each image. Two years later, in 1856, Ren was commissioned to design a book entitled Sasan JiankeTu (Pictures of Thirty Three Warriors). Then, in 1857, Ren Xiong and a new group of collaborators created a new format, perhaps influenced by illustrated novels of the time, in which the text was often preceded by a set of illustrations introducing the characters. On that model, Ren Xiong's illustrations were grouped together at the beginning of the book, following the table of contents but preceding a printed text. Ren Xiong and his collaborators published three works in this format in Suzhou in 1857. The first was an expanded version of SasanJianke Tu entitled Jianxia Xiangzhuan (Illustrated Biographies of Warriors), which now included forty-eight images. The second was Yu Yue Xianxian Xiangzan (Illustrated Biographies of Former Worthies of Zhejiang), for which he created eighty designs. The third was Gaoshi ZhuanTuxiang 179 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE (Illustrated Biographies of Hermits), for which he had only completed twenty-six designs by the time of his death. Ren Xiong's books owe a particular debt, not only to Chen Hongshou's designs for drinking cards, but also to the WitshuangPu of Chen's early Qing follower, Jin Guliang. Like Ren Xiong, both Chen and Jin were from northern Zhejiang province, so we are dealing herewith a local tradition. 38. See Wang Zidou's postface to the 1987 Renmin Meishu Chubanshe reprint of Gaoshi ZhuanTuxiang. 39. See the 'Price-list of Books, Maps, Paintings, Calligraphy Rubbings, and Calligraphies Lithographically-printed by Dianshi Zhai' (hereafter, 'Price-list') published in Dianshi Zhai Huabao, issue number 93 (1887). 40. See Wang Zidou's postface to the 1987 Renmin Meishu Chubanshe reprint of Gaoshi ZhuanTuxiang. 41. Wang Yijie's 1883 reworking of Ren Xiong's designs provide the intermediary step, since each biography is moved out of a separate text grouping all the biographies on to the page facing the relevant image. The 1886 designer then moved the biography off the facing page into the image itself. 42. Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Huihua Bian 20 (Shanghai, 1988), number 206. 43. There was also a Pingzhu Liaozhai Zhiyi Tuyong (Annotated Illustrations and Poems to Strange Stories from the Liaozhai) published by Tongwen Shuju (1886 preface). In addition to the main body of figural illustrations, the book contains a frontispiece landscape illustration by Yang Borun. 44. See 'Price-list.' 45. Xu and Xu, Qingmo, 332 and 352. 46. Also QinHuaiBayanTu (Eight Elegant Beauties of the Qin-HuaiArea, 1838). See ZhouWu, Zhongguo Banhua ShiTulu (Shanghai, 1988), 1, number 139. 47. Reprinted in the posthumous publication, Wu YouruHuabao (1908), reprinted by Shanghai Guji Chubanshe in 1983. 48. Fei Danxu was another mid-nineteenth-century Zhejiang artist who anticipated the Shanghai painters' involvement in book designs of this kind. See his eighty-seven designs to the 1844 YinzhiWenTuzheng, of which one is reproduced in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, Huihua Bian 20, number 168. 49. Reprinted in Wu Youru Huabao. See note 47 above. 50. This was not the first portrait of ChenYunshengby Ren Yi. DingXiyuan notes an 1868 portrait now in the collection of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. See DingXiyuan, RenBonian (Shanghai, 1989), nianpu section, 24. 51. Zhang Mingke, Hansong GeTanyi Suolu (Shanghai Renmin Meishu Chuban She reprint, 1988), 71. 180 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I 52. Oka Senjin, who spent several months travelling in China in 1884, recounts in his diary of the trip (Guanguangjiyou, in Chinese in Xiao Fanghu Zhai Yudi Congshu) that when he visited the son of ChenYunsheng, Chen Yuguang, the latter complained to him about the unfairness of what his compatriots had done (juan 5,174a). 53. See 'Price-list/ 54. TsurutaTakeyoshi, 'Study of a Chinese Painter Who Came to Japan in the Early Meiji Period - Wang Yin/ Bijutsu Kenkyu 319 (March 1982), 1-11. 55. SeeTsuruta,'Study of a Chinese Painter,' 2. See also YuShaosong, Shuhua Shulu Jieti (HongKong), 1 ,juan 2,2oa-b, who reports that the preface to Yemei Meipu mentions that the series included a manual devoted to figure painting. 56. See Yu, Shuhua ShuluJieti, i,juan 2,2oa-b. 57. Tsuruta/Study of a Chinese Painter/ The title slips for the various Japanese-printed works were written by Chen Manshou (died 1884), a Chinese calligrapher and painter active in Japan at the same time as Wang Yin. Chen is the subject, along with his daughter, of an 1879 portrait by RenYi. See Ren Bonian (Tianjin, 1988), number 13. 58. Judging by an early, but probably not original edition (publisher unknown) in the library of the Musee Guimet, the two volumes may always have been published together as a two-volume book under the name Shi Zhong Hua (altogether one hundred illustrations), and were printed by the photolithographic process. The 1986 reprint by Rongbao Zhai, also under the name Shi Zhong Hua, omits the separate prefaces to the two volumes, obscuring the original dual structure of the book. 59. See the preface to the 1986 Rongbao Zhai reprint for the mention of Jingjiang Huapu. 60. Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou, TranscendingTurmoil: Painting at the Close ofChina's Empire, 1796-1911 (Phoenix, 1992), 177 and 342, note 282. 61. Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian, 576. 62. See the 1982 reprint by Shanghai Guji Shudian. As far as can be seen from this reprint, there was a frontispiece byWu Dacheng and two prefaces by WangZiqing and YuYue. 63. Without seeingTingyu Lou Huapu, it is impossible to tell what the relationship between Yu Li's two huapu was. 64. On the basis of ShanyinYushi Huagao, one can speculate that a number of the paintings presentlybearing Ren Yi's signature may eventually have to be considered workshop productions from the hand of Yu Li. For references to surviving paintings by Yu Li, seeTranscendingTurmoil, 347, note 349. 181 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 65. Zhang Xiong has also been credited, mistakenly, I believe, with compiling his own printed painting manual Zhang Zixiang Ketu Huagao (Zhang Zixiang' s Instruction Manual of Painting). See Transcending Turmoil, 138 and 337, notes 139 and 140.The Zhang Zixiang Ketu Huagao known today is a 1921 Zhonghua Shuju edition based on designs copied by Ding Baoshu from Zhang Xiong's original huagao sketches, reprinted in 1984 by Wenwu Chuban She. I know of no evidence that there was an earlier printed edition using designs by Zhang Xiong himself. Yu Shaosong's Shuhua ShuluJieti entry on this publication (1 Juan 2, i8b-i9a) only mentions a separate publication by Xiling Yinshe (early twentieth century, therefore) of 260 paintings, probably huagao sketches, by Zhang Xiong under the name Zhang Zixiang Huapu. 66. HaishangMolin, 72 (Zhou Yong) and 81 (Zhang Yi). 67. One cannot help but wonder whether Zhou Yong's designs did not find their way into the Chao Xun edition following the deaths of Zhou Yong and Zhang Xiong. Unfortunately I have not been able to examine a copy of the Zhou Yong edition. 68. A large proportion of these images were later reprinted, divided by category (figures from literature andhistory, beautiful women, birds, animals, and flowers, plants, and still lifes), both in the 1908 Wu Youru Huabao and in a 1909 publication that I only know through modern reprints: Wu Youru Huagao (Shanghai, 1983) and Qingdai Wushi Huagao (Hong Kong, 1979?). 69. See Wu Youru's twelve-leaf album of historical and legendary women in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in YiyuanDuoying, 54, number 17. 70. A copy of this rare publication is in the Library of Congress. My thanks to Roberta Wue for making available a xerox of that copy. An edition was advertised for sale by the Huandu Lou Bookshop in Dianshi Zhai Huabao in 1887, issue number 103. 71. Haishang Molin, 77. 72. Much, if not all, of this publication appears to have been incorporated into the later compilation, Dianshi Zhai Conghua (see below). The contributors would seem to have included Tang Shishu (1831-1902, from Wujin),WangLi, RenYi, Shu Hao, Ren Xun, and others. 73. The original draft sketches for this book are now in the collection of the China Art Gallery. Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Jiandingzu editor, Zhongguo Gudai ShuhuaTumu (Beijing, 1986) 1,60.There exists what appears to be a pirated edition by Shensi Caotang entitled Haishang Mingjia Huagao, which has a title page dated 1885 written by Hong Xihuang replacing the similarly dated titlepage by Xu Sangeng in Haishang Mingren Huagao. 182 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I There is also a later lithographic reprint of this book from 1909, which was published by the Tianjiao Tang publishing house under the title Haishangjiujia Huapu. 74. In the list of twenty-five leading painters published in Huyou Zaji in 1876, Deng Qichang is included as a specialist of flower-and-bird, bird-and-animal, and figure subjects (page 69). In Hansong GeTanyi Suolu, Zhang Mingke praises his flower and plant subjects. For HaishangMingjia Huagao Deng contributed a series of images of chrysanthemums. 75. Yu/Woguo Huabao de Shizu/155. 76. A Dianshi Zhai illustrator. 77. Due to the ambiguity of the wording, it is not entirely clear whether only these four artists were involved, or a larger group. 78. A large number of these giveaways are in the Rare Books Collection of C.V Starr Library at Columbia University. 79. Landscape: He Yu (1852-1928, from Shanghai, initially a follower of Hu Yuan and RenYi, later a student of Zhu Cheng), and Fu Jie (a Dianshi Zhai illustrator). Figures: Fu Jie, Ren Xun, Qian Hui'an, Sha Fu, MaTao, Shen Zhaohan, Cao Hua (1847-1913, from Shanghai, a student of Qian Hui'an), Hu Xigui (Suzhou-based), Chen Weizhi (a female painter from Suzhou), Yin Quan (Yin Xiaoxia, from Changshu near Suzhou), Shao Bo (Shao Meixi), Chen Xie, and others as yet unidentified. Animals: Ren Xun, RenYi, Shu Hao (from Ningbo), Chen Xie, and the Dianshi Zhai illustrator TianYing. Flower-and-bird: this section apparently incorporates the images of the earlier Shanghai Mingjia Huaniao Huagao (see above), but adds to them new designs by HuYuan, Zhang Xiong, Zhu Cheng, He Yu, Zhou Zou (from Dongyan in Zhejiang), Wang Xingqiao (from Shanghai), Xu Kai, and others as yet unidentified. Insect compositions: Ren Xun, HuYuan, Zhou Zou, and Wang Ziyin, and others as yet unidentified. Plum blossom, pine, bamboo, etc.: Zhu Cheng, He Yu, and Zhang Zhen (Zhang Jiaju, from Suzhou), and others as yet unidentified. Still lifes: He Yu, Ren Xun, HuYuan, Zhou Xian (1820-1875, therefore posthumously, from Jiaxing), and Zhou Fuqing. 