Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures[1]
Leaf A (4 columns in standard script)
This looks somewhat like the entrance to the “Peach Blossom Spring,” but it isn't. Dafeng
水口略類桃源而非也。大風
Leaf B (1 column in standard script)
Imitating Ni [Ni Zan, 1306–1374]
倣倪。
Leaf C (6 columns in standard script, dated 1644)
“The worldly red dusts do not rise at my front door. Green trees stand just right to conceal the corners of my house, Blue mountains nicely fill in the breach atop my garden wall.”
These lines are musical lyrics by a Yuan dynasty master [i.e. Ma Zhiyuan, ca. 1260–1324]. It seems that I should use the water-and-tree method to paint this well, yet the result is clumsy everywhere – an embarrassing embodiment of Zhang Juqu’s [Zhang Yu, 1283–1350] phrase “beating the side of a drum.” On the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month of the jiashen year [August 8, 1644].
“紅塵不向門前惹，綠樹偏宜屋角遮，青山正補牆頭缺。”元人填詞也。似宜作水樹法為得，而大概亦夯工處處，媿張句曲“擊鼓邊”一語。甲申七夕
Leaf D (1 column in standard script)
Chiming from the cloud, sails in the wind.
雲磬風帆。
Leaf E (5 columns in standard script):
The painting does not have a prescribed title. Once there is a title, the place changes. [The subject] seems to be listening to the rushing mountain brook. It is fine if you think [the title is] “Bright moon shines through the pines; clear spring flows across the rocks.” [a couplet from a poem by Wang Wei, 701–761] Mr. Beijin must be thinking that I paint with the method of composing examination papers. Have a laugh! On the last day of the sixth month [August 1].
畫無命題，題在處移，似聽澗響耳，若以為“明月松間炤，清泉石上流”亦可。北覲兄必以為大風於此道亦用時文法也，一笑。六月晦日。
Leaf G (6 columns in standard script):
It pains me to be unable to [make my painting] light (dan) to that extent. Though trying my best to emulate it, in the end my brushwork remains cumbersome. On the tenth day of the seventh month [August 11], while raining. Dafeng
余苦不能淡至此，其亟力摹擬，然終是筆繁。七月十日雨中。大風
Leaf K (1 Column in standard script):
Sunset over the mountains.
夕陽在山。
Leaf L (9 columns in standard script):
Mr. Beijin presented this album to me for paintings. It happened that I just read Yuan Zhonglang’s [Yuan Hongdao, 1568–1610] collected writings, and liked his couplet: “Someone emerges out of a cave at the bottom of a waterfall; the sound of tossed pebbles in the mountain is heard in the village nearby.” I therefore made a painting of it, suspecting that I vaguely captured eighty or ninety percent of his idea. Your junior Zhang Feng casually inscribed this in the Fledging Crow Studio [Ruya Xuan].
北覲兄以冊子見投，偶讀袁中郎集，因喜“澗底有人穿洞出，山間投礫隔村聞”之句，輒為圖，似恍恍疑得八九。小弟張風漫識於乳鴉軒。
Artist's seals
Feng 風 (Leaf A, B, C, D, F, I, J, K, L) Zhang Feng 張風 (Leaf E, H) Zhang Feng 張風 (Leaf G)
Frontispiece
Zhang Daqian 張大千(1899–1983), 5 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1968 (by seal); 4 seals:
The Dafeng Tang Studio respectfully preserves the twelve-leaf album by Shangyuan Laoren [Zhang Feng]. An unrivaled masterpiece of the divine class, the one and only in the world. Yuan, Dhūta [Sanskrit for mendicant monk]. [seals]: Wushen, Zhang Yuan siyin, Daqian, Bade Yuan
大風堂供養上元老人《山水冊》十二頁。無上神品，人間孤本。爰，杜多 [印]:戊申、張爰私印、大千、八德園
Colophons
1. An Zhiyuan 安致遠 (active ca. 1645–84), 9 columns in standard script; 1 seal [Leaf M]:
In the spring of yiwei year [1655], I went to Yanjing [Beijing]. Lodging at Danqiao one night, I held a lamp to read the poems on the walls. Among them was a ci-verse composed in the tune of pusaman written in monumental characters that evoked the brushwork of drunken [Zhang] Xu (active 713–740) and crazy [Mi] Fu (1052–1107). I then composed one in the same rhyme scheme in response. Now ten years have flown by. Although the poet’s name was inscribed on the wall, living in a remote coastal region, I have had no idea who Dafeng was. Today in the official the residence of Old Master Li [Zhou Lianggong] I finally learned about Dafeng’s life and was shown his paintings. The vital spirit of ripe old age powerfully animates the picture surfaces, as if the beards and brows of [the loyalist general] Zhang Gao (died 764) were emerging from the foot-wide space of the paintings. Inscribed by An Zhiyuan, a junior in learning. [Seal]: Jingzi
