Treatise on Painting

Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (38 columns in semi-cursive script)

To the right is Du Fu’s (712–770) poem “Playful Song on Wang Zai’s Landscape Painting”:

Ten days to paint one stream!
five days to paint one rock!—
an old hand does not accept the least pressure to hurry,
and only then will Wang Zai leave the genuine marks of his art.
Grand, indeed, this picture of Kunlun to Fanghu,
hung on the white wall of your high hall.
From Baling and Lake Dongting to east of Japan
Red Bank’s waters pass through to the silvery River of Stars,
wherein cloudy vapors pursue the dragon in flight.
Boatmen and fisherfolk are coming into shore
as mountain trees are all pressed low by billow-raising winds.
Supreme skill in far vistas, no ancient can compare,
a mere foot must be reckoned as ten thousand leagues.
If only I could get myself sharp shears of Bingzhou steel,
I’d cut for myself half the waters of the Wusong River.

[Translation by Stephen Owen]

Written by Zhongyue Waishi, Mi Yuanzhang [Mi Fu]

右杜少陵題王宰山水圖
十日畫一水，五日畫一石。
能事不受相促逼，王宰始肯留真蹟。
壯哉崐侖方壺圖，挂君高堂之素壁。
巴陵洞庭日本東，赤岸水與銀河通，中有雲氣随飛龍。
舟人漁子入浦溆，山木盡亞洪濤風。
尤工深遠勢莫比，咫尺應須論萬里。
焉得并州快翦刀，剪取吳松半江水。

中岳外史米元章書 。


Artist’s seal

Chu guo Mi Fu 楚國米芾


Colophons

1. Wang Duo 王鐸 (1592–1652), 4 columns in standard script, undated; 1 seal:

米海岳書法入神，別出機緒，今人不可捉摸。世傳米顛拜石為風雅佳話，余閱其書，中心好之，亦不得不拜矣。覺斯鐸 [印]：讀未見書有驚人語

2. Qian Zhan 錢旃 (1597–1647), 4 columns in cursive script, undated; 1 seal:

此卷筆墨完好，精微神聚，另有一種天趣。但當世耳食者多，識真者少，今摹古者見之，自然相賞鑒，別余不多贅。紡囗錢旃記。[印]：繞屋毒華

3. Sun Zhiwei 孫枝蔚 (1620–1687), 3 columns in standard script, undated; 1 seal:

襄陽書畫絕倫，風流未墜，不特氣韻高，亦緣本領大耳。昔人欲以五百卷益令穰畫心便是此意。孫枝蔚題。[印]：書滛荼癖


Collectors’ seals

Northern Song imperial collection (early 12th c., spurious)
内府圖書之印

Jia Sidao 賈似道 (1213–1275)
賈似道圖書子孫寳之

Yuan dynasty imperial collection (mid-14th c.)
宣文閣監書畫博士印

Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254–1322)
水晶宮道人
天水郡圖書印

Xu Heng 許衡 (1209–1281)
許衡之印

Xiang Yuanbian 項元汴 (1525–1590)
天籟閣

Unidentified
賴汝龍
永存珍秘
子孫保之

Illegible 1

[ C. T. Loo & Co. , until 1918; sold to MMA]