A monk from Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, Xuezhuang spent many years wandering from temple to temple before settling in 1689 in the remote peaks of Mount Huang, in southern Anhui Province. Although he lived in seclusion, his reputation for high-minded eremitism attracted travelers who sought him out to discuss Chan (Zen in Japanese) Buddhism and to admire his music, poetry, and paintings.
This album of highly personal, topographic images, executed in delicate, dry brushwork, emphasizes how natural rock formations often resemble human or animal figures. The paintings are further embellished with poetry and prose notations by the artist, in which he identifies peaks that had either Buddhist or personal associations. Not only were such paintings products of scholarly practice but they could also function as souvenirs for those who made the arduous climb to Mount Huang or as a visual evocation of the mountain for those unable to travel.
Beginning in the late sixteenth century, the area around Mount Huang grew prosperous thanks to the wealth of Anhui merchant networks and to such indigenous products as ink, paper, and woodblockprinted books. As local artists celebrated the scenic wonders of their home region, Mount Huang became a sightseeing destination. By Xuezhuang's time, the mountain's picturesque scenery, hot springs, Buddhist temples, and hostels attracted a steady stream of tourists and pilgrims.
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Leaf 1 of 5
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Leaf 2 of 5
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Leaf 3 of 5
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Leaf 4 of 5
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Leaf 5 of 5
Artwork Details
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清 雪莊 黃山名峰圖 冊 清 雪莊 黃山圖 冊 紙本
Title:Scenery of the Yellow Mountains (Huangshan)
Artist:Xuezhuang (Chinese, active ca. 1690–after 1718)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:late 17th–early 18th century
Culture:China
Medium:Album of five leaves; ink and color on paper
Dimensions:Image: 11 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. (28.6 x 36.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Promised Gift of Julia and John Curtis, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
Accession Number:L.2020.10.15a–e
Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures [1]
Leaf A (13 columns in semi-cursive script):
In my garden, there is a stone tiger, Mild of temper, really lovable! I have no idea who sent him here, Day and night to watch over the vegetables!
Tiger in the vegetable garden.
Inscribed playfully by the master of the Cloud-Boat Retreat.
園中石虎兒，性善誠可愛。不知誰遣來，日夜常看菜。 菜園虎 雲舫主人戲題。
Leaf B
Inscription 1 (4 columns in standard script):
Precious Seal
The King of the Dharma [Buddha] has transmitted this precious seal, To which both men and gods owe fealty. How could he merely lord it over the Six Realms of Rebirth? Manifestly, he transcends all the holy beings!
Inscribed by the master of the Cloud-Boat Retreat at the Precious Seal Peak.
寳印 法王傳位寳，人天所歸命。豈但跨六凡，顯然超眾聖。 雲舫主人題于寳印峰。
Inscription 2 (4 columns in standard script):
The Peak of Palms Pressed Together
Residing in the mountains, I contemplate the nature of the rocks: When you grasp their nature, you will realize No-thought! This peak is in the posture of inquiring about Buddhist teaching: Facing the Precious Seal, it has the palms pressed together forever!
Inscribed by the old man Xue.
合掌峰 居山觀石性，識性知無想。此峰現請法，向印長合掌。 雪老人題。
Inscription 3 (22 columns in standard script):
Buddha-Shadow Peak
The old monk sleeps in his small chamber, And Buddha’s Shadow manifests right outside the gate! Worldly gossip is hard to avoid, But this famed peak stands firm for ten thousand ages! A pair of lions: realm of mind’s Wisdom; A single deer: sign of the inner Nature. A wanderer ascends the back of the Jade Screen Peak, And gazes afar at the Honored One with hair in spiral locks.
Buddha-Shadow directly faces the Deyue Xuan (Pavilion for Catching the Moon) at Cloud-Boat. Whenever visitors climb up to the Manjusri Monastery and ascend the Jade Screen Peak, they first see this peak. On it sit a single deer and a pair of lions [i.e., rocks in these shapes] oblivious to worldly scheming that resemble the real creatures in every way. Nature has created them to manifest the wisdom of our Buddha. It is also known as Peak for Forgetting Scheming, due to the presence of the lions and the deer. Inscribed by the Monk, Wu.
