ARS

ORIENTALIS

40

ARS ORIENTALIS 40

ARS ORIENTALIS VOLUME 40

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ORIENTALIS
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FREER GALLERY OF ART

CONTENTS

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108

142

162

204

243

267

“DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting

in an American Museum Ingrid Larsen

ILLUSTRATIONS OF ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

ON CHINESE PORCELAINS

Iconography , Style, and Development Hsu Wen-Chin

DECIPHERING THE COLD SPARROW

Political Criticism in Song Poetry and Painting Bo Liu

“THE ABODE OF THE NÀGA KING”

Questions of Art, Audience, and Local Deities at the Ajantä Caves Robert DeCaroli

COMPOSITION AS NARRATIVE

Sâhïbdïn’s Paintings for the Ayodhyäkända of the Jagat Singh Râmàyana Cathleen Cummings

THE MARCY-INDJOUDJIAN COPE Vrej Nersessian

ENRICHED NARRATIVES AND EMPOWERED IMAGES IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY OTTOMAN MANUSCRIPTS Emine Fetvaci

TWO PAGES FROM THE LATE SHAHJAHAN ALBUM Laura E. Parodi

ARS ORIENTALIS 40

INGRID LARSEN

“DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum

1 (facing)

Photograph of Charles Lang Freer, 1916, platinum print, by Edward Steichen (1879-1973). Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sadder Gallery Archives.

Abstract

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) was the first American to make Chinese paint- ing a collecting priority, and from the start he specialized in works from the Tang, Song, and early Yuan dynasties. He never waivered in this pursuit, as is indicated in a postscript written on a letter to a Shanghai dealer near the end of his life: “Do not send me any Ming or later pictures. I buy only Sung [Song] and earlier paint- ings. CLF.” Chinese painting was a later interest for Freer. He began as a collector of European and American prints in the early 1880s and amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of works by the American artist James McNeill Whistler. In the late 1880s Freer acquired his first Japanese paintings, ceramics, and prints, and he carried on building this part of his collection through 1907. It was not until his first extended trip to China in 1909 that Freer turned his full attention to building a Chi- nese art collection — with painting at the forefront. By this time, he held unusually fixed ideas about Chinese painting.

This paper explores the influences that shaped Freer’s aesthetic views. A com- mon thread throughout the literature about Freer as a collector of Asian art is the notion that Whistler led him first to Japanese prints and then to the “early pro- ductions” of China and Japan. Actually, Freer’s interest in Japanese painting and prints predates their first meeting in 1890. Furthermore, Freer’s extensive activities as a collector of Japanese prints from 1889 to 1904 brought him into contact with another American, the Asian art scholar Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, whose role in shaping Freer’s collection has not been fully examined.

Fenollosa was the first curator of Asian art in an American museum — the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston — and in 1901 he became a kind of private curator to Freer. Together they systematically weeded out, catalogued, and made deliber- ate acquisitions to augment Freer’s unique collection of Asian and American art, preparing it to be gifted to the Smithsonian Institution. While Freer had many advi- sors during the years he built his collection, Fenollosa was unique in his ability to articulate the visual connections Freer found in an otherwise disparate collection of American and Asian art and to conceptualize it as an organic whole with three main divisions: the pictorial works of Whistler; Asian glazed pottery; and Chi- nese and Japanese painting. For Fenollosa, Chinese and Japanese painting was one aesthetic tradition, with early Chinese painting of the Tang, Song, and early Yuan dynasties at its foundation. Freer’s commitment to completing his painting collec- tion as he and Fenollosa envisioned it explains his refusal to embrace Ming dynasty or later Chinese paintings.

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2

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Handwritten postscript by Charles Lang Freer on letter to K. T. Wong, 28 February 1919. Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

CHARLES LANG FREER (fig. 1), a Detroit industrialist and founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, made his fortune by manufacturing railway cars. After retiring from active business in 1899, he dedicated the remainder of his life to building a sig- nificant collection of Asian and American art. At that time the arts of Asia were not widely exhibited or understood within the aesthetic or art historical context of museum displays. With the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1872 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1876, nascent collec- tions of Chinese and Japanese art became accessible to the public for the first time. Over the next fifty years, other American museums followed. The Freer Gallery of Art opened its doors on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1923. Six years later, by 1929, there were forty- three American museums with sizeable Chinese and Japanese art collections, as reported by Benjamin March (1899-1934) in China and Japan in our Museums.' March singles out Chinese painting as being represen- tative of the Freer collection.2 In fact, Charles Lang Freer was the first American to make Chinese painting a collecting priority.

Chinese painting was a later interest for Freer. He began as a collector of Euro- pean and American prints in the early 1880s and gradually amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of watercolors, etchings, and paintings by the Ameri- can expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler (1834- 1903). 3 In the late 1880s Freer acquired his first Japanese paintings, ceramics, and prints, and he carried on build- ing parts of this collection through two trips to Japan in 1895 and 1907. Freer’s Japanese acquisitions declined between 1907 and his first extended trip to China in 1909, when he turned his full attention to building a Chinese art collection — with painting at the forefront. By this time, the Detroit collector held unusually fixed views about Chinese painting. He specialized in early Chinese painting — pre-four- teenth century — and never waivered in this pursuit, as is indicated in a handwritten postscript on a letter to one of his Shanghai dealers, K. T. Wong (Wang Jiantang He's;), near the end of his life: “Do not send me any Ming or later pictures. I buy only Sung [Song] and earlier paintings. CLF” (fig. 2).4

This article explores the influences that shaped Freer’s aesthetic views about the pictorial arts of China as he built the first major collection of Chinese painting in an American museum. A common thread throughout the literature about Freer as a collector of Asian art is the notion that Whistler led Freer first to Japanese prints and then to the “early productions” of China and Japan (fig. 3). 5 While Freer came to understand and appreciate his Asian collection under the influence of Whistler, he had already begun acquiring Japanese painting and prints before he met the Amer- ican artist who was then living in London. Furthermore, Freer s extensive activities as a collector of Japanese prints brought him into contact with another American, the Asian art scholar Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853-1908) (fig. 4), whose role in

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INGRID LARSEN

3

Photograph of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), 1885, photogravure attributed to Mortimer Mempes (1855-1938). Inscribed, “To Charles L. Freer — a un de ces jours" (till we meet again). Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sadder Gallery Archives.

4

Photograph of Ernest F. Fenollosa (1853-1908) in Charles Lang Freer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

shaping Freer’s views about Chinese painting have not been fully examined. Freer embraced Fenollosa’s concept that Chinese painting before the fourteenth century provided the foundation for a unified collection of Chinese and Japanese painting. As a result, the Freer Gallery of Art houses one of the most important collections of paintings from the Song and Yuan dynasties (tenth to fourteenth centuries) in the West.6 Moreover, Freer’s preference for early Chinese painting helped set the course for other American collections as Chinese dealers supplied a concentration of early works from China to meet his demands, and American curators and Freer’s collector-friends bought up the surplus.

Freer and Whistler

The narrative of Freer’s life as a collector is often told with Whistler as the catalyst tor the industrialist’s interest in Asian art. The writing of Agnes Ernst Meyer (1887- 1970), a close friend and admirer from 1912 until the collector’s death in 1919 (fig. 5), is the usual source for this assertion.7 In 1927 she wrote, “It was Whistler’s pow- erful interest in the first gleanings of Japanese painting that came to Europe which turned Freer’s mind in that direction.”8 Later, in 1970, Mrs. Meyer recollected,

At our first meeting Mr. Freer explained that it was Whistler who called his attention to the Japanese screens, the Chinese blue-and-white china, the fans, ivories, and other things they called Chinoiserie as indications of a far earlier and higher culture than that of contemporary China. With his instinct for the development of art, he told Mr. Freer he was certain these recently

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5

Photograph of Agnes E. Meyer (1887-1970), 1906-1908, platinum print, by Edward Steichen ( 1879— 1973). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949 (49.55.226). Permission of Ioanna T. Steichen.

discovered objects must be the last gasp of a great tradition. He urged his young friend to explore this ancient country as he felt sure he would discover far more important treasures as the source of the trivial objects with which Europeans were now so captivated.9

Whistler apparently shared these views with Freer. Nevertheless, as will be dis- cussed below, this idea that greater traditions lay behind the Asian objects popular in Europe did not originate with Whistler.

Furthermore, it seems that Whistler was not the source of Freer s early interest in Japanese art. Freer had already purchased at least one Japanese painting before he acquired his first Whistler prints in 1887 or before he met the artist for the first time in 1890. 10 Early in 1887 the young collector from Detroit purchased a Japanese fan painting attributed to the Rimpa painter Ogata Kôrin (1658-1716) from Takayanagi Tôzô on Fifth Avenue in New York (fig. 6). 11 It was not until after the fan purchase that Freer acquired his first Whistler prints: a set of twenty-six etchings titled Venice: Second Series from M. Knoedler and Company in New York City.12

Another event explains how Freer became interested in collecting Japanese prints. In 1889 Freer became a member of the Grolier Club, the prestigious New York organization for bibliophiles and print collectors.13 The year he joined, its members included such notable collectors, dealers, and friends as Samuel Put- nam Avery (1822-1904), Henry O. Havemeyer (1847-1907), Frederick Keppel (died 1912), John La Farge (1835-1910), Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), Shugio Hiromichi (1853-1927), Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), and Stanford White (1853-1906). 14 In April 1889, Shugio Hiromichi, the Oxford-educated manager of the First Manufacturing and Trading Company in New York, launched the first major American exhibition of Japanese prints at the Grolier Club (fig. 7). 15 Accord- ing to Freer himself, this was how his Asian art collection began. In a 1915 inter- view with art critic and club member Royal Cortissoz ( 1 869- 1 948), Freer explained that after viewing the Japanese print exhibition at the Grolier Club in the late 1880s, he found “points of contact” between a few prints by Hokusai (1760-1849) and Whistlers etchings. Later, Freer bought some of Shugio’s Japanese prints, which proved to be the beginning of his Asian art collection.16 Unfortunately, this purchase is undocumented. Nevertheless, it seems safe to say that Whistler and Japanese art were two parallel streams of collecting interest and activity for Freer before he met the American expatriate artist in London in 1890.

Japanese prints were at the center of Freer’s early collecting activity and carried him into the orbit of the Asian art scholar Ernest Fenollosa. Inexplicably, experts treat Freer’s interest in Japanese prints as a brief episode.17 In reality, Freer spent

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INGRID LARSEN

6

6

Crane, attributed to Ogata Körin (1658-1716). Japan, Edo period, 19th century. Folding fan; ink and color on paper. F1887.1.

7

Catalogue of Exhibition, Japanese Prints and Illustrated Books at Rooms of Grolier Club (New York: DeVinne Press, 1889), cover. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library.

more than fifteen years acquiring Japanese prints — from the time of the first Gro-

lier Club exhibition in 1889 until around 1904, when he began looking for a buyer

for his collection.6 * * * * * * * * * * * 18 He sold most of the works — three hundred nineteen prints —

to Tod Ford, a California collector, in 1905. 19 As Freer explained to Ford, “I could

accomplish more by devoting my time and means to paintings.”20 By this time, he

could buy a Japanese painting for the price of a Japanese print. In fact, one of the

strengths of Freer’s Japanese painting collection is the number of paintings (more

than three hundred) by ukiyo-e artists that he purchased while other col-

lectors acquired prints. As one scholar observed, Freer often concentrated on pur-

suing works that did not appeal to other collectors.21

Freer and Fenollosa

If Whistler’s role in prompting Freer s Asian art collecting has been somewhat over-

stated, the influence of yet another American, Ernest Fenollosa, in shaping Freer’s views about Asian art has not been adequately examined. From the mid- 1880s until his death in 1908, Fenollosa was considered by many to be the “first authority in the West on the art of China and Japan.”22 In 1901 Fenollosa became an impor-

tant advisor to Freer. While there is still speculation about when the Detroit collec- tor and the Boston Orientalist first encountered one another. Freer undoubtedly

held Fenollosa in high regard long before 1901. 23

The son of a Spanish immigrant who married into a prominent family in Salem, Massachusetts, Ernest Fenollosa graduated from Harvard with first-class hon-

ors in philosophy in 1874 and was recommended by another Harvard graduate and Salem neighbor, Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925), to fill the first chair in philosophy and logic at the Imperial University of Tokyo, where Morse taught zoology. Soon after arriving in Japan with his young bride in August 1878, Fenol- losa developed a passion for Japanese art that led him into the fields of art history, archaeology, art criticism, and eventually art education and administration. His accomplishments in Japan between 1880 and 1890 include: surveying the temple art throughout Japan with his student Okakura Kakuzö (1862-1913);

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launching a public campaign to revive Japans traditional pictorial arts; being appointed to Japan’s Imperial Arts Commission and sent abroad for a year to study art institutions in Europe and America; and helping to establish Japan’s first fine arts academy. For his service, Fenollosa was given high court rank and decorated by the Meiji emperor.24

While in Japan, Fenollosa began his prolific writing career with at least a dozen articles, published in Japanese and English, regarding the arts and culture of Japan.25 He also kept up with the nascent Asian art literature written in West- ern languages that was sprouting up in Europe. In 1884 Fenollosa captured public attention when he published a scathing review of a chapter on Japanese painting in LArt Japonais written by the French art critic Fouis Gonse (1846-1921), calling it a “Hokusai-crowned pagoda of generalizations.”26 Fenollosa’s primary criticism was that Gonse drew conclusions about the entire history of Japanese painting based upon the modern prints of ukioy-e artists then popular in Europe while he failed to acknowledge the great masters of ancient times whose works laid the foundation for all that came later. This is more or less the same idea Whistler discussed with Freer regarding the greater traditions that lay behind the Asian art objects being made available in Europe. Within Asian art circles this view was associated with Fenollosa. According to Faurence Binyon (1869-1943), Keeper of the Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum,

Mr. Fenollosa . . . gave a clue to the understanding of the ideas which inspired successive periods of production... . The collectors of Europe had been enthusiastic over the art of eighteenth-century Japan; they had ignored the grander achievements in painting and sculpture of its earlier ages.27

The Gonse review was reprinted in 1885 by James R. Osgood, a publisher in Boston, and distributed more widely.28 Freer acquired a copy of the reprint and made a few handwritten comments in its margins.29 As it so happens, Whistler was an acquaintance of Fouis Gonse.30 It seems likely that Whistler, a collector of Japa- nese prints during this period, was aware of both the Gonse book and the Fenollosa review.

In 1889 Fenollosa was offered the curatorship for the newly formed Japanese department at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In accepting the position, he became the first curator of Japanese art in the first department ot Japanese art in an American museum. During the twelve years Fenollosa lived in Japan, he scoured the country — often accompanied by Morse, Okakura, and their Boston friend William Sturgis Bigelow (1850-1926)— looking for Japanese art treasures. Those works later became the strength of the Asian art collection at the Museum

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8

Two Herons and Lotus Flowers.

China, Ming dynasty. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. F1893.32.

9

Luohan Laundering, by Lin Tinggui #ÊJÏ(act. 1160-1180). China, Southern Song dynasty, 1178. Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink and color on silk. F1902.224.

of Fine Arts, Boston. When he returned to America, Fenollosa brought with him roughly a thousand Chinese and Japanese paintings that Charles Goddard Weld (1857-1911) had purchased and formally gifted to the Boston museum as the Fenollosa-Weld Collection at the time of his death in 1911. Most of these paint- ings were in the museum when Fenollosa began cataloguing and arranging the collection in 1890. 31

Early in his tenure at the Museum of Fine Arts, Fenollosa and Edward Morse, who became Keeper of Japanese pottery in 1 890, were appointed as members of the fine arts and pottery juries, respectively, for the Japanese exhibits at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.32 This was the first time Japanese art was included in the “fine arts” section at an American worlds fair.33 By 1893 Freer was already a recognized collector of American art, and he loaned nine paintings and seven prints to the American exhibits in Chicago.34 At that same time he was also actively acquiring Chinese and Japanese art from the New York dealers Takayanagi Tözö and Rufus E. Moore ( 1840- 1918). 35 He bought his first two Chinese paintings from Takayanagi in June of that year. Only one, the hanging scroll Two Herons and Lotus Flowers (fig. 8) by an anonymous artist of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), remains in the collection today.36 During his three visits to the Chicago Exposi- tion, Freer was almost certainly aware of the celebrated Japanese art curator Ernest Fenollosa and his role on the fine arts jury. If they met in the early 1890s as some claim, it could have happened in July of 1 893 when both men attended the fair.

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10

Poster for Japanese Color Prints,

First Complete Historical Exhibition, January 1896, lithograph, by Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922). Solomon and lulia Engel Collection, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York.

Soon after getting settled at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Fenollosa launched a series of six exhibitions to enlighten the public about the fine art tradi- tions of Asia. Hokusai and His School opened in the summer of 1892 and remained on view until March 1893. 38 From May 1893 through March 1894, early nine- teenth-century hanging scrolls by Keibun jS;>C (1779-1844) and Hoyen Tv HI (1803-1867) were shown. This presentation was followed by three exhibitions in close succession: sixteenth-century screens with gold backgrounds from the col- lection in April; a loan exhibition of Japanese prints from the collection of the Paris dealer Siegfried “Samuel” Bing (1838-1905) in May; and pre-seventeenth-century paintings and metalwork lent by F. Shirasu of Tokyo in June.39 In fact, in the 1890s the Museum of Fine Arts was the only museum in the country with a regular rota- tion of high-quality Asian art exhibitions.

During these years, Freer’s professional interests required frequent travel to the major cities in the Northeast, including Boston. His own growing collection of Japanese paintings and prints would have drawn him to the Boston exhibitions. According to his diaries, from the summer of 1892 to the summer of 1894, Freer visited Boston six times.40 Three of those visits overlapped with the Hokusai exhibi- tion where Freer apparently acquired his copy of Fenollosa’s catalogue.41

Fenollosa’s sixth and most ambitious exhibition in Boston opened in December 1894 and featured forty- four scrolls from a rare set of one hundred Chinese Bud- dhist paintings from the eleventh and twelfth centuries lent by the Daitokuji Ht*

a temple in Kyoto. This was a diplomatic and scholarly achievement that very few, if any, could have accomplished other than Ernest Fenollosa. In the catalogue introduction, the Boston curator explains the exhibition came about when the Dai- tokuji, in need of repair, was given permission by the Japanese government to dis- pose of the paintings.42 Indeed, after the exhibition, the Boston museum acquired ten scrolls, and the Japanese organizers gifted Fenollosa an eleventh scroll that he later sold to Freer in 1902 (fig. 9).43 The Daitokuji exhibition was the first major presentation of Chinese paintings in an American museum, and Freer’s acquisition became the first painting in his collection from the Song dynasty (960-1279). That said, he missed the Daitokuji exhibition, having departed on his first trip to Asia in September 1894.

By the time Freer returned to America a year later, Fenollosas position in the museum was in jeopardy for personal reasons. In September 1895, Fenollosa was put on indefinite leave after it was revealed he planned to divorce his wife and marry his young assistant, Mary McNeil Scott (1865-1954). Moving to New York, Fenollosa continued working on the catalogue for an upcoming ukiyo-e exhibition he organized with W. H. Ketcham, an art dealer on West 29th Street. In January 1896, The Masters ofUkioye opened at the Fine Arts Building in New York (fig. 10).

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Poster for An Exhibition of Japanese Prints at the Grober Club, April 11- May2, 1896. Grolier Club, New York.

Fenollosas impressive catalogue presented 447 paintings and prints grouped by artist chronologically, and it provided one of the first art historical treatments of the subject in English.44 This commercial exhibition included works from Fenollosas private collection as well as those of other well-known Japanese print collectors from New York and Chicago, including Freer s friend Howard Mansfield ( 1 894— 1938) and Frederick W. Gookin (1853-1936), who wrote the catalogue preface.45 Freer was clearly impressed with the exhibition; that January he wrote Ketcham to request four copies of “the excellent catalogue prepared by Prof. Fenollosa for the beautiful exhibition now being made of Japanese prints.”46

A few months later in April 1896, a second Japanese print exhibition opened at the Grolier Club (fig. 1 1), and this one included prints from Freer’s collection. Organized jointly by Shugio Hiromichi (mentioned above) and Howard Mansfield, the exhibition presented 182 prints by twelve ukiyo-e masters drawn from the col- lections of club members and non-members.47 On the last page of Shugio’s brief catalogue, the non-members are identified, and again the names of several collec- tors who lent to the Fenollosa/Ketcham exhibition are included.48 Freer’s prints are not identified in the catalogue because only non-members were acknowledged. However, Freer provided Mansfield with a descriptive list of the prints he sent for the exhibition, including works by Utamaro (1754-1806), Toyokuni ü|H (1769-1825), Yeishi ijliel (1747-1829), and Kiyonaga (1752-1815) that are consistent with eight works in the catalogue.49 A comment Freer made to Mansfield indicates a degree of competition that existed within this small circle of Japanese print collectors. “I hope your exhibition will prove very successful. I have no doubt that in quality and real interest it will surpass the Ketcham show.”50

Early in April 1 896, Fenollosa finally resigned from the Museum of Fine Arts and traveled with his new wife to Japan, where he spent the next five years in a kind of self-imposed exile. Despite Boston’s public shaming of the scholar, Freer and others continued to hold Fenollosa in high esteem. In May, Mansfield sent three Japanese paintings to Freer that had been “pronounced genuine by Fenollosa,” an appar- ent stamp of approval.51 While in Japan, Fenollosa and his dealer friend Bunshichi Kobayashi (1861-1923) organized the first extensive public exhibition of

ukiyo-e held in Japan in the spring of 1898 and the first Hokusai exhibition in the winter of 1900. Fenollosa wrote both catalogues and a second book on the history of ukiyo-e.52 The only documented contact between Freer and Fenollosa during those years was through intermediaries. Early in 1898, Ketcham informed Freer that a large group of Fenollosas paintings and prints would be sold.53 Between 1898 and 1900, Freer purchased ninety-five Japanese prints through Fenollosas lawyer, Edward S. Hull.54 Freer also acquired at least twenty-five ukiyo-e paintings in 1898 that had apparently been shown in the Fenollosa/Ketcham exhibition in New York.55

15 “DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

12B

12A

Sketch by Charles Lang Freer in the back papers of his 1901 diary. Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Sackler Gallery of Art Archives.

12B

Photograph of the Freer Gallery of Art, ca. 1923. Freer Gallery of Art Building Records.

By the time Ernest and Mary Fenollosa returned from Japan to settle in the United States in the summer of 1900, Freer had retired from active business and turned his full attention to collecting. When Fenollosa arrived in Detroit for the first time to spend a week viewing Freer’s collection in February 1901, both men were ready to begin the work of building a significant Chinese and Japanese paint- ing collection.56

That summer Freer’s travels in Europe took on a new focus. Leaving his friends in Capri, he visited the major ethnographical, historical, and industrial arts muse- ums of Venice, Munich, Nuremberg, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne- taking notes and sketching floor plans in the back papers of his diary.57 While touring Dresden’s ethnographical museum, he noted details such as, “Japanese prints in print department.”58 It seems Freer was already thinking about the design and organization of his future museum (figs. 12a, b).