80. SongnanMengyingLu, 139. 81. Landscape: one juan with contributions from Chao Xun, Yang Borun, Ren Yi, Shu Hao, Wang Yin, Jin Dejian (born 1810, from Suzhou), Wu Qingyun (died 1916, from Nanjing), Wu Guxiang (1848-1903, from Jiaxing), Zhu Yinran (from Zhejiang, student of HuYuan), JiangTonghui (from Shexian in Anhui), and a number of known or apparent followers of Zhang Xiong in addition to Chao Xun, including Shen Jing (from Shanghai), Zhang 183 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Bingxie, Ye Yu, and others as yet unidentified. Birds, animals,flowersand plants: twojuan with contributions from Ren Yi, Zhu Cheng, Qian Hui'an, Hu Zhang, Chao Xun, Shu Hao, Wang Yin, He Yu, Xu Xiang, Yu Li, Xugu (1823/4-1896, from Shexian in Anhui), Wu Changshuo (1844-1927, from Anji in Zhejiang), Zhu Yi (from Wuhu), Pan Hong (fromWujiang, student of Zhang Xiong), Shao Chengxin (from Jiaxing, a follower of Zhang Xiong), Song Hai (died 1914, from Haiyan in Zhejiang, a student of Zhu Cheng), Zhang Jia'e (1864-1925), Wang Xianyi (a female painter from Taicang), Zhou Hua (a female painter from Gaocheng), Hua Yun (from Suzhou), Xu Hongda, Jiang Shou, Xia Pei, Wang Zhen, Li Xi, Zhao Di, Jiang Lianfeng, and others as yet unidentified. 82. The Zengguang Mingjia Huapufigure-paintingcontributors are: Chao Xun, Qian Hui'an, Wu Guxiang, Shu Hao, Wang Yin, Cao Hua, ShenZhaohan, Tang Peihua, Yu Li, Zhang Zhen, Pan Zhenyong (1852-1921, from Jiaxing), Li Fu (from Zhuji in Zhejiang, student of Ren Yi), Ren Xia (from Shanyin, Ren Yi's daughter), NiTian (1853/5-1919, from Yangzhou), Lu Peng (died 1921, student of Qian Hui'an), Pan Lai (from Shanghai, student of Qian Hui'an), Wu Yin (1867-1922), Zoujun (fromWuxi injiangsu), ZhouHenian (from Xiaoshan), Wang Yishou (from Xiaoshan), Wang Zhen, Hua Yun, Li Lan, Qiu Gan, Zhu Xu, Wang Yewen, and others as yet unidentified. 83. Judging by information kindly passed on to me by Dr Ludmilla Borotova of the National Gallery, Prague, which appears to have a copy of the first printing in its collection. 84. Noted by Hongxing Zhang in James Cahill and others, editors, New Interpretations of Ming and Qing Paintings (Beijing, 1994), 92. Unfortunately, I came upon this information too late to be able to incorporate a description of the book in the present article. 85. This is not true, however, of novelistic illustration, where the Dianshi Zhai illustrators continued to be active into the 1900s. 86. One later publication worth noting for its continuation of late nineteenth-century Haipai styles isTongwen Shuju's Yunxi Shanguan Huagao (Shanghai, 1915) whose illustrator I have not been able to identify. 87. MinghuaJijin (Compilation of Famous Paintings) (1897) is a lithographed collaborative huapu published by Shanghai Shuju. It includes 166 images by ten prominent artists: Ren Yi, Zhang Xiong, Zhu Cheng, Sha Fu, Hu Yuan, Ren Xun, MaTao, Xu Xiang and a Wujiang follower of Wang Li, Xu Zhen (1841-1915). However, the fact that three of these artists had died more than a decade earlier, the internal coherence of the selection, and the low quality of this particular edition combine to suggest that the 184 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I 1897 edition maybe a reprint of an earlier work. Haishang Erda Mingjia Huapu (Hmpu of Two Famous Shanghai Masters) (1924) was published in a very poor quality lithographed edition by an unidentified publisher in 1924.The two masters in question are Qian Hui'an and Cao Hua, and the images themselves bear various dates from the 1870s to the 1890s. Sanxi Tang Huabao (1924), published by Dahua Shuju, includes a very large selection of images, divided up among ten thematic headings, for the most part taken over from earlier publications. Its sources include the 1888 JieziYuanHuazhuan and Wang Yin's manuals of the early 1880s. The eight-volume Cungu Zhai Conghua (Compendium from the Studio for Preserving the Past) (about 1925), published by theJiyunShuwu, includes yet another interesting selection of late nineteenth-century images, including all the images of the Haishang Mingjia Huagao, alongside more contemporary designs. Finally, as its title suggests Sha Shanchun Renwu Shanji Huapu (Painting Manual of the Fans of Figure Subjects by Sha Shanchun) (about 1925), published by Yucai Shuju, purports to reproduce works by Sha Fu. About half the book does indeed reproduce lithographic versions of album leaves by that Suzhou painter; all the fan images, however, were taken from RenYi'si887.RenBonian XianshengZhenji Huapu. On each pirated image, the seal of Ren Yi has been replaced by a seal of Sha Fu. 88. See Wang Shucun/Huajia Qian Hui'an yu Minjian Nianhua,' in Zhongguo Minjian Nianhua Shi Lunji (Tianjin, 1991), 297-307; and Bo Songnian, Zhongguo Nianhua Shi (Shenyang, 1986), 69-70, who also notes that the Yangliuqing workshops copied compositions by Qian's student, Shen Zhaohan, but gives no dates. See also Chou Ju-hsi's discussion of Qian Hui'an inTranscendingTurmoil, 133-134. 89. Bo, Zhongguo Nianhua Shi, 69-70. 