One hundred water buffalo

Inscription: No artist’s inscription, signature, or seal


Label strip

Songchuang (unidentified), 1 column in standard script, undated:

宋江參百牛圖，神品上上。松窗題。


Colophons

1. Wang Xun 王壎 (13th–14th c.?), 16 columns in semi-cursive script, undated; 3 seals:

I lived among myriad mountains. Every day I took delight in the misty landscape in my straw rain cape and hat. Hanging books on the buffalos’ horns, I mingled with herd-boys in the field. Black oxen sharpened their horns; old females chewed their food in repose. The former looked back and uttered long moos; the latter raised their heads and jumped to their feet. That scene was just like this scroll, which leaves me in a reminiscent mood. This painting is executed in a most detailed manner. The depiction of those crowding their heads over the waterfront grass, at the first glance, seems chaotic, but the movement of each hair does observe certain order. On the other hand, those fighting one another on the elevated bank lower their heads and bump their rear ends. Their fierce power is marvelously conveyed to the full. [The painter] indeed rivals Master Dai [Dai Song, active 8th c.] of the past. [The painting] shows the creatures enjoying their lives and fulfilling their nature.The sense of peace and harmony spread beyond the scroll. Ah! The nation is no longer peaceful now. Under the bloody knives of dissection, they cannot keep themselves whole. Their sinews and horns are still in demand. But how could the buffalos be the only creatures that cannot follow their nature? I cannot help feeling sad. Wang Xun of Xin’an [in Anhui] inscribed. [Seals]: Wang Xun siyin, Zhongsu, Yu zaowu you

余家萬山中，日賞煙蓑雨笠，挂書牛角，與童牧田野間，或烏犍礪角，或老牸臥噍，前者卻顧而長鳴，後者驤首而騰赴，絕類此卷。令人觀之，有感疇昔。然此畫窮盡纖芥，其駢首水草之際者，乍若紛亂，而毫髮往來皆有條理，與夫相抵觸於高岸者，頫首貼尾，猛毅之意，曲盡其妙，真與戴公異世而差肩，且見物之樂其生而遂其性，昇平之意欎於紙外。烏呼！今四郊多難，解刀淋漓，肩尻不保，筋角之求，且尚未已，然物之失其性者，又豈止乎牛而已，不覺又有以興吾嘅也。新安王壎題 [印]：王壎私印、中肅、與造物游

2. Ye Tong 葉桐 (14th c.?), 7 columns in standard script, undated; 2 seals:

Why didn’t the painter’s wonderful brush depict beauties and steeds
On an excursion side by side in Jiangdu [Yangzhou, Jiangsu] on a clear night?
How come he painted lush green grass
And scattered villages in misty rain!
Herd-boys play flutes while sitting square on the buffalos;
The fragmented sound is not real music.
The old females look at the calves with green shimmer in their eyes;
Eagerly they cross the southern bank into an expanse of waves.
The herd-bays and the buffalos are unconcerned with each other or themselves;
There are no whips or reins.
One plowing buffalo has the strength of a hundred men;
With the strength of a hundred buffalos, myriad people get fed from the grain-filled barns.
It takes a virtuous, sagacious minister to step off the carriage to inquire about the gasping creatures.
I inscribe this long poem on your painting,
Who is just a literate farmer.
[Signed] Ye Tong [Seals]: Tong, Zisun shichang

胡為彩筆不畫窈窕與驊騮，
江都並轡清夜游。
如何畫出青茸茸，
前村後村煙雨中。
牧兒短笛牛背穩，
一聲兩聲非商宮。
老牸顧犢眼光碧，
竞度南浦波溶溶。
牧兮牛兮看兩忘，
不鞭不箠亦不韁。
一牛耕，百夫力，
百牛力，萬民食囷廩陳陳。
賴爾德賢相，下車問喘息。
長詩為君題此圖，
我亦識字耕田夫。

葉桐 [印]：桐、子孫世昌

3. Wu Zongzhou 吳宗周 (jinshi degree1496), 13 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1495; 1 seal:

Who painted this picture of a hundred buffalos?
Though their hair and bone structure do not vary, each has its distinctive air.
Soft mist, warm grass, lake brimming with water,
Boys equipped with straw rain cape and hap as well as snacks.
Grazing, drinking, each enjoys itself,
Which recalled the actual scene of the grassland by the ferry seen before.
The prince accumulated ink works more than jewelry;
His poetic lines fill the entire sheet of paper.
How can I present this to the people’s guardian,
Who can make them enjoy themselves likewise.
I, a rustic man of the Wu family, offer my unneeded dumb idea,
Unlike Master Liu who just sighed in vain.
Written on the twentieth of the second lunar month in the yimao year of the Hongzhi reign era [March 16, 1495] by Wu Zongzhou of Xuancheng [in Anhui]. [Seal]: Jiangzuo wenxian ??

何人畫此百牛圖，
毛骨不別意態殊。
煙和草暖水滿湖，
竪兒蓑笠餱糧俱。
齕草飲水各自適，
卻憶青草渡頭所見真相符。
王孫蓄[漏字]勝畜珠，
長歌短句滿紙塗。
安得獻之牧民者，
亦使自得如此乎。
續貂獻拙吳門哥，
不效劉子徒嗟吁。墨

嵗弘治乙卯仲春月二十日宣城吳宗周書。 [印]：江左文獻□□

4. Zhuang Jiongsheng 莊冏生 (1627–1679), 1 column in standard script, dated 1670:

After acquiring this painting, Tao Jinsheng inscribed a poem on it himself and then requested famous people to inscribe it too. Since the gengxu year of the Kangxi reign era [1670], it has been lent to Zhuang Jiongsheng for viewing….

陶晉生得此圖自題詩，復偏懇各名公題詠，自康熙庚戌，被莊冏生借看□□□□可□也。

[Translations from Department records]

Vladimir G. Simkhovitch , New York (until 1918; sold to MMA)

Cleveland Museum of Art. "Chinese Art Under the Mongols," October 1, 1968–November 4, 1968.

New York. Asia House Gallery. "Chinese Art Under the Mongols," January 9, 1969–February 2, 1969.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.

Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, pp. 24–25, cat. no. A1-126.

Chou, Diana Yeongchau. A Study and Translation from the Chinese of Tan Hou's Huajian (Examination of Painting): Cultivating Taste in Yuan China,1279–1368. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005, pp. 93–94.