Building a Chinese Painting Collection

Among the 3,404 Chinese objects in Charles Lang Freer s gift to the Smithsonian Institution, Chinese paintings made up the largest collection with 1,255 hang- ing scrolls, handscrolls, and album leaves. Other areas of concentration included 678 bronzes, 503 jades, and 481 objects of pottery, followed by 196 stone or wood sculptures, 183 textiles, and 108 miscellaneous small objects of lacquer, ivory, glass, silver, iron, or pewter.59 While Chinese painting was not a high priority until the final decade of his life, as indicated by an upsurge in acquisitions during Freer’s first extended trip to China in 1909, the Detroit collector spent much of the preceding decade educating himself about the painting traditions of China and Japan in the company of Ernest Fenollosa.

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Cover of Pacific Era, no. 2 (November 1 907). Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library.

From 1901 to 1908, Fenollosa acted as a kind of private curator to Freer, helping him to weed out, acquire, catalogue, and maintain his evolving collection of Chinese and Japanese painting.60 During those years others contributed to Freer’s effort to build a first-class collection of Asian art, including dealers Matsuki Bunkyö ( 1 867- 1940), Yamanaka Sadajirô (1866-1936), Dikran Kelekian ( 1 868—

1951), and Siegfried Bing.61 Nonetheless, Fenollosa distinguished himself with his ability to articulate clearly the aesthetic connections Freer found in his otherwise disparate collection of American and Asian art and by providing a coherent intellectual framework to guide the collector’s future acquisitions. Fenollosa and Freer’s shared vision for the collection is best stated in a 1907 article published in Pacific Era shortly after his gift to the nation had been formally accepted by the Smithsonian Institution (fig. 13). 62 Here, for the first time, Freer’s collection is described as consisting of “three great parts”: the pictorial works of James McNeill Whistler; the ancient glazed pottery of Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, India, China, Korea, and Japan; and the finest and best-unified group of masterpieces by Chinese and Japanese painters of all ages.63 With this in mind, the Japanese and Chinese painting acquisitions made with Fenollosa’s guidance help to explain Freer’s determined quest for early Chinese painting.

During the 1901 to 1908 period, Freer acquired the bulk of the 804 Japanese paintings he gifted to the Smithsonian.64 The strength of this collection was Bud- dhist, Kanö Rimpa, and ukiyo-e paintings that range from the fourteenth

through the nineteenth century.65 While Freer’s Chinese painting acquisitions dur- ing the same period are far fewer, it is nevertheless possible to recognize collect- ing patterns here as well.66 Prominent among these are Buddhist paintings of the Tang (618-960), Song (960-1279), and Yuan (1270-1368) dynasties; wash-style landscapes of the Northern (960-1126) and Southern Song ( 1 126-1279) dynasties; and archaistic blue-and-green landscapes in a Tang idiom from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). 67 If one accepts that Tang-style paintings produced in the Ming still preserve Tang aesthetics, these works best represent Chinese painting traditions of the tenth through the thirteenth century. In other words, early Chinese painting was viewed as completing the Japanese painting collection.

This unique view is corroborated in Fenollosa’s writings about the paint- ing traditions of China and Japan. He believed that Chinese and Japanese art was one aesthetic tradition and that ancient Chinese painting was the parent of Japa- nese painting.68 It was also his view that the great schools of Chinese painting had reached full fruition during the Tang and Song dynasties, and they had already sunk far into degeneration by the time of the Ming.69 Elsewhere, he explained fur- ther that the periods of excellence and decline in Chinese painting resulted from the “free individualism” that was allowed to flourish under Buddhism and Daoism

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14

Photograph of Duanfang (1861-1911), 1906, taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) in Washington, D.C. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-J698-1228A.

during the Tang and Song dynasties, followed by the Confucian “literary formal- ism” that set in under the Yuan and suppressed artistic creativity thereafter.70 As will be seen, these aesthetic values continued to guide Freer s acquisitions during the decade he dedicated himself to building a Chinese painting collection.

Upon arriving in Peking in September 1909, Freer checked into the luxury hotel, the Grand Hotel Wagons-Lits, adjacent to the Foreign Legation quarter. He then rented rooms in the Tartar City — the walled-in area also known as the Inner City that surrounded the Imperial Palace in the northern half of Peking — where he could conduct trade, and he sent out word that he was looking to acquire early Chinese paintings.71 According to Freer’s 1909 diary, he met regularly with dealers bearing obscure names: Riu Cheng Chai, Chi Pao-char, Yung Pao Chai, Pao Ming Sai, Ta Kou Tchai, and Loon Gu Sai.72 These unintelligible names were mainly the result of the irregular romanization used during the years Freer traveled in China. Several names could be shops just south of the Tartar City in the famous book- and-antique district known as Liulichang fjftïiÉIfjÿ. Yung Pao Chai may have been Yongbaozhai zKjfHf established at Liulichang in 1884. Loon Gu Sai was possibly Lunguzhai frojÉfïî?» a store in Liulichang since 1862 known to deal in Song paint- ing.73 Ta Kou Tchai was another spelling for Daguzhai jltJÉfîlf, the Beijing curio shop since around 1906 or 1907 of a dealer named Huo Mingzhi fJSJJjei; (born 1879). Freer referred to him as Mr. Ho.74

During a months stay Freer acquired 199 paintings, with the greatest share coming from Loon Gu Sai.75 Delighted with the results, he wrote his partner, Colo- nel Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927),

Thanks to Fenollosas superior teachings and the splendid opportunities given me i n Japan during the summer of 1 907, when I saw practically all of the early Chinese paintings owned publicly and privately in Japan, I knew what to search for when I began my quest here — I mean Peking — scientifically and determinedly for painting of the Tang, Sung [Song] and Yuan dynasties.76

Tang, Song, and early Yuan paintings were truly scarce in China long before this time. Early Chinese paintings with true pedigree were already in the imperial collection or in the hands of a few well-known private collectors. It is therefore not surprising that only three paintings purchased in Peking during Freer s 1909 visit were, in fact, early works.77 It is important to mention that among the “pretenders” were some later paintings of high quality.78

Freer’s prospects improved during his second trip to China in 1910 and 1911, when early paintings belonging to the famous Manchu official and collector Duan- fang UjinJj (1861-1911) became available (fig. 14). Duanfang— whose ancestors

18

INGRID LARSEN

15

Ten Thousand Li Along the Yangzi River ; attributed to Juran (act.

ca. 960-995). China, Southern Song dynasty. Handscroll; ink on silk. F1911.168.

16

Photograph of Pang Yuanji (1864-1949). From Zheng ZhongUp £, Haishang shoucang shijia 'MT. ftlStSlic (Shanghai: Shanghai shiji chubanshe, 2003), 65.

17

Photograph of John C. Ferguson (1865-1945). Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sadder Gallery Archives.

were apparently Han Chinese from Zhejiang who moved to Manchuria in the late Ming dynasty — rose to high office through the examination system and served as viceroy (governor) to the provinces of Hubei (1901), Fujian and Zhejiang (1905), Liangjiang [Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Anhui] (1906), and Zhili [including Shandong and Henan] (1909), and was en route to Sichuan when his soldiers assassinated him in 191 1.79 Americans knew Duanfang as an imperial commissioner who led a Chinese delegation to the United States and Europe in 1906 and 1907 to study educational, industrial, and political institutions.8" He was also the architect of Chi- na’s first worlds fair, the 1910 Nanyang Exposition in Nanjing.81 Duanfang’s private collection was built during the political turmoil in the last half of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth, when countless important antiques came onto the market.82 Like many Qing officials, Duanfang had close ties to art dealers in Liulichang.83

Freer first met Duanfang in October 1909 when he traveled from Peking to Tianjin for the day to view his famous collection in the company of the Ameri- can vice-consul general of Tianjin, G. Hamilton Butler.84 A year later, Freer visited the viceroy twice in Peking: first on 9 October with Marcel Bing (1875-1920), a Parisian dealer and the son of Siegfried Bing; and again on 12 October with Mrs. Lucy Calhoun ( 1 865-1950), the wife of the American ambassador, and her party.85 Before leaving Peking in February, Loon Gu Sai (mentioned above) sold to Freer one of Duanfang’s treasures, the twelfth- to thirteenth-century handscroll Ten Thousand Li Along the Yangzi River, attributed to the monk-painter Juran ]=L$k (active circa 960-995) (fig. 15). 86 This misty river landscape rendered with broad wash strokes and many gradations of ink recalled the painting style of the Southern Song master Freer admired most, Xia Gui J0± (active 1 195- 1 224), and at one time it was attributed to that artist.87 Freer later told Agnes Meyer that the Ten Thousand Li handscroll was previously owned by the Shanghai entrepreneur and collector Pang Yuanji jffTLdt (1864-1949) (fig. 16), who sold it to Duanfang.88 As will be seen, many of the early Chinese masterpieces that Freer acquired can be linked to both collectors.

During the 1910-11 trip. Freer also met John Calvin Ferguson ( 1865-1945) (fig. 17), the Canadian-born “China Hand” who arrived in Nanjing in 1887 to set up a Methodist school (later Nanjing University). After leaving the ministry in 1897, Ferguson became a close advisor to a succession of officials in the late-imperial and early-republican periods, including Sheng Xuanhuai ^Wifi (1844-1916), the minister of transportation; Viceroy Duanfang; and Xu Shichang (1855-1939), the president of the republic from 1918 to 1922. 89 It was Duanfang

19 “DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

i8

Nymph of the Luo River, attributed to Gu Kaizhi (It äSl (ca. 344-406). China, Southern Song dynasty. Handscroll; ink and color on silk.

F 19 1 4.53.

who introduced Ferguson to jinshi scholarship, the study of archaic texts on

ancient metal and stone objects.90 Fluent in Mandarin, Ferguson became a Chi- nese art scholar and dealer who later helped Freer acquire perhaps the most famous painting in Duanfang’s collection, Nymph of the Luo River (fig. 18), a twelfth- to thirteenth-century handscroll attributed to Gu Kaizhi IMfjaVl (circa 344-406).91

It is widely held that John Ferguson introduced Charles Lang Freer to Pang Yuanji (just mentioned above).92 Freer first viewed Pang’s famous collection on 14 January 1911 at his residence on New Chang Road (Niuzhuang Lu just

northeast of the race course in the international settlement.93 The Shanghai collec- tor was reputed to have one of the largest private collections of Chinese painting outside the Imperial Palace. By one contemporary estimate, the palace collection owned all extant paintings from the Jin and Tang dynasties, and two-thirds of all the Song and Yuan paintings and calligraphies, while Pang Yuanji owned the other third.94 Freer was clearly impressed with the objects he was shown that day and wrote “Fine Things” in his diary.

This meeting inaugurated a web of important relationships surrounding Charles Lang Freer from the time of his first contact with Pang. Freer’s 1911 diary entries record daily and often overlapping visits with Shanghai dealers and collec- tors, including Lee Van Ching (Li Wenqing circa 1869-1931 ), Pang Yuanji,

K. T. Wong (Wang Jiantang Mr. Hwang (Huang Zhonghui John

Ferguson, and Abel William Bahr (1878-1959).95 A merchant born in Shanghai, Bahr became a dealer in early Chinese art following Freer’s encouragement.96 Freer left China in February, having acquired 290 paintings primarily from Loon Gu Sai and Riu Cheng Chai in Peking and Lee Van Ching in Shanghai.97 Gallery records indicate 237 of these were acquired as works of the Yuan dynasty or earlier.98 Thir- teen, including the Ten Thousand Li masterpiece mentioned above, are currently accepted as works of the Song and Yuan dynasties.99

Freer intended to return to China, but he suffered a stroke that May.100 With his own increasingly fragile health and the tumultuous political situation in China, travel there was no longer feasible. In the following two years, the Detroit collector acquired fewer than a dozen Chinese paintings. Bahr sent two Ming scrolls from Shanghai in 1912 that Freer promptly returned with the advice “not to indulge

20

INGRID LARSEN

19

Bodhisattva and Attendants. China, Yuan dynasty, 14th century. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. F 1 9 1 3.65.

20

Vaisravana , Guardian King of the North. China, Yuan-Ming dynasties, late 14th century. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. F1914.147a.

in collecting such Ming paintings.”101 The dealer had better luck in 1913 when he offered Freer a fourteenth-century Buddhist painting now in the museums col- lection (fig. 19). Freer’s painting acquisitions began to pick up in 1914 when he added a few dozen works, including the above-mentioned Nymph of the Luo River that Ferguson delivered to Freer, together with a late fourteenth-century Buddhist painting also from Duanfangs collection (fig. 20). 102

Most of the great acquisitions Freer made subsequently came about when Pang Yuanji and the Shanghai dealers began to send their collections abroad. The 1915 Panama- Pacific Exposition in San Francisco prompted both Pang Yuanji and Lee Van Ching to send a group of early Chinese paintings to the United States as described in catalogues prepared for the grand event.103 Much to Freer’s displea- sure, neither collection was included in the official exhibits at the worlds fair. Freer was angry with John E. D. Trask (born 1871 ), the chief of the department of fine arts for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, for choosing to display the “unworthy” collection of Liu Sung Fu rather than “a really important group of early Chinese paintings well-known throughout the Orient, and which the owner [Pang Yuanji] once intended to exhibit in your Department.”104 In fairness to Trask, each country selected its own exhibits. The Chinese paintings that Freer found “unworthy” but were nonetheless officially shown at the Panama-Pacific Exposition were largely Ming, Qing (1644-191 1), and modern paintings.105

Pang Yuanjis collection was nevertheless brought to San Francisco by his younger brother, Pang Zanchen (JÜfflËS; 1881-1951), and the Paris dealer C. T.

21

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21

Photograph of C. T. Loo (Lu Qinzhai Äff If; 1880-1957), 1950, gelatin silver print by Rudolph Burckhardt (1914-1999). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Judith Esterow. ©2006 Estate of Rudy Burckhardt/ Artists Rights Society ( A RS), NY.

22

Photograph of Zhang Jingjiang jjlif tE (a.k.a. Curio Zhang; 1877-1950), in the collection of The Palace Museum, Beijing. ©The Palace Museum.

Loo (Lu Qinzhai Jllflrïlf; 1880-1957) (fig. 21 ).106 This was Freer’s first encounter with “Mr. Loo from Paris,” who became the leading Chinese antiquities dealer in the United States and Europe from this time into the 1950s. Loo had close business ties with the Pang family through his partnership with Zhang Jingjiang (a.k.a. Curio Zhang; 1877-1950) (fig. 22), the Shanghai banker and antiques dealer who owned Tonying and Company (Tongyun gongsi j|jl£) WJ). Curio Zhangs mother was Pang Yuanji’s sister, and Zhang grew up in the Pang home. C. T. Loo joined Zhang Jingjiang in France around 1903 and helped manage the Paris branch of Tonying and Company. Later, Loo opened his own antiques business, Laiyuan and Company (Laiyun gongsi in 1909 and a second company with the

Shanghai dealer Wu Qizhou called C. T. Loo and Company (Luwu gongsi

Jll^^W]), with branches in Paris and Beijing in 191 1 ,107 Around the time of the Panama- Pacific Exposition, he opened a branch of C. T. Loo and Company at 489 Fifth Avenue in New York City.108

According to his diary, Freer spent the day (29 April 1915) with Pang and Loo viewing Pang Yuanji’s paintings in San Francisco’s Fairmont Flotel.109 The follow- ing day they lunched together, and Freer purchased thirteen works for $16,500 — including two designated for Agnes and Eugene Meyer.110 The Meyers later paid $10,000 for two additional handscrolls that Pang and Loo carried back to New York: Wind and Snow in the Fir Pines (fig. 23), the thirteenth-century masterpiece by the Jin-dynasty artist Li Shan ^[JL[ (mid-twelfth to early thirteenth century); and Tipsy Monk (fig. 24), attributed to Li Gonglin (circa 1049-1 106). 111

The Meyers had seen these two paintings in New York before Pang Zanchen and C. T. Loo transported the works to San Francisco. Agnes Meyer expressed a special enthusiasm for the Li Shan and Li Gonglin, which possibly explains why Freer did not purchase these two masterpieces for himself.112 The Meyers later gifted the pair of scrolls to the Freer Gallery in the 1960s.113

It is unclear if Lee Van Ching’s works were brought to California. Freer does not mention Lee’s paintings in his diaries or correspondence from San Francisco that April. Nevertheless, the following January Freer bought the entire one hundred works featured in Lee’s catalogue from the Panama-Pacific Exposition.114 Judg- ing from the content of the Pang and Lee catalogues, the Shanghai dealers clearly understood Freer’s preferences and had assembled these collections with him in

22

INGRID LARSEN

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WiW cmd Snow in the Fir Pines, by Li Shan 2pi|_U. China, mid- 12th to early 13th century. Handscroll; ink and color on silk. F1961.34.

24

Tipsy Monk, attributed to Li Gonglin (ca. 1049-1106). China, Southern Song dynasty. Handscroll; ink and color on paper. F1968.18.

mind. Both catalogues predominantly feature Yuan and earlier paintings, and Freer was given the opportunity to make the first selection.115

A year later Pang Yuanji sent another impressive group of seventy paintings attributed to the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, and Yuan periods and fully illustrated them in the catalogue Antique Famous Chinese Paintings Collected by Pang Lai Chen.11 6 This time Pang Zanchen and another Shanghai dealer, Seaouke Yue (You Xiaoqi ^ffjjr/lt), brought the paintings to New York and showed them to Freer at the Plaza Flotel.117 Freer bought twenty-one paintings from Pang, including two exceptional Song-dynasty masterpieces that previously had been in Duanfang's collection.118 Clearing Autumn Skies Over Mountains and Valleys by Guo Xi $['>

(circa 1000-circa 1090) (fig. 25) was a major conquest for Freer, who regarded the Northern Song master as “the greatest painter ot distance in Chinese art.”119 The second handscroll was Freer’s first acquisition of a painting from the imperial collection — Shu River (fig. 26), a topographical landscape depicting places along the Yangzi River as it passes through Sichuan (or Shu Hj) — and was attributed to another favorite artist, Li Gonglin.

The Shu River handscroll carries a unique history as one of four famous paint- ings first acquired by the late Ming collector Gu Congyi (1523-1588) and

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25

Clearing Autumn Skies over Mountains and Valleys, attributed to Guo Xi $ [5BB (ca. 1000-1090). China, Northern Song dynasty. Handscroll; ink and color on silk. F 19 16.538.

later rejoined in the collection of the Qianlong emperor (1711-1799; reigned 1735-96) during the Qing dynasty. The other three handscrolls are Admonitions of the Instructress, attributed to Gu Kaizhi and now in the British Museum; Dream Journey on the Xiao-Xiang River, attributed to Li Gonglin and now in the Tokyo National Museum; and Nine Songs, also attributed to Li Gonglin and now in the National Museum of China (previously called the History Museum). Qianlong was so delighted with the four paintings that he built a studio, the Jingyixuan ff fnfff > to house the scrolls and created the special Simeiju IZHjttijII [Four Beauties Complete] seal found on each onet.120 Apparently, the Dowager Empress Cixi ( 1 835—

1908) gifted the Shu River handscroll to Duanfang.121 In 1902 he proudly listed the scroll in a catalogue of his painting collection.122

The handscrolls Clearing Autumn Skies and Shu River are indicative of Freer’s preference for early landscapes in a more representational tradition. A comment that Pang Yuanji made to the young painter-connoisseur, Wang Jiqian RR^p (C. C. Wang; 1907-2003), points to another distinguishing characteristic of Freer s painting collection. As Wang noted,

He [Pang] had more than one thousand scrolls and albums, and as I recall, the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., bought many paintings from him.

Mr. Pang would sometimes tell me what he had sold to them and that often what he thought was very good, they didn't like. Usually they preferred Sung paintings and not the Yuan paintings which he liked.123

Pang’s comment addresses an omission in Freer’s acquisitions that would have been apparent to any art connoisseur in China, namely, there are no scholar-literati landscape paintings by the Four Masters of the Yuan: Wu Zhen j^tSt (1280-1354), Huang Gongwang fÊî'jf'M (1269-1354), Ni Zan fjrpff (1301-1374), and Wang Meng JEW. (circa 1308-1385). Here again, the influence of Ernest Fenollosa’s teachings is felt with the dismissal of paintings by these “Confucian formalists.” Literati landscapes are also omitted from the paintings that Fenollosa acquired for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Another collection of Chinese paintings brought to Freer’s doorstep by the Shanghai dealers in 1916 boldly targeted his patronage in a more personal way. C. T. Loo delivered a group of paintings to Freer, who was staying at the Berkshire

24

INGRID LARSEN

26

26

Shu River, attributed to Li Gonglin (ca. 1049-1 106). China, Southern Song dynasty. Handscroll; ink on paper. F1916.539.

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Inn in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, that September. An English-Chinese catalogue compiled by Loos associate F. S. Kwen (Guan Fuchu titled

Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient and Genuine Chinese Paintings, accompanied the collection.124 Kwen explained in its preface that sixty ancient paintings had been gathered over many years

for Mr. Freer who towers above all other connoisseurs of Chinese art... . I now present this catalogue to the United States in order to give the people some knowledge of the pictorial art of China from the Tang and Song dynas- ties to the present day.

Freer s reaction is recorded in a letter to Agnes Meyer.

Tire catalogue of paintings shown you by Loo is here. I blush over its per- sonal follies but am finding in it a lot of interesting information concerning seals and inscriptions.125

Tire Laiyuan catalogue was the first to provide, in both Chinese and English, a list of the collections and collectors from which the paintings were gathered. It was an impressive list that included Duanfang. 126 Freer very likely took note of the name Wanyan Jingxian (circa 1848-50-circa 1927-29), 127 the Manchu collec-

tor and friend to Duanfang, whose seals were on several paintings he had already acquired from the viceroy.128

Although annoyed at being mentioned. Freer was prepared to make an offer for the entire collection when he learned the asking price exceeded his estimate by more than 300 percent. As he explained to Agnes,

This broke the camel’s back! The pictures were instantly returned to Loo not- withstanding his protest — and so far as I am concerned the book covers are slammed shut.129

By this time Freer believed he was a fair judge of the value of Chinese paintings, and he was insulted by what he considered to be excessive profit taking. Exorbitant prices for works in a catalogue that mentioned his name was far too “wily” for Freer.

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27A

27B

27A

Portrait ofWangHuan. China, Northern Song dynasty, ca. 1056. Album leaf; ink and color on silk. F1948.10.

27B

Portrait of Feng Ping. China, Northern Song dynasty, ca. 1056. Album leaf; ink and color on silk. F1948.ll.

