Chinese Ink Bamboo Paintings

Chinese Ink Bamboo PaintingsAuthor(s): Wang Shih-hsiangSource: Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, Vol. 3 (1948/1949), pp. 49-58Published by: University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20066917 .

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Chinese Ink Bamboo Paintings Wang Shih-hsiang

Curator, Department of Antiquities, National Palace Museum of Peiping

A MONG Chinese artists there are some who have devoted their entire artistic energy J?k to the painting of bamboo. Many others have delighted to introduce the

-* -^ bending stems and graceful, pointed leaves of this beautiful tree into their

compositions. The place that the bamboo holds in the mind of the Chinese artist, writer or poet has already been brought to the attention of western readers in the books

of Arthur Waley and Oswald Sir?n.1 Wang Hui-chih, son of the great Sixth Century

calligrapher, Wang Hsi-chih, held the bamboo in such respect that he could not presume to call it by name but must refer to it as "this gentleman." Chinese poetry bears witness

to the admiration the bamboo enjoyed in the brilliant years of the T'ang Dynasty and

Po Chii-i has celebrated it in verse.2

It is the purpose of this brief article to outline in the most general way the development of

bamboo painting as a

special subject in pictures and to bring to attention those artists most cele

brated in Chinese tradition from early times

through the Yuan Dynasty. Two different technical manners have been

employed to depict bamboo. The earlier man

ner was to draw the leaves and stems in outline

and frequently, but not always, add colour to

the outlined areas. Such pictures are called

kou le bamboo. The second method is to paint

stems, branches and leaves in ink only without

outline. This is known simply as mo chu, or ink

bamboo. The two methods are very seldom

combined.

Li K'an, the celebrated bamboo painter of the

late Thirteenth and early Fourteenth Century,

gives the generally accepted history of the ori

gins of bamboo painting in his great book, the

Chu Fu Hsiang Lu, written at the end of the

Thirteenth Century3. According to Li K'an:

"From the T'ang Dynasty on there are but a

few painters noted for their pictures of bamboo.

There were artists like Wang Yo-ch'?ng,4 Hsiao

Hsieh-lu,5 the monk M?ng Hsiu,6 and Li P'o of

Southern Tang;7 then there was Huang Ch'uan,

father and sons,s Ts'ui Po and his brother,9 and

Wu Y?an-y? of Sung.10 Very few of Yu-ch'?ng's

(Wang Wei) marvelous pictures have come

down to us (meaning really none at all); al

though there are works by Hsieh-l?, they are in

a dark and dilapidated condition and little can

be recognized in them. The manner of M?ng Hsiu is careless and he follows his own whims

without discipline ? but then he was a monk.

Huang, father and sons, obtained the spirit but

neglected the likeness; Ts'ui and Wu (Ts'ui Po and Wu Y?an-y?) obtained the likeness but

neglected the spirit. Only Li P'o obtained both of these qualities to the full. He was master of

the methods and the regulations (rules of the

craft) and may be called the norm above all

others, the one who has shown the way for

future ages. (The foregoing relates only to

bamboo paintings in outline.) The painting of

bamboo in ink also started in T'ang times, al

though its origin is none too clear. According

49



to an old saying, Lady Li of the Five Dynasties (A.D. 907-960), traced (in ink) the shadows of the bamboo on her window and others followed

her. Huang T'ai-shih11 suspected that (ink bamboo painting) started from Wu Tao-tze.12

(Here follows a lengthy note by Li K'an.) The Hua P'ing1* says: 'Bamboo painting has no an

cient origin and did not begin until the monk Yuan Ai,14 T'ang Hsi-ya15 and Tung Y?16

started it. There is an old saying that Lady Li, wife of Kuo Ch'ung-t'ao, traced the moonlight shadows of bamboo on her window and after

that a number of people followed her manner/

The Kuang Hua Chi11 records that 'Sun Wei18

painted pines, rocks and ink bamboo. Again in

the Ordination Hall of Ta Tz'u Temple of

Ch'?ng Tu there was a wall-painting of ink

bamboo by Chang Li.19 Since Sun and Chang were both men of the late T'ang Dynasty and

there were these ink bamboo paintings in Szechuan (those at Ta Tz'u Temple), then

painting of this kind could not have been

started by Yuan Ai or Lady Li/ Huang Shan-ku

said,20 'Ink Bamboo started in recent times but

we cannot trace the beginnings. At first Wu

Tao-tze painted bamboo and added colour that

made it most realistic, and I imagine that the

origin of ink bamboo painting is closely related to this (work of Wu Tao-tze).' This remark

must have some basis and I presume to take his

(Huang Shan-ku's) word as conclusive/'21

From the above, it will be seen that Li K'an,

who was but three centuries removed from

T'ang times, put little faith in the story that ink

bamboo painting began by the window tracings of Lady Li. He follows, rather, the theory that

it began from the coloured outline bamboo of

Wu Tao-tze.

