ZhouXian s Fabulous Construct

The Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake
BRITTA ERICKSON

In the middle of the nineteenth centur y, 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 theThatched 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
theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake' ( Fan hu Caotang]i, see Appendix ),
and produced a painting of the estate, now lost. Furthermore, he
acted as the catalyst for the creation ofatleast 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 ( Fan hu
Caotang Tu ).' Ren Xiong (1823-1857), an important nineteenth-century artist, painted one of the handscrolls, a tour de force in a minutely
detailed blue-and-green ( qinglii ) style (figure 1).The other work, rendered in ink on paper, is the product of more than thirty artists,
including Tao Qi (1814-1865), Huang Ju (1796?-1860), and Chen Xun
(died 1860) (figure 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 (abou t 1834-1862)
wrote the other inscription, which he appended to Zhou Xian'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

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF C H I NA'S EM PI RE

[b]

[cl]
Figure 1. Ren Xiong, Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake, dated 1855.
Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 35.8 x 705-4 cm. Shanghai Museum .
Thatched Cottage of Pan 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 Zhou Xian 's fabulous construct form the core of this paper.
We shall consider the inscriptions to the extent that they provide an
understanding of the patro n's desires regarding production of the
Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake . Zhou Xian apparently
strongly influenced Ren Xiong's work. Ren Xiong 's painting agrees
with Zhou Xian's description of the estate and picks up on the refer68

ZHOU X!A N'S FABULOUS CO NST RUCT
, l.·J\ tf .t-

[ a]

[c]
ence to Zhuangzi. Ren Xiong also furthered Zhou Xian 's goal oflegitirnizing 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 ' by1858. We know this because during that year he inscribed
it, along with a few additional notes, and appended it to Ren Xiong 's

ART AT THE CLOSE OF C H I NA' S E MP I RE

[f]

[h ]

painting of the Thatched Cottage (see Appendix ). At that time, Zhou
Xian was in his late thirties, at the peak ofhis social position. Born in
1820, he was a native of Xiushui, which is halfway between Hangzhou
and Shanghai in the present-day prefecture of Jiaxing.' Like his ancestors, Zhou Xian spent periods of time away from his home, residing
temporarily at the sites of hisvarious military and government posts,
including that of district magistrate . His major militar y 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

ZHOU XIAN 'S FAB U LO US CO NSTRUCT

[e]

[g]

prefectu re, supposedly following an argument with a higher official.•
According to Zhang Mingke , author of Hansong Ge Tanyi Suolu, he
then went to Suzhou, where he sold paintings to support himself.' 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,
' Reco rd of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake ,' he wrote:
This retired scholar is a native ofZuili. Hishome is adjacent to
Fan Li Lake. From the lake, he has drawn the name of his abode,
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ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE

callingit theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake; andfrom theThatched
Cottage, he has derived his own name, the Retired Scholar of Fan
Lake ( Fanhu ]ushi).
From Zhou Xian'sequating 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, theThatched Cottage of Pan 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 theThatched 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 the Thatched 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) ofland at the shore of the lake, and to
live there, giving the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake as its name.' ' It
seems that he wished to move his residence to a very desirable site
within the town ofJiaxing, 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 the Thatched
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

ZHOU XIAN 'S FABU LO US CO NST RUCT

begun to diminish. However, bythe mid-1860s hisfortunes 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
wasingreat turmoil.The country'seducated elite,includingZhou Xian
himself and some of his associates , felt responsible for holding the
country together. Furthermore, few residents ofJiangnan were untouched bytheviolence and destruction of theTaiping Rebellion. Zhou
Xian'ssense of stress was heightened bythefact 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 imag ination.
The extent to which he was able to project this hold onto his cohorts
is demonstrated by Yang Xian 's and XuJin's inscriptions, as well as
by Ren Xiong 's 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 hewas 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.' In addition, he may have had a heightened awareness of military problems because of his possible involvement with
the army in a civilian capacity!
By the late1840s, Zhou Xian was at the center of a coterie of artists and
men of lett ers, including contributors to the collaborative Thatched
Cottage of Fan Lake handscroll such as HuangJu and Chen Xun. Zhou
Xian chronicled his activities and interactions with colleagues in his
Fanhu Caotang Yigao, frequently mentioning HuangJu and ChenXun
as travelling companions. A seal carver who followed the style current
in his native Hangzhou, ChenXun chose to reside in Suzhou. ' HuangJu ,
foster father to Ren Xiong's wife, also lived in Suzhou , although
0