Thereafter, he refused to do business with C. T. Loo again. Nevertheless, in the following days he distributed Loo’s catalogue to other collectors and encouraged Sigisbert Chrétien Bosch-Reitz (1860-1938), the new curator in the department of Far Eastern art at the Metropolitan Museum, to view the paintings. He wrote to Bosch-Reitz, “The [Laiyuan] collection contains a few fine examples, but I can live happily without them so long as they remain in America.”130

Tire real prize in the Laiyuan catalogue was the Suiyang wulao or

Five Old Men of Suiyang, a famous eleventh-century album with five portraits then in the collection of Wanyan (ingxian.131 Not long after Freer refused Loo’s asking price, the album was broken up. Following Freer s advice, in 1917 Bosch-Reitz acquired for the Metropolitan Museum one of the portraits, the brocade cover to the album, and a number of colophons relating to the five men.132 Sometime before the 1940s, Mrs. Ada Small Moore (1858-1955) acquired two of the portraits and then gifted them to the Yale University Art Gallery in the 1950s.133 As fate would have it, in 1948 the Freer Gallery of Art purchased the final two portraits from C. F. Yau ( Yao Shulai brother-in-law to Curio Zhang and a manager of the New

York branch of Tonying and Company (figs. 27a, b).134 According to Yau, Tonying and Company had been the original American dealer for the album — evidence that C. T. Loo and Tonying were still partners in 19 16. 135

The guidance extended to Bosch-Reitz was not the first time Freer advised the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1913 he was called to New York to appraise a controversial group of Chinese paintings that John Ferguson had acquired for the museum. Refusing to judge the Ming and Qing paintings, Freer recommended the purchase of thirty-one earlier works.136 A 1913 article in the Metropolitan’s bulletin presents a few of the Song paintings he considered “genuine.”137 Fortunate

26

INGRID LARSEN

for the museum, Ferguson donated the paintings rebuffed by Freer, including the much-praised Yuan-dynasty handscroll Home Again that Qian Xuan jUjH (circa 1235-before 1307) had painted in the literati mode.138 In the end, Ferguson’s 1914 exhibition of the Chinese works he acquired for the Metropolitan Museum pre- sented a distribution of paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynas- ties.139 Ferguson’s keen regard for later painting may explain why Freer acquired relatively few Chinese artworks from him.

Outwardly confident in his judgment and the educational value in studying and acquiring Asian art, Freer felt an obligation to share his collection and help other museums build theirs. After the Grolier Club exhibition in 1 896, Freer lent objects for exhibitions at Smith College in 1897, the University of Michigan in 1910, the Smithsonian Institution in 1912, the Japan Society and Knoedler Galleries in 1914, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916, the Art Institute of Chicago in 1917, and the Metropolitan Museum again in 1917. 140 In 1915 he helped the Cleveland Museum of Art acquire a group of Chinese paintings.141 Two years later, in 1917, he donated 178 objects of Near and Far Eastern art to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.142 The following year he agreed to advise museums in Pittsburgh and St. Louis “in determining the class of Oriental things to acquire.”143

That said, on occasion Freer spoke candidly about misjudgments in letters to his friend Agnes Meyer. What shines through is a firm belief in the educational value of both the strengths and weaknesses in his collection that seemed to obviate any misgivings. Regarding a duplicate painting by Li Cheng that was offered by Pang Yuanji, he wrote,

Possibly both Pang’s Li Cheng and mine are copies — early on, possibly late — and who outside of a few in China can tell? Such conditions are as you say “unfathomable?” — but what opportunities for study? As you wrote in 291, “Science in criticism must meet science in art.” Then again both paintings attributed to Li Cheng may have been actually painted by that master, for 1 believe that practically all great Chinese academicians painted over and over again but with almost imperceptible variations for different collections, a few specially designed subjects as mentioned in ancient authenticated man- uscripts, some even in my little group. If then, the Li Cheng in Pang’s hands is not gobbled up by some appreciative American, I must add it to my lot, so as to give students of the future a chance.

What fun is coming after a while, in Washington, and what a fool Lreer will be pictured. A blind man diving in the depths of Chinese art, taking out fakes and trash and hugging them as genuine, without advice, without

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28

Cmbapple and Gardenia, by Qian Xuan ÉS3II (ca. 1235-before 1307). China, Yuan dynasty. Handscroll; ink and color on paper. F 1 9 1 7. 1 83.

periods of moderate activity and deep convalescence with doctors at his side in Great Barrington, Detroit, and New York. Throughout, he continued to receive shipments of art objects from China, primarily from Pang Yuanji and the Shanghai dealers Seaouke Yue, Lee Van Ching, and K. T. Wong. His acquisitions of paintings fluctuated as well. Sixty-three Chinese paintings were acquired in 1917, sixteen in 1918, and seventy- four in 1 9 1 9. Although Freer was a meticulous record keeper, the dealers often delivered art or received payment for one another, and it was some- times difficult to establish the owner of an object. According to Gallery records, in 1917 Freer acquired five paintings from Seaouke Yue and Pang Yuanji, including the handscroll Cmbapple and Gardenia (fig. 28) by Qian Xuan f^jlt (circa 1235- before 1307) that previously had been in the collection of the famous Korean salt merchant and collector An Qi (1683-after 1743). 145 Looking more closely at vouchers and correspondence, Yue and Pang were actually paid a commission for facilitating this purchase from an unspecified “Peking gentleman.”146 Each scroll carried the seal of Duanfang s friend Wanyan Jingxian, whose card was left for Freer when Seaouke Yue dropped off the five paintings.147 Wanyan Jingxian was likely the Peking gentleman.

Later in 1917 Freer acquired a second batch of Chinese paintings from Seaouke Yue in a separate transaction. Among these was a Buddhist painting featuring Ajita, the Fifteenth Luohan, from a set of eighteen luohan paintings, with a dated

personal knowledge, and then working them off on an innocent govern- ment! And what sport when some future writer discovers the long Ma Yuan scroll landscape in my collection and its duplicate in part in the Metropoli- tan. And what will be said when the fifty or more Wu Daozis, like my “Flit- ting” now in China, are seen by lynx-eyed critics? A yell will go up. Good!

I hope it will reach me in some spirit way. Then will come what you call the “reasoning and scientific era” to awaken study, to learn the hows and whys of art production in China — the ideals, the materials, the means, the copies, and why. Intelligent people will strive for the knowable — foolish adventure- some collector will be forgiven even if his flowers prove to be thorns — edu- cational thorns that helped others.144

During the final three years of his life, Charles Lang Freer fluctuated between

28

INGRID LARSEN

29A

29B

29C

29A

Ajita, the Fifteenth Luohan, attributed to Wang Jianji rEijtjP? (Song dynasty). China, Yuan dynasty, 1345. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. F 1 9 1 7.334.

29B

Panthaka, the Tenth Luohan , attributed to Qian Yi UH (act. 997-1022). China, Yuan dynasty, 1345. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk.F1919.163.

29c

Dae, the Seventeenth Luohan, attributed to Guanxiu Jffk (832-912). China, Yuan dynasty, 1345. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. FI 918.6.

inscription corresponding to 1345 in the Yuan dynasty (fig. 29a). Over the next two years in different transactions with Seaouke Yue and K. T. Wong, Freer acquired three additional hanging scrolls associated with the 1345 set (figs. 29b, c, d).148 Apparently disregarding the Yuan date found on three of the four paintings, Freer embraced the luohan as works by the Tang and Song masters identified in labels on the outside of each scroll. In a September 19 19 letter to Seaouke Yue, Freer indicates the luohan paintings pleased him and early Chinese Buddhist painting continued to hold a special attraction. He adds:

I should also like to find, from time to time, a few more fine examples of early Buddhistic painting, both in ink and in colors and gold, particularly those done by Wu Tao-tzu [Daozi] or his followers, and in addition will be glad to see a few fine Tang paintings or particularly important early Sung [Song] specimens.149

Freer would have been delighted when two additional luohan paintings from the 1345 set were later gifted to the Gallery by the children of Agnes and Eugene Meyer — particularly Pindola Bharadvaja, the First Luohan, a painting attributed to Wu Daozi (active 710-760) (figs. 29e, f).150

Two other fine works acquired from Seaouke Yue and K. T. Wong in the final year of Freers life further illustrate how consistent his objectives remained over the years he dedicated himself to collecting Chinese painting. They also show that persistence pays. The handscroll Tao Yuanming Returning to Seclusion attributed to

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29D

29E

29F

29D

Seated Luohan Taming a Dragon, attributed to Wu Daoyuan ^jËTC (Wu Daozi act. 710-760).

China, Yuan dynasty. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. F1919.107.

Li Gonglin (fig. 30) and the hanging scroll Autumn Moonlight on Dongting Lake by Xia Gui (fig. 3 1 ) are works associated with the artists who inspired Freer s first pur- chases with Ernest Fenollosa. When Freer acquired his first handscroll attributed to Xia Gui in 1906, Fenollosa — who advised him on that purchase — wrote,

29E

Pindola Bharadvaja, the First Luohan, attributed to Wu Daozi (act.

710-760). China, Yuan dynasty, 1345. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. Gift of Ruth Meyer Epstein, F1992.41.

29F

Luohan Meditating in a Grotto, attributed to Guanxiu MIL (832— 912). China, Yuan dynasty. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. Gift of Mrs. Katharine Graham, F2002.4.

I congratulate you most heartedly on the acquisition of the Kakei [Xia Gui] treasure, which is of secondary importance to the Ririomins [Li Longmians] alone. Those two [artists] head the two greatest schools of Chinese art.151

Unfortunately, the Xia Gui handscroll and the work by Li Longmians [a.k.a. Li Gonglins] to which Fenollosa refers turned out to be “educational thorns.”152 Nevertheless, a decade of experience acquiring early Chinese paintings — independent of Fenollosa — sharpened Freer s eye and strengthened his judgment. The Tao Yuanming handscroll acquired in 1919, while not executed by Li Gonglin himself, is widely accepted as a work painted by a skilled follower early in the twelfth century.153 The Autumn Moonlight landscape is the only known hanging scroll painted by the Southern Song master Xia Gui.

Freer spent the final ten years of his life searching zealously for early Chinese paintings and succeeded in acquiring forty-seven of the eighty-six Song and Yuan paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art today.154 Timing was an important factor. The political turmoil surrounding the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the new republic animated the Chinese antiques market. During two extended stays in China in 1909 and 1910-11, Freer acquired important early paintings and

3°

INGRID LARSEN

30

Tao Yuanming Returning to Seclusion, attributed to Li Gonglin ipßfH (ca. 1049-1106). China, Northern Song dynasty, early 12th century. Handscroll; ink and color on silk.

F 1919. 1 1 9.

31

Autumn Moonlight on Dongting Lake, byXiaGui J0±(act. 1195-1224). China, Southern Song dynasty, 13th century. Hanging scroll; ink on silk. F1919.126.

established relations with a group of well-connected dealers and collectors, primar- ily in Shanghai, who continued to provide shipments of Chinese paintings after he could no longer travel overseas. The dealers understood Freer’s collecting priorities and assembled artworks to meet those requirements.

In conclusion, Charles Lang Freer’s taste for early Chinese painting is less a reflection of the dealers or of the contemporary art market than it is evidence of the enduring influence of Ernest Fenollosa, who viewed painting of the Song and earlier dynasties as the foundation for a unified collection of Chinese and Japanese paintings. Freer’s unwavering commitment to this unique vision explains why the Detroit industrialist, who early on succeeded both as a businessman and as a col- lector by specializing in a commodity before others fully appreciated its value — railway cars, works by James McNeill Whistler, ukiyo-e paintings — later devoted himself to collecting a singularly rare and precious art form — pre-fourteenth- century Chinese painting — and was blind to the literati landscape traditions of the Yuan or the far more abundant and often less expensive paintings of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Ingrid Larsen holds degrees in anthropology from George Washington Univer- sity and art history from the University of Michigan. She studied and conducted research at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1983-85 and 1987-88). From 1997 to 2007 she was a research specialist for the project to catalogue the Song and Yuan paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art. Since that time she has been an independent scholar and Chinese art consultant for institutions such as the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, and China Guardian Auctions in Beijing.

31

“DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

NOTES

1 Benjamin March, China and Japan in our Museums (Concord, NH: Rumford Press, 1929).

2 Ibid., 7.

3 Freer’s gift to the Smithsonian Institution included 1,189 works by Whistler and the Peacock Room. See Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution Showing the Operations, Expenditure, and Condition of the Institution for the Year Ending June 30, 1921 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1922), 53.

4 Charles Lang Freer to K. T. Wong, 28 Feb- ruary 1919.

5 Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1993), 55.

6 For comprehensive documentation and colored images of Song and Yuan paintings and calligraphy in the Freer Gallery of Art go to www.asia.si.edu/ SongYuan/detault.asp.

7 Contrary to the view that Agnes Meyer first met the Detroit collector at a New York gallery opening in 1913, Freer and the Meyers were already acquainted in 1912. Freer and Eugene Meyer, Jr., were on a committee formed in December 1912 to establish an American school of archaeology in China under the joint auspices ot the Archaeological Institute of America and the Smithsonian Institution. See Francis W. Kelsey to Freer, 20 December 1912. Freer dined with the Meyers that December. See telegram from Agnes E. Meyer to Freer,

28 December 1912, “Look forward to see- ing you Monday evening we dine at seven thirty. Agnes E. Meyer.”

8 Agnes E. Meyer, “The Charles L. Freer Collection,” Arts 12, no. 2 (August 1927), 67.

9 Agnes E. Meyer, Charles Lang Freer and His Gallery (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1970), 5.

1 0 Freer first met Whistler on 4 March 1890 in London. See Freer’s diary, 4 March 1890, “London, lunch with Whistler.”

1 1 Judging from the accession number, the Ogata Kôrin fan (FI 887. 1 ) was Freer s first acquisition in 1887.

12 See M. Knoedler and Company invoice, dated 1 1 November 1887, that records:

1 set Venice: Second Series, 26 etchings by Whistler (F1987.2-.27). Note: the museum’s electronic database mistakenly gives provenance to Frederick Keppel and Company.

13 Allen Asaf and Lynda Wornom, Members of the Grober Club: 1 884-1984 (New York: Grober Club, 1986), 53.

14 Ibid., 16, 65, 78, 81, 90, 122, 133, 142.

1 5 Catalogue of Exhibition: Japanese Prints and Illustrated Books at Rooms of Grober Club (New York: DeVinne Press, 1889).

1 6 Royal Cortissoz, “Freer Museum Soon to be Built in Washington,” New York Tribune, 15 December 1915.

17 According to Harold P. Stern, the fourth director of the Freer Gallery of Art, “A brief period of interest in the Ukiyo-e prints led him [Freer] to the older arts of Japan.” See Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art Handbook (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1976), 1. Yoshiaki Shimizu, curator of Japanese art at the Freer Gallery from 1979 to 1984, later wrote, “He [Freer] had also acquired Ukiyo-e prints, though he soon gave up buying them.” See Yoshiaki Shimizu, “An Individual Taste for Japanese Painting,” Apollo 118, no. 258 (August 1983), 136.

18 Seven Japanese prints acquired in 1904 remain in the collection today (F1904.437-.443).

19 Freer Papers, Subseries 5.7: Art invento- ries-Prints-Japanese, box 62, folder 8, “List of Prints owned by Charles L.

Freer.”

32

INGRID LARSEN

20 Freer to Tod Ford, 10 March 1905. Letterpress book, vol. 16, 1905 January 7-March 15, nos. 388-90.

21 Shimizu, “An Individual Taste,” 137.

22 Laurence Binyon, “National Character in Art,” Saturday Review, 5 December 1908.

23 According to Aline Saarinen, Freer and Fennollosa first met in 1 900. See Aline Saarinen, Tire Proud Possessors: The Lives, Times and Tastes of Some Adventurous American Art Collectors (New York: Random House, 1958), 135. Lawrence Chisolm claims Fenollosa first met Freer in the early 1890s without providing the source. See Lawrence W. Chisolm, Fenollosa: The Far East and American Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), 170. Thomas Lawton points to correspondence between Freer and Mansfield dated 1 February 1898 as Freer’s earliest reference to Fenollosa. See Lawton and Merrill, Freer, 1 33.

24 Chisolm, Fenollosa, 86.

25 For Fenollosa bibliographies see ibid., 272-77 , and Kevin Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan: The Role of Traditional Japanese Art and Architecture in the Work of Frank Lloyd Wright (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 222-23.

26 Louis Gonse, LArt Japonais (Paris: Quantin, 1883). Ernest Fenollosa, “Review of Gonse’s Chapter on Japanese Painting,” Japan Weekly Mail, 12 July 1884.

27 Binyon, “National Character in Art.”

28 Ernest Fenollosa, Review of the Chapter on Painting in “VArt Japonais” by L. Gonse (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1885).

29 See ibid, in Freer and Sackler Library [759.952 .G6F32],

30 Whistler and Gonse exchanged letters in 1878. See Gonse to Whistler, 7 February 1878; Gonse to Whistler, 12 June 1878; Gonse to Whistler, 12 June 1878 (second letter); Whistler to Gonse, 1 3/20 June 1878, in the Glasgow University Library.

31 Walter Muir Whitehill, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: A Centennial History (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970), 114-16.

32 According to Kevin Nute, the role of Fenollosa and Morse as jurists for the exposition was reported in the Japanese newspaper Asabi Shimbun. See Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright, 49 and 69, fn. 8.

33 It was not until the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco that Chinese art was included in the fine arts pavilion. See Benjamin March, China and Japan in Our Museums (New York: American Council Institute of Pacific Relations, 1929), 20-23.

34 Freer loaned oil paintings by Frederick Stuart Church ( 1 ), Thomas Wilmer Dewing (3), and Dwight William Tryon (5) and prints by James McNeill Whistler (7). See Official Catalogue of Exhibits, World’s Columbian Exposition, Depart- ment K: Fine Arts (Chicago, 1893), catalogue entries 257, 354-56, 985-88, 995, 1637, 1672, 1677-80, and 1686.

35 Takayanagis invoice of 20 February 1893 lists fourteen glazed pots; Takayanagis invoice of 28 March 1 893 lists seven miscellaneous Japanese objects of art; Takayanagis invoice of 12 June 1893 lists thirteen Japanese paintings and two Chinese paintings; R. E. Moore’s invoices of 8 and 1 4 December 1 893 list twenty- nine miscellaneous Chinese and Japanese art objects.

36 See Takayanagis invoice of 12 June 1893. dire other Chinese painting described as “Peony Flowers by Ming artist, signed with seals, 14th century,” was apparently removed from the collection. Freer began weeding out his collection first with Fenollosa in 1901 and continued with periodic“removals”untilhisdeath in 1919.

37 According to Freer’s diary, he visited the Columbian Exposition on 8-17 July, 2-3 October, and 9-15 October in 1893.

Fenollosa gave a public lecture at the exposition on 19 July and attended the International Congress of Education in Chicago that was timed to coincide with the world’s fair (25-28 July). See Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright, 49 and 69, fn. 8.

38 Museum of Fine Arts, Hokusai and His School: Catalogue of Special Exhibition Number One (Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1893).

39 For discussion about the early Japanese art exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, see Chisolm, Fenollosa, 91-93. In addition to the Hokusai catalogue, Fenollosa produced catalogues for two other of these exhibitions. See Museum of Fine Arts, Catalogue of Japanese Engravings: An Important Collection of Prints in Color Belonging to Mr. S. Bing, Paris; on exhibition at the American Art Galleries from Monday, March 12th until Saturday, March 24th, inclusive (New York: American Art Association, 1894), and Museum of Fine Arts, An Exhibition of Japanese Paintings and Metal Work, Lent by Mr. F. Shirasu of Tokio, Japan, Catalogue (Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1894). Bing’s prints were shown at a gallery in New York following their May exhibition in Boston.

40 According to Freer’s diaries, he was in Boston 23 and 30 July 1892, 20-23 January 1893, 19 October 1893, and 7 and 9 July 1894.

41 See Museum of Fine Arts, Hokusai, in Freer and Sackley Library [759.952 .B74].

42 Museum of Fine Arts, A Special Exhibi- tion of Ancient Chinese Buddhist Paintings, Lent by the Temple Daitokuji, of Kioto, Japan, Catalogue (Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1894), 1 1. For more about the historical context of the exhibition see Gregory P. Levine, Daitokuji: Tire Visual Cultures of a Zen Monastery (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005).

DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES

33

43 See Fenollosa to Freer, 12 October 1902.

In 1907 Freer acquired a second painting from the Daitokuji set while he was in Tokyo. See Zhou fichang (act. late

twelfth century), Rock Bridge at Mount Tiantai, Southern Song dynasty, 1178, hanging scroll mounted on panel, ink and color on silk (FI 907. 1 39).

44 Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, The Masters ofUkioye: A Complete Historical Description of Japanese Paintings and Color Prints of the Genre School (New York: Knickerbocker Press for W. H. Ketcham, 1896).

45 Other collectors who loaned works to the exhibition as identified in the catalogue credits include Charles J. Morse, Clarence Buckingham, George W. Vanderbilt, and Samuel Colman.

46 Freer to Ketcham, 23 January 1896. According to Freer’s 1896 diary, he was in New York 15-18 January and 26 January-5 February.

47 Shugio Hiromichi, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Japanese Prints at the Grolier Club (New York: Grolier Club, 1896).

48 The non-members who loaned prints include Frederick Gookin, Clarence Buckingham, Samuel Colman, Charles J. Morse, T. E. Waggaman, and J. Alden Weir. See ibid. ,23.

49 Freer to Mansfield, 16 March 1896.

Freer s titles and descriptions are consistent with catalogue nos. 49, 78, 100, 112, 123, 124, 132, and 133.

50 Ibid.

51 Mansfield to Freer, 25 May 1896.

52 Ernest Fenollosa, Catalogue of the Exhibition of Ukioye Painting Held at Ikao Onsen, Uyeno Shinazaka, April 15 to May 15, 1898 (Tokyo: Bunshichi Kobayashi, 1898); Ernest Fenollosa, Catalogue of the exhibition of Paintings of Hokusai, Held at the Japan Fine Art Association, Uyeno Park, January 13 to 30, 1900 (Tokyo: Bunshichi Kobayashi, 1900); and Ernest

Fenollosa, An Outline of the History of Ukiyoye (Tokyo: Bunshichi Kobayashi, 1901).

53 Freer to Mansfield, 1 February 1898.

54 See “List of Prints owned by Charles L. Freer,” in Art Inventories-Prints-Japa- nese, box 62, folder 8, Freer Papers.

55 See “Freer ukiyo-e paintings exhibited by Fenollosa/Ketcham at the Fine Arts Building, New York in January 1 896” (author unknown) found inside the Freer and Sadder Library copy of Fenollosa, Masters ofUkioye.

56 Freer diary, 23 February to 1 March 1901.

57 Freer diary, 9 June to 25 July 1901.

58 Freer diary, 20 June 1901.

59 Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, appendix 3.

60 For more about Freers working relationship with Fenollosa see Lawton and Merrill, Freer, 131-51.

61 For more about Freer’s other colleagues and dealers see ibid., 99- 1 29.

62 Ernest Fenollosa, “The Collection of Mr. Charles L. Freer,” Pacific Era, no. 2 (November 1907), 57-66.

63 Ibid., 58-59.

64 According to the 1 92 1 annual report, Freers gift included 804 Japanese paintings. See Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, appendix 3.

65 Shimizu, “An Individual Taste,” 136-50.

66 According to the Freer Gallery’s electronic database, twenty-four Chinese paintings remaining in the collection today were acquired between 1901 and 1908. Before reattributions, there were closer to four dozen paintings. Reattrib- uted paintings include F1903.1 10, F1904.13, F1904.296-.31 1, F1906.269,

F 1907. 141, and F 1907. 148.

67 Chinese paintings acquired between 1901 and 1908 include F 190 1 . 172, F1902.224, F1903.1 12, F1903.1 14, F1903.1 15, F1904.2, F1904.193,

34 INGRID LARSEN

F1904.200, F1904.336, F1904.337, F1904.341, F1904.396, F1904.264, F1905.265, F1905.293, F1906.228, F1906.261, F1906.270, F1907.139, F1907.140, F1907.144, F1907.145, F1908.170, and F 1908. 171.