90. As for color woodblock-printed New Year's prints, judging by prints now in the collection of the Shanghai Municipal History Museum there were at least five manufacturers in Shanghai around 1900 (Feiying Ge, Yunxiang Zhai, Baohe, Lao Wenyi, Shen Wenzhi), all concentrated in the area ofJiu Jiaochang Street in the Chinese city near the Temple of the City God. Among the designers at that point was the former Dianshi Zhai Huabao artist, Tian Ying. It remains to be seen whether the production of New Year's prints in Shanghai itself (as against Suzhou) can be traced back into the pre -1895 period, and to what extent Shanghai painters were involved. 91. Issue number 141. A surviving example, still bound into the magazine, is in the collection of the library of the Musee Guimet, Paris. 92. Xu and Xu, Qingmo, 349. 185 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 93. This account is based on a full-page advertisement of lithographed artworks for sale that appeared in Dianshi Zhai Huabao in the late 1880s. Calligraphers were also represented, with examples of work by Hu Yuan and Wu Dan. 94. See the modern reprint by Changchun Shi Guji Shudian, 1983, under the title Zhu Menglu Huaniao Jian. 95. Collection of the author. 96. Zhou Wu, Zhongguo Banhuashi Tulu, 1, number 345. According to Ge's Huyou Zaji, 19, letter papers were sold by the same shops that sold fans, contemporary paintings and calligraphies, and artists' materials, sometimes generically called Tan shops.' Ge Yuanxu notes that the leading shops in the concessions were: Guxiang Shi (with which Hu Yuan had a particular connection), Manyun Ge, LihuaTang, and JinrunTang; in the Chinese city, the main establishments were Deyue Lou, Feiyun Ge (in the Yu Garden), and LaoTongQun.JiuhuaTangwas established at a later date, as was, presumably, XihongTang, which advertised a number of times in Dianshi Zhai Huabao (see issues numbers 86 and following). 97. See Chou Ju-hsi's detailed analysis of the origins of Shanghai painters in TranscendingTurmoil, 102-109. One especially large group of painters came from the northern counties of Zhejiang province-Shaoxing, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Hangzhou - that is, the same region that supplied a large proportion of Shanghai's bankers, merchants, and compradors. By moving to Shanghai the painters were following their natural patrons, as well as opening up a new market for themselves. Another large group of painters came from Suzhou and surrounding towns, where painting was longestablished as a component of that area's handicrafts industry. A further contribution of Suzhou to the Shanghai art world was, as we have seen, through the export of illustrators, independent artisans on a lower level, who by moving to Shanghai were adapting to the creation of a new massmarket publishing industry. Suzhou was in addition, along with Songjiang, one of the most important sources of calligraphers / writers, whose title slips, frontispieces, prefaces, colophons and postfaces were crucial components of the art books. 98. Yang, Haishang Moling. 99. See the modern reprint by Changchun Shi Guji Shudian, 1983, under the title Zhang He'an BaihuaJian (Zhang He'an's One Hundred Flowerdesign Letter Papers). 100. TranscendingTurmoil, 216. 186 PAINTERS AND PUBLISHING IN S H A N G H A I 101. Patricia J. Graham,The Development of an Architectural Setting for the Japanese SenchaTea CeremonyOrientations (September 1991), 74-75. 102. Transcending Turmoil includes one painting by HuYuan for a Japanese patron, Shoto, bought for him by a Japanese visitor to Shanghai, Kotani Murata (130-131). Chouju-hsi cites the poetic eulogy Twelve Masters in Calligraphy cited by WangTao in Yingruan Zazhi, which says of HuYuan, A piece [from his hand] is worth a city in Japan' (126). Shenjiang Mingsheng Tushuo includes an illustration ofJapanese customers buying paintings (old paintings in this case) in Shanghai. 103. Although this is not the place to make the case for Nanga influence on Chinese painting, some of these artists can be argued to have incorporated certain ideas from Nanga painting into their own work. On their visits to Japan, seeTsuruta,'Study of a Chinese Painter/1-11. These Shanghai painters were preceded by such Cantonese painters as Luo Qing, as shown byTsuruta. 104. A Shenbao editor, Huang Shiquan, in his Songnan Mengying Lu, notes Rozan as a painter of landscapes and plum blossom .This text is included in Shanghai Guji Chuban She, ShanghaiTan Yu Shanghai Ren Congshu (1989 reprint), 102. For other artists, seeTsuruta/Study of a Chinese Painter/ 77. 105. TsurutaTakeyoshi, Kindai Chugoku Kaiga (Recent Chinese Painting) (Tokyo, 1974), 25. 106. See the advertisements for Huiying Ge and Fuying Shuju (incorporating representations of their premises) in Dianshi Zhai Huabao, issue number 102 (1887). 107. It also raises two other questions which go beyond the bounds of this article. Does the Guangxu period interest in sets of portraits of courtesans have any connection with the long-standing Japanese practice of this genre in ukiyo-e? And is the inclusion of Hokusai-style designs in Collected Paintings of the Dianshi Zhai a post-facto indication that the Hokusai style played some role in forming the Ren Xiong/RenYi mode of painting? The more linear version of the Shanghai style of painting best represented by RenYi, and derived from Ren Xiong is customarily defined through its roots in the art of their seventeenth-century northern Zhejiang predecessor, Chen Hongshou. But their part of the Zhejiang coast is also an area with close artistic contacts with Japan going back to the Ming dynasty.The fact that certain unpublished leaves of RenXiong's celebrated album of one hundred illustrations to poems by Yao Xie (Palace Museum, Beijing) betray a direct knowledge of illustrated books by Hokusai argues for a formative Japanese connection. 