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Plate 14.1 Anonymous, Painting of Zouyu from the Inner Palace (Mingren neifu zouyu tu 明人內府騶虞圖), Ming dynasty, c. 1404–5,
Nanjing. Handscroll, ink and colours on silk, height 51.9cm, width 125cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei

Plate 14.2 Anonymous, Painting of Zouyu (Mingren hua zouyu tu 明人畫騶虞圖), Ming dynasty, c. 1404–5. Handscroll, ink and colours on
silk, height 54cm, width 129cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei

ability to foretell good and evil. According to Huang Zuo’s 16 by Marsha Haufler in this volume). Others include Jian Yi
黃佐 (1490–1566) Hanlin ji 翰林記 (Records of Hanlin Scholars), 蹇義 (1364–1435), Lü Zhen 呂震 (1365–1426), Hu Yan 胡儼
the Prince of Zhou captured the zouyu while hunting in (1360–1443), Xie Jin 解縉 (1369–1415), Huang Huai 黃淮
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Junzhou 鈞州, his fiefdom in Henan 河南 province. The (1367–1449) and Hu Guang 胡廣 (1370–1418) – all important
record further states that officials wrote and presented odes officials of the Ming court. The poems praise the Yongle
on zouyu to the emperor. As confirmation of Heaven’s emperor and present zouyu as an auspicious sign of his rule.
approval, one month later the muddy Yellow River These paintings and colophons would have been produced
reportedly turned clear in Pucheng 蒲城 and Hejin 河津 after the Prince of Zhou’s gift, made on the eighth day of the
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counties. ninth month in 1404. The dating of the painting can be
The National Palace Museum, Taipei, has two early further narrowed down based on the title of one of the
Ming paintings depicting zouyu in its collection. One is officials: Lü Zhen identifies himself as the Chief Minister of
known as Ming Painting of Zouyu from the Inner Palace (Mingren the Court of Judicial Review (Dalisi qing 大理寺卿) in his
neifu zouyu tu 明人內府騶虞圖) (Pl. 14.1). The other is Ming colophon. This is a title that he used until the ninth month of
Painting of Zouyu (Mingren hua zouyu tu 明人畫騶虞圖) (Pl. 1405, when he changed positions. Hence the paintings
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14.2). Similar in size, composition and style, the two would have been made before this date.
paintings would have been produced around the same time,
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based on the same sketch (gaoben 稿本). They both depict a Miraculous manifestations of Zhenwu
single zouyu prowling in a landscape painted with vibrant Imperial religious activities, both Daoist and Buddhist, were
colours and outlines partially rendered in gold. The creature frequent during the Yongle reign, and were intended to
is shown with a swirling pattern on its forehead to indicate its demonstrate that the emperor was a virtuous ruler who had
curly fur. The dense canopy of pine needles and birds the protection and support of divine powers. For instance,
interspersed among flowers demonstrate fine brushwork, Preface to Saintly Filial Poem on Auspicious Responses (Shengxiao
which suggests that the paintings were most likely produced ruiying shi you xu 聖孝瑞應詩有序) records that the Yongle
by court painters. The same 27 colophons are inscribed after emperor held an audience with Daoist masters who came
the painting in both scrolls. Ming Painting of Zouyu contains from across the empire at the temple Chaotiangong 朝天宮
one additional colophon written by the official Yin (Palace in Homage to Heaven) in Nanjing during the
Xiangbao 尹向寶 (fl. early 15th century), dated the eighth eleventh month of 1406. Leading up to and on the day of the
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month of 1404. This difference between the two scrolls may emperor’s visit to the temple, a series of auspicious signs were
have been the result of later remounting. The colophons are recorded:
ordered according to the official rank of their writers, On the day of guihai, spiritual beings appeared at Shenyueguan
beginning with the monk-official and Junior Preceptor Yao (Imperial Music Office); on jiazi auspicious clouds appeared at
Guangxiao 姚廣孝 (1335–1418), also known as Daoyan 道衍, Chaotian Palace; and on yichou, sweet dew fell on trees in the
who was the Yongle emperor’s main strategist (see Chapter palace. On bingyin, when his Majesty’s carriage visited

Gifts of Good Fortune and Praise-Songs for Peace: Images of Auspicious Portents and Panegyrics from the Yongle Period | 123