68 According to Fenollosa, the “treatment of Chinese and Japanese Art as of one single aesthetic movement” is his innovation. See Ernest F. Fenollosa, Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art: An Outline History of East Asiatic Design, vol. 1 (London: Heinemann, 1912), xxiv. In Fenollosa’s article introducing Freer’s collection in 1907, he writes, “Ancient Chinese painting is not only the parent of much in Japanese [painting] but in its highest ranges, the superior.” See Fenollosa, “Collection,” 65.

69 Fenollosa, Review, 11.

70 Ernest F. Fenollosa, “Chinese and Japanese Traits,” Vie Atlantic (June 1892), 771.

7 1 Freer to Frank J. Hecker, 1 7 September 1909.

72 Freer diary, 12 September to 12 October 1909.

73 Ma Jiannong ,S§ütJlt, Beijing difangzhi , fengwu tuzhi congshu: Liulichangfüffïfj

(Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 2006), 120.

74 Huo Mingzhi, a missionary-educated Chinese dealer, opened a gallery in Peking around 1906 or 1907. See Paul Houo-Ming-Tse (Paul Huo Mingzhi), Preuves des Antiquities Chine (Peking, 1930), introduction, and R. H. van Gulik, Chinese Pictorial Art (Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1958), 467.

7 5 Freer acquired 1 99 paintings from Loon Gu Sai (128), Riu Cheng Chai (27), Pao Ming Sai (19), Mr. Ho (6), Pang Shou Ting (4), and a few each from Wah Fling, Wan Ye Shin, and Ta Guwan Sai.

76 Freer to Hecker, 27 September 1909.

77 Freer acquired Hunters on Horseback, an anonymous Jin-dynasty hanging scroll (FI 909. 1 60 ), and Travelers in a Winter Landscape, a Southern Song album leaf (F1909.244j), from Loon Gu Sai. He also purchased Zhongli Quan Seeking the Dao, an anonymous Jin-dynasty hanging scroll (F1909.168), from Riu Cheng Chai in Peking.

78 One example is the long handscroll Wang Wei’s Villa at Wangquan (F1909.207) acquired from Riu Cheng Chai as a Yuan-dynasty painting by Wang Meng (ca. 1301-1385) that is now accepted as a work by the Ming artist Song Xu (1523-1605). See Lawton and Merrill, Freer, 86, fig. 59.

79 For more about Duanfang’s Han ancestry see Edward J. M. Rhoads, Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qingand Early Republican China, 1861-1928 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 55.

80 “Chinese Commissions Tour,” New York Times, 19 January 1906.

81 See Susan R. Fernsebner, “Objects, Spectacle, and a Nation on Display at the Nanyang Exposition of 1910,” Late Imperial China 27, no. 2 (December 2006), 99-124, and Michael R. Godley, “China’s World’s Fair of 1910: Lessons from a Forgotten Event,” Modern Asian Studies 12, no. 3 (1978), 503-22.

82 For more about the life and collection of Duanfang see Thomas Lawton, “A Time of Transition: Tuan-fang, 1861-191 1 ,” i n A Time of Transition: Two Collectors of Chinese Art (Lawrence, KS: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1991).

83 For more about the relationship between officials in the Qing court and Liulichang see Yang Renkai tJgfUfcio Guobao chenfoulu:jingduben^fgf(f\2ff-jfc '■ fjf

(Shanghai: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 2008).

84 Freer diary, 9 October 1 909.

85 Freer diary, 9 and 12 October 1910. For more about Lucy Calhoun, a collector of textiles and a long-term resident in China, see Elinor Pearlstein, “Color, Life, and Moment,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26, no. 2; Clothed to Rule the Universe: Ming and Qing Dynasty Tex- tiles at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), 80-93, 106-12.

86 This painting was first published by Taki Sei-ichi, “Art Treasure in the Collection of Mr. Tuan-fang, Ex- Viceroy of Chih li ” Kokka 250 (March 1911), 263-64. It is interesting to note that Freer acquired the painting before Duanfang was assassinated in November 1911.

87 Wang Keyu SESrIBi (1587-after 1643),

Shanhuwang hualu (preface

1643) (China: Shiyuan congshu îÉISllS! U, 1914-16), 30, 8b-9a.

88 Freer to Agnes E. Meyer, 22 March 1915. Freer explained that his famous Juran handscroll was “once owned by Pang [Yuanji] and by him sold to H. E. Tuan Fang from whom I bought it.”

89 For more about John Ferguson see Thomas Lawton, “John C. Ferguson: A Fellow Feeling of Fallibility,” Orientations 27 ( 1996), 65-76, and Lara Jaishree Netting, “Acquiring Chinese Art and Culture: The Collections and Scholarship of John C. Ferguson ( 1866-1945),” (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2009).

90 Ibid., iii. I thank Lara Netting for sharing her research.

91 Cable from Ferguson to Freer, 1 9 May 1914; letter from Ferguson to Freer, 26 May 1914.

92 Lawton and Merrill, Freer, 93.

93 Freer was escorted to New Chang Road

by Pang’s associate, the dealer Lee Van Ching (Li Wenqing ca. 1 869—

1931). Freer diary, 14 January 1911.

94 Chen Dingshan (b. 1897), Chunshen

jiuwen fM (Taipei: Chen’guang

yuekan chuban she, 1964), 150. Chen Dingshan was a collector and an acquaintance of Pang Yuanji. I thank Katharine P. Burnett for sharing her research about Pang Yuanji. See Katharine P. Burnett, Pang Yuanji as Artist and Patron of the Arts (forthcom- ing), 4-5.

95 Freer diary, 5 January to 20 February 1911.

96 According to a manuscript written by A. W. Bahr, he met the Detroit collector during Freer’s “first trip” to China when Count D. Pecorini introduced them. Freer was invited to Bahr’s house at Helen Terrace, Willscote, and after admiring a small collection of bronze objects in the drawing room offered to buy the lot. Freer then encouraged Bahr to devote his life to collecting and dealing in early Chinese art. See A. W. Bahr Papers, Freer and Sackler Archives, Bahr Manuscript 1: 22-23. Bahr’s name is first penciled into Freer’s diary on 22 October during his 1909 stay in Shanghai.

97 During Freer’s 1910-11 trip to China, most of his painting acquisitions were made from Loon Gu Sai (76), Riu Cheng Chai (37), and Lee Van Ching (84).

98 In 1965 James Cahill, associate curator of Chinese art at the Freer Gallery ot Art, created a comprehensive list of Chinese paintings that documented the original attribution, any changes made in attribution after 1919, and present attributions. According to Cahill’s list, 237 of the 290 paintings acquired by Freer during his second trip to China were attributed to pre-Ming artists as follows: Six Dynasties (1), Tang (23),

Five Dynasties (12), Song (145), Yuan (56), Ming (27), Qing (2), and uncertain (24).

35

“DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

99 Song: F191 1.155a, F191 1.155b,

F 1 9 1 1 . 1 55d, F191 1.155g, F191 1.155h, F191 1. 161a, F1911. 168, F191 1.195, F1911. 199; Yuan:F1911. 161c,

F1911. 161e,F191 1.209, F191 1.295. Six of these were purchased from Loon Gu Sai, five from Lee Van Ching, and one each from Cheng Kuan and Shu Gu Sai.

100 Lawton and Merrill, Freer, 203.

101 One of the scrolls, a figure painting by Tang Yin (1470-1524), is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. See Bahr Papers, Freer and Sadder Archives, Bahr Manuscript 2: 138-40. 1 thank Dr. Thomas Lawton for urging me to read this manuscript.

102 Anonymous, Vaisravana, Guardian King of the North, Yuan-Ming dynasties, late fourteenth century, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk (F 19 14. 147a).

103 Pang Laichen (Pang Yuanji), Biographies of Famous Chinese Paintings from the Private Collections of Mr. L. C. Pang (Shanghai: Mercantile Printing, 1915). Lee Hung-yee (Lee Van Ching), Description of Famous Chinese Paintings from the Very Large Collection of Mr. Lee Van Ching, Van Yueh Tsar Curios Store (Shanghai: Mercantile Printing, 1915).

104 See Freer to Trask, 17 May 1915. Ironically, Freer recommended Trask for his position as chief of fine arts at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Trask to Freer, 23 August 1912; Freer to Trask, 27 August 1912.

105 The official guide to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1 9 1 5 lists two Chinese painting collections. Both were published in catalogues. One collection featured modern reproductions of forty-two traditional Chinese paintings and two hundred ceramics. Some of the paintings were listed as copies of works in the collections of Pang Yuanji, Duanfang, and others, leading some scholars to mistakenly conclude that Pang’s

collection was shown at the Panama- Pacific Exposition. See Shen Tun-ho (Shen Zhongli ttlWIt) and Shen Tin-chen (Shen Dingchen A

Selection from Modern Chinese Arts for the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (Zhongguo xin meishupin buying (Shanghai:

Commercial Press, 1915), painting nos.

1 -42. A rough count of the 358 paintings in the second collection indicates that two-thirds were from the Ming and Qing dynasties. See Liu Sung Fu and

Florence Wheelock Ayscough ( 1 878— 1942), Catalogue of Chinese Paintings Ancient and Modern exhibited at the China Pavilion [Zhongguo gujin mingren tuhualu

Panama -Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco (Shanghai: Oriental Press, 1915).

106 Confusion about the relationship between Pang Yuanji and Pang Zanchen is possibly due to the mistranslation of Chinese correspondence into English. In Pang Yuanjis Chinese letters to Freer, he refers to Pang Zanchen as his jiadi

or younger brother. This was translated “cousin” in an English version of the letter. See Pang Yuanjis original Chinese letter to Freer dated 5 October 1916. John Fergusons letter to Freer on 3 March 1 9 1 5 also identifies Pang Zanchen as Pang Yuanjis brother.

107 For more about the relationship among C. T. Loo, Zhang Jingjiang, and Pang Yuanji see Zheng Zhong “Yijiu sijiu nianqian de ‘luwu gongsi’ he yijiu sijiu nianhou de ‘wenwu zou si an — f\Jl HA

^üïïâlj fn—

fbj >” Shoucang dajialfc

(Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2007), 492-522, and Zheng Zhong, “Pang Laichen: Shoucang jia dongnan «g : iftlflS,” Haishang shoucang shijia ffa F

(Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2003), 65-81.

108 In the back pages of Freer’s 1915 diary he recorded the New York address of C. T. Loo and Company.

109 Freer diary, 29 April 1915.

110 According to a voucher dated 1 1 May 1915, five days earlier, on 6 May, Freer transferred $16,500 to a bank in Shanghai for thirteen paintings he purchased from the Pang Collection while he was in San Francisco in late April. According to a memo dated 3 June 1915, Freer sent two of these paintings ( Pang catalogue nos.

13 and 55) to Eugene Meyer, Jr., and was reimbursed $4,800 by Mr. Meyer.

111 C. T. Loo invoice for Eugene Meyer, 15 May 1915.

1 12 Agnes Meyerto Freer, 21 March 1915.

1 13 Approximately fifty-five Chinese paintings are among the many Chinese and Japanese objects gifted to the Freer Gallery of Art by Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer and their descendents, Harriet B. Meyer, Ruth Meyer Epstein, Katharine Graham, and Elizabeth Meyer Lorentz. For more about Meyer gifts to the Freer Gallery of Art see Thomas Lawton and Hin-cheung Lovell, Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Memorial Exhibition (Washing- ton, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, 1971).

114 See Freer voucher dated 24 January 1916 for 100 Chinese paintings bought from Lee Van Ching’s catalogue.

115 Of the 120 paintings listed in Pang Yuanjis catalogue, 99 were identified as Yuan dynasty or earlier works. Of the 1 00 paintings featured in Lee Van Ching’s catalogue, 97 were identified as Yuan dynasty or earlier.

1 16 Pang Laichen JÜ^ËÎ (a.k.a. Pang Yuanji), Antique Famous Chinese Paintings Collected by Pang Lai Chen (Tang Wudai Song Yuan minghua

(Shanghai: privately published by Pang Yuanji, 1916).

36 INGRID LARSEN

117 Freer diary, 15 November 1916. Letter in Chinese from Pang Yuanji to Freer, 5 October 1916, in which he introduces Seaouke Yue as “a triend with a valuable collection of antiques” who would accompany his brother. Pang Zanchen, to the United States.

1 18 The accession numbers for the paintings Freer acquired from Pang in 1916 are F1916.520-.539. The two Song-dynasty handscrolls (F 1 9 1 6.538 and F 1 9 1 6.539) were not listed in the catalogue.

1 19 See Freer quote in W. R. Valentinen “Landscape and Still Life Paintings ot the Sung Period,” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8, no. 7 (July 1913), 150.

120 Duan YongljjjPt, Qianlong “Simei’yu

“Sanyou^z W rE9Hj ^

(Beijing: Forbidden City Publishers, 2008).

121 Cixi’s gift to Duanfang is discussed in

Zhang Hongxing “Tire Nine-

teenth-Century Provenance of the Admonitions Scroll: A Hypothesis,” in Shane McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll (London: British Museum Press, 2003), 277-87.

122 Duanfang (1861-191 1), Renyin

xiaoxia lu 3r lÜtfiSÖgfc (1902 ),Xuxiu Siku quanshu (Shanghai:

Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995-2002), 1089:257-58.

123 Jerome Silbergeld, Mind Landsapes: The Paintings of C. C. Wang (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1987), 17.

124 F. S. Kwen (Guan Fuchu WfMW)> comp.. Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient and Genuine Chinese Paintings (Guhua liuzhen J ÉT§i)> (Shanghai: Laiyuan Company, 1916).

125 Freer to Agnes Meyer, 10 October 1916.

126 The collectors and collections listed in the Laiyuan catalogue are: Wanyan Jingxian fcMMK (ca. 1848-1927), Kong Guangtao ?L1H ßfiU ( 1 832-ca. 1 894),

Wu Rongguang (1773-1843),

Jueshan Temple ipp Tf in Hangzhou, Sun Laishan Li Zaijie

Fei Nianci (1855-1905), Ye

Yungu ( 1 775-1832), Gu Gen H

Zhonglin Temple JË WtF in Qingzhou, Dong Gao ÜIp (1740-1818), Duanfang lifäjj (1861-191 1), Lu Yaoxian H'ïSÆ. Jiaoshan Qingliang Temple f£jJL| in Zhenjiang, Wu Chongyao {5 Gong qin wang (1833—

1898), Liang Zhangju^^fg (1775- 1849), Pan Shicheng jfffijjSc ( 1 785— 1859), Lu Shihua ffc (1714-1779), and WengTonghe (1830-1904).

Kwen, Descriptive Catalogue, back pages.

127 Wanyan Jingxian s life dates have long

been a mystery. For these dates see Xie Wei UM, Zhongguo huaxue zhuzuo kaolu (Shanghai:

Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1998), 691.

128 The paintings with Wanyan Jingxian seals that Freer already owned from Duan- fang s collection in 1916 were Ten Tlwusand Li Along the Yangzi River (fig. 15), Nymph of the Luo River ( fig. 18), Clearing Skies Over Mountains and Valleys (fig. 25), and Shu River ( fig. 26).

129 Freer to Agnes Meyer, 24 October 1916.

130 Freer to Bosch-Reitz, 27 October 1916.

131 Kwen, Descriptive Catalogue, cat. no. 60.

132 For a detailed discussion of the Five Old Men ofSuiyang album and the colophons, see Thomas Lawton, Chinese Figure Painting (Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1973), 164-70.

1 33 Louise Wall Hackney and Yau Chang- foo, A Study of Chinese Paintings in the Collection of Ada Small Moore (London: Oxford University Press, 1940). David Ake Sensabaugh, Scholar as Collector: Chinese Art at Yale (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 2004).

134 C. F. Yau or Yao Shulai was the younger brother of Zhang Jingjiang’s wife, Yao Hui

MU, and he became the Paris manager ofTonying and Company in 1910. Four years later, in 1914, C. F. Yau opened the New York branch ofTonying and Company. See Zheng Zhong, “Yijiu sijiu nianqian.” It is interesting to note that C. F. Yau co-authored the catalogue of Ada Small Moore’s Chinese painting collection in 1 940; see Hackney and Yau, A Study of Chinese Paintings.

135 Li Lin-ts’an (1912-1999) ofthe

National Palace Museum learned this during an interview with Yao Shulai in the 1970s. See Li Lin-ts’an, “The Five Old Men of Sui-yang,” National Palace Museum Bulletin 8, no. 5 (November- December 1973), 10.

1 36 For a discussion about Ferguson’s paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art see Warren I. Cohen, East Asian Art and American Culture: A Study in International Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).

137 See Wilhelm R. Valentiner, “Landscape and Still Life Paintings of the Sung Period,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8, no. 7 (July 1913), 143, 148-52.

138 Cohen, East Asian Art, fig. 18.

139 JohnC. Ferguson, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Special Exhibition of Chinese Paintings from the Collection of the Museum (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1914).

140 For more about Freer’s exhibitions see Lawton and Merrill, Freer, 207-30.

141 F. Allen Whiting to Freer, 20 September 1915; Freer to Whiting, 20 September 1915.

142 “Mr. Freer’s Gift to the Minneapolis Institute,” New York Times , 12 August 1917.

143 Freer to Agnes Meyer, 8 February 1918.

144 Freer to Agnes Meyer, 30 March 1915. “As you wrote in 291” refers to the art magazine started by Agnes Meyer and others in the circle of Alfred Stieglitz

37 “DON’T SEND MING OR LATER PICTURES”

(1864-1946) in March 1915 following the suspension of publication of Camera Work.

145 For a discussion of this and four other Freer Gallery paintings previously in An Qi’s collection see Thomas Lawton, “Notes on Five Paintings from a Ch’ing Dynasty Collection,” Ars Orientalis 8

( 1970), 191-215. The paintings attributed to Li Shan and Li Gonglin that the Meyers acquired from Pang Yuanji in 1915 and gifted to the Freer Gallery in the 1960s were also previously in An Qi’s collection.

146 See Freer to Seaouke Yue, 29 January 1917: “I have enjoyed looking at the five scroll paintings belonging to the gentleman of Peking.” Freer to Seaouke Yue, 26 March 1917: “I have your cablegram advising me of the purchase of the five Chinese scrolls. ... I have added $500 commission to yourself and Mr. Pang.”

147 See file with 1917 vouchers for cards left by Seaouke Yue on 18 January.

148 The undated luohan can be grouped with the dated paintings based upon similari- ties in the brushwork, composition, dimensions, and quality of the silk. Additional unique features that link all four paintings and suggest origins from the same workshop include a series of black dash strokes running along the silk edge (to map out the space required for each composition to facilitate uniformity in size) and a seam five to six inches from the right or left edge to extend the silk.

149 See Freer to Seaouke Yue, 3 September 1919.

1 50 Seven other known paintings from this set have the 1345 date. Kanaka Bharad- vaja (third luohan) in Michael B. Weisbrod, Weisbrod Tenth Anniversary Exhibition (New York: Michael B. Weisbrod, 1986), cat. no. 42; Subhinda (fourth luohan) in Kokka |@lj§ 337 (June 1918), 260, 264; Bhadra (sixth luohan) in

the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (purchased from A.W. Bahr in 1948; unpublished); Vajraputra (eighth luohan) in Zhongguo gudai shuhua jianding zubian cf3®

Zhongguo gudai shuhua tumu 6 f^llîËIllS (/\) (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1987), Su 18-05 (gifted to Nanjing University by John C. Ferguson); Ingada (thirteenth luohan), in Roderick Whitfield, “The Luohan in China,” Mahayanist Art After A.D. 900 (London: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1972), 96-100, 123, figs. 19a-c (purchased by the British Museum from N.V. Hammer in 1962); and Cuda-Pan- thaka (sixteenth luohan) and Nandimitra (eighteenth luohan) in Zhongguo gudai shuhua jianding zubian cf3® lÿfÇ: Hr® ImÆffiflî- Zhongguo gudai shuhua tumu 2^[ScWIS:lllIl@ ( — ) (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1987), Hu 1-270 and Hu 1-269, respectively (both paintings are in the Shanghai Museum).

151 Fenollosa to Freer, 19 September 1906.

1 52 The handscroll by Xia Gui was later reattributed as an anonymous fifteenth- to sixteenth-century painting of the Ming dynasty. The Li Longmians were reattributed to the Japanese artist Ryözen (act. ca. 1328-ca. 1360). Lawton and Merrill, Freer , 104-107, figs. 70 and 71.

153 Martin J. Powers, “Love and Marriage in Song China: Tao Yuanming Comes Home,” Ars Orientalis 28 ( 1998), 51-62; Elizabeth Brotherton, “Beyond the Written Word: Li Gonglin’s Illustrations to Tao Yuanming s ‘Returning Home,’” Artibus Asiae 59, nos. 3/4 (2000), 225-63.

1 54 These numbers are the result of a ten-year project to catalogue the Song and Yuan paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art led by Joseph Chang (Zhang Zining ~F 2S), former associate curator of Chinese art, with research specialists Stephen D. Allee and Ingrid Larsen.

3«

INGRID LARSEN

HSU WEN-CHIN

ILLUSTRATIONS OF ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER ON CHINESE PORCELAINS

Iconography, Style, and Development

Abstract

Scenes from Romance of the Western Chamber have decorated Chinese porce- lain from the thirteenth into the twenty-first century. Ibis research compares and contrasts porcelain decoration with the formal and stylistic development of this romantic tale in literature, performances, and artistic media of paintings and woodblock prints. It identifies and explicates numerous subjects of porcelain deco- ration that previously have not been well understood. It also verifies some charac- teristic features of porcelain decoration from different periods and considers the dating of porcelains from the late Ming and into the early Qing dynasty. By examin- ing selected scenes from Romance of the Western Chamber, this study offers a better understanding of the history of Chinese porcelain decoration as well as character- istics of Chinese narrative art as a whole.

LITERATURE HAS BEEN A VERY IMPORTANT SOURCE of inspiration for the creation of Chinese art since the Han dynasty (206 bce-220 ce). Among the literary works that were influential in later Chinese art is Romance of the Western Chamber ( Xixiangji ISJfllH. also translated as Story of the Western Wing-, here- after cited as Western Chamber), a tale that originated in the Tang dynasty (618— 907) and evolved into a popular drama in the thirteenth century. Frequently used as a subject in the visual arts, it has attracted the attention of painters and decorators in different schools and media since the Song dynasty (960-1279). The most well known works among these are the forty various editions of wood- block prints of the Western Chamber that were published in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and contain some of the most innovative and exquisite illustrations produced in China.1

Themes from this romance also became one of the most fascinating and popu- lar sources of decorative motifs on Chinese porcelains in the Ming and into the Qing dynasty (1644-191 1). 2 While most studies on this subject have focused on porcelains of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, those of other periods have been largely overlooked and neglected. Although many decorative scenes from the story have been recognized on porcelains, some motifs still remain unstudied. In addition, many questions and problems concerning the iconography of scenes with regard to their identification, interpretation, and chronology of appearance on porcelains also are unsolved and require further examination and clarification. The present study will focus on how this romance was illustrated on Chinese por- celain and will help to develop a better understanding of certain salient features of porcelain decoration and to serve as a reference for further research on Chinese narrative art.

39

Following a brief introduction to the Western Chamber, the discussion in the present study is divided into six parts.

I. The emergence of new images of women in Chinese porcelain decora- tion, including their identification and styles.

II. The shift in emphasis from "beautiful women” to “major scenes” in the Ming dynasty.

III. The formation of new fashions in porcelain decoration from the Shunzhi Jljfftp (1644-1661) to Kangxi JffËB (1661-1722) periods.