187 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE 108. As noted in the biographies of HaishangMolin, numerous painters were also practitioners of the kunqu genre of theater. 109. WangTao, Yingruan Zazhi, 73. no. Songnan MengyingLu, 140. HI. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 121. 112. This novel has been partially translated by Shih Shun Liu, under the title Vignettesfrom the Late Qing (Hong Kong, 1975). 113. In this pre-photojournalistic world, we can already see the first hints of the artist's transformation into a public figure. In the illustrated books, the self-portraits of Wang Yyie and Chao Xun, or Ren Yi's portrait of Chen Yunsheng, all point in this direction. A number of the images in Ren Yi's Ren Bonian Xiansheng Zhenji Huapu and Yu Li's Shanyin Yushi Huagao are suggestive of rather ostentatious self-representation in various disguises or personae. By the first years of the twentieth century, leading artists of this period - Ren Yi, Ren Xun, Hu Yuan - will appear, mythologized, in novels. 114. Richard Vinograd, 'Portrait and Position in Nineteenth-Century Shanghai,' in Boundaries ofthe Self: Chinese Portraits, 1600-1900 (New York, 1992). 115. Many such sketches have survived. For a wide range of examples by Ren Yi, see the recent Renmin Meishu Chubanshe compilation, Ren Bonian ZuopinJi (Shanghai, 1993). 116. The artists themselves referred to the former as a gongbi (fine brush) or yuanhua (academic) style, and to the latter as a xieyi style. 117. Transcending Turmoil, number 62. 118. SeeTranscendingTurmoil, 345, note 320. 188 Calligraphy at the Close of the Chinese Empire LOTHAR L E D D E R O S E The latter half of the Qing dynasty saw crucial developments in the history of Chinese painting; changes in calligraphy were at least as radical and revolutionary as those in painting. The period before the close of the empire was one of the most decisive epochs in the entire history of calligraphy in China. In order to introduce some of the salient changes in calligraphy during this period we will raise three questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What was achieved? What happened? A comparison of two representative pieces of calligraphy can give a first impression of what occurred. Figure i shows the beginning of a handscroll written in 1796 by Liu Yong (1719-1804). 1 A highly placed educational administrator, Liu Yong was one of the elite officials in the empire; he was also a nationally renowned calligrapher. His work is full of references to the orthodox tradition and the text is a commentary on the works of the founders of this tradition, Wang Xizhi (303-361) and his son Wang Xianzhi (344-388). It was composed by Su Shi (10371101) in response to a poem by Mi Fu (1052-1107), both major masters of the orthodox tradition. Liu Yong emulates the style of Su Shi. The characters are written in a slightly cursive regular type (kaishu), as was typical for Song dynasty calligraphy; the strokes are supple and the compositions self-contained. At the very moment that this piece was written, an enormous change in the practice of calligraphy had already begun to take place, exemplified by the work shown in Figure 2. It was written in 1811 by Yi Bingshou (1754-1815), after he had retired from his career as a prefectural magistrate.2 The startling Figure 2 begins with two large characters, reading guxiang (fragrance of antiquity). They are written in the guli (old clerical) script and seem to hang down from the upper edge. The forceful ring in the first character looks like forged iron. Eight lines then 189 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE X Vj§ fir £ •FT •t S- « .1 i * ^ £ * 1 a * Figure 2. Yi Bingshou (1754-1815), The Fragrance ofAntiquity. Handscroll, dated i8n.The Art Museum, Princeton University. Gift ofJeanette Shambaugh Elliott Collection. 190 J C A L L I G R A P H Y A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE follow in a brittle yet stately running script. It is full of features that challenge the well-known traditional rules. Most glaring is the odd mixture of script types. Although most of the characters are written in a running script, some exhibit a very formal, regular shape (fourth line, first character) while others display elements of the clerical type (last line, third character). Some look deliberately awkward (third line, fourth character). Although this calligraphy does not on the whole look quite as strange as some other examples, nonetheless it would have made Wang Xizhi turn in his grave. However, Yi Bingshou's calligraphy actually is neither weird nor childish; on the contrary it is most sophisticated. His intention was to imbue the movements of his brush with the 'fragrance of antiquity/ and if you look long enough you may decide that he succeeded. T h e orthodox tradition to which Liu Yong belonged reigned supreme from the fourth century for almost a millennium and a half. It was only seriously challenged in the middle of the eighteenth century when a revolutionary school arose. It called itself beixue, the school of stelae, because