The shapes of peaks often recall the emblems of [the elements] “Fire” and “Wood.” This peak alone resembles [the element] “Metal.” Thus it has been denominated “Metal [or Gold] Censer,” So it will dominate the woods forever.
Inscribed by the Daoist, Xue.
金爐峰 峰形多火木，此峰獨似金。命名曰金爐，永遠鎮叢林。 雪道人題。
Inscription 2 (10 columns in standard script):
Knowing I once studied the ways to attain immortality, You invited me for company in your spiritual endeavor. Though I’ve just built a thatched hut for the first time, The Longevity Peach hasn’t been planted yet!
I have here inscribed an old poem of mine, “The Immortals Going to Their Gathering,” writing it at the Peak of Assembled Immortals of the Rear Cloud-Sea. [Signed] Master of the Cloud-Boat Retreat, Wu
知我曾學仙，邀伴勞神用。我今初結茆，蟠桃還未種。
題《群仙赴會》舊作，書於後海之聚仙峰。雲舫主人悟
Inscription 3 (7 columns in standard script):
The Stone Cloth Hat
On the peak are traces of someone ascending to the pavilion. They look really suspicious! Whose hat was blown off his head, And transformed into a stone cloth hat?
Inscribed by the Monk, Wu.
石頭巾 峰有登亭跡，看來疑煞人。是誰吹落帽，化作石頭巾。 悟頭陀題。
Inscription 4 (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
The old monk, draped in a black robe,[2] Never responds to people’s greetings. His true nature resonates with the sound of the mountain springs, To which he sits listening in the shade of pines every day.
The Spring-listening Monk.
Inscribed by the Daoist, Xue.
老僧披水田，呼他總不應。真性觸泉聲，日坐松陰聼。 聽泉僧 雪道人題。
Inscription 5 (7 columns in standard script):
The Moon Fairy
Look at it in the morning—just a few patches of moss: Hard to make out the face of the Moon Fairy! But the Fairy, draped in white silk, Often meets me on moonlit nights.
Inscribed by the Monk, Wu.
月仙 朝看數點苔，難辨月仙面。仙披縞素衣，月夜常相見。 悟頭陀題。
Inscription 6 (4 columns in semi-cursive script):
This peak towers like a pillar holding up the sky! Given this support, we needn’t worry about the sky falling. The one who presides over this peak Must be an immortal, if not a god.
Inscribed by the Daoist, Xue, among the sheer cliffs of the Heavenly Pillar Peak.
峰高宛天柱，有此不憂天。坐鎮此峰者，非神即是仙。
雪道人題于天柱峰之削壁間。
Inscription 7 (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
Master Void sitting in meditation. Master Void in this line refers to the Arhat Subhūti in Sanskrit.
The Arhat is enlightened to the voidness of all existence; Among the cliffs he sits long in meditation. Heavenly beings and monkeys Bring him sustenance as their daily task.
Painted and inscribed by the Daoist, Xuezhuang, by the stone cliff of the Sustenance-Offering Peak.
The site has long been deserted, Yet his sincere devotion to the Buddha remains visible. With his powerful body still decked in armor, He has been guarding the spot to the present day.
Image of the Qielan Divine Guardian.[3] Inscribed by the old man, Wu.
一基廢已久，奉佛見誠心。威軀猶掛甲，守護到如今。
伽藍帝君像，悟老人題。
Inscription 2 (3 columns in standard script):
Beside the peak is an old man with white beard. I know he must be Lao Zi! How can I know that? In the sky’s aura I see purple tints!
Inscribed by the Daoist, Xue, at the Lao Zi Peak.
峰邊白髯翁，我知是老氏。問我何以知，天光見紫氣。
雪道人題於老子峰。
Inscription 3 (4 columns in standard script):
As Master Lao discourses on the “Way and its Power,” His auditors start nodding off! But we must laugh at the little boy: How come white hairs are growing on his head?
Inscribed again by the Daoist, Xue.
