Hezhang Peak

Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (27 columns in semi-cursive script)

According to Li Xiaoguang’s record, there is a mountain standing in the North that rises from the flat ground like a bamboo shoot. When you get close, you see the two huge rocks leaning against each other. They tower several thousand feet into the sky. This was once called the `Spirit Peak. Today it is named “Guanyin Cave.” The peak is cut in two, and looks as dark and shadowy as ink. Inside there is a pavilion of many levels from which there is a view of endless cloud-covered cliffs. At the left side, there is a cave called Fuhu [Subjugate the Tiger]. The shape is like the Fangguang Dongtian [a Daoist sacred cave], but there is no pearl curtain. In the fourth month of the xinyou year (1921) I stayed in the Fuhu Cave while it rained heavily through the night and visited it the next day. Below the Guanyin Cave was the Hezi Bridge. There was a strange peak to the left of the bridge, obliquely to the east, several thousand feet tall, with a rock pure green in color. The noisy stream came out from under the bridge and flew to the west. Jiang Jizhe, who accompanied me, greatly praised the Lingyan [Spirit Peak]. I considered this view the most wonderful in the world. We visited Lingyan by small sedan the next day to see the Tianzhu Summit. I was in high spirits to the point of drunkenness. I started writing an essay for the Grand Guardian of Luojiang to describe the beauty of the two Sprit Peaks, but have not finished it yet. Now I am painting just the studio on the corner of the Spirit Peak. Later when the Grand Guardian visits there, he won’t be a stranger. Noted by Lin Shu in the seventh month of the xinyou year (1921).

[Translation by Keita Itoh and Lawrence Wu with Jean Schmitt and Caron Smith in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, ed., Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800–1950, Volume I: Text, New York: Random House, 1986, p. 119. Modified. The Romanization of Chinese characters has been changed from the Wade-Giles system to the pinyin system.]

李孝光記：北上有山，雜立平地如駢笋。稍入始見兩大石，相倚如合掌，入天數千丈，此古所謂靈峯，今則易其名為觀音洞。駢石中劈，望之陰晦如墨。乃入其中，則飛閣數層。憑闌仰望雲巖頂，尚無際也。其左為伏虎洞，狀如方廣洞天乃無珠簾。辛酉四月余宿伏虎洞中，是夕雨盛，明日始逰。觀音洞下臨合子橋，橋西[點去]左奇峯拔起數千丈，側勢東傾，石色純綠，泉聲酣絕，出橋洞而西流。同逰者為蔣季哲，乃極稱靈巖。余謂天下之奇至是稱絕矣。乃古漫奇于此耶。明日以晦輿至靈巖，一見天柱峯，余心醉矣。乃為紀，紀二靈之美，就正于螺江太保。久而莫就，今先寫靈峯一角上之廬，太保異日逰山不為生客也。辛酉七月世晚林紓識。


Artist’s seal

Lin Shu zhi yin 林紓之印


Collector’s seal

An Siyuan 安思遠 (Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, 1929–2014)
An Siyuan 安思遠

Robert H. Ellsworth Chinese, New York (until 1986; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Painting: Selections from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection," February 2–September 25, 1988.