There are, in the writer's knowledge, no sur

viving bamboo paintings by any of the leading or minor painters of the T'ang Dynasty. How

ever, it is evident that by at least the first quarter of the Sixth Century Chinese artists were ad

vanced in the differentiation of a wide variety

of trees. In the designs of engraved stones from

the early Sixth Century one can immediately recognize the pine, willow, ginko, banana and

other distinct kinds of trees.22 The banners of

Tun Huang bear witness that by the Tenth

Century bamboo trees were introduced into the

background of religious paintings for icono

graphie reasons.23 One of the most interesting is the Kuan Yin banner recovered from Tun

Huang and now preserved in the Mus?e Guimet

(no. 17775). Although the stalks are painted in outline, in the old manner, with the hoods

of the leaves still adhering, the leaves them

selves are executed purely in ink. The picture is rough and provincial, but it is almost purely

Chinese in design and the bamboos must reflect

a manner of painting prevalent in the Chinese

capital, perhaps some decades earlier.

Bearing in mind the scanty historical mate

rial available and the almost complete lack of

early works that might serve as a guide, we sug

gest the following as a logical development of bamboo painting. The plant first appears as a

graceful and natural element of the background of religious icons and figure paintings, also in

such themes as bird and flower paintings. It is

evident from the account of Li K'an that by the

time of the Huang family, bamboo, probably painted in outline and coloured, was

playing a more and more dominant role. Under the

hand of an artist like Li P'o, early Tenth Cen

tury, bamboo must have taken its place as an

established theme and the paintings been dis

tinguished by a considerably higher quality than earlier efforts.

Paintings of bamboo in ink alone had become so popular by the time of the Sung Dynasty that

the subject formed a special branch of pictorial

art. Among the ten classifications of paintings in the catalogue of Sung Hui Tsung, the Hsiian

Ho Hua Fu prepared in A.D. 1120, pictures of bamboo in ink formed a separate category.24

The Sung catalogue provides no special place for outline bamboo or coloured pictures of the

50



subject. Curiously enough, Li P'o who was cele

brated for his painting in outline and colour,

heads the list of ink bamboo in the Sung cata

logue. It is not possible at this distance of time

to say that Li P'o did not paint bamboos in ink, and most likely he did; but it also seems plausi ble that he is listed among the ink painters be cause there was no

special classification for

outline bamboo and Li P'o was far too cele

brated as a painter of this plant alone to be

placed in a more general category, such as the

painters of fruits and vegetables or birds and

flowers. From the classification of the Hui

Tsung catalogue alone it is possible to surmise

that by the first quarter of the Twelfth Century bamboo painting in ink had won over the old

manner of outline painting. The name W?n T'ung stands above all others

in the time of the Northern Sung Dynasty as a

painter of ink bamboo. Just as the Eleventh

Century saw the flourishing of the giants of the

classic landscape style, so W?n T'ung stands for

later generations as the greatest of the old

masters in ink bamboo. He was active around

1049 and died in 1079 and lived, then, in the time of such distinguished men as Su Shih, Mi

Fei and Huang T'ing-chien.

Among paintings attributed to W?n T'ung that have survived into our own time, none can

lay better claim to the style, and possibly the actual hand of the master, than that preserved in the Palace Museum, Peiping, reproduced in

our Plate I, a.25 In this hanging scroll, painted in ink on silk, there is one powerful stem of

bamboo that descends from the upper left cor

ner to the lower right in a bold and sweeping "S" curve. More than one stalk of the plant is

generally used in a composition of bamboo, the

two or more mutually aiding one another in

any satisfactory arrangement. It is, of course,

more difficult to achieve a good composition with one stalk than if the artist chooses to in

clude a number of branches with the resulting

multiplication of possible variations and com

binations. It is to be noted especially that in

the W?n T'ung painting there is a definite curv

ature in the individual segments, particularly noticeable in the second, third and fourth seg

ments of the branch as it sweeps downward and

across the field. This bending of the segments in a

convincing manner is no easy task and in

the hands of a minor painter it is all too likely that such a device will appear weak, artificial

and studied. Segments curved in this way are so

dangerous to a successful outcome that in the

best book on bamboo painting written in the

Ming Dynasty26 they are condemned as a fault

and rightly so. Rules of this kind are advanced

for the protection of the mediocre painter and

to be broken by the masters of the craft.

Mi Fei, in his Hua Shih27, has remarked that: "Dark ink for the top (of the bamboo leaf) and

light ink for the underside ? this started with Yu K'o (W?n T'ung)/' It cannot be determined whether this method of distinguishing the top from the underside of the leaf really was orig inated by W?n T'ung. Nevertheless, in the

Palace Museum painting there is a distinct vari

ation of ink tone in the leaves. It is a question

whether the top and underside of the leaves are

really distinguished in this way because the artist may have used a lighter ink only to indi cate the younger leaves.

In the expressive and powerful quality of this picture, it is the brush stroke of the artist that is the main factor. Chinese criticism uses

the term hsien li28 to describe the sharpness of

brush work that results in leaves such as these.

This sharpness is accomplished by a chung

f?ng29 stroke; that is, a brush stroke in which the

point of the brush holds the middle of the stroke from the beginning to end. It so

happens that

this kind of brush stroke is equally important in calligraphy

? a basic factor in the relation

ship between writing and bamboo painting which became a closer and closer union from

the Yuan Dynasty onward. The Chinese point of view holds that the brush work is the most

51



important single element in an ink bamboo

painting, overshadowing both composition and ink tonality.

