Nine carp
Gong Gu Chinese
Not on view
A massive carp leads its eight offspring through thick aquatic grasses below the water’s surface. More than just cute animals, they allude to a line from China’s most ancient poetry collection, the Book of Odes (Shijing). It refers to “nine similitudes” (jiuru 九如)—nine comparisons that imply eternity or longevity (“like mountains,” “like streams,” and so on). Because the term for “similitude” (ru 如) sounds like the term for “fish” (yu 魚), paintings of nine fish became conventional expressions of wishes for longevity and constancy. The painter Gong Gu is otherwise unknown, but the splashy brushwork and broad washes suggest a date from the mid- to late nineteenth century.
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