Mei Qing was born into a prominent family in Xuancheng, Anhui Province. Following the family tradition of scholarship, Mei passed the provincial (jüren) civil-service examination in 1654 and traveled to the capital to sit for the capital (jinshi) examination, which he took and failed four times, before giving up in 1667. Mei returned home and became involved in local scholarly pursuits and participated in a poetry and painting society to which the painter Shitao (1642–1707) also belonged.
This painting commemorates an outing that Mei and family members and friends made to Echo Hill (Xiangshan). Mei and some of the participants inscribed poems on the painting to further celebrate the occasion. Although the name of the recipient has been effaced, two seals belonging to Zheng Min (1633–1683), a noted painter from the Yellow Mountain region of Anhui, suggest that it may have been intended for him.
Throughout his career, Mei drew inspiration from actual topographic features. Here, he emphasizes Echo Hill’s precipitous cliff face overhanging the river. Although a relatively early work, the painting exhibits the hallmarks of Mei’s eccentric style: an unbalanced composition animated by the powerful thrusting shape of the cliff and an interest in contrasting ink tones and textures, as seen in the way the dry-brush contour lines of the landscape are set off by the delicate blades of grass and dark ink foliage dots.
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Artwork Details
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清 梅清 響山泛舟圖 軸
Title:Boating beneath Echo Hill
Artist:Mei Qing (Chinese, 1623–1697)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:datable to 1673
Culture:China
Medium:Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions:Image: 53 in. × 23 1/4 in. (134.6 × 59.1 cm) Overall with mounting: 9 ft. 5 1/2 in. × 32 1/4 in. (288.3 × 81.9 cm) Overall with knobs: 9 ft. 5 1/2 in. × 36 1/4 in. (288.3 × 92.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Cécile and Sandy Mactaggart, 2002
Accession Number:2002.208.1
Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (5 columns in semi-cursive script)
The rain clears on this early summer day; Along the Qing River we sail in our painted boat. The town is overcast, and the field vast; Verdant mountains touch the waves. Sound of the flute in the wind saddens the poets; In monastic quarters old monks meditate in tranquility. There is no angler for the dragon in sight, But only the serene pool of water.
On the sixth day of the first month of summer [May 21], with Mr. [characters missing] and others I boated on the Qing River. Each of us took a different rhyme to compose poems on. In addition, I painted a side of a valley to amuse [characters missing]. Your junior fellow student, Mei Qing.
Other inscriptions on the painting [Trans. by Shi-yee Liu]
1. Shi Runzhang 施閏章 (1619–1683), 10 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1673; 3 seals:
Echo Hill is to the south of town along the Qing River. Legend has it that it was where Dou Ziming, the immortal magistrate, fished for the white dragon. Li Taibai [Li Bai, 701–762] loved [this place] and composed poems about his visit there. Now that Mr. [characters missing] has come, Qushan [Mei Qing] has spent the whole day boating, singing, and making music. Each of us who was present composed poems. Qushan, in addition, has wielded his brush and made a painting of it, and asked the company to inscribe it with poems following different rhymes. I got the xia rhyme:
Rivers and mountains invite good company, Intoxicated from the string and wind instruments on a floating skiff. On the reddish cliff rocks penetrate the clouds; By the windy pool old trees bend. Under the clear sky stones are visible in the river; In early summer flowers still bloom by the temple. Looking back from my lofty studio, I reminisce again on the younger Xie [Xie Tiao, 464–499].
On the sixth day of the fourth lunar month of the guichou year [May 21, 1673] your junior fellow student Shi Runzhang.
2. Shen Bi 沈泌 (active late 17th c.), 4 columns in standard script, undated; 3 seals:
The water of the stream looks greener than dye; The magnolia oars drift in the noon breeze. The fishing dais is still here; Poems are up to you gentlemen. The clanking of the boat echoes across the empty pool; The sound of the bells arrives from distant temples. At a place where ancient worthies enjoyed wine and poetry, How can anyone exhaust the delight of chanting and gazing!
3. Mei Xuan 梅鋗 (active late 17th c.), 3 columns in standard script, undated; 3 seals:
Where the Qing River meets the red cliff, We face the waters and climb the mountain. Bamboo and trees in pure glow, Fish and dragon amid dusky mist. As to talent, the Court Servitor [Li Bai] is allegedly the keenest; Regarding fishing, it is [Dou] Ziming who knew about leisure. We are all passengers without a calculating mind; Let the gulls fly back and forth at will.
[Signed] Tongya, your junior Mei Xuan
青溪連赤壁，臨水更登山。竹樹空明裏，魚龍杳靄間。 才推供奉敏，釣問子明閒。共是忘機客，沙鷗任往還。
桐崖弟梅鋗 [印]：我愛其靜、梅鋗之印、尒止
4. Mei Geng 梅庚 (1639–after 1716), 3 columns in semi-cursive script, undated; 3 seals:
The song “The Qing River is Lovely” is playing; The immortal’s dais still serves as a fishing jetty. Through the mist over the pool we hear carps jumping; Human voices touch off a flight of seagulls. Ordering wine, we get drunk under the reddish cliff; Looking for monks, we enter the verdant mountains. The boat turns around as we cheerfully sing; In the breezy sunset no one thinks of returning.
Unidentified artist, 1 column in semi-cursive script, undated (mounted on the outside of the mounting):
Mei Qushan’s [Mei Qing’s] Boating on the Qing River
梅瞿山《青谿汎舟圖》
Colophon
Qin Xiangye 秦緗業 (1813–1883), 4 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1856; 1 seal (on mounting to the right of the painting):
Mei Yuangong [Mei Qing] of Wanling was admired by Wang Wenjian [Wang Shizhen, 1634–1711] for his depictions of pines. I once acquired a landscape album by him. Evidently he is capable of painting more than just pines. My fellow townsman [from Wuxi], Wang Liangcai, showed me Yuangong’s painting of boating on the Qing River, on which are poems inscribed by Shi Yushan [Shi Runzhang, 1619–1683] and Shen Fangye [Shen Bi], as well as Tongya [Mei Xuan] and Xueping [Mei Geng] of the Mei family. The lofty spirit and profound flair [of this work] will appeal to viewers for a thousand years. Regrettably, [a portion of] the artist’s dedication [giving the name of the recipient] was cut off. There are many ignorant people in the world. They burn zithers and cook cranes. It is really deplorable. Liangcai is obsessed with antiquities. He asked a mounter to patch up the painting to perfection, and asked me to write a colophon. Ah, this painting is like a steed, and Liangcai treasures it as such. Isn’t it appropriate that it belongs to Liangcai! In the bingchen year of the Xianfeng reign era [1856], I, Qin Xiangye [1813–1883], write this while getting ready for a trip to Xiling [Hangzhou]. Probing into the inscriptions, I suspect that this painting was done for Fangye [Shen Bi], but I dare not overinterpret them. Sometime in the future I will seek out the collections of literary works by those gentlemen, and investigate further for Liangcai. [Seal]: Danru
Zheng Min 鄭旼 (1607–after 1683) Qianren wanren nei yiren liangren zhi 千人萬人內一人兩人知 Zheng Muqian tushu yin 鄭慕倩圖書印
Marking:
Cécile and Sandy A. Mactaggart , Edmunton, Alberta (until 2002; donated to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Traditional Scholarly Values at the End of the Qing Dynasty: The Collection of Weng Tonghe (1830–1904)," June 30–January 3, 1999.
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. "Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art," July 31, 2021–August 14, 2022.
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