AForgotten Celebrity
Wang Zhen (1867 -1938 ), Businessman,
Philanthropist, and Artist
H SI NG -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 .' A decline in his popularity was thus more or less inevitable after the founding of the People's Republic. WangZhen'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. Itwas onlyin 1988 that a book on his art was published in Shanghai.' Ironically, its publication was sponsored by aJapanese company
as an expression of gratitude forwhat Wang Zhen had done after the
great 1923 earthquake in Tokyo.'
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;
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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 Sun Yat-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 ZungTsi Tang; 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- tu rn ed-comprador , rise so quickly and
associate with so manyinstitutions 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 fir m, the Dada Shipping and Transportation Com pany, which was to merge with another company to
form the Riqing (Japan-Q ing)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
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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,' he decided to leave for Hong Kong, only to return
the next year, fatally ill . He died the morning after having arivedin 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 with Xu Xiang , 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;' 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.'
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 aJapanop hile,9 just as he was a patriot, a conflict of enormous
dimensions at his time. AJapanese visitor, Sawamura Yukio, was startled by the contrast between hiswesternized manner and his Chinesestyle residence ; he also observed the chameleonic shift in mood and
expression when Wang Zhen changed topics from business to art .
Wang Zhen was a private man , so we 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 Wh o' 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 revolutionar y 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 . ' Thus,
if self-doubt began to plague him, there was always a religious conviction to which he could appeal:
10

11

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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.
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.
1
•

1

'

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 Budd hist, 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
thefounder of the Longhua (Lung Hua) Orphanage, which eventually
was to perish in 1937 in Japanese bombings. In 1919, when the five
provinces ofHenan, Hubei, Anhui, Z hejiang , andJiangsu endured
floods, Wang Zhen , enlisting Wu Changshuo 's help, painted and
printed a great many pictures of refugee victims to raise funds.• 1 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, theirincome was not able to meet the expenses
and they had to turn to Master [Wang] for help... Master [Wang]
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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 .1'
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 Illum inated ) 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.•1 In purpose and nature, this was a new, emerging phenomenon, different from the elegant gatherings in Shanghai's
past such as those led by Li Tingjing, Wu Zongl in, or Jiang Baolin •.1
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. Subsequen tly, 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 app roaches , both Chinese and
Western, before conflict and intolerance were to damage the united
front .2° In the thirties,Wang also lent his support to the efforts of Sun
Xueni, Qian Shou tie, and He Tianjian 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

A FO RG OT T EN C ELE B R ITY

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 areinevitable,
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 howheavy 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 ledby the government, inlinewith 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 byvirtue 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 gosofar as to state that he derived a degree of self-identity by associating with other art ists. It can be observed that he rarely
if ever played the role of an instigato r. 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 _oth er artists, often assisting
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them to arrange exhibitions, sell works, and introduce them to new
patro ns, including hisJapanese clients . An example is his skilful
maneuver to promote Wu Changshuo intowhat 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 . We
shall not deny Japan a critical role in bringing out his genius. So says
Wang Geyi in his Memoir:
22

23

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 (aJapanese 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 ... After Master Changshuo died , those Japanese
friends organized a small exhibition [of his paintings] in the Sixthree Garden in his honor."
And later, Wang Zhen himself rode on Wu Changsh uo '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 ad
tthe
p
o
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 ofjinshi 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 forceful vision, recognizable amidst Sh angh ai 's
diverse trends.
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Paralleling this swing in style and approach was his change of
conceptual framework, from Tart pour l'art' 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.
Tart pour la vie' could easily merge with Buddhist beliefs and
compassion: this would prove to be a forceful motivation for Wang
Zhen. Or to put it in another way, it was because of his Buddhist
beliefs that he evolved an idea approximating Tart 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.l7 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.• 2 Neither of these paintings sh
w
o
sany
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
Zhen felt an urgency regarding contemporary ills and began the
search for solu tions .
In the aforementioned album, Yinguo Fenmingpaintedin 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 compassio n,
sympathy, and, to a degree , impatience toward those who were
indifferent. The inscrip- tion on the first leaf (figure r), 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 hardlysurvive without food.
Once they were very rich.
Now they've become poor to this extent.
The wife isweepingwithhunger, and the children wailing forfood:
Such a sad and miserable scene it is...

Alas, when they were rich, they did not give succor to the poor.
IOI

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Figure 1.Wang Zhen,Yinguo Fenming (Karma Illuminated).
Album, dated191,3leaf a. ChingYuan Chai collection.

Figure 2.Wang Zhen, Yinguo Fenming.
Album, dated 1913, leafb.ChingYuan Chai collection.
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Figure 3. Wang Zhen ,Yinguo Fenming.
Album , dated 1913, leaf e.ChingYuan 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 thefuture 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 anyfood given in contempt;
You, the village dog, should not bark at me anymore.
Pride in poverty isthe theme of thisleaf, afirm conviction insofar as
Wang Zhen was concerned. It also reminds usof 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 Zhen's intent . If broadened, this was the attitude that could lift
China out of her abject humiliation in the early twentieth century.
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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 bigcontainer 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 every day, all day long.
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 I September 1923 in the Tokyo area.
A large proportion of Wang Zhen'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
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Figure 4.
Wang Zhen, Bodhidharma.
Hanging scroll, undated.
University Art Museum ,
University of California,
Berkeley.

