Remaining loyal to the vanquished Ming dynasty, the hermit Gong Xian came to terms with himself as an yimin, or “leftover subject,” under the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). In this leaf, from an album in which he compared his favorite haunts in and around the former Ming capital of Nanjing with the abodes of the immortals, Gong complemented his image of a reclusive dwelling with a poem that contrasts the ability of orchids, symbols of virtuous men, to endure the cold winter, while brambles — lowly men — are used as firewood. The artist perfected a technique of ink wash and dotting that enabled him to achieve both density and translucency in his paintings.
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清 龔賢 墨筆山水詩畫 冊 清 龔賢 自題 山水十六開 冊
Title:Landscapes with poems
Artist:Gong Xian (Chinese, 1619–1689)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:1688
Culture:China
Medium:Fifteen leaves from an album (1980.516.2a–c and 1981.4.1a–o) of eighteen leaves
Dimensions:10 3/4 x 16 1/8 in. (27.3 x 41 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Douglas Dillon, 1981
Accession Number:1981.4.1a–o
Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signature[1]
Leaf A (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
On the mountainside thorny brambles mix with fragrant orchids;The orchids, with their pervasive fragrance, hide the bramble clusters. The brambles, as firewood, will be picked up by the woodcutters. Left behind are the orchids to survive the cold winter.
滿山棘刺雜芳蘭，蘭自馨香隱棘攢。 棘刺作薪樵競採，芳蘭棄置耐新寒。
Leaf B (9 columns in semi-cursive script):
Every family opens a door to face the sun, Surrounded by books and with wine cups set forth. What need is there to escape the Qin in some hidden cave? Wherever peach blossoms bloom is the immortals’ land.
人家俱闢向陽門，左右圖書對酒尊。 何必逃秦入深洞？桃花開處即仙源。
Leaf C (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Two peaks split apart reveal the sky; The marks of the ax remain where the green moss grows. I'd like to ask the old pine tree atop the cliff, If it had met the ancient sages when they came this way.
兩峰中劈與天開，斧跡猶存長綠苔。 借問巖頭老松樹，當時曾見古皇來？
Leaf D (10 columns in semi-cursive script):
The bare branches of old trees guard the temple gate; Outside the gate, no stone tablets have survived. The roof-tiles of the Buddha hall have fallen and the bell lies buried in the earth; Only sparrows and cranes remain to beckon the twilight.
杈枒老樹護山門，門外都無碑碣存。 正殿瓦崩鐘入土，空餘鸛鶴招黃昏。
Leaf E (7 columns in semi-cursive script):
Moonlight falls on the rocks, thinner than frost; Awake at midnight from a drunken sleep, I find cold penetrating my bed. I call out for Wang Zijin on the other side of the mountain,[2] To play his pipe organ and accompany me strolling the winding veranda.
月輝落石薄於霜，酒醒中宵冷透牀。 呼起對山王子晉，吹笙共我遶長廊。
Leaf F (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
More rain falls and water rises to my wooden gate, A visitor comes bringing a jug of wine. My boy catches a fish and traps some crabs. Smoke begins to rise from the kitchen just as dusk draws near.
雨添新漲到柴門，有客來尋載酒尊。 童子釣魚仍捕蟹，庖廚煙動正黃昏。
Leaf G (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
The swollen river shines like a waning moon. Sandy beaches stretch out for ten miles like broken clouds. Willows brush against the storied mansion in which a beauty hides. It doesn’t have to be Shi Chong's [ca. 249–ca. 300] home.[3]
一江水滿疑殘月，十里沙橫似斷霞。 柳拂高樓藏艷女，何須定是石崇家。
Leaf H (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
The immortal in the cave opens his gate at dawn; ermilion clouds disgorge the sun, then swallow it again. As I walk up the bridge to dry my hair, I glimpse my ravaged visage in the flowing stream.
洞裏仙家啟曙門，朱霞吐日又還吞。 我來橋上因晞髮，瞥見摧頹逝水奔。
Leaf I (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Barely visible dwellings dot a winding stream, Where fish swim and birds chirp. Slightly intoxicated, I have come to search for poems, Strolling toward the stream on a walking staff.
隱隱人家曲曲谿，谿魚溪鳥泳還啼。 出來覓句乘微醉，故向溪邊曳杖藜。
Leaf J (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
Who owns the vast expanse of fields in Luoyang, Where ripe ears of rice hang by the sides of ancient roads? Where has Jizi been wandering off? The master is still asleep when the sun is high.
誰家二頃洛陽田，秔稻垂垂古路邊。 季子飄零向何處？主人日直尚高眠。
Leaf K (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
The mountains are newly green, and the orchids fragrant; They flank my dwelling into a short corridor. After reading some Daoist texts, I have nothing to do; A wine cup in hand, I spend the whole day gazing at the shimmering lake.
滿山新綠蕙蘭香，山夾吾樓似短廊。 讀罷道書無箇事，擎甆盡日看湖光。
Leaf L (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
On the glimmering bluff by the river shore, Which god is being worshiped in that ancient temple? What merit did the deity achieve on this earth? He must have been a drunken poet of former times.