IV. The influence of performances and local dramas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

V. The participation of professional painters in the creation of “art pottery” in the modern period.

VI. Trading in forgeries and the phenomena of studio pottery.

The research compares and contrasts porcelain decoration to the development of this drama in literature, other performance media, woodblock prints, and paint- ings. The present study identifies and interprets major decorative scenes, analyzes the styles and sources of the images, and treats the problem of dating Chinese por- celains from the so-called Transitional Period. In other words, it uses the Western Chamber as the focal point of investigation and attempts to understand the impact of this literary work on the art of Chinese ceramic decoration. It looks at how the changing choices of artisans in scenes, themes, iconography, and style reveal a clear evolution paralleling that of the literary work itself as well as artistic fashions. Thus, the study explores the complicated phenomenon of how porcelain decoration reflected changing literary conditions and artistic styles, yet it also retained its own characteristics throughout the centuries.

Introduction to Romance of the Western Chamber

The Romance of the Western Chamber is considered to be “China’s most popu- lar love comedy” and “at the same time highly popular as reading matter.”3 The content of the story was formulated over a long period of time, and its literary style evolved through many different forms before it was finally written down as a drama in the thirteenth century. This story originated from a piece of short prose fiction titled Yingying zhuan (The Story ofYingying [Little Oriole])

written by the Tang-dynasty poet Yuan Zhen 7D?li (779-831). It relates the tragic love affair between a young scholar, Zhang Sheng ’M.Qi (“Student Zhang”), and the beautiful young lady Yingying MM- Both characters reside at the Pujiu If (“Universal Salvation”) Temple near the Tang-dynasty capital of Chang’an.4 In the

40

HSU WEN-CHIN

story, Zhang Sheng abandons his lover once he passes the official examinations in the capital.

The Story ofYingying is a complicated love story that provokes different ways of interpretation. Stephen Owen, for example, points out that it is difficult to read the story without taking sides, or at least without deciding which side the story really takes.5 Some scholars also accept that it is an autobiographical work of the author Yuan Zhen. Others, however, think that such an interpretation ignores the values inherent in Tang love stories, which were as or more powerful than the Confucian pieties by which Zhang excuses his actions at the end of the story. In any case, if it is not an actual biography, it is a recreation with psychological verisimilitude unpar- alleled in its time.

Tire story circulated widely during the Tang and Song dynasties, when it was a popular subject in poetry.6 Many of these poems were the lyrics to musicals and dance performances in public houses. During the Southern Song era ( 1 127-1279) and the occupation of northern China under the Jin dynasty ( 1 115-1234), Ying- ying’s story was adapted for the stage in the form of zaju ¥§j|IJ (“miscellaneous play”), a style of drama that further developed and reached its golden age in the Yuan dynasty (1271 -1368). 7 Song scholars, however, saw the story differently from their Tang predecessors; instead of articulating social mores, they held a sympathie view ofYingying as a tragic victim of love.

During the Jin dynasty, a scholar by the name Dong Jieyuan W.f&ft (“Master Dong”) enlarged and enriched the Story ofYingying into the popular “storytelling text” ( shuoshu huaben format. His Xixiangji zhugongdiao HJffiHfilîtcli

HI ( Medley of Romance of the Western Chamber) was written in a mixture of ver- nacular dialogue, classical verse, and prose.8 Dong’s version, also known as Master Dong’s Western Chamber Romance (DongXixiang jfffiffi), is the sole “storytelling text” that has survived in its entirety. In the book, Dong Jieyuan uses many literary devices and innovations of plot and character to create and enrich the Story ofYing- ying. More significantly, he also converted the tragic ending of the original story to a happy one with the marriage of Zhang Sheng and Yingying.

In the Yuan dynasty, Wang Shifu HEIflf (active 1295-1307) expanded Dongs text into a play with five parts, each containing four acts. With a total of twenty acts (some editions divide the text into twenty-one or twenty-two acts), it forms the longest zaju of that period.9 In this play, Zhang Sheng is a poor but aspiring scholar, while Yingying is the daughter of a former Tang-dynasty prime minister. On his way to the capital to take the civil service examination, Zhang Sheng stops at the Pujiu Temple where Yingying and her mother also happen to be staying. There, he catches sight ofYingying and instantly loses his heart to her. During an incident in which the temple is attacked by a fierce local warlord known as “Sun, the Flying

41

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

Tiger” (Sun Feihu %), Zhang Sheng proves himself worthy by resolving the crisis and saving Yingying from being abducted by the warlord.To Zhang’s dis- may, Madame Cui ( Yingying s mother) later breaks her original promise of giving Yingying’s hand to him in marriage as a reward for his heroism. Yingying’s maid Hongniang £ÜJ| (“Crimson Maiden”) sympathizes with the two young lovers and acts as a go-between, sending letters and arranging a rendezvous for them. When Madame Cui discovers their secret love affair, she demands Zhang pass the govern- ment examination in the capital as a condition for her approval to marry Yingying. Eventually, all is well. Zhang Sheng passes the examination, is appointed to high office in the imperial government, and marries Yingying. The central message of this play thus became “Let all lovers in the world be united as husband and wife” (JM^~FW'['h which is written as the last line in the text. This sug-

gests the main concern of the play was the right of young people to choose their own mate, instead of being forced into arranged marriages.

Wang’s drama represents the final development of Yingying’s story and is the standard version of the romance that most people know today. In order to distin- guish this Yuan version from the Dong Jieyuan one, it is sometimes called Wang Xixiang (Master Wang’s Western Chamber Romance). It is also called Bei

Xixiangji (Northern Version of Romance of the Western Chamber), as

it was written in the style of beiqu 4tEËl (“Northern Drama”) popular during the Yuan dynasty, in contrast to what was popular in the southern part of China ( nanqu p£ÎEËj, or “Southern Drama”) later in the Ming dynasty.

Even though the Western Chamber enjoyed tremendous popularity during the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was frequently banned from the stage and publish- ing houses by the government because of its provocative views and descriptions of physical love.10 Today, the Western Chamber is highly regarded as one of the best and most important literary works in Chinese history. Its dramatic content, vivid and lively use of dialogue, rational and well-structured composition, and use of elegant and descriptive poetry and prose make it a dramatic masterpiece surpassed by few others.

I. The Emergence of New Female Images on Porcelains: Identification and Styles

In the history of Chinese porcelain decoration, figurai subjects developed sig- nificantly later than plant or animal motifs. Most figurai images on early Chinese porcelains are of religious men, mythical characters, or children of auspicious con- notation.1 1 It was not until the Song dynasty that imagery with literary and h istorical content became more common and that images of women related to them began to appear, mainly on Cizhou fiJ&j'H pillows. In the early development of Chinese figure

42

HSU WEN-CHIN

painting, moral and didactic values were emphasized, so most female figures were in the lienii (“Exemplary Women”) category. During the mid-Tang period, an interest in daily life generated the new category of shinü hua (“Paintings of

Beautiful Women”). 12 This subject in painting had a substantial influence and was uti- lized as a decorative motif on all manners of Ch inese art objects. The following shows howearly representations ofscenes from the Western Chamber developed into porce- lain decoration. It began, for example, by focusing on the female figure type of shinü (Beautiful Women), but instead of depicting women as submissive, demure, and unassertive, as commonly seen in Chinese paintings,13 the female images from this drama were depicted on porcelains as more independent and self-assertive. They are the heroines in literature where “love” is the sole subject and central theme.

In the history of disseminating the Western Chamber, the story was already widely known among scholars and entertainers in the Song dynasty. Furthermore, commoners became familiar with it through stage performances and poems writ- ten as lyrics intended for musical and dance performances in public playhouses. From existing titles of Song-dynasty zaju, we also know that Romance of the West- ern Chamber had already been adapted as a play based on the story.14

Similarly, in northern China during the Jin dynasty, Yingying’s story was also much enjoyed. This is verified by the discovery in the ruins of Pujiu Temple of a stone slab inscribed with a poem dedicated to the memory of Yingying.15 Tire poem was written by the Jin scholar-official Wang Zhongtong around 1 170. This

was thirty years before the stone slab was erected and about twenty years before Master Dong’s version of the Western Chamber was published (circa 1190-1208). This slab thus confirms the popularity of Yingying’s story before Wang Shifu wrote his Western Chamber in the Yuan dynasty.

During this era, the adaptation of scenes from the story into visual art forms was also popular. Records of Yingying’s “portrait” and illustrations of her story by Song and Yuan painters are found in texts and in woodblock prints of the Ming and Qing periods.16 Given these circumstances, it is not surprising to find that porce- lains were also decorated with scenes from this story. “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense” and “Hongniang in the Dock,” for example, are two scenes that can be found on porcelains of the Jin and Yuan dynasties. Their iconography and evolu- tion of styles deserve further attention and examination.

1 . “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense”

The earliest example of a piece of porcelain decorated with a scene from this story is a Cizhou pillow dating to the thirteenth century during the fin dynasty (fig. I).1 The flat top of this oblong pillow, enclosed in a cloud-shaped frame, is painted with a scene that can be identified as Yingying burning nighttime incense in a garden.

43

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

Stoneware pillow decorated with “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense,” fin dynasty (111 5-1234), Cizhou ware, 1 3.7 x 17.4 x 29.8 cm. Shanghai Museum. From Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6000 Years of Chinese Art (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1983), pi. 87.

2

“Yingying burning nighttime incense,” woodblock print illustration, from Xinkan yaomu guanchang zhuoqifengyue jinnang zhengza liangke quanji , published in 1533, Ming dynasty. Real Bibliotheca de San Lorenzo del Escorial, Spain. From Shangben xiqu congkan, vol. IV (Taipei: Xuesheng shuju, 1987).

According to Master Dong’s Western Chamber, one night Zhang Sheng secretly watches Yingying as she burns nighttime incense in the garden. He suddenly begins to chant verses to her, to which she promptly chants in response. In the verse, Zhang expresses his love for her, and she in turn implies her acceptance of him as a suitor. In the text is a prose section that vividly describes Yingying s lovely appearance when she performs the ceremony of burning incense. She is described as wearing “a tight- fitting jacket setting her shapely figure to advantage. Again and again, she bowed to the moon.”18 On the pillow, in a simple and spacious composition, Yingying is seen dressed up and standing behind an incense table in the garden, accompanied by her maid Hongniang. This scene well fits the description in the text.

To confirm the identification of this subject,19 it is useful to compare it to the woodblock print illustration of the Western Chamber in the anthology of act-plays Xinkan yaomu guanchang zhuoqi fengyue jinnang zhengza liangke quanji § MWuMnfMt M (Complete works of the newly printed, eye-

catching, best, extracted marvels of wise counsel to amorous affairs), published in 1 533 (fig. 2). 20 In this illustration and located in the upper register of the page (with the picture above and text below), Yingying stands in a garden that is surrounded by a brick wall. Posed in front of an incense table, she turns back to look at Hong- niang. Hie four-character title Yingying zhuxiang (“Yingying Burning

Incense”) is printed in the top frame to indicate the subject. In addition, a seven- character couplet summarizing the contents appears on both sides of the picture frame. Although there is no inscription of a title for the thirteenth-century Cizhou pillow, similarities in overall composition to the sixteenth-century woodblock print help relate the two and identify the theme of the pillow.

Two works that emerged at a later date, showing Yingying burning nighttime incense, also include inscriptions that specify the theme, thereby helping to iden- tify the subject. Tire first is the painting Qianjiu jueyan tu ( Painting

of Peerless Beauties in History) from the late Ming dynasty (fig. 3).21 It depicts more than fifty-seven women in different poses or activities, such as standing, sit- ting, dancing, and playing musical instruments. These women are either histori-

44

HSU WEN-CHIN

3

Detail of Qianjiu jueyan tu, late Ming dynasty (1368-1644), handscroll, ink, and color on silk, 29.5 x 667.5 cm. Museum of Chinese History. From Meng-ching Ma, “Linking Poetry, Painting, and Prints: The Mode of Poetic Pictures in Late Ming Illustrations to the Story of the Western Wing,” International Journal of Asian Studies 5, no. 1 (2008).

4

Polychrome vase decorated with “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense,” Qing dynasty, ca. 19th century, 15x6 cm. From E. A. Strehlnee, Guyuexuan mingci (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1930; repr., 1998).

5

Blue-and-white vase decorated with “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense,” Yuan dynasty, 1320-50,

H. 35.9 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. C8- 1952.

From Saitoku Tarô, “Genda sometsuki kô — Jûyon seiki nakaba no Genseika to Genkyoku,” part 2, Ko bijutsu 19 (1967).

cal figures or literary heroines renowned tor their beauty as well as their talent. In the paintings, the name of each woman and a poem related to her life are written to one side. Among these figures, Yingying is shown wearing a red garment and standing next to a high incense table; she is preparing for the ceremony ot praying to the moon, the same scene previously cited in the Cizhou pillow description.

The scene of Yingying burning incense in a garden, in a composition similar to the painting just mentioned, appears again on an enameled vase of a much later date (fig. 4). This vase is painted with four figurai scenes of equal size around the sides; each is in an oblong cloud-shaped panel surrounded by dense, richly colored floral motifs in a Western style. One scene shows Yingying in the garden outside a house with a round window. She is leaning across an incense table and raising one hand in a gesture of praying under a full moon high above. A poem relating to the epi- sode of “Yingying Praying to the Moon” from the romance is inscribed on the vase. This poem carries the signature of Liu Yong Sfljiff, a celebrated figure of the Qian- long period (1736-1795). 22 Judging from the decorative style and the shape ot the vase, however, it is more likely to have been produced in a later period, perhaps in the nineteenth or early twentieth century. In both the above painting and the vase, Yingying appears alone without the company of Hongniang. Nevertheless, these motifs provide further evidence to identify the subject of decoration on the Cizhou piece, thus confirming the longstanding popularity of Yingying in this context.

As seen above, the image of Yingying burning incense in a garden achieved symbolic representation in Chinese art, and it can help identify ceramic decoration devoted to this subject that has been found from the Yuan and early Ming periods. Reflecting the interests of people in the Yuan dynasty, scenes from literature and drama suddenly became fashionable as decorative motifs on so-called Zhizheng type porcelain, the highest quality blue-and-white porcelain produced during the Zhizheng MIE period (1341-1367). 23 In this type of porcelain are two pieces that depict Yingying burning incense in a garden. One is a bulging jar, and the other is a vase traditionally called a meiping fSJfJi (“plum-blossom vase”) (fig. 5). 21 On both the jar and the vase, Yingying stands alone in the garden in front of an incense

45

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

6

Blue-and-white plate decorated with “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense ,” Ming dynasty. Hongzhi period (1488-1505), H. 3 cm, D. 12 cm. Jingdezhen Ceramic Museum. From jingdezhen minjian qinghua ciqi (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 1988), pi. 76.

table. Opinions differ about the theme on this meipingv ase. Saitoku Tarô fjfjifllftjTfc jt|3, for example, identifies the theme with the Western Chamber, based on studies of the decorative motifs and the characters written on the vase.25 Although Craig Clunas accepts this assertion, both Liu Liangyou MjiclJu and Ni Yibin dis-

agree with him.26 Based on the comparison above, as well as further analysis of the decoration on the other side of the vase below, I am convinced that its decoration is indeed from the Western Chamber story

In the mid-Ming period, after an apparent hiatus, the scene of Yingying burning incense reemerged as a form of decoration on porcelain, and this coincides with the increase in bgural scenes on porcelains at the time. This could perhaps be due to the fact that cobalt blue was then of better quality and thus more suitable for painting figurai subjects.27 At that time, the Yingying scene seems to have become a favored motif and can be seen, for instance, on a drum-shaped blue-and-white censer of the Tianshun 5yJ[[J| (1457-1464) to Chenghua (1465-1488) periods, as well as on two blue-and-white plates of the Jingtai (1450-1457) and Hongzhi 54 tn (1488-1505) reigns, respectively (fig. 6).28 Compared to porcelains of the Yuan dynasty, the quality of those produced in private kilns during the Ming dynasty deteriorated sharply. This was partly due to government restrictions as well as to the establishment of the imperial kiln in Jingdezhen where most of the

skilled potters would have been summoned to work.29 These Ming pieces are in sharp contrast to the refined and vigorous style of the Yuan dynasty. The decora- tions on this group of porcelains appear simple and crude, yet the interpretation is still quite vivid and expressive. For example, on the Hongzhi plate, the decoration is free and spontaneous, with flowing lines comparable to those in cursive script calligraphy (fig. 6). Landscape elements in the decoration tend to be quite exagger- ated, painted in an abstract, unrecognizable, and sometimes upside-down manner, yet exuding a sense of flow and freedom.

After the mid-Ming period, decorations on porcelains with the subject of “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense” seem to decline in popularity as new modes of representation emerged under the influence of contemporary wood- block print illustrations. Instead of depicting Yingying burning incense alone or being accompanied by Hongniang, these new scenes include Zhang Sheng in the composition, as the emphasis apparently shifted from the theme of “Yingying burning incense” to “Zhang Sheng chanting a poem and Yingying responding.”30 Where similar motifs are found, the representations are so ambiguous that it is hard to attribute them to any particular story. I posit that they are more likely related to literary works other than the Western Chamber, since the theme of burning nighttime incense had become common in many new dramas of the late Ming period.31

46 HSU WEN-CHIN

7

Blue-and- white vase decorated with "Hongniang in the Dock” (other side of fig. 5), Yuan dynasty, 1320-50, H. 35.9 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. C8-1952. From SaitokuTarô, “Genda sometsuki kô — Jûyon seiki nakaba no Genseika to Genkyoku,” part 2, Ko bijutsu 19(1967).

During the Xuande jËfH (1426-1435) and Chenghua (1465-1487) periods, many new scenes of women burning nighttime incense in a garden setting can be found on porcelains, but these may include the celestial lovers niulang zhinii

(“Cowherd and Weaving Maiden”) of folklore.32 According to Chinese legend, these two lovers are separated by the Emperor of the Heavens, who allows them to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in what has popularly become known as Chinese Lovers’ Day. This kind of decoration, however, is not to be confused with “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense.” The former usually includes a number of ladies engaging in various activities in addi- tion to burning incense, and it also features symbols of constellations in the sky. The imagery from both stories, however, carries the symbolic meaning of women praying to find a loving husband and nuptial bliss. The theme of Yingying burning nighttime incense, in fact, plays a key role in the development of the story of the Western Chamber. It happens twice in the text of Wang’s Western Chamber — in part I, act 3 (“A Poem and Its Response”) and in part III, act 3 (“Repudiation of the Billet- Doux”). The importance of this theme in the text, as well as its auspicious connota- tions, thus account for its popularity as a decorative motif on porcelains of the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

2. “Hongniang in the Dock”

A much more vigorous and dramatic scene than burning nighttime incense is found on the other side of the meiping vase mentioned above (fig. 7). This scene shows two women standing in a garden; the woman on the left holds a whip, while the other one covers her face with her sleeves in a gesture of weeping. The theme of this decoration can be accepted as “Hongniang in the Dock” from the Western Chamber (part IV, act 2). Of all the surviving Yuan dramas, the Western Chamber is probably the only one that highlights both a young lady burning incense and a maid being beaten by her old mistress (in separate acts). The difference in appearance between the woman who is elaborately dressed and the maid in much plainer cloth- ing on the other side of the vase is sufficiently clear; they are not to be confused as the same person, as sometimes happens in other Yuan dramas with similar themes.33

Tire act of “Hongniang in the Dock” also concerns Madame Cui, who becomes suspicious of her daughter’s behavior and one day strikes the maid Hongniang in order to secure a confession. Having confessed, Hongniang persuades Madame Cui to accept Zhang Sheng as her son-in-law, whereupon Madame Cui decides that Zhang Sheng must first take the imperial examinations and receive an official appointment before he may marry her daughter. Being witty, cunning, and righ- teous, Hongniang plays a key role in the Western Chamber. She not only delivers love letters between Zhang Sheng and Yingying and arranges a rendezvous for

47

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

8

Blue-and-white dish decorated with “Hongniang in the Dock,” Diam. 17 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, reg. no. EA1978.847. Photo: Hsu Wen-Chin.

9

Woodblock print illustration of “Hongniang in the Dock,” from Gehn shield , 1659, Qing dynasty. From Liu Junxi, ed., Shanben xiqu congkan (Taipei: Xuesheng shuju, 1984).

them, but she also argues their case to Madame Cui, thus influencing the outcome of the love affair and the ending of the story. For her conduct, Hongniang was later singled out and regarded as the heroine of the story. After the mid-Ming period, when dramatic performances took the form of selected acts from one or various plays instead of one entire play, the act “Hongniang in the Dock” became a favorite. Its popularity increased with time and is still often performed on stage.34 In fact, the name Hongniang has become a synonym in Chinese for a go-between who medi- ates between men and women for a prospective marriage.

The scene “Hongniang in the Dock” remained a popular decorative theme on Chinese porcelain throughout the Qing dynasty. One such example is a plate that can be dated to the Shunzhi period (fig. 8). The composition is very different from that on the meipingv ase of the Yuan dynasty and is more faithful to the text of the drama. Instead of placing the figures in a garden with a rock, plants, and a pavilion, this interior scene takes place in a room facing the garden. Madame Cui sits on a stool holding a stick with her son Huanglang i$Tt|j standing beside her. Hongniang kneels on the floor in front of Madame Cui, while a hidden Yingying peeps out from behind the screen. A verse of four lines from the play is written on the screen to help identify the subject.

The style and composition of this illustration are comparable to those in the woodblock print of Gelin shicui (Selected Examples of Songs and Lyr-

ics), published in the sixteenth year of the Shunzhi period, or 1659 (fig. 9). This woodblock print focuses on a close-up view of the scene inside the building and omits the garden surroundings seen on the dish. Judging from their similarities, it is quite clear that the porcelain decoration is an imitation of the woodblock print, with their mirror-image visual relationship caused by the technique of applying designs on porcelain.35 Their similarity in composition and style not only confirms that the plate was most likely produced around 1659, but it also suggests that its decorative pattern and that on the Yuan dynasty meipingv ase derive from differ- ent sources: the former was copied from a woodblock print, while the latter was likely inspired directly from a stage performance. The former reflects in large part the print designers imagination and understanding of the story, while the latter is simple in background and symbolic in posture and gesture, demonstrating ele- ments of Chinese drama.

48

HSU WEN-CHIN

10

“Painting of Meeting a Fairy,” woodblock print, from Xixiangji zalu, 1569, Ming dynasty. From Zheng Zhenduo, ed., Zhongguo gudai mukehua xuanji (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 1985).