its masters such asYi Bingshou took writings on stone stelae as their models. The new school in a somewhat derogatory spirit labelled the orthodox school, tiexue, school of handwritten pieces. Though they initiated newstyles, this new crop of calligraphers would not have been Chinese had they not legitimized their changes by recalling antiquity, arguing that the ultimate aim of their revolutionary thrust was to preserve ancient values. The differences between the two schools were brought about and sanctioned by a change in the canon of the pieces that the respective schools held to be masterpieces, and which their adherents studied as models. Figures 3 - 6 illustrate examples from these two canons. In the eighteenth century Emperor Qianlong made great efforts to reestablish a canon for the orthodox tradition. In his palace he brought together thousands of calligraphic pieces. From them he selected three which he cherished as his and his empire's supreme treasures.3 He kept them in his private studio, called SanxiTang (Hall of the Three Treasures). A few dozen other selected pieces, also considered exceptional masterworks and models worthy to be handed down for study by further generations, were engraved into stone by order of the Emperor in i747.The stones are preserved in a pavilion in Beihai Park west of the Palace. The collection of rubbings taken from these stones was called the Sanxi TangFatie, 'Model writings in the Hall of the Three 191 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Treasures/The rubbings were distributed as models at court and throughout the empire. They formed a canon, embodying the stylistic and aesthetic standards of the tiexue. In this canon Wang Xizhi and members of his family were supreme. Except for one piece, the first fifteen pieces in the first volume of the collection are all by him, by his son Wang Xianzhi, and by another member of the Wang family. So were the T h r e e Treasures' in Qianlong's private studio. Subsequent volumes contain pieces by later masters of the orthodox tradition. The last four volumes consist exclusively of writings by Dong Qichang (1555-1636), the last great heir of this school. Figure 3 is one piece by Wang Xizhi that was cut into stone in this collection. It is a letter called XingrangTie, now in the Art Museum of Princeton University, the only early copy of a work by Wang Xizhi in a Western collection. 4 It displays supple brush strokes, harmonious character composition, and easily flowing lines. Figure 4 illustrates a rubbing from the stone-cut. The piece is embedded in colophons, especially by Emperor Qianlong and Dong Qichang. One of Qianlong s colophons is visible on the left side of Figure 3. As an homage, the colophon writers copied and paraphrased Wang Xizhi's style. The canon of pieces which the beixue masters considered worthy of study looked quite different. In their search for new models they went beyond the fourth century AD, when the Wang Xizhi tradition had started, back into remote antiquity. They studied stone stelae of the Han dynasty and the even earlier stelae of the First Emperor of Qin. They also turned to inscriptions on bronzes, which were considerably older still. Moreover, the beixue masters studied those stone inscriptions which in the crucial period between the Han and Tang dynasties had developed in the North, parallel to but without contact with the Wang Xizhi tradition in the south. The content of these northern inscriptions was primarily Buddhist. Figures 5 and 6 are examples from the beixue canon.The group of stelae in Figure 5 are from the Buddhist monastery Yunjusi in Fangshan county near Beijing. Although these stones are not very old, dating from the Tang to the Qing dynasty, they convey an idea of what such stone stelae looked like and where they stood. Figure 6 shows a section of a rubbing from the YishanBei, the Stele on Mount Yi, one of the stones which the First Emperor of Qin erected to commemorate the unification of the realm.5 The original stelae are all lost. The Yishan 192 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE l i •u t V V t k r > t2 t gf- i Figure 3. Xingrang Tie,Tang dynasty copy after Wang Xizhi (303-361). Handscroll. T h e Art Museum, Princeton University. A n o n y m o u s loan. Photo by Bruce M.White. 193 CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 4. XingrangTie. Rubbing from Sanxi Tang Fade, dated 1747. Bei, however, is transmitted in a famous recut done in AD 993, and today preserved in the 'Stele Forest at Xi' an' (Xi7an Berlin). The script is called small seal script (.xiaozhuan). In addition to differing in their historical range, the canons of the two schools distinguish themselves in still other respects. There is a difference with regard to the preferences of the script types. The orthodox canon emphasizes the regular (kaishu) type but even more the cursive (xingshu) and draft scripts (caoshu). In the canon of the stele school one also finds regular script but only rarely cursive types. Instead, archaic scripts gained prominence, such as clerical script (lishu), seal script (zhuanshu), and finally the script on oracle bones (jiagu wen). There is also a difference in writing materials. The canonical pieces of the tiexue are usually written with brush and ink on silk or paper. The canonical pieces of the beixue, by contrast, are engraved on durable materials such as stone, bronze, or bricks. From this follows a crucial difference in the mode of transmission. Many masterpieces of the tiexue, especially the earlier ones, are only transmitted as copies. Not a single work by WangXizhi's own hand, for example, is believed to have come down to us. Yet thousands 194 C A L L I G R A P H Y A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Figure 5. Inscribed stone stelae,Tang to Qing dynasties. Yunjusi, Fangshan county. Figure 6. Yishan Bei, detail of rubbing. Recut of AD 993, detail. 