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ART ATTHE CLOSE OF C H I NA' S E MP I RE

he was a native of Songjiang. He painted a variety of subjects, including landscapes in the style of Wang Hui(16321-717),flowering plants in
the style of Yun Shoup ing(1633-1690), figures, and beautiful women."
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 ).'" In it, Zhou 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 Xio ng'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 Zhou Xia n'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 andJiangsu provinces. Zhou Xian was close enough to the
artist to write familiarly about his struggle to support his family
through his painting .The warm regard which Zhou Xian held for
Ren Xiong is demonstrated by the sensitivity with which he wrote of
the latter 's death from tuberculosis in1857, at age thirty-four.
1

'

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 Han.song Ge Tanyi Suolu of 1908, stated that Zhou Xian
himself painted a handscroll of that title;1' the painting's location is
unknown. The second work, Ren Xiong '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, Zhou Xian appended his long description of the
estate, the' Record of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake ,' to Ren
Xio ng'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. Yang Xian , a wealthy patron of the arts , added a
colophon to the collaborative handscroll following a meeting with
1
•

74

Z HO U X IAN' S FABULOUS CO NST RUCT

Zhou Xian in 1858. Yang Xian , who lived in Suzhou, was a calligrapher
and scholar of epigraph y,specializing in Han stele scripts. As a poet,
his writings reflect his concern over the state of China.
The Picture oftheThatched Cottage of Fan Lake (figure1), 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.
Zhou Xian's influence on the handscroll's style and content was substantial, no doubt because he was a central figure in Ren Xio ng's life,
as both patron and friend . Because this handscroll so closely reflects
Zhou Xian's specifications for his estate, it holds an important place
in the latter 's creation of his complex symbolic fiction , the Thatched
Cottage of Fan Lake.
Notes in Zhou Xian 's Fanhu Caotang Yigao afford us the opportunity to observe how the relationship between Zhou Xian and Ren
Xiong changed from 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 Zhou Xian 's request.According to Zhou
Xian's record of this painting in his Fanhu Caotang Yigao, they crossed
the Qiantang River together , whereupon Zhou Xian ' immediately
instructed ( z hu ) the Recluse (Ren Xiong) to make a drawing of it so
that he could keep [the drawing] at the Thatched Cottage of Fan
Lake as a record of having seen it.' 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. 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.
Zhou 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 ' Biograph y of Ren the Recluse '
that, 'For Zhou Xian , he painted the long painting , the Thatched
Cottage of Fan Lake . Two zhang in length (one zhang is equivalent to
3.33 meters ), it was to be declared remarkable.' " In terms of sheer
size (35.8 x 705.4 cm), the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake is
equalled in his oeuvre by only the 120-leaf Album of Paintings after
Poetry by Yao Xie,'
and the labor he lavished on detail is absolutey
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18

0

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ART ATTHE CLOSE OF C H I NA'S EMP I RE

......,

,, .,,
\,.

J J Il
.....
..,.. .,/f,
\
,,

*,' , .
,

I / ,. ..

t

.,,,
'

,

,.