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF C H I NA' 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 patt erns .
The figure, although depicted in a simple and most casual way, issolid
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 fewinnocents. Even in the last days, when he found himself torn between a
country that heloved 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 ambi guity. Only
through his works of art has his existence attained salvation.

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Notes
See Wang Renze,'Wang Yiting' in MinguoRenwuZhuan,IV(Beijing , 1984),
255-260.
2. See Wang Yiting ShuhuaJi (A Collection of Wang Yiting's Calligraphy and
Painting) (Shanghai , 1988). 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 1923), 3.
4. See entry under Wang Zhen in W ho' s Who in China, Fourth Edition
(Shanghai , 1931
), 415-416.
5. Sawamura Yukio, Shanhaijimbutsu InshoKi, (My Impression of Shanghai
Figures) (Tokyo, 1930), 18-19. Sawamura Yukio was an accredited journalist for the Osaka Daily News in Shanghai . Also see Chen Dingshan,
Chunshen Jiuwen (Taipei, 1960), II , 26. At the approach of Japanese vistors ,'Yiting shut his door and refused to step out. Chronically ill ,he
asked for nothing but dying; thus theJapanese dared not force him.'
6. See Qiu Yu, ' Co ming Back From Wang Yiti ng's Memorial Service ,'
Shenbao (15November 1938), 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 , I,' Shenbao (15 Novemben 938), 3.
8. Some of Wang Zhen's paintings aresocarelessly 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 ,1936), I, 15. One ofWang 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 Sho utie,Wang Geyi and Zheng
Manqin. His impression was vividly recorded: 'With my walking stick,
myvisit here hasbecome amemorable event, asthough Iwerewalkingin
pictures all daylong.'
I.

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10. Sawamura, Shanhai]imbutsu,18-19. In cidently,Wang Zhen's residence,
the Zhi Garden, was in the old Chinese city, Nanshi (South Market ).
rr. Sawamura,Shanhai]imbutsu,19.
12. SeeWangRenze,'WangYiting,' 257.
13. Wang Zhen was a man who treasured traditional values. Chen Dingshan,
in his Chunshen]iuwan, 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 askinganyquestions.' 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, RenJingshu, 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 ofloyaltyto one's teacher. Accordingly, the Changming
Academy tended to be traditional in outlook in its curriculum.The followingstory 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 theywould 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 o rigin_al text mentions wuyan (q uatrain ) and qiyan (poem with sevencharacter lines).
15. Quoted fromWang Yiting Shuhua]i, nianpu, 2.
16. This event is reported in the Wang Yiting Shuhua]i, nianpu, entry under
1919. It is also related in Wu Changshuo's nianpu, see Wu Changshuo
Shuhua]i (Taipei,1985), entry under the same year.
17. See Xi Nan, 'Wang Yiting in My Memory,' 18.
18. For thisart association, seeYangYi, Haishang Molin (Taipei,1975), entry438,
under Qian Hui'an, which reprints its charter. Gao Yong and Li Pingshu
wereamongtheorganizers. See also Qian Huafo and Zheng Yunei, SanshinianLaizhi Shanghai (Shanghaiin the Past Thirty Years)(Shanghai,1984),6r.
19. For these gatherings, see GaoYong's preface to Haishang Molin,1a.
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, 'Aletter
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A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY

to Li.i Zhi,' in Lang Shaojun, Lun Zhonguo Dangdai Meishu (O n Chinese
Modern Art) (Nanjing, 1988), 20. In this correspondence, Chen Duxiu
made it clear that he tried to eliminate the orthodox heritage: 'An ortho-dox
school such as this, which became an icon that allowed people to
worship it blindly, should be done away with; otherwise, itwould 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, 902-903.
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 artistsin Shanghai.
23. See Qian and Zheng, SaJShinian Lai,55: 'After [Wu Changshuo] became
friendly with Yiting, the formerwould 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 reciver
ofWu Changshuo's paintings.'
24. Wang Geyi Huiyi Lu, 89.
25. See Chen, Chunshen]iuwen, li, 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 LinFengmian, in Zhonguo Huihua
(Hong Kong, Furang Shufang 1974 reprint of the 1946 edition ), 44. Chen
Duxiu launched an attack on Chinese traditional art: 'Chineseart has
long been separated from the living world. Chinese people have been
used to seeing art assomething that hasnothing to do with them.Therefore, art is art, andlife is life. Art expresses neither its time, nor the artist 's
individuality.It is neither 'Tart pour l' art," nor "l'art pour la vie.'"
27. See Claudia Brown andJu-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the
Close of China's Empire (Phoen ix, 1992 ), figure 76. One of the intriguing
features of this work is that most ofthe 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 maysimply be due to compositional needs.
28. Photograph of this painting is unavailable.
29. According to
the inscription appended to the album, Wang Zhen k
ep
t
this album for an extended period, writing at the end that 'thisalbum 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 hewas fond ofit.
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