195 CALLIGRAPHY wmni i i t e i s A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE i-fl f M I l^ilitfe Figure 7. Inscription in Maogong Ding, from KezhaiJiguLu, chapter 4, dated 1886. of inscriptions on stones and bronzes still exist and new ones come to light all the time. Furthermore, there are major social differences. The calligraphers who created the works that the tiexue masters took as their models were on the whole members of the literati class, many of them prominent officials and politicians. The calligraphers who wrote on bronze and stone, however, were often anonymous. We would call many of them artisans or even workers. As far as content is concerned, works of the tiexue are also mostly typical products of the literati class. There are many poems and personal letters. The texts of the canonical beixue works, by contrast, contain much information of public interest, often of historical significance, and sometimes of immense political importance. There are also many religious texts. Finally there are major differences in the aesthetic standards embodied in the two canons. The tiexue works strive to be elegant, fluent, polished, refined, whereas pieces of the beixue tend to look archaic, tectonic, rustic, forceful, and unrefined. 196 C A L L I G R A P H Y A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Why did it happen? If we now ask why those changes in the canon came about, we have first to look at intellectual history in general and then at archaeology in particular. The dominant current of intellectual history from the eighteenth century was hanxue, that movement which propagated pragmatic and critical scholarship based on empirical investigation. As for many centuries, classical Confucian texts were the center of hanxue studies. But new methods were used. In an attempt to establish authentic versions of the classical texts, the hanxue scholars embarked on systematic philological, phonological, etymological, palaeographical, and historical studies. Thus they came close to scientific debate and thinking in the modern sense. While searching empirically for authentic material the hanxue scholars collected and investigated all kinds of ancient inscriptions. This branch of knowledge was called juts Tiixue/study of [inscriptions on] metal (mostly bronze) and stone/ We would translate it as 'epigraphy/ For our argument it is important to note that the interest of the epigraphists was not a purely philological one only directed at the content of the inscriptions. They were also studying the shapes of the characters. The epigraphical material was collected in compendia, some of them very voluminous. An early example is the Xiqing Gujian in forty volumes, the catalog of the bronzes in the imperial collection. The compilation began at Qianlong's order in 1749. It made use of a refined technique of copper plate engraving that had recently been introduced from the West. The compendia often contained reproductions of rubbings of the inscriptions. Thus, they were important means for disseminating knowledge about the archaic character shapes. Figure 7 shows pages from the compendium KezhaiJiguLu, completed in 1886 by the great epigraphist Wu Dacheng (1835-1902). It is the beginning of the inscription in the famous bronze cauldron Maogong Ding from the late Western Zhou period. With its 497 characters it is even today the longest bronze inscription known. Wu Dacheng transcribes the text into kaishu, and inserts his commentary in two small parallel lines. Yet he first reproduces a rubbing which allows the reader to see the shapes of all the characters. Figure 8 is a page from the Jinshi Suo, a collection of bronzes and other antiques edited by the two brothers FengYunpeng and Feng Yunyuan in 1821. The lock for a crossbow is, like all those objects, primarily interesting because of its inscription. The text is reproduced 197 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H EC L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE IF © o -t rr J* -r't- JiL -f- ^f if 51 ye? -3? \ f- •u*- r £ - frr U - i J^ ? • ^ ^ 11 JrL A -f- ei ShuzoChugoku Hosho Meisekishu (Tokyo, 1981-1983), Min Shin hen, II, plate 93. For Yi Bingshou see Shodo Zenshu, XXIV, 170. 3. The Kuaixue Shiqing Tie by Wang Xizhi, the ZhongqiuTie by Wang Xianzhi, and the Boyuan Tie by Wang Xun (349 -400). 4. Fu Shen, Traces of the Brush, number ia; and Nakata and Fu, Obei Shuzo, I, plates 1-6. 5. Reproduced in NishikawaYasushi editor, Seian Hirin (Tokyo, 1966), plates 109-110. 6. ShodoZenshu, I, plate73; Kinbun Shu3 (Shoseki Meihin Sdkan 3/120) (Tokyo, 1964), number 376. Also Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (Washington DC and Cambridge MA, 1990), 153, and 138 for bronze finds in Shaanxi. 7. ShodoZenshu, VI (NanbokuchoII), plate59. 