The brush work of this picture is admirable in every respect; but if we examine it as a natu

ralistic picture of the plant, almost as a botanist

might, it is at once evident that the artist's skill

as a painter

was linked with the keenest power of observation. Each leaf and stem is not only a masterful brush stroke but represents an in

tegral and functional part of the plant in the course of its growth. In some parts of the pic ture the leaves are densely grouped but are not

piled up in a careless manner obliterating one

another; every brush stroke is calculated to

serve as an organic part of the whole and not as

a space filler for the purpose of varying the

sparse and dense areas of the composition. We

are reminded of a passage by the Ch'ing Dynasty critic, Chang K?ng, (1685-1760), who writes in

his book, Kuo Ch(ao Hua Ch?ng Lu (Factual Records of Painters in the Present Dynasty) that: "I have seen an ink bamboo painting by

Mei Tao-j?n (Wu Ch?n). The leaves are all in

groups of four or five, some are overlapping, some are scattered, and some are dense. In this

way he achieved variety. Only at the base and

the protruding tips of the branches are there,

in places, one or two brush strokes to obtain

the proper effect; there are never empty dots

and flips of the brush, made to fill in. And again, I saw Hsia Chung-chao's (Hsia Ch'ang) paint

ing which was relaxed in the extreme, graceful and easy. He too had no dots and brush flips to

fill the space. Therefore when I consider mod

ern painters who talk so cleverly about 'singles/

'split in two/ 'three united/ 'five gathered/ leaves like the character fen duplicated/ leaves

like multiplications of the character ko/ and

then use a lot of delicate and empty brush

strokes to tie it all together ? I think how con

ventional they are! In trying to avoid evenness,

they don't realize they fall into the error of frag mentation. Ink bamboo developed from outline

bamboo. The outline bamboo of T'ang and

Sung had long leaves which overlap one another

without delicate bits that serve only to fill in.

From this I conclude that the use of empty strokes in dots and flips is a great error of bam

boo painting in ink."30

A composition of bamboo can be either sparse or dense. The essential point in paintings like

W?n T'ung's is that if there are few leaves and

stems still the arrangement must seem ade

quate; if the composition is dense then every element must be functional, not simply

a care

less filling of the area with unnecessary brush work. If we accept the judgment of Chang

K?ng as a measure for bamboo painting, then it

will be found that even pictures by celebrated

artists frequently exhibit the failing of empty brush strokes. This may be clearly seen in the

paintings of Yao Shou31 and in the work of the well-known Seventeenth Century artist, Chu

Sh?ng, Plate I, b.32 In the latter, there are nu

merous empty strokes throughout the entire

painting. In some of Yao Shou's pictures he has

obtained variety and unevenness but, as Chang

K?ng would say, by the use of empty strokes and at the expense of clarity. Chu Sh?ng, on the

other hand, has produced a work inferior to Yao

Shou because he has not only loaded his picture with brush work that does no more than fill in

space, but he has done this so consistently

throughout the picture that he has lost all

variety and obtained only an uninteresting

uniformity. The name of Su Shih (Su Tung-p'o)33 is so

celebrated as a painter of bamboo in the North

ern Sung Dynasty that we cannot neglect him

although it is no longer possible to find a pic ture that can be attributed to his brush with

certainty. It may be that his fame as a bamboo

painter has somewhat increased because of his

beautiful poetry, his writings on aesthetics, his

excellent calligraphy and his great friendship with W?n T'ung. The painting most frequently reproduced with an attribution to Su Tung-p'o

52



is the hanging scroll that bears one character of his signature and one seal, Plate II, a.34 The

painting, however, seems lacking in vitality and

vigor of conception. The small stalk to the left of the large one is the weakest element in the

painting, failing as it does to form a significant element and lacking connection with the main

stalk. The group of leaves in the center and

just above the inscription in the lower left, is an

especially messy bit of painting with meaning less and haphazard strokes. The most generous

thing that can be said about this painting in connection with the name of Su Tung-p'o is

that after all bamboo painting was a secondary

hobby with Su and it is unjust to compare him with W?n T'ung in this field. Li K'an, too, has remarked that: "Even so

outstanding a genius

as P'o-kung (Su Tung-p'o) must all his life face him (W?n T'ung) from the south"?mean

ing Su Tung-p'o must acknowledge Wen's supe

riority as a painter of bamboo.35

Su Tung-p'o himself fully realized that appli cation and concentration are necessary to suc

cess in this field and wrote: "To paint the

bamboo, one must have it in its entirety within

one. Grasp the brush, look intently (at the

paper) then visualize what you are going to

paint. Follow your vision quickly, lift your brush and pursue directly that which you see, as a falcon dives on the springing hare ? the

least slackening and it will escape you. Yu-k'o

(W?n T'ung) taught me this but I couldn't do it. Yet I know by heart why it is so. When you know by heart why it is so and still you can't do it ? that is because the inner and the outer are

not one. The hand does not echo the mind. All

this comes from a lack of application."36 As to the authenticity of this picture attrib

uted to Su Shih, some may say that since he was

so great a genius he should paint better; others

may argue that he was but an amateur of ink

bamboo. However, if we let this picture speak for itself we can but conclude that it is a me

diocre work.

A later artist, who lived in North China under the Chin at the time of Southern Sung, was Wan T'ing-y?n whose dates are 1152-1202.