Figure 2. Tao Qi and others, Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake,late
r85os-early r86os. Handsc roll, ink on paper. Shangh ai 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 Zhou Xian

indicates the value he attached to the painting.
The collaborative Picture of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake (figure 2)
was painted over the course of several years, with most of the contributions made to it during1859 and1861,judging from the participating

ZHOU XIAN'S FABULO US 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 towhich Zhou Xian directed
the artistic programs of the twoworks may be ascertained bycomparing their imagery with that of his 'Record of theThatched Cottage of
Fan Lake.' Such a comparison will reveal a very close correlation between Zhou 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 Zhou 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 who created
the collaborative work may have seen Zhou Xian's handscroll prior
to painting their own images of the estate, it seems unlikely that
Zhou Xian would have held up his own rendering as a model for Ren
Xiong, whom he would have considered the superior artist.
At first glance, ZhouXian'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 ofbuildings 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 Zhou Xian's description. I shall return to his comments on
the Picture of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake below.
Whereas space considerations do not permit a vista by vista comparison of Zhou Xian's text with Ren Xiong's painting in the present
essay, quotes from Zhou 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 paintingwill 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:
Down towards the east and to the north of the ridge, amongst
trees and luxuriant, fragrant vegetation, a tall building rises up.
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ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CH I NA' 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 ofboth lake
and mountains, exactly as Zhou Xian relates. Ren Xiong's Ceremonial
Cap Building is attached to the Little House of SpringTrees, 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 Xio ng'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 Zhou 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 RenXiong'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 the Thatched Cottage of
Fan Lake (figure 4) based on ZhouXian's description.Whereas other
versions of the map would be possible, this one fits both Zhou
Xian's and Ren Xiong's descriptions of the estate. Each of the buildings and vistas mentioned by Zhou Xian appears in Ren Xiong'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.

ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT

Gull Nest

Rockery

Round
Hollow

House of Cl
Poems Among
the Flowers

Northern HIiis

Kiosk of the Water Sedge

Bamboo Ravine Southern
Chamber Gallery Torrents

and Cloud Qin

Western Chamber of Thatched

Village Trumpet Creepers Cottage

Ceremonial Little House Square
Gourd
Cap Bullding of Spring Trees Studio Belvedere

I

Figure 3. Diagram of Ren Xio ng's Picture of theThatched Cottage
of Fan Lake, with buildings labelled according to Zhou Xian 's 'Record of the
Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake.'

Zhou Xian 's description of the estate does not list the components of the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake in the exact order inwhich
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, awayfrom 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 AT THE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE

D

Northern

Hills

Studio

Under the Pines
House of Ci Poems
Among the Flowers

D

Gourd
Belvedere

Kiosk

of Water

C
a
ltro
p
s

Rockery

0

Gull Nest

Round
Hollow
Bamboo
Chamber
Ravine
Gallery

Southern
Torrents

Kiosk of the W
r
te
a
and Cloud Qin

I -

I

Path of Viewer

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 Among 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 ofland, and finish
with a diminishing land mass, in this way bracketing his view of the
lakewith 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 the Thatched
Cottage, is a building housing a qin.This could be the Kiosk of the

80

ZHOU XIAN'S FAB UL O US CO NSTRUCT

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 Zhou Xia n'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 the Thatched 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 Zhou Xia n'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 Zhou Xia n's description indicates that Zhou
Xian's essay, ' though recorded later than the painting itself, must
have been in an early draft and made available to the artist .' 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 of Fan Lake could well have been familiar with both Ren Xio ng'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:
22

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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 RenXiong's painting influenced the subsequent rendering; it is also possible that both
handscrolls drew these images from ZhouXian'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 Zhou Xian and mounted
at the end ofRenXiong'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. 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 XuJin's suggestion in reference to Zhou Xian 's handscroll that, 'another Wangchuan Villa has
been painted.'" The second is his statement that 'the several tens of
gong (a unit ofland equivalent to 179 centimeters) [of the estate] are
divided into nineteen views.'" Both comments further the legitimization of Zhou Xian 's imaginary estate, the first through reference to
the revered original estate painting by Wang 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
Cottage of Fan Lake.
Yang Xian 's inscription begins with fifteen brief poems describing
vistasoftheThatched Cottage, andfinisheswith thefollowingcomment:
23

