Artist: Title: Dynasty/Date: Format: Medium: Dimensions: Credit line: Accession no.: Provenance: Xia Yong 夏永 (active mid-14th century) The Yueyang Pavilion 岳陽樓圖 Yueyanglou tu Yuan, mid-14th century Album leaf Ink on silk 26.7 x 26.2 cm. (10-5/16 x 10 in.) Gift of Charles Lang Freer Tonying and Company, New York Album: Cloth-covered wooden covers, with label slip. Twelve leaves. Each leaf bears either one or two collector seals of Cheng Xun 成勳 (unidentified, 19th 20th century?), who may have assembled the album from disparate sources (see Collector Seals, no. 3). Label slip: Unidentified. Pasted on cloth album cover, upper right. Four characters, standard script. 墨林叢翰 Thicket of Brushworks from the Forest of Ink 1
Painting: Ninth leaf in album. Mounted separately on interior right side of folded cardboard backing. Jiehua-style painting of architecture and landscape. 1 Long inscription, with one (1) artist seal; no signature. Ten (10) collector seals. Inscription: Literary text, prose: Yueyanglou ji 岳陽樓記 (Record of the Yueyang Pavilion), by Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 (989 1052). 2 22 columns, miniature standard script. 慶歷四年春, 滕子京謫守巴陵郡 越明年, 政通人和, 百廢具興, 乃重修岳陽樓, 增其舊 3 製, 刻唐賢今人詩賦于其上, 屬予作文以記之 予觀夫巴陵勝狀, 在洞庭一湖, 啣遠山, 吞長江, 浩浩蕩蕩, 橫無際涯, 朝暉夕陰, 氣象萬千, 此則岳陽樓之大觀也 前人之述備矣 然則北通巫峽, 南極瀟湘, 遷客騷人, 多會於此, 覽物之情, 得無異乎! 若夫霪雨霏霏, 連月不開, 陰風怒號, 濁浪排空, 日星隱耀, 山岳潛形, 商旅不行, 檣傾楫摧, 薄暮冥冥, 虎嘯猿啼 登斯樓也, 則有去國懷鄉, 憂讒畏譏, 滿目瀟然, 感激而悲者矣 至若春和景明, 波瀾不驚, 上下天光, 一碧萬頃, 沙鷗翔集, 錦鱗游泳, 岸芷汀蘭, 郁郁青青 而或長煙一空, 皓月千里, 浮光躍金, 靜影沈璧, 漁歌互答, 此樂何極? 登斯樓也, 則有心曠神怡, 寵辱皆忘, 把酒臨風, 其喜洋洋者矣 嗟夫! 予嘗求古仁人之心, 或異二者之為, 何哉? 不以物喜, 不以己悲 居廟堂之高, 則憂其民 ; 處江湖之遠, 則憂其君 是進亦憂, 退亦憂 然則何時而樂耶? 其必曰 : 先天下之憂而憂, 後天下之樂而樂歟! 噫, 微斯仁, 吾誰與歸! 右岳陽樓記 [Text not translated. 4 ] 2
Signature: none Date: none Seal: (1) Xia Mingyuan yin 夏明遠印 (square relief) Collector seals: (10) 1. Geng Zhaozhong 耿昭忠 (1640 1687) 5 (7) Dancheng 丹誠 (circle intaglio; left half) mid right [Duwei Geng] Xingong shuhua zhi zhang [ 都尉耿 ] 信公書画之章 (square intaglio; left half) mid right Gong 公 (square relief) lower right Xingong zhenshang 信公珍賞 (square relief) lower right Zhenshang 真賞 (gourd relief) upper left Zhen[mi] 珍[ 祕 ] (square relief; right half) mid left Yi er [zisun] 宜爾[ 子孫 ] (square intaglio; right half) lower left 2. Geng Jiazuo 耿嘉祚 (late 17th early 18th century) (1) Huihou zhencang 會侯珍藏 (square intaglio) lower left 3
3. Cheng Xun 成勳 (unidentified; 19th 20th century?) (1) Lianqiao jiancang 蓮樵鑑藏 (square relief) upper left 4. Unidentified (1) upper right [Xiushui Liu shi] jiacang zhenwan [ 秀水劉氏 ] 家藏珍玩 (rectangle relief; left half) 6 Traditional Chinese catalogues: none Related Works (other versions): (6) all by, or attributed to, Xia Yong Palace Museum, Beijing. Oval fan. 25.2 x 25.8 cm. Inscribed with Fan Zhongyan text. Signed and dated (1347); no seal. In Yu Hui 余輝 et al., eds. Yuandai huihua 元代繪畫, in series Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin daxi 故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系 (Shanghai: Shanghai kexue jishu chubanshe, 2005), 216 17 (no. 109). Palace Museum, Beijing. Album leaf. 24.4 x 26.2 cm. Inscribed with Fan Zhongyan text. Artist seal. In Zhongguo gudai shuhua jiandingzu 中國古代書畫鑒定組, eds., Zhongguo gudai shuhua tumu 中國古代書畫圖目, vol. 19 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1998), 297, Jing 京 1 801. Yunnan Provincial Museum, Kunming. Album leaf. 26 x 24.7 cm. Inscribed with Fan Zhongyan text. Signed, with seal (illegible). In Yunnan sheng bouwuguan 雲南省博物館, eds., Yunnan sheng bouwuguan canghua ji 雲南省博物館藏畫集 (Kunming: Yunnan meishu chubanshe, 4