His son, Wang Man-ch'ing, was also a bamboo

painter and Li K'an first studied his style before he knew the paintings of W?n T'sung who then became his master. There is a famous painting

by Wang T'ing-y?n called Secluded Bamboo and a Dry Tree, formerly in the possession of the great Seventeenth Century collector, Liang

Ch'ing-piao, then in the Ch'ing Imperial Col lection and now in Japan, Plate III, a.37 The

tree is excellent, the gnarled bark is painted in a masterful way with long, sure brush strokes.

The vine and moss are done in an elegant, an

cient manner that seldom can be found even

in the best paintings of the Yuan Dynasty. The brush work in the bamboo is very good with

forceful, sharp strokes in contrast to the softer

brush work of the tree. Nevertheless, the bam

boo here falls short of the clarity of W?n T'ung's work and is inferior.

In summary, ink bamboo painting had at

tained a popularity during the Sung Dynasty that raised it to a position of a special subject division. The period produced men like W?n

T'ung who, in this field, were unsurpassed in

later generations. By the end of the Sung pe riod, ink bamboo painting had come to full

maturity. In the following Yuan Dynasty, during the

late Thirteenth and early Fourteenth Century, ink bamboo reached the climax of its develop

ment. Among biographies of Yuan Dynasty painters in the T'u Hut Pao Chien by Hsia

W?n-yen, more than fifty are described as

painters of bamboo, nor does this number in

clude such artists as Chao M?ng-fu who also

painted bamboo among other subjects. The greatest bamboo painter of this age was

Li K'an.38 Although there is a painting of pine trees in the Palace Museum attributed to him,

it is evident from the names of paintings listed in old catalogues that by far the majority of his

53



pictures were of bamboo. From Li K'an's writ

ings on the subject, we may judge that he made

a serious and thorough study of the work of

earlier masters famous in this field. Also he

traveled extensively throughout south China

and Annam making botanical studies of the various species of bamboo. He first founded his

painting style on Wang Man-ch'ing; then he

tried to determine the manner of the latter's

father, Wang T'ing-y?n, but later he abandoned

all others to concentrate upon the style of W?n

T'ung. In outline bamboo he followed Li P'o.

Today, paintings by Li K'an have become

extremely rare. One of the most important ex

amples bearing his name is a scroll recently ac

quired by the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas

City, Plate III, b.39 The painting has belonged to such well-known bamboo painters

as Ku An

and Chang H?ng of the Yuan Dynasty, and Sung Lo of the Ch'ing Dynasty, while Chao M?ng-fu has written a

colophon on the scroll.

The main theme of the painting is two

clumps of bamboo. The artist has exercised

care in representing two different species of

plants. That on the right has straight leaves

while the clump on the left has leaves that bend and twist; also the nodules at the junction of the

segments are treated differently, those on the

left clump being surrounded by a ring of knobs.

Many carefully drawn paintings in colour show

a similar attention to the botanical nature of

plants, but this is rarely the case in ink paint

ings. The reason is that the ease and spontaneity

necessary for a good ink painting almost pre clude the possibility of careful attention to de

tails of species and laws of growth. The natural

elements of ink paintings are almost always

generalized and reduced to types. The stalk of

bamboo at the extreme left of Li K'an's paint

ing is treated in this general manner like the

pictures of Ku An, Hsia Ch'ang40 and many

others. The two main clumps in Li K'an's pic ture have the quality of portraits. But the im

portant point is that the execution is entirely

free from the restraint and studied drawing that one might well expect. The stalks, stems

and leaves are brushed in with the utmost ease

and spontaneity, almost carelessly ? indeed the

artist was a master of his craft. Few artists be

fore or after Li K'an knew their subject so inti

mately and very few have possessed a technique

that would permit such effortless and direct

expression. To paraphrase Su Shih, the inner

and outer are really one. Li K'an, like W?n

T'ung, had clarity of vision and so his bamboo

is functional and free from empty brush work.

To the beauty of his brush strokes, Li K'an has

been able to add the beauty of perfect lucidity. The composition of this scroll also reveals the

genius of Li K'an. Although one clump is larger and light in tone, the other smaller and dark,

still they form almost identical lozenge shapes. This similarity of the masses is not easily recog

nized, especially if we think of the scroll's being unrolled only a section at a time. It is evident

that Li K'an was so sure of his skill and funda

mentally direct in his approach that he felt no

need for a striking, obvious composition.

Bamboo blown in the wind is a subject that offers the artist an

opportunity for a magnificent effect but at the same time presents considerable

technical difficulties. Two of the best paintings of this subject, preserved from Yuan times, are

those by Ku An now in the Palace Museum,

Peiping.41 Ku An was a younger contemporary of Li K'an and active in the first half of the fourteenth Century. Like Li K'an, he special ized in ink bamboo painting. The painting here

reproduced, Plate II, b, shows three tall stalks

and a number of small ones blown in a strong wind. Considering Ku An's painting from a

purely technical point of view, it has several

features that relate to the writings of Li K'an

and Kao Sung on methods of bamboo painting. Li K'an illustrated his manual with a number

of model sketches, among them some of bamboo

in the wind. These illustrations have come

down to us in wood-block reproductions made

54



s??n

i * 4

, . - . mm

a. W?n T'ung. Palace Museum, Peiping

,*^ ..-.H*

^iti^^jf w'

