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the ‘Western City Feast’ which appears in his collected during the mid-Ming dynasty, but it is not on par with the
works Dongli wenji 東里文集 (Collected Works of Yang degree of political advantage that Jiangxi officials enjoyed as
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Shiqi). But because no painter was in attendance on this expressed in the Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden of 1437.
occasion, we have no pictorial documentation of the event. If we understand the Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden
We can see, however, that the foundation for Yang Shiqi’s as an image of political power in 1437, how do we then
official power, based on a network of Jiangxi natives, had understand the presence of the painter Xie Huan? Xie Huan
been established as early as 1404 among officials who passed hailed from Zhejiang, not Jiangxi. His appearance at the
the jinshi examination in that year. Not only did this scene is intriguing. The two painters who worked on the
grouping participate in the ‘Western City Feast’, but a 1499 scroll Birthday Gathering in the Bamboo Garden, Lü
portion of them were also in attendance at the Apricot Wenying 呂文英 (1421–1505) and Lü Ji 呂紀 (b. 1477), were
Garden gathering over three decades later. These two likewise from Zhejiang. It is known that Xie Huan and Yang
gatherings both included a prominent number of Jiangxi Shiqi shared an amicable relationship; the bridge between
1404 jinshi officials. them was the Zhejiang official Huang Huai. During the
In 1402, after the Yongle emperor defeated the Jianwen years 1403 to 1414, Huang Huai occupied a similar post to
建文 emperor (r. 1399–1402) and captured Nanjing, the Yang Shiqi and other Jiangxi officials as mentor to the
structure and composition of the bureaucracy saw great imperial princes, Zhu Gaochi 朱高熾 (1378–1425) (later the
changes. A Jiangxi network gradually came to replace the Hongxi emperor) and the imperial grandson Zhu Zhanji
Zhejiang grouping of officials. During Zhu Yuanzhang’s 朱瞻基 (1398–1435) (the Xuande emperor). Huang Huai
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朱元璋 (1328–98) time, military officials were drawn mostly was also from Yongjia 永嘉 county, the same home locality
from Anhui province, while civil officials came mostly from as Xie Huan. According to research by the Wenzhou-based
Zhejiang. Initially the cultured landlords of Jiangsu were scholar Zhang Ruyuan 張如元, it was Huang Huai who
excluded from power because of their relationship to Zhang recommended Xie Huan to the court, where he achieved
Shicheng 張士誠 (1321–67), a rival of the Ming founder, but fame as a professional painter. Yang Shiqi was himself not a
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this began to change in the mid to late Ming dynasty. The jinshi holder, but rather he came to court via introductions
Zhejiang connection had Song Lian 宋濂 (1310–81) and Liu and recommendations (as was still possible in the very early
Ji 劉基 (1311–75) as its chief representatives, so that officials Ming), in the same manner as Xie Huan. The man who first
from this province were heavily affected by their fall from recommended Yang Shiqi was not, in fact, from Jiangxi. His
power. During the Jianwen reign, Song Lian’s student (and recommender Wang Shuqying 王叔英 (d. 1402) hailed from
also a Zhejiang native) Fang Xiaoru 方孝孺 (1357–1402) was Zhejiang and was a close friend of the distinguished
employed by the emperor himself, and became a symbol of Zhejiang scholar and official (and martyr in the cause of the
the spirit of civil officialdom. After 1402, with the exception Jianwen emperor) Fang Xiaoru. Importantly, this proves
of Huang Huai 黃淮 (1367–1449, from Zhejiang) and Yang that Yang Shiqi had a close relationship to the Zhejiang
Rong (from Fujian), the remaining five Grand Secretariat cohort of officials from the very beginning of his career.
officials were all from Jiangxi: Xie Jin 謝縉 (1369–1415), Huang Huai was thus an important link between the
Yang Shiqi, Jin Youzi 金幼孜 (1367–1431), Hu Yan 胡儼 Jiangxi officials and the Zhejiang painter. He maintained a
(1360–1443) and Hu Guang. In the 42 years between 1402 close relationship with the cohort of Jiangxi officials until
and 1444, the year that Yang Shiqi passed away, with the 1427, when he retired to the Zhejiang countryside in his
exception of Yang Rong’s six years as Senior Grand native Yongjia. On the eve of his departure from Beijing, the
Secretary (Shou fu 首輔), the three Jiangxi natives Xie Jin, Jiangxi officials Yang Shiqi, Zeng Qi and Wang Ying sent
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Hu Guang and Yang Shiqi successively served as Senior poems commemorating his departure, and in honour of
Grand Secretary. We could therefore say that the the blossoming lotus flowers in front of his home, another of
configuration of official power during the Yongle reign was the Jiangxi officials, Wang Zhi, composed the Preface to Poem
dominated by the Jiangxi lineage but with weaker Fujian of Auspicious Lotuses (Ruilian shi xu 瑞蓮詩序). As further
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and Zhejiang elements. testimony to the closeness of their relationship, in 1440
Beginning in the Yongle reign, the Jiangxi official Huang Huai also composed a preface for Yang Shiqi’s
network started to achieve political dominance, and at the collected writings, and when Yang Shiqi passed away in
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same time its members also asserted influence on the literary 1444, it was Huang Huai who wrote his funerary
arts with the so-called ‘cabinet style’ (taige ti 臺閣體) of poetic inscription. Not only did Huang Huai endorse Xie Huan at
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verse, which originated in the Jiangxi literary circles with court, he recommended other Zhejiang painters, Guo Chun
Yang Shiqi as its archetypal practitioner (see discussions by 郭純 (1370–1444) and Hu Zongyun 胡宗蘊, to court as
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David Robinson and Peter Ditmanson in Chapters 1 and 10 painters and calligraphers; he also recommended the
of this volume). But Jiangxi officials never took the lead in painter Chen Zongyuan 陳宗淵 (b. 1370), from Tiantai
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calligraphic or painting styles. Conversely, although 天台 county in Zhejiang, for an official post in the Hanlin
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scholar officials in the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), Academy. Guo Chun and Yang Shiqi are known to have had
such as Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101), never attained political interactions, a fact that is testified to by Yang Shiqi’s record
dominance in their day, their place at the forefront of of his visit to Guo Chun’s studio, the ‘humble hut’ (Pu zhai
literature, calligraphy and painting is recognised by 樸齋).
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posterity. A later scroll, the Gathering of Five who are Alike (Wu There is one more Zhejiang scholar official who must be
tong hui tu) dated 1503 in the Palace Museum, Beijing, reflects mentioned in this context, as previous art historians have yet
the partial dominance of officials from the Jiangsu region to discuss him – this is Jiang Ji 蔣驥 (1378–1430), a consistent

104 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450