8. ShodoZenshu, VI (Nanbokucho II), plate 86. 9. MuXiaotianandXuJiaqiong, DengShiru YanjiuZiliao (Beijing, 1988). 10. Reproduced in Deng Yizhi editor, Deng Shiru Fashu Xuanji (Beijing, 1964), plate 6. 11. See Li Yangbing s Sanfenji of 767 in the Xi'an Beilin. Reproduced in Seian Hirin, plates 83-84. 12. ShodoZenshu, XV(Chugoku 10, So I), 8, figure 11. For the different historical and stylistic layers in Qing dynasty seal script see Lothar Ledderose, An Approach to Chinese Calligraphy,'National Palace Museum Bulletin, VII, number 1 (March/April 1972), 1-14. 13. ShodoZenshu, XXIV(Chugoku 14, Shin II), plate 15. 14. For an analysis of Deng Shiru's stylistic development see Lothar Ledderose, Die Siegelschrift (chuan-shu) in der Ch'ing-Zeit:Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der chinesischen Schriftkunst (Studien zur Ostasiatischen Schriftkunst 1) (Wiesbaden, 1970), 70-82. 15. ShinToKanpakuHakuShi Sodoki (Shoseki Meihin Sdkan 165) (Tokyo, 1971), 3. 16. ShuSekikobun (Shoseki Meihin Sdkan 4) (Tokyo, 1964), plates 16-17. For the stone drums see the comprehensive study by Gilbert L.Mattos, The Stone Drums ofCh'in(Monumenta Serica Monograph series XIX) (Nettetal, 1988). 17. ShodoZenshu, XXIV,plate 92. 207 GLOSSARY OF C H I N E S E NAMES AND TERMS Gbssary ofChinese Names andTerms BadaShanren AAUiA bagong ffliM Bailong ShanrenTihua Shi fifilUAS*^ Bailong Shanren Wang Zhen Shuhua Daguan fifilljAiltM*!! baimei Baimei Xinyong Baishi Shanfang Bao Guixing Baohe beixue bianxiu Bishu Shanzhuang BoyuanTie buxiang CaoHua caoshu Chao Xun ChenDingshan Chen Duxiu Chen Guangyu Chen Hongshou (1599-1652) Chen Hongshou (1768-1822) Chen Manshou Chen Ruilin Chen Sanli ChenSongqing ChenWeizhi ChenWenshu ChenXie Chen Xun ChenYonguang ChenYunsheng Cheng Tinglu HU HH^/fl^ lU M ISSM jfffi li-I {SM^ ffi!^ W^P ^ilr Jlffr Pjg^Jg Htfcj® ^ ^ PJgffi^; W^it^ UMM 211 Chongyi # # Chu Fengchun Ml^ Chuns henJiuwen ^if ^ If M Cilin Huabao Cungu Zhai Conghua Dahua Shuju A^MIM DaiXi DaiXin DaiZhaochun JtSyii^F DaliSi . AS^f DangpingFani Tuji M^MWi SB 1 2 Deng Qichang Deng Shiru t|5E$P Deyue Lou Dianshi Zhai Conghua S^MMS Dianshi Zhai Huabao H?!* Dianshi Zhai Shuhua Shi Dianshi Zhai Shuju S^EMfM DiaoZun Dong Qichang iSM- H Dong Yuan Ershinian Mudu zhi GuaiXianzhuang n ^ m z m m Erzhu Zhai HYfW ErzhuZhaiShiwenJi ZlYfWfrfJtM Fan Kuan Fan Li FanZengxiang Fang Hanqi JjMW Fang Xun ^gg Fangshan J ^ UU Fanhu Caotang Fanhu CaotangJi Fanhu CaotangTu ^B^SBI Fanhu Caotang Yigao CALLIGRAPHY A T T H E C L O S E OF CHINA'S EMPIRE guancha Guang Fangyan Guan Guanguangjiyou Guiyan Huibian Gujin Mingren Huagao Fanhu Jushi FanshanJi Fashishan Fei Danxu t-Vsr Fei Gongyan feibai Feiying Ge Feiying Ge Huabao Feiying Ge Huace m^mmm Feiying Ge Tuji Huabao m Feiying Ge Tuji Huace Feiying Guan Feiyun Ge Feng Guifen FengYunpeng Feng Yunyuan Fujie Fugu Huanshi Fushi Fuying Shuju GaiQi Gao Kegong GaoYong GaoZhan GaomiXianzhi Gaoshi Zhuan Tuxiang Ge Yuanxu GeZun Gezhi Huibian gong Gong Xian gongbi GuGao GuYuezhou GuYun Guan Qu'an si UTBEI guli Guo Baochang Guo Ji Zi Bo Pan Guxiang Shi Haipai Haishang Erda Mingjia Huapu MS mi m^J ^BJiBSW m^x^mmm Haishang FanhuaTu Haishangjiujia Huapu Haishang Mingjia Huagao Haishang Molin Haishang Qinglou Tuji mm HaishangTijin Guan Hashikawa Tokio j g j 11 Hansong Ge Tanyi Suolu g hanxue He Shaoji Shiwenji fflfflg^jcM HeTianjian HeYu {5® HeYuanjun f^TCft Hebei Hong Xihuang Hongbao Zhai Hongbao Zhai Shuju 1 mmmm Honglou Meng Tuyong HUc hu % HuGui Hu Huaishen M±mm f mt mmm mmm S O T us 212 GLOSSARY OF C H I N E S E NAMES A N D TERMS Hujiusi A S HuXigui fflliS HuYuan HuaYun Huagao UH Huagong H i Huaiyin Vt^ HualinXinyong U^fft^ HuanduLou MtflS Huang Gongwang If&M Huangju Huangjun jf;i£j Huang Shanshou ^lUW Huang Shiquan H^H Huang Yue Huapu ' Huapu Caixin Utt^f? HuashiCongshu 3H5&SI® HuatuXuzhi ft IK Iff ft] HuaxingTushuo HBSM Huayu Xiao Zhuju TEffi/J^ff Huazhuan mtW Hudie Qiu Zhai Suocang Huace huitu Huitu Haishang KanhuaJi HH Huitu HouLiaozhaiZhiyi mm HuxinTing JB'Ci^ Huyou Zaji HuzhangShinu MMcOC JiaSidao Jf'tKM JiaXingqing HSSW jiaguwen Jiang Baoling Jiang Lianfeng Jiang Shiquan Jiang Shou Jiang Yinpei jianpu JianxiaXiangzhuan JiaohuiXinbao JiaoshanZhi Jiezi Yuan Huazhuan JinAnqing JinDejian Jin Ding JinGui JinGuliang JinNong JinYongbo JinYouchen JingHao Jingjiang Huapu jingshi Jingying Xiaosheng J i n m g ilia MffiMM ifcHrfffS ^^Hiilfll v^tff ^HH ^f^ &fflM ^J^ HtLllii ISj^jS® ^ ^ JinrunTang f&fS3f£ jinshi ISi Jinshi Pai ^SWi Jingshi SixiangYuXinxingShiye M-ffiS^^ffWII Jinshi Suo jfe finsuxue JishanJu fftULlM Jisbi Shuju JiuhuaTang KaiGuiChenXu PSIf^fF tHH Kuaixue Shiqing Tie Duncan LangShaojun JiP&Sfq LaoTongchun LaoWenyi Li Cheng 213 CALLIGRAPHYA T T H ECLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE Li Fang Li Fu Li Hongzhang Li Huanyao LiLan LiTingjing LiYangbing Liang Qichao Liang Shizheng Lichao Mingyuan Shici Maogong Ding meiren MengYing MenghuanJu HuaxueJianming mmmmm MiFu Midian ZJtuiin meigi Jiezi Minguo Renwu Zhuan MinghuaJijin mingjia Mingjia Shinu Huapu ^ mingshou MolinJinhua ^ $fU?IS/~P j^glA^Jfil jzj'HM^ mm^mmm W^tCtM^ Lidai Minghuaji JSft^llfB Lidai Mingjiang Tu JBf^&JftHI Lidai Mingyuan Tu MiX^iWtM LiexianJiupai \[1] LihuaTang M W ^ . Muzhang a Lin Fengmian IS neige zhongshu ftRS^* LingfenGuan S 3 M NiTian NiZan Linqing nianhua lishu iftUr LiuBinshi f ! 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