3. Evolution of Styles

Before the late Ming period, the decoration of dramatic scenes on porcelains was mainly drawn from two sources — paintings on silk or paper and performances on stage. It is believed that paintings of popular stories originated in or were inspired by the ancient tradition whereby story narrators held up pictures to the audience during performances in order to enhance their interest.36 Consequently, paintings of scenes from the Western Chamber must have been produced for storytellers in the Song and Jin periods, since this story was already very popular at that time. Although no actual paintings on this theme from the period have survived, textual evidence from later periods suggests their existence. One such example that helps to confirm this theory comes from a mid-Ming woodblock print illustration in Xixiangji zalu (Anthology of Miscellaneous Poems from Romance of the

Western Chamber), published in 1569 (fig. 10).37 The print shows the encounter of Zhang Sheng and Yingying in a garden from part I, act 1 (“Beauty’s Enchantment”) and is inscribed with the title Songben huizhentu zjÇ^tt'ifLUl (“Song Painting of Meeting a Fairy”), thus attributing the origin of this illustration to a painting from the Song dynasty (when the story of Yingying was also known as Huizhenji gH, or Romance of Meeting a Fairy). In this print Zhang Sheng is accompanied by a monk and Yingying by Hongniang; the pairs are divided by a garden wall. Although this print is probably a reproduction of the original painting by a Ming painter, it features elements comparable to Song painting and to decoration on Cizhou ware. For example, the method of depicting the scene from an elevated angle, so that the viewer looks down from a higher position, was often used by painters illustrating narrative themes in the Song dynasty. Mae way figures are depicted in the middle ot a wide-open space filled with landscape elements further suggests the importance of landscape in the painting, also an invention of the Song period. Although we cannot know whether this illustration was really executed after a Song-dynasty painting or not, at least it indicates the Ming tradition of attributing this kind of picture to the Song dynasty.

49

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

It has been common practice for decorators of Chinese pottery to emulate and copy motifs found in brush painting. This phenomenon is stated and explained by Chen Liu Phil (1863-1929) in Taoya (Pottery Refinements) as follows:

Craft decorators were venerated. In the past motifs for embroidery, jade, ceramics, and bronzes were copied from each other, sharing the same pat- terns.... Furthermore, in order to make their decorations more elaborate, (pottery) decorators carefully imitated [the motifs from] Song and Yuan silk narrative paintings [so that] almost every brush strokehas its source oforigin.38

^ ^ m > „ mmm

The decoration ol the Cizhou pillow shows the characteristics of monochrome painting on paper by the singular use of black and the application of modulating lines of thickness as well as dark and light variations in the strokes themselves. It is therefore reasonable to believe that the pottery painter of the Cizhou pillow was originally inspired by a brush painting of the same subject and attempted to achieve a similar effect. He was thus more likely to have become acquainted with the narra- tive from a storytelling performance, rather than from a stage play, since the art of drama did not become popular or mature until the Yuan dynasty.

Hie painting on the Yuan-dynasty meiping vase (figs. 5 and 7), however, is markedly different from that on the Cizhou pillow. Figures were painted with pro- nounced size and more realism, with vivid facial expressions, hairstyles, and cos- tumes presented in great detail. Landscape and architectural elements appear out of proportion and are scattered around the surface in order to fill the space. The draw- ing on the meiping vase is particularly refined and meticulous. The outlines of the images are crisp and clear, with the use of cobalt blue rendering a variety of tones similar to those found in brush painting.

Tire decorative effect of this vase has been compared to that of a woodblock print, leading to the speculation that a lost illustrated edition of the drama may have directly influenced its decoration.39 Woodblock print illustrations of dramas were rare in the Yuan dynasty, however, and they did not become popular until the late Ming period.40 Illustrated books from the Yuan dynasty, as is now known, belonged to the category of pinghua zplA or “narrative fiction.” These are texts for storytelling in which similar compositions have been found between pinghua illus- trations and blue-and-white porcelain decorations of the Yuan dynasty,41 but no comparable scenes from dramas between woodblock print illustrations and Yuan- dynasty porcelain decoration have been found.

50

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11

Stoneware pillow, Qingbai, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), H. 15 cm, L. 22 cm. Fengcheng Museum collection. From Zhongguo taoci quanji — Yuan, vol. 2 (Taipei: Jingnian guoji gongsi, 2000), pi. 6.

Although the manner of handling rocks and plants is similar to those in the wood- block prints, the meticulous drawing of the figures is not. Therefore, I would suggest that the landscape elements and the figures were painted by différent decorators. While the figures were executed by a decorator directly inspired by the stage perfor- mance, the landscape elements were done by a specialist in landscape decoration and were drawn from an existing repertoire. The division of labor, still in existence today, has been common practice in the Chinese porcelain industry since early times.42

The Yuan dynasty witnessed the golden age of Chinese drama, during which plays were commonly performed throughout the country. The fact that potters in Jingdezhen were familiar with contemporary dramas can be determined from sev- eral pillows of qingbai i=!f É1 (shadow- white) ware made in Jingdezhen at this time (fig. II).43 These pillows are in the shape of a theater with concave tops. They were produced in such a careful and detailed manner that not only are the graceful floral and scroll patterns of the theater windows, trellis, and stage curtains visible but so are the vivid expressions and gestures of the actors themselves. In the pillow illus- trated here, four consecutive scenes, probably from Baishezhuan E=3ili'bf$ (The Story of White Snake), are presented one on each side of the pillow, respectively, and were executed mainly by molding and carving techniques.44

The presentation of multiple scenes from one story on a single piece of porce- lain, side by side, was very likely a new device developed in the Yuan dynasty, and this kind of design can also be seen in the meiping vase decorated with “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense” and “Hongniang in the Dock.” On this vase, these two scenes are depicted in gardens full of plants, where architectural features are used as part of the setting and to separate the scenes. This presents a new Yuan decorative technique to display multiple scenes from a given drama on a single piece of porce- lain. It is believed that this kind of design was very likely inspired and influenced by the newly popular style and technique of writing dramas in the Yuan dynasty, when dramas were divided into parts and acts that could be performed complete or as specific selected acts.45

A Yuan-dynasty mural painting discovered in Yuncheng Shanxi province,

is also a valuable document for understanding how plays were performed during

51

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12

12

Play performance, mural painting, Yuan dynasty ( 1271-1368), Yuncheng, Shanxi province. From Liu Yanjun, Tushuo Zhongguo xiqushi (Taipei: Yangzhi wenhua gongsi, 2003), p. 78.

that period (fig. 12).46 This painting shows an outdoor performance with actors and an actress standing side by side, facing the audience. There is no background for this performance except in the far distance, where above the heads of the figures are simple drawings of plants and vase-shaped images. Similarities in the arrange- ment of figures in this mural painting and in the decoration of “Hongniang in the Dock” on the Yuan vase suggest that the latter emulates an outdoor performance. The frontal position of the figures and their articulated gestures link them to the theatricality of a stage performance.

An intriguing question is, Who painted these groups of porcelains decorated with dramatic scenes? The consensus is that they were not ordinary artisans but were well-trained painters who, owing to the social crisis and disturbances brought by Mongol rule in China, were forced to seek shelter in J'ingdezhen and work there as porcelain decorators.47 Furthermore, it is even possible that some were South- ern Song court painters who were forced to work as professional artisans in the marketplace or in handicraft industries when the imperial Southern Song paint- ing academy was dissolved during the Yuan dynasty. This theory becomes relevant when the refined and realistic style of porcelain drawings is compared to that on the Song-dynasty Cizhou pillow that shows the influence of Song court painting (fig. 13). Both are painted with delicate and refined lines as well as with a detailed and realistic drawing of the figures. The Cizhou pillow, however, is painted using the baimiao (line drawing) technique popular in Song literati painting, while the latter shows a gradation of pigment and tone. The posture and gesture of the boy holding a whip while looking to the right demonstrate similarities to those of Madame Cui on the meipingv ase, therefore suggesting a connection in decoration between these two porcelains.

The style of painting changed in the early and middle Ming period. In the begin- ning was a revival of Southern Song court painting, but soon a loose and unre- strained style of drawing prevailed. This style pertains in particular to Zhe school paintings of the mid-Ming period, such as those by Wu Wei (1459-1508) and Jiang Song W-M (circa after 1475-before 1565), who was active in Hangzhou IfCj'H, Zhejiang. The drawing on the Hongzhi dish (fig. 6) shows the rough and sketchy style of painting that was prevalent at the Zhe school during that time (fig. 14).

In the late Ming period, the industry of woodblock print illustrations reached its golden age; almost every literary work published contained illustrations. Well- known painters teamed up with skilled woodblock carving masters in Huizhou US Nanjing Suzhou Hangzhou, and Wuxing (locations in

the southern Yangzi River area) and produced many woodblock prints that have

52

HSU WEN-CHIN

13

Pillow, Cizhou ware, 12th- 13 th century, late Northern Song-Jing dynasty (960-1234), H. 10.2 cm,

L. 28.6 cm. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, Metropolitan Museum of Art collection (Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resources, ART 400686).

14

Zhang Lu (1464-1538), “A Fairy Playing Flute,” Ming dynasty, hanging scroll, monochrome ink on silk, 141.3 x91.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. Photo: National Palace Museum, Beijing.

become distinguished as the most creative and exquisite in the history of this art- form.48 Woodblock print illustrations were taken as models for porcelain decora- tion because of their general availability. This resulted in the similarity in subject and style between the two kinds of art in the late Ming and Shunzhi period. Tire plate “Hongniang in the Dock” mentioned earlier (fig. 8) is an example of such a phenomenon. The woodblock illustration of the same theme in Gehn shicui (fig. 9) is also based on Bei Xixiangji published by Wanhuxuan lErc (Playful Tiger Studio) in Huizhou around 1597 (hereafter cited as the Wanhuxuan edition). Illus- trations in this book were by a master painter in this profession, Wang Geng ÿj£ (circa 1572-1662). Therefore, the decoration on the Shunzhi plate imitating the Wanhuxuan illustration reflects the graceful style of woodblock prints in the Huizhou school ( Huipai ®f)R)> which was popular in the late Ming period and had by that time reached unrivalled excellence in terms of quality.49

II. From “Beautiful Women” to “Major Scenes” in the Ming Dynasty

After the fall of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, management of the porcelain indus- try in Jingdezhen and the development of Chinese drama changed significantly, and this affected the application of drama scenes on porcelain. In the early Ming dynasty, the government set up imperial kilns in Jingdezhen and imple- mented restrictive controls over the kinds of porcelain produced, whether for imperial or civilian use.50 During the Jiajing period Jf§5ff (1522-1560), govern- ment restrictions eased, and as a result, the difference in decoration and quality between imperial and civilian wares became blurred. This situation was mainly due to the introduction of a new government system of manufacturing imperial wares in private kilns, called guanda minshao (private firing of official

[wares]).51 Under this system, a number of civilian kilns were subcontracted by the Jingdezhen imperial kilns to assist in the production of official porcelains. Because the court often placed enormous rush orders, the official kilns had no choice but to allocate part of the workload to local civilian kilns as a way to fulfill

53

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

the demand. This system continued into the Qing dynasty and was an important factor in raising the status of private kilns and improving the quality of their products, which had a profound influence on the stylistic developments of both imperial and private wares.

During the Hongwu (1368-1398) era, the government announced restric- tions on the kinds of decoration and motifs that porcelain painters were allowed to use. The government simultaneously imposed censorship on plays, printed books, and paintings that were considered improper.52 As a result, few figurai scenes appear on porcelains of the early Ming period (late fourteenth and fifteenth centu- ries). From the fiajing period onward, however, representations of such scenes with narrative content on porcelains once again became popular, reaching a climax in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. This phenomenon was very likely caused by the easing of government controls, as well as the rising number of civilian kilns in Jingdezhen due to increased demand from both domestic and foreign markets. Narrative motifs were also popular mainly among commoners.

In the Ming dynasty, the Northern type of drama popular in the Yuan dynasty, zaju, declined as chuanqi fllïff (“Transmission of the Strange”), also called nanqu (Southern Drama) — a type of drama popular in southern China with humble ori- gins and a coarser dramatic style — became fashionable. In the sixteenth century chuanqi was bolstered by the introduction of an innovative style of singing. This new type of chuanqi, called kunqu HEË] (Kunshan Opera), had attained full matu- rity by the second half of the sixteenth century and became the principal literary genre until the mid-Qing dynasty. Zaju, however, was far from forgotten. During the last fifty years of the Ming dynasty — from the Wanli |§jj§ (1573-1620), Tianqi (1621-1627), and Chongzhen ^/TiÉ (1628-1644) periods — interest in zaju was revived, and many anthologies of Yuan zaju were reprinted between 1599 and 1632.

In the Ming dynasty, the Western Chamber was revised and adapted into South- ern Drama and Kunshan Opera to suit contemporary taste and to promote its per- formance. Among numerous revisions of this drama was Nan Xixiangji IE (Southern Version of Romance of the Western Chamber), written by Li Rihua 01p? (active 1522) in the early sixteenth century. It was the most successful revi- sion, and therefore it became the most popular one for performing on stage.53 In the meantime, the Western Chamber became a reading text for the literate populace, resulting in 1 10 editions of the play being published (68 new editions, 39 republica- tions, and 3 editions in the form of aria scripts, or qupu EËlllf). It became the undis- puted best seller of the time, as verified in the saying, “Only the books of Confucius can rival it in the number of editions.”54 Most of these editions contain woodblock print illustrations and were published in the late Ming dynasty from the Wanli to

54

HSU WEN-CHIN

Chongzhen eras, just as the thriving woodblock industry was reaching its golden age.55 Due to woodblock prints being commonly used as models for other media, they had a tremendous impact on porcelain decoration both in terms of subject and style (with one example being “Hongniang in the Dock” on the Shunzhi plate [figs. 8 and 9]).

Early editions of the Western Chamber before the Wanli period are illustrated with the text above and the picture below. Therefore, the whole text is fully illus- trated with pictures running through the top quarter of each page. Early in the Wanli period, however, a new mode of assigning one picture to each act became a standard practice. Illustrations were taken from the subtitle verses of each act and were printed on one full page or on two facing pages.56 Therefore, ten- or twenty- picture formats became common in many instances. With this shift in focus on the climax of the episodes within each individual act, the subjects of the illustrations became fixed to selected moments of the play instead of covering the content of the whole text, as was possible to do with the method of text above and picture below. This change in illustration preference affected porcelain decoration as well and marked a division between porcelains produced before and after the Wanli period. Elere, porcelains decorated with Western Chamber scenes are examined in two groups: those produced before the end of the Jiajing period, and those after the beginning of the Wanli period.

1. Scenes Related to “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense”

Before the sixteenth century, figures were not a favored decoration for por- celains, so pieces with Western Chamber subject matter are relatively rare. In my opinion, by that time only about three motifs can be attributed with certainty to this drama before the end of the Jiajing period. They are “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense,” “Yingying Calling fiongniang to Burn Nighttime Incense” (part III, act 3), and “Zhang Sheng Greeting Yingying and Hongniang in the Garden” (part I, act 3). 57 Coincidently, all three relate to the theme of burning nighttime incense.

“ Yingying Calling Hongniang to Burn Nighttime Incense”

The scene that could be identified as “Yingying Calling Hongniang to Burn Nighttime Incense” is found on several examples of blue-and-white porcelain of the Jingtai and Hongzhi periods (figs. 15 and 16), exemplifiying its popularity as a decorative motif at that time. Comparing these to the woodblock print in Xinkan qimiao quanxiang zhushi Xixiangji (A Newly Cut,

Deluxe, Completely Illustrated and Annotated Romance of the Western Chamber) published in 1498 during the Hongzhi period (hereafter cited as the 1498 edition)

55

ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

15

15

Blue-and-white porcelain fragment, Ming dynasty, 1450-57. From Xiong Liao, ed., Zhongguo lidai qinghua huadian (Hangzhou: Zhongguo meishu xueyuan, 1995).

16

Blue-and-white plate, Ming dynasty, 1488-1505, D. 21 cm. From Lary Gotuaco et al., Chinese and Vietnamese Blue and White Wares Found in the Philippines (Makati City, Philippines: Bookmark, 1997), 139.

17

Woodblock print illustration of “Yingying Calling Hongniang to Burn Nighttime Incense in the Garden,” from Xinkan qimiao quanxiang zhushi Xixiatigji, Ming dynasty, 1498. Beijing Library. From Xixiangji zaju (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1961).

16

helps to identify the subject as from part III, act 3 (“Repudiation of the Billet- Doux”).58 In the previous act, Yingying sent a letter to Zhang Sheng in which she invites him to meet her at night in the garden. This act describes how, after night- fall, Zhang enters the garden and is unexpectedly reproached by Yingying for not behaving like a scholar. The scene in this woodblock print represents Yingying and Hongniang going to the garden in the very beginning of the act. Following the text, Yingying is dressed up for the occasion.

The composition and poses of the figures in this woodblock print bear a strik- ing resemblance to the porcelain decorations, all of which have the same arrange- ment of two ladies in an open landscape — the one walking in front (Yingying) turns back to look at the other (Hongniang). The title of “Yingying Calling Hongniang to Burn Nighttime Incense in the Garden” (M^iîEfkBl^'i^^) is inscribed in the cartouche on the right side of the woodblock illustration and helps identify the porcelain decoration (fig. 17). The realistic and observant man- ner of representation in the woodblock print is closer to that in the fragment from the Jingtai period (fig. 15) than in the Hongzhi plate (fig. 16). The decoration of the latter is freer and more spontaneous, reflecting the style of painting associated with the Zhe school.

After this comparison, it is possible to conclude that the Hongzhi plate decora- tion is executed in imitation of the Jingtai fragment. Tire depiction in the latter is realistic and meticulous, while the landscape elements on the Hongzhi plate are distorted and all but unrecognizable. It is a common feature that the copied ver- sions often lose the meaning of the original either by adding unnecessary elements or by being rendered in an abstract and sketchy manner, as seen here. The Jingtai piece was not copied from the 1498 edition, since it was produced at an earlier date. It is possible that a missing illustration produced in or before the Jingtai period might be the common source for both works, as they are almost identical in com- position and similar in style.

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i8

Interior of a bowl painted in enamels, Ming dynasty, mark and reign of Jiajing period (1522-66), D. 32.1 cm. Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva, no. inv. CB.CC. 1993.356. From John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 1 (Geneva: Baur Collection, 1999).

19

“Zhang Sheng Greeting Yingying and Hongniang in the Garden,” woodblock print illustration in Xinkan qimiao quanxiang zhushi Xixiangji, Ming dynasty, 1498. Beijing Library. From Xixiangji zaju (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1961).

The above shows that during the Jingtai period, woodblock illustrations had not yet become a model for porcelain decoration. Instead, they may have been copied from the same source of the original pattern. Furthermore, a pattern could have been used repeatedly, each time slightly diverging from the original, so that in the end the original meaning of the pattern could have been lost completely, while the decoration became a general depiction without referring to any specific literary provenance. Therefore, like the generalization of “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense,” the scene of “Yingying Calling Hongniang to Burn Nighttime Incense” may also have become a generic depiction of youchuntu (“Women’s Spring-

time Outing”), a genre of “Women of Beauty” in Chinese painting that also carried the auspicious meaning of prosperity and enjoyment in life.59

“Zhang Sheng Greeting Yingying and Hongniang in the Garden”

The scene of Zhang Sheng greeting Yingying and Hongniang in the garden is depicted on the base of a polychrome bowl dated to the Jiajing period (fig. 18). This subject can be identified by comparing the woodblock print illustration on the same theme in the 1498 edition (fig. 19). Both the woodblock illustration and the porcelain decoration show Zhang Sheng greeting Yingying in the garden, and a ten-character caption for the title of the scene is inscribed on the woodblock print illustration. This scene comes from the same act as “Yingying Burning Nighttime Incense” (part I, act 3), “A Poem and Its Response,” and relates how, after hearing Yingying’s response to the poem he had chanted to her, Zhang Sheng cheerfully comes out from hiding to greet her. Yingying retreats as soon as she sees him, how- ever, in order to maintain her maidenly propriety.

Here, for the first time, the male character Zhang Sheng appears in porcelain decoration together with Yingying and Hongninag. This may suggest porcelain decoration was no longer restricted to the category of “Women of Beauty,” since narrative subjects of literary content are represented in an undisguised manner. During the Jiajing period, the number of porcelains decorated with dramatic scenes increased, reflecting the thriving business of civilian kilns in Jingdezhen that had led to the desirability of this type of decoration. The appearance of the new theme of “Zhang Sheng Greeting Yingying and Hongning in the Garden” illustrates this new development.

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20

Blue-and -white porcelain fragment, Ming dynasty, Wanli period ( 1573— 1620). From Xiong Liao, Zhongguo lidai qinghua huadian (Hangzhou: Zhongguo meishu xueyuan, 1995).

21

Blue-and- white vase decorated with "Beauty’s Enchantment,” Ming dynasty, Chongzhen period (1627- 44), H. 30 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, reg. no. EA1978. 2036. Photo: Hsu Wen-Chin.

2. Establishment of Archetypes: The Influence of Woodblock Print

Illustrations

In the history of Chinese porcelain, the period between the end of the Wanli reign in 1620 during the Ming dynasty and the reinstallation of government super- visors in Jingdezhen by the Qing emperor Kangxi in 1683 is called the Transitional Period.60 Imperial kiln production came to a standstill during this time. Private kilns, however, excelled in providing high-quality porcelains not only for domestic and foreign markets but also for the imperial household. Well-made porcelains of unprecedented shape and decoration were produced, and the ongoing popularity of narrative scenes from fiction and drama became one of the most important and interesting features of these Transitional porcelains.61

Due to the rarity of dated pieces and the lack of written materials, it is difficult to establish the chronology and a full picture of porcelain production during this period. The following study intends to challenge the problem of dating and to prove that the Western Chamber was indeed a popular subject for porcelain decoration during this era, particularly during the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns, when impe- rial kiln production ceased and orders were carried out by private kilns. New forms of decoration replaced old ones, highlights from the plays twenty acts were thor- oughly represented, and the style of decoration evolved into that of contemporary woodblock print illustrations.

1. Simultaneous Developments of Porcelain Decoration and Woodblock

Print Illustrations

According to research published to the present, three scenes are unanimously accepted as being from the Western Chamber. They appear on decorated porcelains produced between the Wanli and Chongzhen periods.

58 HSU WEN-CHIN

22

Woodblock print illustration to “Beauty’s Enchantment.” From Chongke Yuanben tipingyinshi Xixiangji, published by Zhongzhengtang, Ming dynasty, 1592. Naikaku bunko, Tokyo, collection. Photo: Zhou Wu.

a. “Beauty’s Enchantment” (part I, act 1) on a fragment ofblue-and-white por- celain of the Wanli period (fig. 20) and a Rolwagen vase in the Ashmolean Museum collection (fig. 21 ).

b. “A Surprising Dream” (part IV, act 4) on a bottle vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

c. “A Feast with Tears” (part IV, act 3) painted on a brush holder in the Butler Family Collection.62

These scenes represent new themes in porcelain decoration, while those of the pre- vious period seem to have fallen out of favor. In addition, they depict the highlights of different acts, and the images are copied from contemporary woodblock print illustrations.

