Pear Blossoms, ca. 1280 Qian Xuan (ca. 1235–before 1307) Handscroll; ink and color on paper; 12 1/4 x 37 1/2 in. (31.1 x 95.3 cm) Ex coll.: Sir Percival David Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1977 (1977.79) What is this image about? Although this painting of a branch of pear tree blossoms resembles the beautiful bird and flower paintings of the preceding Song era, here the composition carries a more complicated message. These flowers were painted to express the artist's sorrow over the fall of the Song dynasty to the Mongol invaders. This painting, datable to about 1280, was completed after the Mongols had successfully destroyed the Southern Song government and taken control of China to form the Yuan dynasty in 1279. For the first time in Chinese history, all of China was under foreign rule. The traditional governmental careers of many Chinese scholar-officials ended. The Mongol-run Yuan government threw many Chinese officials out of office, while other Chinese scholars, such as Qian Xuan, simply refused to cooperate with the newly formed Yuan government and chose retirement out of loyalty to the destroyed Song government. Related Activity Next Menu