I recall that in 1858, Cunbo (Z hou Xian) 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
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ZHOU XIAN'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT

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 hasnoted thesignificance of the allusion to Zhuangzi in
Yang Xian'sinscription; therefore Iquote his summary of thesituation:
This place [that is, the Thatched Cottage] , so stated YangXian,
was but a fable, or yuyan, alluding to Zhuangzi's chapter nineteen, particularly the first line: ' yuyan shijiu' or 'imp uted words
make up nine tenths of it.' 21 Here the numeral shijiu is taken literally to mean nineteen, thus resulting in the number of scenes in
the painted scroll ofFanhu Caotang ."
The reference to Zhuangzi through division of theThatched Cottage
into nineteen vistas is extremely persistent. It appears in ZhouXian's
listing of precisely nineteen structures in his ' Record of theThatched
Cottage of Fan Lake' and is reiterated through RenXiong's representation of the same nineteen structures described by Zhou Xian . It
recurs inXuJin's statement that thelandscape in Zhou Xian's painting
is divided into nineteen views, and is stated explicitly by Yang Xian in
his inscription written at ZhouXian's request. Clearly, this reference
was engineered by Zhou Xian to help establish the Thatched 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 ' yuyanor "imputed
words" refers to words put into the mouths of historical or fictional
persons to make them more com pelling.'' 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 histori- cal
figure.The network of contemporary text contrived by Zhou Xian
was to anchor the estate in people's minds further.
29

0

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 the Thatched Cottage of Fan Lake. His choice of
this style contributes to Zhou Xian's program oflegitimizing the

ART AT THE CLOSE OF CHINA'S E MP I RE

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 oflegendary 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 hisworks in thisstyle include thefollow ing: Female Immortal Riding a Deer ,31 Mending the Official Robe," Album of Buddhist Figures ," and Pavilion in Enchanted Mountains. " 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 leavesand 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 the Thatched 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 the Thatched Cottage
of Fan Lake above the mundane world.This is in sharp contrast to the

ZHOU XIA N' S FAB UL O US CO N ST RUC 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 inkdeployed 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 .The Thatched Cottage is
an imaginary place that lacks the weight oflegend, 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 earlyliterary
and painting traditions within the inscriptions and paintings serve to
legitimize the estate through association. In particular, the allusions
to Zhuangzi and RenXiong'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,' andin part because of Ren Xiong's
ability to draw on historical painting traditions to create a detailed, and
therefore convincingly concrete, rendering of the estate.

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ART AT THE CLOSE OF CH I NA'S EMPIR E

APPENDIX

Record of theThatched Cottage of Fan Lake by Zhou Xian
This retired scholar is a native of Zu ili. 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 theThatched Cottage ,
he has derived his own name, the Retired Scholar of Fan Lake.When
this retired scholar was young, he accompanied his father who
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) ofland 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] issurrounded 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.
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ZHOU XIAN ' S FABULO US 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 of] 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 the Thatched 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 the Thatched 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 hegathered
all the works of ci poets from the Southern Tang, Northern Song and
later, and stored them away in the House of Ci Poems Among 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.

ART AT THE CLOSE OF CH I NA'S E MP I RE

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 ofbamboo
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, asin[the expression] 'one boat sailing through
five lakes.'Via a bridge one can then reach the pavilion , which is exquisitein architectural details.The appearance of thewaters and theclouds,
with its continuously flowing fullness, is never fixed. This retired gentleman once acquired a qin; it is ofdark 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'sedge] with one's eyes around towards the east from theThatched
Cottage, [these buildings] are there amongst the winding banks and
spits ofland.
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 Stu dio.
Across the Ravine Studio, after ten or twenty paces,avalleyspreads
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

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ZHOU XIAN'S FAB U LO US CO NST RUCT

or six jian (a jian 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 complexarray of rockforms includes some with sheer faces, somegrouped
together, some planted uprigh t, some lying on their sides, some
joined together, andsome widely spaced, somesingular in appear ance,
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 [isset] 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. Adwelling
a square zhang (3.33 meters) in size is just right for autumn pleasure,
and is called the Square Stu dio.
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,

ART AT THE CLOSE OF CH I NA'S EMPIRE

always verdant whether it is sunny or dimmed. From the front [of
this House] theThatched Cottage can be reached.
To the right of theThatched 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 itszenith, was absolutely wor-th_v:isiting.
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 theThatched Cottage.
In the seventh month of the year yimao (1855), the fifth year of
Xianfeng, a friend of this retired scholar, Ren Xiong of Xiaoshan,
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.

