Zhao Mengjian, a member of the Song imperial family and an accomplished scholar and calligrapher, specialized in painting narcissi and raised the flower to the level of the orchid in the esteem of scholars. Offering the promise of spring, the narcissus is known in Chinese as the "water goddess" (shuixian) or the "goddess who stands above the waves" (lingbo xianzi). The fragrant blossoms are associated with the two goddesses of the Xiang River and, by extension, with Qu Yuan (343–277 b.c.), author of Li Sao (On Encountering Sorrow). Qu Yuan, a loyal minister of the state of Chu, drowned himself in a tributary of the Xiang River after failing to alert his prince of the imminent danger threatening the state.
In a poem appended to the scroll after the Mongol conquest, the Song loyalist Qiu Yuan (1247–after 1327) describes Zhao's narcissi as the only vision of life in an otherwise devastated land:
The shiny bronze dish is upset, and the immortals' dew spilled; The bright jade cup is smashed, like broken coral. I pity the narcissus for not being the orchid. Which at least had known the sober minister from Chu.
Wang Jiqian 王季遷 (C. C. Wang, 1907–2003) 王季遷海外所見名跡 王季遷氏審定真跡 震澤王氏寳武堂圖書記 季遷珍藏 曾藏王季遷處 延陵 寳武堂 寳武堂印 此中有何好秀色妙滿眼 平淡天真 心賞 懷雲樓
Unidentified: 其求世業 子孫保之 無等庵收藏印
Illegible: 1
[1] 蔣汝藻藏書樓。
[2] 梁棟，字隆吉，淳祐二年（1242）生，咸淳四年（1268）進士。元大德九年（1305）卒。
[3] 歐陽詢（557–641），字信本。
Marking:
Chu Deyi 褚德彜 ChineseWuxing, Zhejiang Province, China; Wu Puxin 吳普心 Chinese, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China; Zuyi Jiang Chinese, Wuxing, Zhejing Province, China; C. C. Wang Family , New York (by 1949–1973; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Song and Yuan Paintings: Exhibition of Newly Acquired Chinese Paintings," November 1, 1973–January 20, 1974.
London. British Museum. "Song and Yuan Paintings," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Traces of the Brush: Studies in Chinese Calligraphy," April 6, 1977–June 27, 1977.
University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley. "Traces of the Brush: Studies in Chinese Calligraphy," September 20, 1977–November 27, 1977.
Kyoto National Museum. "Kachō no bi: kaiga to ishō," October 5, 1982–November 13, 1982.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Peach Blossom Spring," November 21, 1983–June 3, 1984.
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. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Chinese Galleries: An Inaugural Installation," 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Artist as Collector: Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the C.C.Wang Family Collection," September 2, 1999–January 9, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cultivated Landscapes: Reflections of Nature in Chinese Painting with Selections from the Collection of Marie-Hélène and Guy Weill," September 10, 2002–February 9, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Great Waves: Chinese Themes in the Arts of Korea and Japan II," March 22–September 21, 2003.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Douglas Dillon Legacy: Chinese Painting for the Metropolitan Museum," March 12–August 8, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Four Seasons," January 28–August 13, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings," March 1–August 10, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from The Met Collection (Rotation One)," October 31, 2015–October 11, 2016.
Zhang Zhao 張照 et al. Midian zhulin shiqu baoji 祕殿珠林石渠寶笈 (Catalogue of painting and calligraphy in the Qianlong imperial collection). Preface dated 1745. Facsimile reprint of an original manuscript copy. vol. 2, Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1971, pp. 985–86.
Fong, Wen C., and Marilyn Fu. Sung and Yuan Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973, pp. 68–71, 82–83, 143–44, cat. no. 12.
Cahill, James. An Index of Early Chinese Painters and Paintings: T'ang, Sung, and Yüan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
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, p. 6, cat. no. A1-014.
Barnhart, Richard M. Along the Border of Heaven: Sung and Yüan Paintings from the C. C. Wang Family Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 110–13; 181, fig. 48.
Morris, Edwin T. The Gardens of China: History, Art and Meanings. New York: Scribner, 1983, p. 181.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 306–309, pls. 68, 68a.
Bian Yongyu 卞永譽. Shigutang shuhua huikao 式古堂書畫彙考 (Studies of calligraphy and painting from the Shigu Tang Studio). Preface dated 1682, juan 15 of painting section. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical publications on Chi ptg. & calligr.) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 6, p. 1031.
Gao Shiqi 高士奇. Jiangcun xiaoxia lu 江村銷夏錄 (Jiangcun’s notes from whiling away the summer). Preface dated 1693. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical publications on Chinese painting and calligraphy) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 7, p. 1014.
Wang Keyu 汪砢玉. Wang shi shanhu wang minghua tiba 汪氏珊瑚網名畫題跋 (Inscriptions on famous paintings from the Coral Net). Preface dated 1643. Juan 20. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical publications on Chinese painting and calligraphy) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 5, p. 1168.
Wang Keyu 汪砢玉. Wang shi shanhu wang minghua tiba 汪氏珊瑚網名畫題跋 (Inscriptions on famous paintings from the Coral Net). Preface dated 1643. Juan 6. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical publications on Chinese painting and calligraphy) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Zhongguo shuhua quanshu, 5. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 5, p. 1039.
Wu Sheng 吳升. Daguan lu 大觀錄 (Records from a grand view). Preface dated 1712, juan 15. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical publications on Chinese painting and calligraphy) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 8, p. 448.
Yu Fengqing 郁逢慶. Yu shi shuhua tiba ji 郁氏書畫題跋記 ( Colophons and inscriptions on Calligraphies and Paintings by Yu). Postscript dated 1633. Reprinted in Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (Compendium of classical Publications on Chinese painting and calligraphy) Edited by Lu Fusheng 盧輔聖. Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1993–2000, vol. 4, pp. 7–10.
Weitz, Ankeney. Zhou Mi's Record of Clouds and Mist Passing Before One's Eyes: An Annotated Tanslation. Leiden: Brill, 2002, pp. 182; 254–55, cat. no. 32.41, fig. 6.
Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 70–73, cat. no. 15.
Gu Wenbin 顧文彬. Guoyun Lou shuhua ji 過雲樓書畫記 (Catalogue of calligraphy and painting in the Guoyun Pavilion). Dated 1882, juan 1 of painting section. Reprinted ed., Taipei: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2011, pp. 85–86.
He Muwen 何慕文 (Hearn, Maxwell K.). Ruhe du Zhongguo hua: Daduhui Yishu Bowuguan cang Zhongguo shuhua jingpin daolan 如何读中国画 : 大都会艺术博物馆藏中国书画精品导览 (How to read Chinese paintings) Translated by Shi Jing 石静. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2015, pp. 70–73, cat. no. 15.
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