Unidentified Artist | Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: The Story of Lady Wenji | China | early Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

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Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: The Story of Lady Wenji

Artist: Unidentified Artist Chinese, early 15th century, after Song Academy painter

Period: early Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Date: early 15th century

Culture: China

Medium: Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on silk

Dimensions: Image: 11 1/4 in. × 39 ft. 3 in. (28.6 × 1196.3 cm) Overall with mounting: 11 1/2 in. × 50 ft. 8 1/16 in. (29.2 × 1544.5 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973

Accession Number: 1973.120.3

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Represented here are scenes from the life of Lady Wenji (Cai Yan), who was abducted by a horde of marauding barbarians about A.D. 195 and spent twelve years among the Xiongnu, a Mongol tribe, as wife of their chieftain. She bore him two children before she was finally ransomed and returned to China. The Southern Song emperor Gaozong (r. 1127–62) probably ordered the story illustrated as a reminder of the capture of his kinfolk by the Jurched Jin.
In this scroll, the costumes of the nomad invaders are those of the Khitan people, who established the Liao dynasty (907–1125) in northeastern China. To the early Southern Song viewer, Eighteen Songs, which presents a historical drama in contemporary details, did not represent a mere historical romance but a true, pervasive national trauma. The illustrations to the third, fifth, thirteenth, and eighteenth songs in the Metropolitan's scroll—the oldest of five known versions that illustrate all eighteen of the songs—are almost exact copies of four album leaves in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Boston fragments appear to be all that is left of the original twelfth-century scroll. The texts of the songs, composed by Liu Shang (act. ca. 773), are inscribed in the calligraphic style of Emperor Gaozong

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signature: No artist's signature or seal

Inscription: Colophons:
At the beginning of the scroll on the painting, two by the Qianlong emperor, one line dated 1742 and fourteen lines dated 1766.
At the end of the scroll, two lines by Zhang Daqian (b. 1899), dated 1948.

Marking: Collectors' seals:
Jia Sitao (d. 1275), one seal (forged) on first section, repaired and inscribed by Qianlong.
Mu Ying (1345–1392), one seal (posthumous)
Mu Ang (d. 1445, sone of Ying), one seal.
Mu Lin (great-grandson of Ang), one seal at each juncture of calligraphy and painting.
Emperor Qing Gaozong (Qianlong, r. 1736–95), twelve seals.
The Jiaqing emperor (r. 1796–1820), one seal.
The Xuantong emperor (r. 1908–11), three seals.
Qian Hofeng (before 1744), two seals.
Mr. Shao (before 1744, unidentified) one seal
C.C. Wang (1907–2003), four seals.
Unidentified owners: three seals, including one half-seal at the end of the painting.