6. C/iw Sh?ng. Collection Mr. Ch'?n Han-ti

PLATE I



a. Su Shih. Private collection, China

b. Ku An. Palace Museum, Peiping

PLATE II

c. K'o Chiu-ssu. Palace Museum, Peiping



%W^'fI^mm

a. Wang T'ing-y?n. Private collection, Japan

b. Li K'an. Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City

^*&? ?..?Jf?-*51it pari tsSf?Nfe !f & *;* i

T??'. -1'- ^ '2'**" a; \ ?JiW?

f. Wu Ch?n. Private collection, China

PLATE III

** A"



a. Leaves in the form i-ch'uan b. Leaves in the form f?n-tze

c. Bamboo in the wind

PLATE IV. Plates from Kao Sung's Chu P'u



3 ?sS ^: - ": : JN " *!

' *7

?. #'o Chiu-ssu. Palace Museum, Peiping b. Chao M?ng-fu. Palace Museum, Peiping c. Wu Ch?n. Private collection

PLATE V



Ni Tsan. Palace Museum, Peiping

PLATE VI



from Ming copies that probably have modified

the originals to a considerable extent. As time

went on, it was the tendency for the rules of

painting to become more detailed, analytical and academic. The best work of the Ming Dy nasty on bamboo painting is Kao Sung's work,

the Chu Fu or Treatise on Bamboo/2 in which

the author drew heavily upon the book by Li

K'an. As might be expected, Kao Sung's work

is far more analytical than the earlier work. It

is evident that Kao Sung carefully studied the

works of earlier painters, such as the bamboo in

the wind by Ku An, and attempted to derive

from them some simple rules of procedure for

students.

Kao Sung points out two basic conditions of

bamboo leaves in wind, the two which are the

most obvious. First are the leaves that bend

against the wind (ting f?ng), and second the

leaves that stream out with the wind (sh?n

f?ng). Of course, it is to be understood that the

leaves may whip about and change constantly. The plates here reproduced from Kao Sung's book may serve to illustrate his point. In Plate

IV, a, the leaves are in groups of four, three bent

down and one up; this is called i-ch'ilan. In

Plate IV, b, four leaves are arranged like the

Chinese character fen; this is called f?n-tze. In

Plate IV, c, these two types of leaves are com

bined and rotated slightly counter-clock-wise.

The f?n-tze leaves are on the left, bending

against the wind, while the i-ch'iian leaves are

on the right side, straightening out with the

wind.

Turning now to Ku An's painting, it may be

seen that the leaves are, in general, of the two

kinds described by Kao Sung. While the latter's illustrations are rather stereotyped and designed to demonstrate a point to students, Ku An has,

of course, enjoyed complete freedom from rules.

The technical skill of this artist is especially ap

parent in those areas where the leaves change

position or are in transition from a bending to

a flowing state.

In both the Palace Museum paintings of bam

boo in wind by Ku An, the theme is handled

with perfect ease. Judging from the quality of

these paintings plus the fact that almost all re

corded paintings by Ku An are of bamboo, it

may be concluded that he comes next to Li K'an

among the Yuan Dynasty artists who specialized in this subject and belong in the tradition of

W?n T'ung. An excellent example of Ku An's

painting has recently been acquired by the Art

Museum of Cincinnati.

More famous as a painter than Ku An, but

probably less of a specialist in bamboo, was K'o

Chiu-ssu, also active in the first half of the Four

teenth Century. K'o Chiu-ssu, in addition to

being a noted calligrapher and painter of land

scapes, flowers and bamboo, was also the greatest

critic of his time and was charged with the

supervision of the Imperial Collection. He com

piled for students a series of model bamboo

paintings that exists today in two versions, one

of them probably a forgery.43 There are two

hanging scrolls in the Palace Museum that bear

the artist's name.44 These two pictures, Plate

II, c and Plate V, a, are of unequal merit. The

one, Plate II, c, which combines bamboo with

rock, chrysanthemum and a thorn is certainly the better. The composition is well balanced

but not obvious or stiff; the brush work is sharp,

simple and sure, while the light and dark tonali

ties are well distributed. The painting is simple but perfectly adequate. The other picture bear

ing his name, Plate V, a, is a markedly inferior

work. The brush work is especially disappoint ing. It is probable that the painter used con

siderable pressure with a soft brush. The tip of the brush has not followed down the center

of the stroke in many places and has broken out

or slipped at the side. The strokes for the short

grass are monotonous and lack the sense of tensil

spring possessed by the grasses in the other pic ture. The composition, taken as a whole, is

passable, but if the largest central stalk is con

sidered by itself, it seems broomlike and the

55



almost even proportion between the leafless

lower part and the leafy top is bad. Kung Hsien45 has remarked that all trees in a

clump should look like trees when considered individ

ually and each be satisfactory in itself, a remark

certainly applicable to bamboo. If both of these

paintings are the work of K'o Chiu-ssu, then we

can only conclude that he was a most uneven

artist.

The foregoing discussion of W?n T'ung and Li K'an may have left the reader with the im

pression that the only criterion for good bam

boo painting is that it be botanically correct and functional in all its parts. This is by no means

the case and there are other kinds of bamboo

paintings to which such a standard of judgment does not apply.