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ZHOU XI AN 'S FABULOUS CONSTRUCT

Notes
r. While a simpler designation for the paintings would be the 'Thatched

Cottage of Fan Lake,' I am calling each the 'Picture of the Thatched 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, seeJin 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; Yang Yi, Haishang Molin
(Shanghai Ink Forest) (Shanghai , 1919), 63; and Yujianhua editor, Zhongguo MeishujiaRenmingCidian (ADictionary of Chinese Artists)(Shanghai,
1981), 493.
4. Zhang , Hansong Ge, 64.
5. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64.
6. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan1, 15b and 16a.
7. For the full text in translation, see the Appendix.
8. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan1, 17a.
9. See Ding Wenwei, preface to Ren Xion g' s Liexian]iupai (Drinking Cards
with Illustrations of the Immortals) (1854).
IO. Yu, Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidia n, rn28.
n . Zhou , Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan1, 16b.
12. SeeJiang Baol ing, Molin]inhua (preface dated 1852),juan 16, rnb-n a. Also
see Yu, Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian, n68.
13. Zho u, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan1, 15b-18b.
14. Zhou , Fanhu Caotang Yigao,juan 1, 17a-b.
15. Zhang, Hansong Ge, 64.
16. Zhang , Hansong Ge, 64-65.
17. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao, juan1, 7a-8a.
18. Thisimage of a patron instructing an artist to record an event asitoccurred
isreminiscent ofEmperorTangTaizongcommanding YanLiben (died 673)
to paint some exotic birds he had been watching. See Zhang Yan yuan,
Lidai Minghua]i (A Record of Famous Painters of All the Dynasties )
( Huashi Congshu edition),juan 9, rn4.

91

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF C H I NA'S EMPIRE

19. Zhou, Fanhu Caotang Yigao,juan 1, 17a.
20. Ren Xiong painted this album for hissecond major patron, Yao Xie (18051864), in 1851. It is in the Palace Museum , Beijing.
21. I 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, 1796-1911

(Phoenix, 1992), 163.
23. Zh ang, Hansong Ge, 64-65.
24. Zhang , Hansong Ge, 64-65.
25. Zh ang, Hansong Ge, 65.
26. Dedicated to Kezhai, that is, Wu Dacheng (1835-1902),Yang Xian wrote the
inscription in the tenth month, the year of jichou (1889) of the Guangxu
reign. I thank Yin Chuang, Senior Lecturer, Department of Asian Languages, Stanford University, for his helpin 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 ChuangTzu (New York and London,
1968), 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 Pain ting ), VI (Beijing, 1987), Su 3-137.
32. There are two extant versions of this hanging scroll, one in the Xu
Beihong Memor ial H all, Beijing, and the other in the Stanford University
Museum of Art, Stanford, California. The latter , which is more likely to be
genuine, is reproduced in Britta Erickson, ' RenXiong 'sFinal Dated Work,
Mending the Official Robe,' Stanford University Museum of ArtJournal , XXIIXX II l, 6.The former is reproduced in Zhongguo Gudai Shuhua Tumu, I

(Beijing, 1986),Jing 13-13.
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ZHOU XIAN ' S FABULO US CO NSTRUCT

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 ), 59-74.

34. This album leaf is reproduced in James Soong and Jung Ying Tsao,
Chinese Paintings by the FourJens: Four Late Nineteenth Century Masters

(San Francisco, 1977 ), 27.

93