The composition and style on the remaining scene from the fragment of the Wanli period, for example, are comparable to those in a woodblock print illus- tration to the scene of “Beauty’s Enchantment” in Chongke Yuanben tipingyinshi Xixiangji JfllS (Newly Cut Yuan Edition of the Annotated

Romance of the Western Chamber ), published in Fujian in 1592 (hereafter cited as the 1592 edition) (fig. 22). The highlight of this act describes how Zhang Sheng, during his visit to the Pujiu Temple, unexpectedly comes across Yingying taking a walk with Hongniang in the courtyard. In both works, the figures stand outdoors; Yingying, accompanied by Hongniang, looks at Zhang Sheng, who is depicted in profile. Although only the upper part of Zhang Sheng’s body is visible in the frag- ment, the theme of this piece is clearly recognizable. A four- character caption and a couplet referring to the scene are also inscribed on the print, thereby confirming the identity of the subject. The manner of drawing the figures in large size, with vig- orous thick outlines and exaggerated expressions, is particularly similar to that in the woodblock print illustration of 1592. The latter, representing a bold and archaic image, can be categorized as a “stage-acting type of woodblock print illustration,” because both the expression and gestures of the figure emulate those of stage per- formances.63

A similar scene depicted on the Rolwagen vase is represented in a very differ- ent manner from the above example. This vase, with a refined, solid body cobalt blue decoration tinted with delicate lavender hues, was produced in the Chongzhen period and belonged to the so-called High Transitional Porcelain, the group of top- quality porcelains produced during that period.64 Instead of the carefree and bold manner of depiction in the Wanli fragment, the decoration here is carefully delin- eated in fluid, even lines, and figures with subtle and graceful expressions are dainty and diminished in size. The style and composition of the decoration on this vase are quite similar to those in the woodblock print illustrations of the same theme in the

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23

23

“Zhang Sheng Meets Hongniang,” polychrome woodblock print illustration to Romance of the Western Chamber produced by Min Qiji in 1640. Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln,

Inv. - No. R62, 1 [No. 02]. Photo: Rheinishes Bildarchiv, Köln.

Wanhuxuan edition, but the drawing of the landscape surroundings and the gar- ment patterns here are more meticulous and elaborate.65 This style is similar to and influenced by Huizhou-style woodblock prints that were popular in the late Ming dynasty Since Huizhou is near Jingdezhen, woodblock illustrations produced in the Huizhou area were introduced to Jingdezhen porcelain painters via Huizhou merchants.66 In the late Ming period, merchants controlled most of the porcelain trade in Huizhou, and the influence of Huizhou-style woodblock print designs on porcelain decoration is an outstanding feature of Transitional Porcelain. It is specu- lated, however, that the drawing on this vase was probably not imitated directly from the woodblock print illustration of the Wanhuxuan edition published around 1 597, but rather it was from a later reprinted version of the work in circulation dur- ing the Chongzhen period and was available to the decorator of this vase.

Of all the examples of porcelain decorated with Western Chamber scenes listed above, only one piece belongs to the Wanli period; the others were produced in the Chongzhen era. This may indicate that the influence of woodblock print illus- tration on porcelain decoration emerged during the Wanli period and blossomed during the Chongzhen period. Even though only a small portion of the produc- tion remains extant or is recognized by scholars today, studies conducted on mate- rial and cultural life, in addition to a re-examination of the chronology based on archaeological discoveries and woodblock print illustrations, seem to support the assumption and expectations of the popularity of the Western Chamber on porce- lain decoration at this time.

From the Wanli to the Chongzhen eras in the late Ming dynasty, cultural life flourished as the social and political order plunged into crisis; the wealthy in the Tianqi and Chongzhen periods became richer than ever and enjoyed extrava- gant lifestyles.67 Such circumstances saw the production of the most sumptuous and luxurious objects for the upper echelons of society. The majority of this group lived south of the Yangzi River in the Jiangnan region of central China, the same geographical district as Jingdezhen. Some of these wealthy people were fans of the Western Chamber, and under their patronage, artworks related to this romance reached a pinnacle. The production of the twenty-leaf polychrome album of the Western Chamber published by Min Qiji (IçjpbfJJ of Wuxing in 1640 (hereafter the 1 640 edition) is a fine example of the popularity of this play among the wealthy and

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24

Blue-and-white dish decorated with a woman seated beside a rock overhang, Ming dynasty, ca. 1643,

D. 9 cm. From the cargo recovered by Captain Michael Hatcher. Photo: courtesy of Julia Curtis.

25

Blue-and-white dish decorated with “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux,” Ming dynasty, Chongzhen period (1627-44), D. 21.3 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, reg. no. EA1978. 838. Photo: Hsu Wen-Chin.

26

Blue-and-white dish decorated with “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux,” Qing dynasty, early Kangxi period (before 1672), D. 15.8 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, reg. no. C587-1925. Photo: Hsu Wen-Chin.

of the high artistic standards that were achieved.68 This album is not only the sole remaining colored woodblock print illustration of all of Chinese literature, but it is also considered the best executed of all woodblock print illustrations in China. Fur- thermore, it is very likely that this album was published independently and without text for the sheer visual pleasure of the wealthy class.

In this polychrome album, some of the scenes are represented in the forms of art objects, such as ceramics, bronze wares, a lantern, and so on; together they create some of the most complex and intriguing images in the history of Chi- nese design. The artist for this album was probably responding to the contem- porary phenomenon of illustrations of famous dramas being used increasingly to decorate ceramic wares and other types of art objects.69 Worthy of note is the third picture, which is depicted inside the form of a ceramic jar (fig. 23). The scene depicts Zhang Sheng introducing himself to Hongniang, whom he hopes will help send a message to Yingying (from part I, act 2, “Renting Quarters in the Monastery”). This scene is shown in baimiao style, the special technique of illustration whereby motifs are executed with pure outlines and without grading or shading. This style of decoration appeared in porcelains of the Wanli period and continued into the Qing dynasty. Both the technique of drawing and the elongated, graceful figure types in this image provide clues for the dating of por- celains produced around 1640.

2. A Re-examination of Chronology: The “ Repudiation of the Billet-Doux” Dish

and the Box Decorated with Twenty Scenes

The discovery of a shipwreck in the South China Sea by Michael Hatcher in the early 1980s provided much valuable material evidence about porcelain production in the 1640s.70 The Hatcher wreck, as it became known, contained a large shipment of Chinese porcelain produced in Jingdezhen during the late Ming dynasty, spe- cifically around 1643 (as evidenced by two pieces in the cargo bearing the cyclical date for that year). Among the cargo holdings was a group of fine dishes and sau- cers decorated with figures in fictional and romantic scenes. One of the decorative scenes depicts a young lady sitting under a grotesquely shaped towering rock in a garden (fig. 24). This motif is an abridged version of that on the blue-and-white dishes in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (figs. 25 and 26). The decorations on the latter two pieces are identical in

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ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

27

Woodblock print illustration to “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux,” Xinke Wei Zhongxue xiansheng pidian Xixiangji, published by Chen Changqing in the Tianqi (1605-27) or Chongzhen (1627-44) period, Ming dynasty. Beijing National Library. Photo: Beijing National Library.

composition but vary in style and details. By comparing the decoration with the woodblock print illustration of the Western Chamber published in the late Ming dynasty, as well as by reading the poem inscribed on the dish from the Victoria and Albert Museum, it becomes evident that the scene represents a highlighted moment from part III, act 3, “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux.”71

This scene is a continuation of “Yingying Calling Hongniang to Burn Night- time Incense” in the same act (hgs. 15 and 16). In this specific episode, Hongniang advises Zhang Sheng to enter the garden by climbing the wall instead of coming through the door. As a result, Yingying reproaches him for not acting like a scholar, and she treats him as if he were a thief. The porcelain decorations show the moment when Zhang Sheng is on top of the wall, while Yingying is seated at the back of the rock, unaware of what is happening. Hongniang, who is behind this farce, stands between them, assuming a key role in the plot.

The decoration on the saucer from the Hatcher wreck, which shows only Ying- ying seated, therefore represents an incomplete scene from this episode. This exam- ple may suggest that “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux” was a popular subject for porcelain decoration in the late Ming dynasty. As a result, a simplified version may have been used as a decoration on export porcelains, for most foreign buyers would not know the story and therefore would not demand details.

In my previous study on Transitional Porcelains, I dated the Ashmolean Museum dish (fig. 25) to the early Kangxi period prior to 1672. 72 Subsequent stud- ies of its features, however, as well as comparisons with the Hatcher wreck discov- ery and contemporary woodblock prints now convince me that the dish was very likely produced even earlier, that is, in the Chongzhen period. The brown rim on this dish, for example, is a characteristic of porcelain produced somewhat earlier, between the Chongzhen and the Shunzhi periods.73 In addition, the careful and delicate manner of depicting the willow trees, rocks, palm-leaf patterns, and tiny dots on the ground in this dish is very similar to that in the saucer from the late Ming dynasty. Moreover, the style of decoration is also quite different from that on the early Kangxi period dish in the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 26). The former is executed in a graceful and fluent manner comparable to the print image from the 1640 edition (fig. 23), while the latter shows characteristics of a copied version, which is stiffer in drawing, sluggish in appearance, and monotonous in texture.

On the Ashmolean Museum dish, the formation of the rocks, the way Yingying sits on the rock, and the pose of Zhang Sheng holding a willow branch in one hand while placing a foot on the roof of the garden wall are identical to the same sub- ject depicted in the woodblock print illustration in Xinke Wei Zhongxue xiansheng pidian Xixiangji (Newly Cut Romance of the West-

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28

Blue-and-white round box decorated with twenty scenes from Romance of the Western Chamber, Ming dynasty, Chongzhen period (1627-44), 23 x 42 cm. From Takushin Kushi, Minsho tojizukan (Tokyo: Hounsha, 1943), amendment pi. 6.

29

Blue-and-white octagonal box, Ming dynasty, ca. 1643, D. 20 cm. From the cargo recovered by Captain Michael Hatcher. From Colin Sheat and Richard Kilburn, The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes : The Complete Record (Oxford: Phaidon-Christie’s, 1988), pi. 64.

ern Chamber with Commentary by Mr. Wei Zhongxue; hereafter cited as the Wei Zhongxue edition) reprinted by Chen Changqing in the Tianqi or Chong-

zhen period (fig. 27). 74 The dandy figures with swaying drapery and long fluttering sleeves, however, are closer to those of the 1640 edition. Therefore, I believe that this plate was very likely produced in the Chongzhen period around 1 640.

In addition to the porcelain pieces mentioned above, the round box in trap- ezoid form decorated with a complete series of twenty episodes from this drama can also be dated to the Chongzhen period (fig. 28 ).75 This dating is further con- firmed by comparison with the octagonal box recovered from the Hatcher wreck (noting the shared features in quality, shape, and device of decoration) as well as the contemporary woodblock print (fig. 29). Both the trapezoid box and the box from the Hatcher wreck are of the highest quality porcelain made at the time, and the decoration is divided into multiple trapezoidal compartments along the edge of the cover and on the body of the box. Another striking similarity in the decoration of these two boxes is that both are drawn in baimiao style, the same technique seen in the third picture of the 1640 edition (fig. 23). A common feature in wares of the Chongzhen period is the decoration of geometric patterns around the joined bor- ders of the cover and the body of the box, as seen here on both pieces.76

Round boxes produced in the Shunzhi period, however, seem to be of inferior quality and without geometric motifs,77 while round boxes of the early Kangxi period are also different from those of the Chongzhen period. Both the shape and the decorative schemes of the typical early Kangxi box is a round body and a round domed lid without sharp edges. Also, the decoration is simplified into two zones; one is painted on the lid, and the other is on the body.78 These comparisons further suggest dating the box, with its twenty scenes from the Western Chamber, to the Chongzheng period.

The twenty scenes from the Western Chamber on this trapezoid box coincide with the woodblock print illustration of twenty pictures, with one scene depicting the highlight of each act.79 On this box the twenty scenes are arranged as follows; two each on the inside and outside roundels on top of the cover and base of the body; eight each on the two trapezoidal bands of the box; the scenes from “Inter- ruption of the Consecration Service” (part I, act 4) and “The Glorious Homecom- ing” (part V, act 4) are painted in the top and inside roundels of the box; and scenes for “A Surprising Dream” (part IV, act 4) and “A Feast with Tears” (part

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30

“Interruption of the Consecration Service” on a blue-and-white round box, Ming dynasty, Chongzhen period ( 1627-44). From Takushin Kushi, Minsho toji zukan, amendment pi. 6.

31

Woodblock print illustration to “Interruption of the Consecration Service,” Ming dynasty, Chongzhen period (1627-44). From Xinke Wei Zhongxue xiansheng pidian Xixiangji. National Central Library, Taipei. Photo: National Central Library, Taipei.

IV, act 3) are depicted on the inside and outside bases of the box. The remaining sixteen scenes from the play are painted in consecutive order along the exterior of the box.

In addition to the number of scenes and their content, the elegant and sinu- ous style of drawing on this box is reminiscent of the woodblock prints from the Chongzhen period. The porcelain painter evidently referred to different sources of woodblock prints, since each scene on the box can be compared to a print illustra- tion from a different edition. No single edition of this drama contains illustrations similar to all of the scenes on the box. Even though some of the scenes are very close to woodblock illustrations, some slight differences in detail are more interesting and captivating than the woodblock prints. The representation of “Interruption of the Consecration Service” is a fine example of the exquisite imagery and proficient technical quality that was achieved in the decoration of this box (figs. 30 and 31).

Tire act “Interruption of the Consecration Service” is about the religious service for Yingying’s late father, a minister of the Tang dynasty. When Zhang Sheng learns that this activity is going to take place in the temple, he asks for the abbot’s permis- sion to let him participate in the ceremony. In the text, the scene is depicted like a farce. The abbot stares unblinkingly at Yingying and raps the bald head of a young monk, mistaking it for a percussion instrument. The young monks likewise forget their duty to replace the burnt incense and candles, which results in the incense burning out and the smoke from the candles ceasing. All these events apparently have been caused by Yingying’s bewitching beauty.

The illustration of this scene on the box shows nothing of these humorous fea- tures from the text. Instead, it is painted in an elegant and formal manner similar to the woodblock illustrations. The composition and style of this scene are similar to the Wei Zhongxue edition published by the Chunchengtang (Hall Embody-

ing Honesty) in the Chongzhen period (fig. 31). Both the box and the woodblock print are set in a crowded Buddhist hall, with the abbot and the Cui family worship- ing in front of a table placed before an altar that holds three Buddhist statues. Stand-

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ing between the altar and the table, Zhang Sheng holds a candle that is being lit by a servant boy. On both sides of the hall monks chanting sutras are seated behind long tables. Tire novice striking the bell in the upper left corner of the print is missing from the composition on the box, but the triangle stand for the bell and the tassel hanging down from it remain visible. Since more monks play musical instruments in the foreground of the porcelain decoration than appear in the woodblock print illustration, that composition seems more compressed. It is thus clear that the por- celain painter took this woodblock print as a model, but instead of making a faith- ful copy, he tactfully altered the details and transformed it into a more meticulous and extravagant representation. As the elaborate and comprehensive decoration of this box reflects the social and intellectual climate as well as the artistic style of the Chongzhen period, it is reasonable to date it to that era.

The above discussion suggests that Jingdezhen porcelain painters took contem- porary woodblock print illustrations as models or references. Not only do the por- celains follow the sequence and contents of woodblock print illustrations, but the styles are also closely imitated. This intimate relationship and simultaneous devel- opment among woodblock print illustrations and porcelain decoration help both in dating porcelains of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and in estimating the scope and range of decorative motifs and subjects that could have been employed during this period.

III. The Formation of New Fashions in Porcelain Decoration: The Shunzhi and Kangxi Periods

Dramas from early in the Qing dynasty reveal continuity with those from the Ming dynasty, “but soon the influence of the ruler on drama becomes so marked as to indicate the use of them.”80 In 1652, for example, a decree announced that

only books on science, politics and literature of approved content may be published. Those containing indecent words and licentious prose ... are strictly banned from publication. People who violate the law are subject to the most severe punishment.81

* ntmmm ... mnmm » mm

o

This law dealt a serious blow to the publication of dramas and consequently to the industry of woodblock print illustration, which went hand-in-hand in produc- tion. Thus, the latter declined sharply from the early Qing dynasty and eventually became extinct by the end of the era.82

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ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

Although unable to compete with its peak of popularity in the Ming dynasty, the Western Chamber continued to be enjoyed during the Qing dynasty — no less than fifty-five annotated and amended editions of this drama were published.83 Of all the different editions, the one annotated and commented by the unconventional scholar fin Shengtan (circa 1610-1661) was by far the most popular (here-

after cited as the Jin Shengtan edition).84 This edition became a bestseller as soon as it was published in 1656, and even the Shunzhi Emperor (1638-1661) greatly admired it.83 Contrary to the prevailing contemporary opinion of the time, Jin praised the achievements of the Western Chamber, comparing it to five other clas- sics in Chinese history and grouping them as the Liucaizi shu (Six Books

by and for Talented Scholars). His annotated Western Chamber was known as Dili- ucaizi Xixiangji (The Sixth Book by and for Talented Scholars,

Xixiangji). In editing this book, he included many of his own lengthy commentar- ies and took the liberty of altering parts of the prose and dialogues. In addition, Jin also transposed and edited many verse passages and added his own dialogue and stage directions. The most daring change he made to the text was to end the story at part IV, when Zhang Sheng awakes from a dream on his way to the capital to take the government examination, dismissing the last part of the drama as an “appendix.”86

Jingdezhen, the porcelain center in China, suffered from war and unrest during the early years of the Shunzhi period and from 1673 to 1676, when the rebellion of the Three Feudatory Princes against the Manchu government spread in Jiangnan and southwestern China.87 Instead of being devastated by war, however, the industry regained momentum quickly and resumed operations as usual.88 The biggest blow was to the imperial kilns, which did not fully recover until 1683, when the Kangxi Emperor appointed an officer to supervise the production of porcelain there. After that, Jingdezhen reached new heights in the history of Chinese porcelains.

During the Shunzhi and Kangxi periods, decoration of scenes from the Western Chamber on porcelain reached a peak of popularity. This type of porcelain has been praised in Taoyao as follows:

The pottery painters of the Kangxi period were very skillful. Porcelains pro- duced in the private kilns ( kehuo ^j-m.) are decorated with drama themes from the Shuihuzhuan ( The Water Margin) and Western Chamber.

The brushwork on the drawing of private kiln porcelains is simple and full of rustic delight. This kind of effect is difficult to achieve.89

cif, mmzm

mmzm >

'o mt )

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HSU WEN-CHIN

During these periods, scenes from the Western Chamber were used to decorate vases, jars, brush pots, furniture tiles, and even lanterns. By far the most popular wares were bowls and dishes of various shapes and sizes for domestic and foreign markets. Flatware was often decorated with a single episode, and three-dimensional ware (such as bowls, vases, and brush pots) was often rendered with two to four scenes. These were usually in sequence and in compartments frequently bordered with stylized rocks and clouds.90 It is also probable that porcelain decorated with Western Chamber scenes were produced in pairs or sets, allowing a more complete rendering of the story. The vase depicting twenty-four scenes from this drama, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, represents the pinnacle of this vogue during the Kangxi period (hg. 39). In addition to blue-and-white porcelain, wares decorated in polychrome, such as a combination of underglaze cobalt blue and copper red, as well as famille-verte, became increasingly popular at this time. The emphasis on color marks a difference in taste on porcelain made during the Qing dynasty and previous periods.91

During this era, the following four characteristics can be discerned in porcelain decorated with scenes from the Western Chamber:

1 . The inscription of poems quoted from the text.

2. The distorted manner of drawing figures and the influence of Chen Hong- shou’s painting style.

3. The assimilation of imperial court styles on decoration in the Kangxi period.

4. The reflection of views on tragedy influenced by late Ming literary critics and the Jin Shengtan edition.

1 . The Inscription of Poetry

Poems inscribed on porcelain first appear on Changsha Jüÿb ware of the Tang dynasty92 and become a common feature late in the Ming dynasty, but scenes from the Western Chamber seem to have been started in the Shunzhi period of the Qing dynasty. A comparison between the Ashmolean Museum vase decorated with “Beauty’s Enchantment” (fig. 21) and the polychrome vase with the same scene in the collection of the Beijing Palace Museum (fig. 32) illuminates this point.

The Ashmolean blue-and-white vase was produced during the Chongzhen period, as previously discussed, while the latter polychrome vase with a truncated neck and coffee-colored rim bears characteristics of the Shunzhi period (as indi- cated below) and therefore can be dated to that time. The compositions of these two decorations are nearly identical except for variations in detail and landscape background. The style of figures on the latter has been transformed from graceful,

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ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

32

Polychrome vase decorated with “Beauty’s Enchantment,” Qing dynasty, Shunzhi period (1644-61), H, 37.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. Photo: Palace Museum, Beijing.

32

well-rounded forms into the flat and slightly deformed ones commonly seen in the Shunzhi period. The most distinctive new feature of this vase is the inscription of verse from the text written in seal-script characters. According to Feng Xianming a historian of ceramics, inscriptions in seal-script calligraphy appeared between the tenth year of the Chongzhen reign (1632) and the fourteenth year of the Shunzhi reign (1658).93 From the Shunzhi period onward, the “picture with poetry” type of decoration became increasingly common. The dish of “Flongniang in the Dock” discussed earlier is another example from the Shunzhi period (fig. 8).94

In her study of education and popular literacy in Qing China, Evelyn Rawski writes, “Qing China inherited a means for cheaply reproducing and widely dissem- inating printed materials, along with a tradition of supporting elementary schools in both rural and urban areas.”95 Consequently, the literate population in the Qing dynasty was larger than in previous periods. Writing became a common form of communication, and the art of calligraphy was also more widely appreciated and practiced. For example, in the woodblock print illustration of the Western Chamber published in 1 669, pictorial images occupy less than a quarter of the page, with the remaining area being inscribed with poetry and prose.96 Reflecting this interest, the calligraphy of poems and inscriptions became increasingly fashionable in porce- lain decoration as well.

2. TThe Distortion of Figures on Porcelains and the Influence of

Chen Hongshou’s Painting

The grotesque and distorted manner of depicting figures is another distinguish- ing feature of early Qing porcelain decoration. Texts from the Qing dynasty, such as Yinliuzhai shuoci (Elucidation on Porcelain at Yinliuzhai) by Xu

Zhiheng and Taoshuo |%|$; (Elucidation on Pottery) by Zhu Yan

assign this phenomenon to porcelain of the Kangxi period and relate the new style

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33

“Fulfillment by Eye-sight,” woodblock print illustration to Zhang Shenzhi xiansheng zhengbei Xixiang miben , Ming dynasty, 1639. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photo: National Palace Museum, Taipei.

34

Blue-and-white plate decorated with “Invitation to the Feast,” Qing dynasty, 1668, 4.5 x 16 cm. Butler Family collection. From Sotheby’s sale catalogue Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London (15 December 1987), lot. no. 217.

to Chen Hongshou (1598-1652), a renowned painter in the late Ming to

early Qing dynasties.97 However, studies now show that these characteristics may have been initiated as early as the late Ming period and continued into the Kangxi reign, as discussed below.

The distortion of narrative decoration on porcelain can be observed as early as the Chongzhen period, such as in the Ashmolean Museum dish with “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux” mentioned above (fig. 25). On this dish, the figures are elon- gated, with their robes and long sleeves spread out and curled upwards in an ele- gant and decorative manner, and the baroque formation of the central rock echoes their swaying movement. The image on this dish of Zhang Sheng with a protruding belly is comparable to that in the second woodblock illustration in Zhang Shenzhi xiansheng zhengbei Xixiang miben (Treasured Private

Edition of the Romance of the Western Chamber Collated by Zhang Shenzhi) pub- lished in 1639 (hereafter cited as the 1639 edition), in which the illustrations were designed by Chen Hongshou (fig. 33).98 In “Interruption of the Religious Service,” Zhang Sheng is shown holding a flower vase and standing between the monks and members ol the Cui family during the Buddhist ceremony. Proportionately smaller in size than the squat and squarish monks standing before him, Zhang Sheng is portrayed with a protruding belly and hip. A nearly identical image of Zhang Sheng, with more expression and movement, can be found on a blue-and-white shallow bowl of the early Kangxi period (fig. 34).99 This bowl, inscribed on the base with a four-character cyclical date equivalent to 1668, is an important example for recognizing the early Kangxi style. A couplet from “The Breach of Promise” (part II, act 3) was written in the bowl, relating the decoration to said episode. In this act, Zhang Sheng is invited by Madame Cui to attend the feast honoring his heroic resolution of the bandit crisis that had saved Yingying from abduction and a forced marriage. To Zhang’s dismay, however, Madame Cui breaks her promise of mar- riage to Yingying and instead seeks to console him with money. The decoration on the bowl illustrates the moment when Hongniang, who is sent by Madame Cui to bring Zhang Sheng to the feast, arrives at Zhang’s lodging. Self-conscious about his appearance, Zhang is seen holding a fan and adjusting his hat.