A good example of this kind of picture is that

by Chao M?ng-fu46 of rocks, trees and bamboo, now in the Palace Museum, Plate V, b.47 The

artist may have painted other pictures of bam

boo in a more traditional style, but this example is of a different kind. There is a sort of brush stroke much favored by Chao M?ng-fu, the fei

pai, or "flying white," made by swift strokes

with a dry brush in such a way that the brush hairs separate leaving unpainted areas within

the stroke, as may be seen in the outline of the

rock and the trunk of the tree. This kind of brush has been taken over directly from callig

raphy. In this painting it is the impression of the bamboo that is correct though the arrange

ment of leaves and branches is not susceptible to logical analysis. The bamboo holds its proper

place in the composition and has all the quali ties of a living plant. The bamboo leaves, the rock and the trees are all done with brush

strokes that are essentially calligraphic. Chao

M?ng-fu has himself remarked that he who

paints bamboo realizes its close relation to the

art of writing.48 It is generally accepted in Chinese critical

circles that the four greatest painters of the

Yuan Dynasty were Huang Kung-wang, Wang

M?ng, Wu Ch?n and Ni Tsan. Of these, Wu Ch?n was the most prolific painter of bam

boos.49 Two rather different styles seem to be

represented in the surviving works attributed

to this artist. One shows a marked influence o?

the W?n T'ung manner and traditional style as

practiced by such men as Li K'an and Ku An.

The other and possibly later style of Wu Ch?n, showTs a break with the so-called orthodox school

and in its place a more free, loose style, personal

and impressionistic. The portion of a scroll,

Plate III, c,50 illustrates the more traditional

method of the artist. All the brush strokes of the leaves have the brush tip following through the length of the stroke and the leaves are ar

ranged with care to show their relation to the

branches, while the units of the leaf-clumps are clearly defined. All this is changed in the

composition of bamboos and rocks, Plate V, c.51

There is a wide variation in the ink tones and

the execution has been so free and swift that in

several places the wet ink has run. The juxta

position of large and small leaves is done with

out regard to their natural relationship; the

branches are light and sketchy. It is evident that the artist has sought to create an immediate

effect and over-all impression rather than a pic

ture that gives satisfaction through a contempla

tion of organized, lucid parts. We have already mentioned the harm of

empty brush strokes, but the fault does not ap

ply in the case of pictures of this kind. Empty strokes are bad when the artist is seeking an

accurate representation but his visual image is

not clear; empty brush plays an

important role

when it is the artist's object to create such an

immediate effect and general impression. Chu Sh?ng, for example, Plate I, b, uses

empty brush strokes badly because his paintings aim at a natural representation. In Wu Chen's

picture, the rich variety of strokes does not rep resent leaves following the laws of natural

growth; rather, they are a care-free, spontaneous

expression of a mood and the artist probably

56



had little regard for the actual success or failure

of his painting. Wu Ch?n here has completely abandoned traditional representation and his

performance is just as valid, within its kind, as

bamboo paintings that follow in the steps of

W?n T'ung. There is, of course, a tendency for

paintings of this kind to look less and less like

bamboo, as we shall see in the case of Ni Tsan.

Among the four greatest artists of the Yuan

period, Ni Tsan is the most typical of the lite

rary man's style (wen jen).52 His greatest paint

ings are certainly his landscapes, but we can

only mention here his bamboo which is gener

ally combined with rocks and trees or appears as a part of his reserved and simple landscapes. In Ni Tsan there is no attempt to paint

a like

ness or follow in any way the old traditional

style. A very interesting passage in the collected works of Ni Tsan clarifies the artist's own idea

of his bamboo pictures. He writes, "I Chung

always likes my bamboo paintings. My bamboo is painted just to serve as an outlet for the in

spiration in my breast. Why should I bother to

compare whether it is like (bamboo) or not, whether the leaves are dense or sparse, the

branches bent or straight. At times I smear

about for a long while and when someone sees

my picture he may call it hemp or he may call it reeds. I certainly couldn't argue to convince

him it is bamboo! Really I can't help it."53

Ni Tsan's own description is certainly borne out by the painting in the Palace Museum, Plate

VI.54 The bamboo could well be water-reeds.

The leaves are made with a worn-out brush

that has lost its point, and the stalks are treated

in a most cursory fashion. Nevertheless, the pic ture has the aristocratic and austere air that has

won Ni Tsan a place among the greatest of

China's painters. It is full of the character of a

man removed from the market place and was

painted for his own satisfaction.

This is not the place to discuss in detail the art of the literary painter. But it may be said the union of writing and painting that became so close in Yuan times developed into a school that has produced some of the best, and also

some of the worst, Chinese paintings. The out

come has always depended upon the genius of

the man and the vitality of his epoch. The pres ent writer holds the view, however, that in a

broad judgment of the whole field of Chinese ink bamboo painting, those artists should oc

cupy the highest place who could combine free, direct and vigorous brush work with perfect clarity of conception

? and this is the class of

W?n T'ung and Li K'an after him.

In concluding, I wish to express my apprecia tion to Laurence Sickman of the Nelson Gallery of Art for his helpful suggestions and assistance in compiling this article.