1999), 18 19. National Palace Museum, Taibei. Formerly attributed to Li Sheng 李昇 (early 10th century). Oval fan. 23 x 23.8 cm. Inscribed with Fan Zhongyan text. No signature; no seal. In Lin Lina 林莉娜, Gongshi louge zhi mei: jiehua tezhan 宮室樓閣之美 : 界畫特展 (The Elegance and Elements of Chinese Architecture: Catalogue to the Special Exhibition "The Beauty of Traditional Chinese Architecture in Painting") (Taibei: National Palace Museum, 2000), 24 25 (plate 4), 98, and 115 16. See also Xue Yongnian 薛永年, Qinggong jiucang Li Sheng Yueyanglou tu kaobian 清宮舊藏傳李升岳陽樓圖考辨, in Shoucangjia 收藏家 9 (1995.1): 16 17. Shanghai Museum of Art. Different composition. Album leaf. 24.4 x 25.6 cm. Inscribed with Fan Zhongyan text. No signature; no seal (?). In Zhongguo gudai shuhua jiandingzu 中國古代書畫鑒定組, eds., Zhongguo gudai shuhua tumu 中國古代書畫圖目, vol. 2 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1987), 112, Hu 滬 1 0222. Unknown collection (authenticity uncertain). Different composition. Album leaf. 21.9 x 23.2 cm. Inscribed with Fan Zhongyan text. Artist seal. In Sotheby s, Important Classical Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy, auction catalogue, Hong Kong, Sunday, October 29, 2000, Sale HK0166, Lot 12. Selected Bibliography: Xie Zhiliu 謝稚柳 (1910 1997). Tang Wudai Song Yuan mingji 唐五代宋元名迹. Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe, 1957. Cat. no. 102. 5
Cahill, James F. Chinese Album Leaves in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1961. Pp. 14 and 36 (plate 20). Zhongguo gudai huihua xuanji bianji weiyuanhui 中國古代繪畫選集編輯委員會, eds. Zhongguo gudai huihua xuanji 中國古代繪畫選集. Beijing: Xinhua shudian, 1963. Cat. no. 61. Freer Gallery of Art. Freer Gallery of Art I, China. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1972. Plate 65 and p. 168. Weidner, Marsha Smith. Painting and Patronage at the Mongol Court of China, 1260 1368. Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Berkeley, 1982. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1983. Pp. 183 and 366 (plate 145). Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬 (1920 2007), ed. Chūgoku kaiga sōgō zuroku 中國繪畫總合圖錄 (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Paintings). 5 vols. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1982 83. Vol. 1, 246 (A21 158).. Chūgoku kaigashi 中國繪畫史. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1984. Part 2, section 1, 174; and part 2, section 2, 125 (plate 123). Wei Dong 魏冬. Xia Yong ji qi jiehua 夏永及其界畫. In Gugong bowuyuan yuankan 故宮博 物院院刊 26 (1984.4): 168 83, esp. 174 76 and fig. 5. Guoli gugong bowuyuan 國立故宮博物院, eds. Haiwai yizhen: huihua 海外遺珍 : 繪畫 (Chinese Art in Overseas Collections: Paintings). Taibei: Gugong bowuyuan, 1985. P. 103. 6