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35

Blue-and-white dish decorated with “Beauty’s Enchantment,” Shunzhi period (1644-61), D. 16.5 cm. From Sotheby’s sale catalogue, London (3 July 1984), lot. no. 17.

The style of drawing is basically a continuation from the Shunzhi period, but there are subtle changes in the way figures are depicted. For example, Zhang Sheng s distorted and deformed belly and hip are more articulated here than in porcelains of the Chongzhen and Shunzhi periods. This is evidence that by the early Kangxi period Chen Hongshous style had been fully established, and a distinct Qing style of porcelain decoration can be easily discerned.

A highly exaggerated manner of figurai depiction in painting was already in vogue during the late Ming period, as seen in works of such painters as Wu Bin (active 1573-1620), Cui Zizhong -UFP®-« (circa 1590-1640), and above all, Chen Hongshou.100 Distortion in the decoration of porcelain became extremely popular in the Kangxi period, with Chen Hongshous figurai style being the domi- nant influence. This phenomenon is recorded in texts of the Qing dynasty and is evident in extant porcelains produced at the time.101 Chen Hongshou was actively engaged in making woodblock print designs for popular book illustrations, such as Jiuge (Nine Songs) in 1616, Water Margin playing cards (between 1625 and 1630), and three editions of Romance of the Western Chamber in 1631, 1639, and 1640, respectively.102 Through these works, his distorted form of archaic paint- ing was disseminated and reached porcelain painters in Jingdezhen. Among these books, the 1639 edition seems to have been quite popular during the Shunzhi and early Kangxi periods.

Besides the 1668 dish mentioned earlier, the blue-and-white dish with Zhang Sheng and Yingying’s first encounter from “Beauty’s Enchantment” also reflects influence from this edition (fig. 35). This dish can be dated back to the Shunzhi period judging from the appearance of similar features on other porcelains, such as the brown rim, the fine regular style of writing, a six-character mark denoting the Jiajing period on the base, and the application of tiny “plum blossom dots” ( meihua dian on the dresses of ladies.103 Figures on this dish are distorted, as seen

in the elongation of Yingying and Hongniang, the round face and heavy body of the monk, and the curved, bending image of Zhang Sheng.

A two-character title of the episode “Qifeng” ïfflll (An Unexpected Encounter) is written in the upper right corner. In the Western Chamber, each act has a title, which may differ in exact wording from one edition to another. The titles of each

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act in most editions are in four characters, with only a few having two. The two- character title here is similar to that in Bei Xixiangji (Northern Western

Chamber) annotated by the poet He Bi fnjü (published in 1616) and the 1639 edi- tion.104 Judging from similarities in the wording of the title and the style of illus- tration, it is possible to secure the 1639 edition as an important reference for this dish. Although there is no comparable composition for the porcelain decorators, the style and images of individual figures as well as the element of distortion were borrowed. The popularity and usage of the 1639 edition among ceramic painters in Jingdezhen could be regarded as an indication that the 1 656 Jin Shengtan edition was not yet popular among Jingdezhen potters during the Shunzhi period. T Jais situation remained so until the Kangxi period, as explained below.105

It is believed that scenes from the Western Chamber played an important role in disseminating the Chen Hongshou style of porcelain decoration, as this romance was the most popular for such decoration in the early Qing dynasty. After the re- establishment of imperial kilns in Jingdezhen around 1680, the painter Liu Yuan fflj jfÜ (circa 1641-1691) was employed by the government to make designs for porce- lain production.106 Liu Yuan was an admirer of Chen Hongshou and painted in his style, and it is very likely that under Liu Yuan’s influence, porcelain decoration in the Chen Hongshou style continued and reached another peak in popularity. The vase decorated with twenty-four scenes from the Western Chamber in the Chen Hongshou style ( fig. 39), discussed below, is thus perhaps related to Liu Yuan and his influence.

3. Assimilation of the Court Painting Style: Kangxi Period

Both the Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors were deeply interested in the Western Chamber , as Ni Yibin believes that “its pronounced popularity in the Shunzhi and early Kangxi reigns, and especially in the 1660s, may well stem from the Shunzhi Emperor’s personal interest in this play”107 Without solid evidence, however, the nature and extent of the Shunzhi Emperor’s influence on porcelain décor remains to be verified. The Kangxi Emperor’s patronage, however, is easier to establish, as several porcelain pieces decorated with scenes from the Western Chamber of impe- rial quality and with imperial marks can be found in various collections.108

This group of refined porcelains comprises dishes of different shapes, all elabo- rately decorated with underglaze blue and underglaze red. On the base are eight- character marks assigning them to the Hall of Central Harmony (Zhonghetang 4^ 1|f) in 1672 or 1673. Although the Hall of Central Harmony in the Summer Pal- ace had not yet been built by the early 1670s, it is still commonly believed that this group of porcelains bearing these specific hallmarks was produced for the Imperial Household.109 It is speculated that originally complete sets decorated with episodes

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36

Polychrome dish decorated with “Zhang Sheng Handing the Letter for Rescue to Monk Huiming,” early Kangxi period (1662-1720), D. 33 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, reg. no. C466. Photo: Hsu Wen-Chin.

37

Plate decorated with “Love and the Lute,” Qing dynasty, ca. 1672, blue-and-white with copper red, D. 32.6 cm. From Chinas Jingdezhen Porcelain through the Ages: Qing Dynasty ( Beijing: Zhongguo sheying chubanshe, 1998), 95.

from the Western Chamber had been ordered and produced. Another group of large plates decorated with Western Chamber scenes in underglaze cobalt blue and copper red within the border of an eight-pointed star or flower shape is also of imperial quality and can be assigned to the imperial kiln production of this same date (figs. 36 and 37). Although not inscribed with marks, this group of porcelains shares the same refined quality, production technique, and decorative style as the previous group, indicating the two can be grouped together.

At this time, porcelain decoration with Western Chamber vignettes reveals innovation and transformation in both style and in content concurrent with the continuity of late Ming and Shunzhi fashions. In the early Kangxi period, however, a distinct Qing-dynasty style emerged, reflecting the following two characteristics: the application of Western perspective in landscape backgrounds; and the transfor- mation of womens clothing fashion and attire.

Tlte Application of Western Perspective in Landscape Backgrounds Jesuit priests introduced Western art to China in the late Ming dynasty.110 In the early Qing dynasty, the Kangxi, Yongzheng (reigned 1723-35), and Qianlong emperors all expressed an interest in Western curiosities and crafts. This led to sev- eral European priests being summoned to the imperial court, where they would serve as artists under the emperors’ command. At the court, these Western priest- artists not only learned how to produce Chinese paintings, but they also taught European art techniques, including oil painting, to Chinese artists. In this way, an artistic style blending Chinese media and Western techniques of perspective and chiaroscuro appeared at court. In the initial stage during the Kanxi period, a typical type of “Women of Beauty” painting was established by the court painter Jiao Bing- zhen JtjÉ! (circa 1662-1720). 111 This style, imitated by junior court painters, had a major impact on Chinese arts of the eighteenth century. In Jiao Bingzhen’s paint- ings, women are shown playing in gardens with grand architectural settings in the background. In one of Jiao’s paintings, for example, the application of Western per- spective techniques can be observed in the detailed drawing of the corridor erected across the middle section (fig. 38). The height of the corridor gradually diminishes from right to left, creating an illusion of spatial extension into the distance beyond the edge of the picture frame.

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38

Jiao Bingzhen, Painting of Ladies. Qing dynasty, Kangxi period ( 1 66 1 - 1722), album leaf, ink, and color on silk, 30.9 x 20.4 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photo: National Palace Museum, Taipei.

The women in the garden appear flat and weightless, while their simple, ovoid faces reveal little individual physiognomy. Their style of overdress, called a beizi ï=f yp, could have either long or short sleeves and featured close-fitting garments with skirts trailing on the ground. This type of garment was fashionable in the Ming dynasty and was commonly seen in court painting of the Qing dynasty. Although the Manchu government prohibited court women from wearing Han Chinese clothing, in paintings the representation of Han-style dress was accepted for aes- thetic reasons.112

The application of perspective techniques can be recognized immediately in the large polychrome dish decorated with the scene “Zhang Sheng Handing the Let- ter of Rescue to Monk Huiming,” from the act “Alarm at the Monastery” (part II, act 1) (fig. 36). In this episode, Zhang Sheng writes a letter to his friend, General Du, after the Cui family had been threatened by the bandit Sun, who demands the hand of Yingying in marriage. During this crisis, the monk Huiming bravely volunteers to deliver the letter to General Du. In this polychrome dish painted in underglaze cobalt blue and copper red enhanced by a rare powder blue in the bor- der, Zhang Sheng and the abbot Facong f£lfJS stand in front of the temple and bid farewell to Huiming, who holds an iron bar in his hands. This scene takes place in a landscape scenery with the inner courtyard and outer garden separated by a balustrade. The extension of space into the distance is suggested by placing the bal- ustrade on a diagonal stretching across one side of the composition and also by

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ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER

having the door of the building partially open, so that the interior of the hall is visible. The “open-door” form of perspective had been an active ingredient in Chinese painting since the Han dynasty, so the porcelain decorator in this piece appears to have combined the traditional Chinese perspective of general spatial extension and the newly absorbed European techniques of one-point perspective in producing this image.113

Executed in extremely refined straight lines and in eye-catching red, the balus- trade extends from the foreground to background in steady diminution. Although slightly awkward in the zigzagging front section, the rest of the balustrade is ren- dered in logical perspective. The device of drawing the right side of the building with an open front door, from which part of the interior is exposed, is a traditional Chinese method of enticing the beholder’s gaze far into the depths of the picture. Placement of a winding balustrade alongside a building with an open front door or window became a common convention on porcelains with narrative scenes during the Kangxi period (figs. 34, 36, 37).

The Transformation of Women’s Clothing Fashion and Attire

The transformation of women’s clothing and attire can be best observed in the polychrome plate decorated with the theme of “Love and the Lute” (fig. 37). 114 This episode, from part II, act 4, tells how Zhang Sheng plays music to express his love for Yingying, hoping to win her affection. Greatly despondent after Madame Cui breaks her previous promise to give him Yingying’s hand in marriage, Zhang now intends to commit suicide. Hongniang convinces him that to gain Yingying’s favor, he should play the lute for her. Therefore, at night, when Yingying has said her prayers and lit her incense in the garden, Zhang seizes the opportunity to play the lute and sing the love song “Phoenix Seeking Its Mate.” Yingying is deeply touched.

On this plate (fig. 37), Zhang Sheng plays the lute in a room with the door wide open while Yingying and Hongniang listen on the other side of the garden, sepa- rated by a wall. The appearance and attire of Yingying and Hongniang in this illus- tration are similar to those of Jiao Bingzhen’s “Women Playing in a Garden” (fig. 38). All the figures are slightly elongated and willowy, as if bodiless, and their attire of a long flowing skirt and a slim-fitting overdress ( heizi ) differs from the blouse-and- skirt type of clothing in the Ming dynasty. The clothes are plain and simple, and the old motif of tiny plum blossom dots commonly applied on women’s clothes in por- celain illustrations of the late Ming and Shunzhi periods has disappeared. In addi- tion, Hongniang wears an upswept hair-do that reveals a new fashion of the Qing dynasty. (This type of hairstyle can also be seen in figs. 43 and 44.) Indeed, these new images of Yingying and Hongniang bring the Qing style to the medium of porcelain and can be regarded as criteria for dating porcelain produced after the early 1670s.

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39

Blue-and-white vase decorated with twenty-four scenes from Romance of the Western Chamber (right: detail), Qing dynasty, ca. 1700, H. 91.5 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photo: Hsu Wen-Chin.

4. The Return to Tragedy: Influence from Late Ming Literary Criticism

and the Jin Shengtan Edition

In the late Ming dynasty, studies on drama became popular among progres- sively minded scholars.115 Influenced by the pessimistic intellectual climate at that time, the theory of “tragedy” in literary criticism was in fashion, and some scholars criticized the “happy marriage” ending of Western Chamber as vulgar and decep- tive. They advocated that the play would be improved if it concluded at the end of part IV, when the two lovers separated and Zhang Sheng dreamed of meeting Ying- ying on his way to the capital to take the government examination.116 They argued that since life is but a dream, what could be more proper than to end the romance in a dream sequence?

This tragic view was taken up by Jin Shengtan, who considered the last part redundant and in bad taste. As a consequence, he relegated it to the section of appendices in his edition. In fact, he believed that the last part of the text was aes- thetically inferior and was written by a different playwright. This pessimistic and fatalistic view in literary criticism during the Qing dynasty also had an indirect influence on pottery painters in Jingdezhen, very likely through the dissemination of the Jin Shengtan edition, since it was virtually the sole edition being read at that time. The absence of the marriage scene in illustrations on porcelain during the late seventeenth and eighteenth century can be regarded as a reflection of this view among those who created Jingdezhen ceramics. Such examples can be seen on the tall cylindrical vase with twenty-four scenes from this romance (fig. 39) as well as on a square brush holder from the Yongzheng period (figs. 40 and 41).

On the blue-and-white cylindrical vase, twenty-four scenes from the West- ern Chamber were painted systematically to create an impressively unified form of decoration. These scenes, painted in oblong panels of equal size and shape, are

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40,4i

Front and back of square brush pot, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period ( 1723-35), polychrome ware, H. 14.2 cm. Shanghai Museum. From Shanhai Jinmin Bijutsu Shuppansha, ed., Chügoku töji zenshü (Kyoto: Binobi, 1981-86), vol. 21.

arranged in four registers over the entire body. The sequence runs from left to right and top to bottom, except in the bottom register, where the story begins from the middle section but the images are still arranged from left to right. The content of the twenty-four scenes are unevenly distributed between act 1 of part I to act 1 of part V in the play. Some acts are dismissed from representation altogether, while others, such as acts 1 and 2 in part I, and act 1 in part II, have more than one illustration each. Worth noting is that the sequence of the decoration on the vase ends with the scene in which Zhang Sheng asks his servant boy to send Yingying the message of his success in the capital examination. This scene is from part V, act 1, and it is the only illustration from the last part; even the marriage scene from act 4 of the same part is omitted. In the late Ming dynasty, pictorial representations of this romance usually conclude with the marriage of Zhang Sheng and Yingying, as seen in most woodblock illustrations of the time and in the trapezoidal box depicting twenty scenes discussed previously (fig. 28).

Tire unusual arrangement of content in this decorative scheme may be regarded as an indication of influence from the literary view of tragedy prevailing among early Qing scholars and propagated by the Jin Shentang edition. Furthermore, the uneven distribution of scenes on the porcelain also suggests that decorators no longer depended on woodblock print illustrations as their source. Tire practice of selecting one scene from each act and painting it in sequence, as seen on the trap- ezoidal box, was also abandoned.

Tire woodblock print industry had gradually fallen into disfavor during the Qing dynasty, and as a result, its output declined and deteriorated both in quality and in quantity. For this reason, decorators of Jingdezhen porcelain were apparently less inclined to utilize woodblock prints and instead turned directly to paintings. Judg- ing from the distorted manner of delineating figures in the Chen Hongshou style, it is conceivable that the decorator of this Kangxi vase (fig. 39) was guided by fashion- able painting styles. This trend was very likely supported and encouraged by Liu

76 HSU WEN-CHIN

42

“Figures looking at scenery,” designed by Zhao Bi, carved by Huang Yingguang, woodblock print illustration to Li Zhuowu xiansheng piping bei Xixiangji, published by Rongyutangin 1610. Kunaichö Shoryöbu, Japan. Photo: Zhou Wu.

Yuan, the contemporary government-appointed porcelain designer in Jingdezhen. The classic, elegant appearance of decorations from the late Ming dynasty was thus perhaps out of date by this time.

The second example of omitting the marriage scene on porcelain decoration is found on a foursquare polychrome brush holder from the Yongzheng period (figs. 40 and 41 ). On this piece, two scenes are painted respectively on each side. “Zhang Sheng Traveling to Puzhou from the beginning of part I, act 1 , is on one side (fig. 40). Riding a horse and followed on foot by his page, Zhang Sheng heads for Puzhou, in Shanxi province, to visit the Pujiu Temple, where a chance meeting with Yingying heralds the start of their romance. The composition of this illustration is similar to that on the top register of the cylindrical vase (fig. 39 right), and it is also comparable to woodblock illustrations in several editions of this drama from the late Ming dynasty,117 thus confirming the identity of the subject.

The theme of the decoration on the other side of the brush holder, however, is more obscure. Instead of depicting a highlight from the play, the monochrome painting shows a misty landscape in which a solitary man is seated in a small boat that drifts on the river (fig. 41). This desolate landscape scene compares well to the last page in the woodblock print illustrations of certain Western Chamber editions on which scholars commented, such as those of the 1610 Li Zhuowu xiansheng piping bei Xixiangji (The Northern Style Romance of

the Western Chamber Commented by Li Zhuowu) (fig. 42) and the 161 1 Chongke piping huayi bei Xixiangji (Recut, Commented and Illus-

trated Northern Style Romance of the Western Chamber).11* Illustrations in these books exclude the marriage scene and replace it with landscape scenery, a dramatic change that could be considered an indication of the preference for a tragic ending to the romance. The decoration on this porcelain thus can be seen as a forlorn type of tragedy that late Ming intellectuals and Jin Shengtan preferred.

The base of this brush holder is inscribed with a six-character mark denoting Yongzheng imperial ware, and the decoration exhibits characteristics of imperial porcelain of that time. Such qualities as the subtle, delicate, and refined manner of

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drawing, as well as the application of colors in the characteristic mixture of famille verte and monochrome ink are evident. These features relate the decoration of the brush holder to brush paintings of fine quality rather than to woodblock illustra- tions.

IV. The Influence of Performances and Local Dramas in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

From the Yuan dynasty onwards, the length of plays performed on stage underwent a gradual evolution. In the beginning, the entire play was acted out in one long performance that could span several days. By the Jiajing era in the Ming dynasty, however, the custom changed to performing only a selection of acts from one or more plays.119 This type of zhezi xi £jf AIK (theatrical selection) became increas- ingly popular and was commonly practiced during the Qing dynasty. Due to this change, subjects for performance became more selective and acting skills were stressed as a way to focus on the dramatic and entertaining aspects of the play. As a result, watching plays performed on stage replaced the habit of reading texts that had prevailed in the late Ming dynasty.

Furthermore, since the early Qing dynasty, popular local music and dramas flourished and became highly competitive nationwide. This situation became most acute in the eighteenth century, when the orthodox drama Kunqu, dominant since the sixteenth century, fell into decline and eventually gave way to other kinds of music and drama during the Qianlong period.120 By the early nineteenth century, Anhui troupes were leaders of the theatrical world. In the capital city of Beijing, these troupes played a decisive role in the creation of one of the most powerful kinds of Chinese drama, namely, Jingxi AIK (Peking Opera). This conglomeration of different types of musical and performing techniques gathered from many local dramas and from Kunqu flourished after several decades of development. By the end of the nineteenth century it was an independent and widely popular form of drama. During the later decades of the Qing dynasty, Peking Opera also spread to other parts of China, including the middle and southern regions that were reached by the Shanghai troupes.121

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the government expressed disapproval of the Western Chamber. In 1735, for example, the Qianlong Emperor banned its translation into Manchu, and in 1 867 the government placed it at the top of the list of “lewd books” to be censored. Consequently, copies of the romance were gathered and burned. Tire drama, however, continued to be very popular and “almost every household had a copy, and every person had a volume” (jH2 3“ fit® — '£!§ ’ Alii — 'Ü).122 It was also adapted into various kinds of local dramas, and it remains widely appreciated to this day.

78 HSU WEN-CHIN

Scenes from the Western Chamber appeared frequently in both domestic and export ware of the eighteenth century, at a time when the Chinese porcelain trade with Europe flourished, and it reached its climax in 1800. 123 Trade stopped abruptly after that year when Europeans successfully began producing their own porcelains. In the nineteenth century trade policies inevitably changed to coincide with the marked decline of the Chinese porcelain industry. This led to a severe drop in the quality and quantity of overall production. Nevertheless, novels and dramas con- tinued to provide themes for porcelain decoration, and scenes from the Western Chamber continued to be reproduced but in far fewer numbers.124

For the representation of Western Chamber themes on porcelain produced during this period, two new features are significant: the increased importance of Hongniang, and a sense of lighthearted humor. Based on the analysis of these two features, below is a discussion of how subject and style of eighteenth- and nine- teenth-century porcelain illustrations were influenced both by orthodox plays per- formed on stage and by popular regional plays.

The Increasing Importance of Hongniang

Although not a main character, Hongniang has long been a popular figure among audiences of the Western Chamber. On stage, she plays a far more important role than is assigned to her in the text. According to a study by Jiang Xingyu jj$ljl ;JM> Hongniang s role became increasingly important, from The Story of Yingying to Wang’s Western Cumber and a variety of later revised versions of this play, and even- tually she surpassed Zhang Sheng and Yingying to stand out as the protagonist in the one-act play “Hongniang.”125 A similar phenomenon also occurred in porcelain dec- oration. The increasing importance and popularity of Hongniang are emphasized by her more frequent appearance and the role she plays in compositions designed for porcelain. This is seen by the increase in the episodes in which Hongniang plays a key role, such as when she invites Zhang Sheng to the banquet in “Invitation to the Feast” (part II, act 2) (fig. 34), when she delivers Zhang Sheng’s letter to Yingying in “Initial Expectations” (part III, act 1), “Further Expectations” (part III, act 4), and “Hongniang in the Dock” (figs. 7 and 8). 126 Even in scenes when Yingying and Hon- gniang appear together, the focus often shifts to Hongniang. One such example can be found in “Beauty’s Enchantment” on the famille-verte jar of about 1700 (fig. 43). Contrary to the norm of depicting Hongniang standing beside Yingying with her back to the viewer (figs. 21, 32, and 35), here she is posed as if she is in the spotlight. Standing between Yingying and Zhang Sheng in the middle of a garden, she holds a fan and points to the abbot Facong, who is making a whimsical face at her. Yingy- ing and Zhang Sheng are far apart at opposite sides of the scene. Their bodies bend inward as if forming a frame for Hongniang and echoing the bulging shape of the jar.

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43

Famille-verte jar decorated with “Beauty’s Enchantment,” Qing dynasty, ca. 1680, 32x25.5 cm. From Chinesisches Porzellan aus Beständen des Museum für Kunsthandwerk Frankfurt Am Main (1992), pl. 276

44

Famille-rose plate decorated with “Repudiation of the Billet-Doux,” Qing dynasty, 1730-45, D. 22.5 cm.