57

NOTES 1. A. Waley, An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Painting

(London: Ernest Benn, 1923), pp. 128-183. O. Sir?n, A History of Early Chinese Painting (London: Medici Society), vol. II, pp. 36-37, 146 ff.

2. Hsiao Yuen: a famous bamboo painter of the T'ang Dynasty. He presented a bamboo painting to the great poet Po Ch?-i

(A. D. 772-846) who in turn gave Hsiao a poem that began: "Of all the plants, the bamboo is the most difficult to paint. Although painted by ancients and moderns, yet no one can

grasp its likeness

Only Mr. Hsiao can paint its real appearance, Since the beginning of the painter's art, he is the only

one. . ."

Po Ch?-i, Ch'ang ChHng Chi.

3. Li K'an: his tie was Chung-pin and his hao Hsi-chai; his time was circa 1245-1320. His famous work on bamboo is called the Chu Fu Hsiang Lu, or Comprehensive Record of

Bamboo. There are seven chuan of which the first two are devoted to an account of bamboo painting and the last five

to a botanical study of bamboo plants. The edition here used for reference is the Chih Pu Tsu Chat Ts'ung Shu,

compiled by Pao T'ing-po in 1775. According to Pao 's account this text is from a Ming Dynasty edition of the

Ch'?ng Hua era (A. D. 1465-1487). The Chu Fu Hsiang Lu has been excellently translated and the reader is recom

mended to:

Ernst Aschwin, Prince zur Lippe-Biesterfeld, Li K'an und seine "Ausf?hrliche Beschreibung des Bambus/* Beitr?ge zur

Bambusmalerei der Y?an-zeit (Berlin: Verlag von Walter de

Gruyter, 1942). In addition to the translation, the author gives a good ac count of Yuan Dynasty bamboo painters and appends a valu able glossary of terms.

4. Wang Yu-ch'?ng: Wang Wei, painter and poet, A. D. 701-761. 5. Hsiao Hsieh-lu: Hsiao Yuen, bamboo painter, contemporary

of Po Ch?-i (A. D. 772-846). 6. M?ng Hsiu: a monk of Ssuch'uan, painter active A. D. 874?

888.

7. Li P'o: painter from Nan Ch'ang, noted for bamboo paint



ings in outline. Active during the Five Dynasties (A. D. 907

923). 8. Huang Ch'uan: painter from Ssuch'uan, active 907-923. He

had five sons, two of whom were noted as painters, Huang

Ch?-pao and Huang Ch?-ts'ai.

9. Ts'ui Po: painter who, together with his brother, Ts'ui Chio, was especially noted as a painter of birds and flowers; active

around A.D. 1069-1077.

10. Wu Y?an-y?: bird and flower painter of the Imperial Sung

Academy, active in the second half of the Eleventh Century. 11. Huang T'ai-shih: T'ai shih is the official title of Huang

T'ing-chien (A. D. 1050-1110), a literary man, poet and

calligraphier, contemporary of Su Tung-p'o. 12. Wu Tao-tze; one of the most famous painters of China, circa

A. D. 700-760.

13. Hua Fing: probably the full title of this work is Sheng Ch'ou

Ming Hua Fing, written by Liu Tao-sh?n, active around

A. D. 1225.

14. Yuan Ai: painter especially noted for portraits, active about

A. D. 977-984.

15. T'ang Hsi-ya: painter and calligrapher, active during the Five

Dynasties (A. D. 907-923). 16. Tung Yii: painter especially noted for dragons, became a

member of the painting academy about A. D. 977.

17. Kuang Hua Chi: a work on painting. This may be the same

as the book Kuang Hua Hsin Chi written by the monk J?n Hsien. This book no longer exists but it is mentioned by Kuo Jo-hs? in his T'u Hua Chien Wen Chih.

18. Sun Wei: painter especially noted for depicting water, active

around A. D. 886.

19. Chang Li: nothing is known about this painter save what

appears in Li K'an's work.

20. Huang Shan-ku: see note 11.

21. Li K'an, Chu Fu Hsiang Lu; Chih Pu Tsu Chai Ts'ung Shu, I, p.la.

- 4b.

22. The so-called "Sarcophagus of Filial Piety" of about A. D.

525; Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Mo. Reproduced in W. Cohn, Chinese Paintings (London: Phaidon, 1948), plate

IV and place II, c. One of the earliest representations of bamboo is on the Seventh Century Korean shrine known as

Tamamushi-no-zushi, preserved in Horiuji, Nara, Japan. 23. Avalokite?vara, Ch. liv. 006, in A. Stein, Thousand Buddhas

(London: Quaritch, 1921), PI. XXII, dated in accordance with A. D. 910. Also, Avalokite?vara, 10th Cent., Ch. i. 009, Ibid., PI. XXIV.

24. The ten classifications by subject of the Hsilan Ho Hua Fu are: 1. Taoist and Buddhist, 2. Figures, 3. Architecture

(temples and palaces in landscape), 4. Foreign Tribes, 5.

Dragons and Fish, 6. Landscape, 7. Animals, 8. Flowers and

Birds, 9. Ink Bamboo, 10. Vegetables and Fruit.

