Chinese Poem on an Imaginary Landscape

The Ōbaku Zen master Yelan Xinggui, the calligrapher of this hanging scroll, never made it to Japan to take up a position as abbot of Sōfukuji temple in Nagasaki, though he had been invited and intended to take up the offer. He set sail from China in 1651, but tragically the ship he was on sank and Yelan was lost at sea. Nevertheless, his bold, dynamic calligraphy was cherished by his many disciples in both China and those who had emigrated to Japan.

Four columns of cursive calligraphy transcribe one of Yelan’s own poems, one that in the colophon, Yelan playfully suggests that he had composed after taking a late nap using a rock for a pillow. Composed in the set structure of eight lines of seven syllables each, the poem describes the majestic landscape that unfolded before his eyes, including meandering clouds and a gushing waterfall. The calligraphy adheres to Ōbaku convention for creating calligraphic compositions, either poems or Buddhist sayings, in bold but flowing sōsho cursive script, but in this case with only a couple clusters of characters in each column connected by graceful ligatures. In the middle of the second column the work is punctuated by the bold inscription of the characters 千厓 (sengai, using a variant of 崖, meaning “1000 cliffs), with the boldly impressed vertical giving way to the most delicate connecting stroke to the character below. The varying ink tonalities and alternations between thickly brushed and delicately delineated characters creates a sense of rhythm and dynamism.

In 1654, when Yinyuan Longqi (Ingen Ryūki, 1592–1673), the Chan master who would establish the Huangbo (Ōbaku) sect in Japan, travelled to its shores, it was a time of very limited contact between Japan and China; and Japan’s interaction with the outside world was strictly regulated, mostly through Nagasaki. Chinese-style temples such as Sōfukuji and Kōfukuji were being built in that entrepôt city of Kyūshū, teachers from China were being sought. Before Yinyuan was invited, however, the Huangbo prelate Yiran Xingrong 逸然性融 (Itsunen Shōyuu,1601–1668) had already encouraged Yelan Xinggui, one of Yinyuan’s top pupils to accept the appointment as head abbot of Sōfukuji. It was only after Yelan lost his life en route to Japan that Yiran then invited Yinyuan to take up the post. Yinyuan had at first turned down the invitation on the grounds of old age; but given the persistence of the invitation from Japan and also in order to honor the unfulfilled cause of Yelan, Yinyuan (Ingen) ultimately decided to make the trip to Japan.

The inner box lid was inscribed by the Ōbaku monk Monchū Jōfuku (1739–1829) in 1817, over 165 years after Yelan was supposed to have arrived in Japan. Monchū was not only a prominent Ōbaku master, but also a noted sencha tea master, who was a close associate of Baisaō. Monchū’s attainments as a scholar and calligrapher were also widely acknowledged, and his inscriptions are often found on literati paintings of the day, including those of Ike Taiga and his wife Tokuyama Gyokuran, who were also in Baisaō’s sencha circle. The box inscription here—both the title on the box lid and the lengthy text on the inner lid—in Monchū’s precise standard script (kaisho), is a tour-de-force of calligraphy in its own right, though contrasting with Yelan’s cursive work. Here Monchū vouches for the authenticity of his predecessor’s calligraphy, and relates the tragic circumstances of Yelan’s life and how he lost his life at sea. The inscription reads:

“This is a genuine work by the Chan master Yelan from Baoguo Temple on Mount Fenghuang. His secular name was Xinggui, surname Chen, and was from Guangxianli in Futang [present-day Fuqing City, Fujian]. Master Yelan accepted an invitation from Sōfukuji Temple in Nagasaki to travel to our country and bring enlightenment to the East. After the ship set sail, not far from the middle section of Zuojiang River, a storm arose that threatened to overwhelm the ship. Master Yelan donned his kesa (monk’s surplice), sat down solemnly and announced that he was resigned to losing his life. All of a sudden, the boat capsized and he disappeared into the sea. He was truly one of the twenty-three true Dharma heirs of Master Puzhao [Yinyuan Longqi (1592–1673)]” (Trans. Xiaohan Du)

山々拓卓古生涯　
暮帶晴嵐恣所？
縱自機投情萬頃
忘思樂有趣千厓
再之雲斂志搖見
三鑒溪流淡入懷
虛幻不言？束縛

呵呼指顧聽吾儕

岩頭晚盹似
希？歡居士正