濯濯高原江水濱，不知古廟祀何神。 尊神在世何功德？想是前時詩酒人。
Leaf M (11 columns in semi-cursive script):
Living in a lofty retreat at a choice site in my middle years, I am faced with dense rows of peaks. Without care or cunning I share peace with the seagulls; It doesn’t have to be the remote antiquity of Wuhuai’s time.[4]
中年選勝闢高齋，對面峰峰處密排。 我自忘機共鷗鳥，何須長世是無懷。
Leaves N and O (23 columns in semi-cursive script):
To paint is difficult, but to understand painting is even more difficult. There are many painters in the world, but those who understand painting are few. If all those who paint understood painting, they would certainly become masters. But I am afraid masters are few. From what I’ve observed, no painters today understand painting. As for those who understand painting, even if they can’t paint, it doesn’t matter. In ancient times painters were all emperors, kings, ministers and high-ranking officials or gifted scholars and literati. They were all extremely intelligent and immersed themselves in the study of art. Painters today eke out their living just like hack instructors and quacks. Has any of them seen works from the Xuanhe era [1119–1125] imperial collection, or viewed works from either Ni Zan’s [1306–1374] Pure and Secluded Pavilion (Qingbi Ge) or Gu Ying’s [1310–1369] Jade Mountain Thatched Hall (Yushan Caotang)? The more [paintings] you’ve seen, the more you understand. Those in old and privileged families often debated with their guests in order to decide issues of authenticity. Thus, what one doesn’t understand today one may understand tomorrow. If one can both understand and paint, then one’s painting will be in accord with cosmic principles. Cosmic principles are the source of everything in nature. If one can plumb the source of nature, one will become a person with divine powers. Easier said than done! The minstrel from Ying [modern Jiangling, Hubei] could sing both [the elite melody] Spring Snow and [the popular ditty] Song of the Rustic Poor. I am a poor rustic, so how would I know the finer points of music? I just presumptuously air my own views. Is this any different from a summer insect talking about the ice of winter? In the early winter of the wuchen year [1688] Gong Xian of the Half-Acre Garden painted and inscribed.
Jin Cheng 金城 (1878–1926), 2 columns in seal and standard scripts, dated 1918; 1 seal:
明龔野遺畫冊 山水十六葉，題跋二葉。戊午冬日重裝並記。金城 [印]： 鞏伯
Collectors’ seals
Chen Hengke 陳衡恪 (1876–1923) Huaitang moyuan 槐堂墨緣
Jin Cheng 金城 (1878–1926) Jin Cheng 金城 Jin Cheng 金城 Jin Cheng zhi yin 金城之印 Jin Cheng zhi yin 金城之印 Jin Cheng si yin 金城私印 Jin Shaocheng si yin 金紹城私印 Wuxing Jin Cheng zhencang (3 times) 吳興金城珍藏 Jin shi Gongbo 金氏鞏伯 Gongbo pingsheng zhenshang 鞏伯平生真賞 Gongbo (2 times) 鞏伯 Gongbei 共北 Gongbei 共北 Motu Ge 墨荼閣 Shimeihua An 石梅華庵
Note See 1980.516.2a–c for the other 3 landscapes.
[1] Translations from Department records. [2] Wang Zijin was an ancient musician famous for playing the sheng, a mouth pipe organ. [3] As Shi Chong refused to give up Lüzhu, his favorite female entertainer, to a powerful official, the latter sent soldiers to kill Shi and seize her, whereupon Lüzhu committed suicide to show her loyalty. [4] Wuhuai was a legendary sage king in pre-historical times.
Douglas Dillon American, New York (until 1981; donated to MMA)
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Sacred Mountains in Chinese Art," November 9–December 16, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sacred Mountains in Chinese Art," January 25–March 31, 1991.
Kansas City. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," April 19–June 14, 1992.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," July 6–September 20, 1992.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," October 15, 1992–January 3, 1993.
Zurich. Museum Rietberg. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," April 2, 1996–July 7, 1996.
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," August 3, 1996–November 10, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "When the Manchus Ruled China: Painting under the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)," February 2–August 18, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Dreams of Yellow Mountain: Landscapes of Survival in Seventeenth-Century China," September 13, 2003–February 22, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Secular and Sacred: Scholars, Deities, and Immortals in Chinese Art," September 10, 2005–January 8, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art," July 31, 2021–August 14, 2022.
Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, pp. 26–27, cat. no. A1-128.
Fong, Wen C. et al. Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliott Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University. Exh. cat. Princeton, N.J.: Art Museum, Princeton University in association with Princeton University Press, 1984, pp. 198–99, fig. 164a–b.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asia. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, pp. 98–99, pl. 62.
Barnhart, Richard M., Wen C. Fong, and Maxwell K. Hearn. Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat. Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1996, pp. 122–29, 225, cat. no. 27.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012, p. 91.
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