25. W?n T'ung: Ink Bamboo, Palace Museum of Peiping. Size: 4 ft. 1 in. x 3 ft. 3 in.

26. Kao Sung, Chu Fu, wood-block edition, undated, probably printed during the Ming Chia Ching era in the first half of the Sixteenth Century. The most complete copy known to the writer belongs to Dr. Walter Fuchs. There are a few loose pages in a Japanese collection. This book by Kao Sung is the best work on bamboo painting after Li K'an, on whose

work Kao Sung drew heavily. Some of the later treatises on bamboo painting are based in part or almost entirely on this rare Ming Dynasty edition of Kao Sung's book.

27. Mi Fei, Hua Shih, edition Wang Shih Hua Yuan, p. 16a.

30. Chang K?ng, Kuo Ch'ao Hua Ch?ng Lu, edition early Ch'ien

Lung, chuan 1, p. 5b.

31. Yao Shou: An artist active around A. D. 1450-1460.

32. Chu Sheng, Ink Bamboo, two panels reproduced from a set of

six in the collection of Mr. Ch'?n Han-ti. Here reproduced from the Ming Jen Hsieh Chu (Shanghai: Commercial Press,

1930). The dates of Chu Sheng are frequently confused and

he is sometimes listed as an 18th century artist. He was born

in 1617 and when an old man he prepared the orchid and

bamboo plates that were later cut on wood-blocks for the

second part of the Chieh Tze Yuan Hua Fu (Mustard Seed

Garden) first published in A. D. 1701.

33. Su Shih: his tze was Tzu-chan and his hao Tung-p'o. A cele

brated poet, calligrapher and painter. Born A. D. 1036; died

1101.

34. Su Shih, Ink Bamboo, in a private Chinese collection.

35. See note 21.

36. Su Shih, Tung Fo Ch'uan Chi Cheng Chi, edition Ssu Pu

Pei Yao, Chung Hua Press, Shanghai, chiian 32, p. 9b.

37. Wang T'ing-y?n, Secluded Bamboo and Old Tree, private collection, Japan.

38. See note 3.

39. Li K'an, Ink Bamboo; ink on paper, 7 ft. 9 in. long x 14% inches wide. Nelson Gallery of Art, 48.16.

40. Hsia Ch'ang: his tze was Chung-chao, his hao Yu-feng. Born

A. D. 1388, died 1470. Became a chin-shih in A. D. 1415.

Hsia Ch'ang was the greatest bamboo painter of the Ming

Dynasty. He followed the traditional manner of W?n T'ung and Li K'an. It may be said that he was the last of the

great masters of bamboo painting. Good examples of his

work are reproduced in Ku Kung Shu Hua Chi, vol. XIV, 8 and vol. IV, 11.

41. Ku An: his tze was Ting-chih; active in the first half of the

fourteenth century. The Bamboo in Wind is reproduced from the Ku Kung Shu Hua Chi, vol. XXXVI, 7.

42. See note 26. The plates here reproduced are from a copy traced by the author from the Ming edition belonging to

Dr. Walter Fuchs.

43. K'o Chiu-ssu: his tze was Ching-chung, his hao Tan-ch'iu; he lived from 1312 to 1365. His book, the Chu Fu is a col

lection of model studies of bamboo. One has been repro duced in lithograph by the Yu Cheng Book Co., Shanghai, but is so poorly done that it is next to useless. Another col

lection under the name of K'o Chiu-ssu has been reproduced by collotype in Japan by the Haka-bunka-do. The quality of the reproductions is excellent but the material reproduced seems to be a forgery.

44. K'o Chiu-ssu, Bamboo, reproduced from the Ku Kung Ming Hua Chu Chi, and the Ku Kung Shu Hua Chi, vol. Ill, 7.

45. Kung Hsien, Hua Fa Tz'?, edition published in Japan, 1922. The reference here is to the script on the third album leaf.

46. Chao M?ng-fu: his tze was Tsu-ang, his hao Sung-hsiieh. Duke of Wei. Lived from 1254 to 1322.

47. Chao M?ng-fu, Dry Woody Bamboo and Rock, here repro duced from Ku Kung Shu Hua Chi, vol. XLIII, 6.

48. Chao M?ng-fu, quoted from a poem inscribed on a painting and recorded in Y? F?ng-ch'ung, Shu Hua Ti Pa Chi, edition 1911 chiian 6, 5b.

49. Wu Ch?n: his tze was Chung-kuei, his hao Mei-tao-j?n, etc. Lived from 1280 to 1354.

50. Wu Ch?n, Bamboo, ink on silk. The scroll contains a number of separate compositions divided from one another by pas sages of calligraphy. In a private collection, China. Here

reproduced from / Lin Yiieh K'an, 1930, no. 7, p. 7. 51. Reproduced here from Shina Nangwa Taisei, vol. I, 16. 52. Ni Tsan: his tze was Y?an-chen, his hao Y?n-lin. He lived

from 1301 to 1374. 53. Ni Y?n-lin Hsien-sheng Shih-chi, Ssu pu Ts'ung-k'an, edition

Shanghai: Commercial Press. Appendix, p. 5a. 54. Ni Tsan, Small Hill, Bamboo and Trees, reproduced from

Ku Kung Shu Hua Chi, vol. XL, 5.

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Documents

Chinese Ink Bamboo Paintings