余以乙未春赴燕京，夜宿單橋，挑燈讀壁上詩，見有所書“菩薩蠻”詞一首，字大於升，醉旭顛芾筆意如在。余依其韻而和之，今勿勿十年矣。壁上雖題姓字，然余以僻處海上，竟不知大風為何如人。今於櫟老夫子署中得悉大風生平，且以大風手蹟見示，老氣披紛，颯颯紙上，覺尺幅間如見張鎬鬚眉也。後學安致遠題。 [印]： 靜子
2. You Yin 尤蔭 (1732–1812), 10 columns in standard/semi-cursive script, dated 1781; 1 seal [Leaf M]:
Zhang Dafeng of Shangyuan [Nanjing] was a painter at the start of the dynasty. His brushwork in painting has (the quality of) placid detachment, and is obstemous in use of ink. They are truly outstanding. Long ago, when I was a student in Baixia [Nanjing], I often visited the Chu Garden and the Sui Garden, where I would ask collectors to show me a few things. Having seeing so many paintings pass before my eyes. I cannot forget the feelings I had with them. But [brushwork of] this album is so delicate like cocoon silk and cow’s hair, firm as a muscles in bones. It is as light as an autumn cloud and as tranquil as still water. It attains an even higher level [than the paintings I had seen previously]. It makes you feel excited in awe of the master’s magically creative hand. The form of its achievement is beyond any language. On the 20th day of the fifth month of the year xinchou in the Qianlong era [June 11, 1781] when it was my 50th birthday. A few days ago, I borrowed it from my wife’s uncle Litang and returned home to my Shiyao Mountain Studio. Carefully I studied it through for ten days and night. I considered those days as time not wasted. On the 27th day [June 18] when the rain had just stopped, with a nice breeze and clear summer weather, I turned my boat upriver to return (the album) to the Dongxiang Caotang [Dongxiang Thatched Cottage]. It was like traveling in the painting. My wife’s uncle should dearly treasure it. Inscribed by You Yin, Shuicun Qiaoren [Woodcutter of the Water Village]. [Seal]: Gongfu
國初上元張大飌先生作畫，落筆澹遠，惜墨如金，不可多覯，真逸品也。余曩昔游學白下，過從蘧園、隨園之間，時向藏賞家寓目一二，煙雲過眼，不能去諸懷抱。然如此冊之繭絲牛毛，細筋入骨，澹若秋雲，靜如止水，更上一層矣。令人躁心頓盡，師化工者耶，莫能名其狀矣。時在乾隆辛丑五月廿日，為予五十生日。數日前，向蠡塘舅岳假歸石銚山房，細細展閱臥遊將十晨夕，可為不虛度矣。廿七日時雨新霽，好風清暑，因棹一舟，從江上送還東薌草堂，如行畫中也，舅岳其善寶之。水邨樵人尤蔭跋。[印]： 貢父
Collectors’ seals
Zhang Shanzi 張善子 (1882–1940)
Shanzi shending 善子審定 (Leaf E)
Zhang Daqian 張大千 (1899–1983)
Dafeng Tang 大風堂 (Leaf A)
Niyan 昵燕 (Leaf B)
Dafeng Tang 大風堂 (Leaf C)
Daqian yandi 大千眼底 (Leaf D)
Daqian Jushi 大千居士 (Leaf F)
Daqian 大千 (Leaf G)
Zhang Yuan 張爰 (Leaf H)
Daqian 大千 (Leaf H)
Cang zhi Daqian 藏之大千 (Leaf I)
Zhang Yuan zhi yin 張爰之印 (Leaf J)
Daqian 大千 (Leaf J)
Dafeng Tang 大風堂 (Leaf K)
Yuan yin 爰印 (Leaf L)
Wushen 戊申 (Leaf N)
Zhang Yuan siyin 張爰私印 (Leaf N)
Daqian 大千 (Leaf N)
Bade Yuan 八德園 (Leaf N)
He Guanwu 何冠五 (20th c.)
Guanwu zhencang 冠五珍藏 (Leaf E)
Tianxi Shuwu jiancang 田溪書屋鑑藏 (Leaf G)
Tianxi Shuwu 田溪書屋 (Leaf I)
[1] Translations by Shi-yee Liu.
Kansas City. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," April 19, 1992–June 14, 1992.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," July 6, 1992–September 20, 1992.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Century of Dong Qichang," October 15, 1992–January 3, 1993.
Zurich. Museum Rietberg. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," April 2, 1996–July 7, 1996.
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists in China," August 3, 1996–November 10, 1996.
New York. China Institute in America. "The Life of a Patron: Zhou Lianggong and the Painters of 17th Century China," October 19, 1996–December 21, 1996.
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, 1998–January 3, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Text and Image: The Interaction of Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy," January 23, 1999–August 16, 1999.
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. "The Art of the Chinese Album," September 6, 2014–March 29, 2015.