Strassberg, Richard E. Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994. Pp. 156 159. Haiwai cang Zhongguo lidai minghua bianji weiyuanhui 海外藏中國歷代名畫編輯委員會, eds. Haiwai cang Zhongguo lidai minghua 海外藏中國歷代名畫. 8 vols. Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 1998. Vol. 5, 6 (no. 5). Toda Teisuke 戶田禎佑 and Ogawa Hiromitsu 小川裕充, eds. Chūgoku kaiga sōgō zuroku: zokuhen 中國繪畫總合圖錄 : 續編 (Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Paintings: Second Series). 4 vols. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1998 2001. Vol. 1, 129 (A21 365-9). Notes 1 Together with the companion painting F1915.16h, this album leaf is a masterpiece of jiehua 界畫 (ruled-line) ink painting, a term that originated in the Southern Song dynasty (1127 1279). Deriving from a long tradition of architectural drawing, jiehua is the only non-freehand style of Chinese painting. The brush was attached to a stick that could move smoothly along a groove in an ungraduated ruler called a jiechi 界尺, thus allowing the artist to draw regularly-spaced and consistently-even straight lines. For a third jiehua painting included in the website, see F1919.128. 2 Celebrated for its view over Dongting Lake 洞庭湖, the pavilion depicted in this album leaf is situated on the former west gate of Yueyang 岳陽, in Hunan Province, where a tower has 7
stood since the third century. Rebuilt as a viewing pavilion in 716, the structure came to serve as a popular destination for social gatherings during the Tang dynasty and provided the lyrical setting for numerous poems. Restored many times over the centuries, the pavilion was last rebuilt in its entirety in 1867. However, the most famous reconstruction was undertaken in 1044 by the prefect Teng Zongliang 滕宗諒 (or Zijing 子京 ; 991 1047), who inscribed the walls of the pavilion with the verses of earlier poets, and two years later invited his close friend, the eminent statesman, essayist, and poet, Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 (989 1052) to compose a literary record (ji 記 ) to commemorate his efforts. While the pavilion constructed by Teng Zongliang burned to the ground in 1079, Fan Zhongyan s record of it became one of the best known works of its kind in Chinese literature, and its text was inscribed on the painting in minute standard script by the fourteenth-century painter Xia Yong, who also applied one of his seals at the end. For the fully annotated Chinese text, see Gao Buying 高步灜 (1873 1940), Tang Song wen juyao 唐宋文舉要, 3 vols. (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), vol. 2, 651 55. 3 Available character sets do not include the original form of the character written here, which consists of a 口 radical on the left and a 銜 element on the right. 4 For English translation, see Richard E. Strassberg, Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, Berkeley, 1982), 156 59. 5 The same group of eight seals and half-seals belonging to Geng Zhaozhong 耿昭忠 (1640 1687) and Geng Jiazuo 耿嘉祚 (17th 18th century) also appear on the oval fan version of 8
this composition formerly attributed to Li Sheng 李昇 (early 10th century), currently in the National Palace Museum, Taibei (see Related Works [other versions], no. 4). 6 For the missing characters of this half-seal impression (as indicated by brackets []), see an impression of the same seal on the companion album leaf, F1915.36h (Pavilion of the Prince of Teng). 9