老氏談道德，聼者打瞌睡。卻笑小童子，何為白髮出。
雪道人又題。
Inscription 4 (7 columns in standard script):
The beauties here seem most auspicious: The sutras record the “Protective Deity of the Woods.” The Cloud-Boat Retreat, protected by this Deity, Is noble, solemn, and never short on scenery.
The Protective Deity of the Woods Inscribed by the old monk, Wu.
勝妙最吉祥，經載主林神。雲舫得神護，莊嚴景不貧。
主林神，悟老僧題。
Inscription 5 (6 columns in standard script):
A vast expanse of cloud-sea with no shore in sight Spreads smoothly straight to my small window. Embroidered wavelets that startle the eye reflect the Weaving Maid’s ingenuity; Dark waves that delight the ear show the maneuvers of the Wind Goddess. Leviathan’s back floats halfway into view when the mountain’s ridge emerges; Like the pearl released from the dragon’s mouth, the sun disc is hanging high. Rain or shine—it doesn’t matter. This idle monk with loosened hair is an immortal of mountain-isles!
Composed at the sight of the cloud waves and written on the Metal [or Gold] Censer Peak by the Monk, Wu.
This is the Vermillion Cloud Peak, the same as the Stone House Peak located to the left of my Cloud-Boat Retreat.
My old friend Wang Liting [Wang Shihong, 1658 ̶1723] once asked me to paint the Vermillion Cloud / Stone House Peak.[4] I have therefore inscribed this to lay all doubts to rest.
此丹霞峰，即雲舫之左石屋峰也。 汪栗亭老友曾有索畫丹霞石屋，畫題是以無疑。
Inscription 2 (4 columns in semi-cursive script):
Yueming understood what it meant to be a monk; He converted a courtesan to a nun in a Buddhist temple.[5] May travelers make no misjudgment: His heart is the same as that of this stone statue.
Monk Yueming Playful inscribed by the Monk, Wu.
月明了道衲，度支[妓]走空林。遊人莫錯議，一樣石頭心。 月明僧 悟頭陀戲題。
Facing leaf (6 columns in semi-cursive script):
Stone House is near to azure heaven; Naturally formed, unimpeded by any trees. The peak’s face, in an ochre color, Looks like vermillion clouds when shone upon by the sun. Halfway through autumn, frost withers the leaves; Late in spring, rain rejuvenates the flowers. All four seasons, the light is scintillating; Close by is this old monk’s home!
A Painting of the Vermillion Clouds / Stone House Peak Painted and inscribed by the Daoist, Xue.
[1] Translations by Jonathan Chaves, modified, unless noted otherwise. [2] The term “水田” refers to the character 緇 without the 糸 radical. 緇 means black, black silk, or black robes worn by Buddhist monks and nuns. [3] The title “Qielan Dijun” more specifically refers to General Guan Yu (? ̶ 220) of the Three Kingdoms period who was deified and added to the Buddhist and the Daoist pantheons in later times. [4] Wang Liting is Wang Shihong 汪士鋐 (1658-1723), compiler of Huangshan zhi xuji 黃山志續集 (Gazetteer of Mount Huang, a sequel). See McDowall’s Qian Qianyi’s Reflections, p.40. [5] This couplet may refer to the story of the Yueming Luohan who appeared as a monk in the secular world to convert a courtesan named Liu Cui. Liu Cui eventually became not only a Buddhist but a nun. The story is the subject of several works in popular literature since the Yuan dynasty, including the Yuan dramas Yueming Heshang du Liu Cui月明和尚度柳翠and Yueming du ji月明度妓, Jin dramas Yueming faqu月明法曲and Jingping’er净瓶儿, and a short story in Feng Menglong’s 馮夢龍 (1574‒1646) Yushi mingyan 喻世明言. [6] Translated by Shi-yee Liu.
[ Sydney L. Moss Ltd. , London, until 2001; sold to Curtis]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Journeys: Mapping the Earth and Mind in Chinese Art," February 10–August 26, 2007.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of the Chinese Album," September 6, 2014–March 29, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.
The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.
