Page 48 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022

Lotus were beloved by the literati since the Neo-Confucian scholar The depiction of the geese are also particularly interesting. Geese
Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) wrote his essay ‘On Loving Lotus’ (Ai lian descending is a theme which has strong poetic associations with
shuo). In his essay, Zhou likened the scholar-gentleman to the lotus Autumn and has been extolled by both painters and musicians alike
who ‘remains pure despite growing from the mud’ (‘出淤泥而不染’). in the well-known song for the guqin ‘Wild Geese Descending on the
In the context of venal late Ming Court politics of the Chongzhen era Sandbank’ (平沙落雁). This theme attained renown within Chinese
when the present lot was made, the pure lotus that rises from the mud literary and artistic circles during the Song period and continued from
would have resonated strongly with scholar-officials and encapsulated then on. See also for example, a painting of geese descending by Bian
a hopeful attitude. Shoumin (1683-1752), in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
(acc.no.90.513). the painting ‘Wild Geese and Hibiscus’ by Bian
Wenjin (ca.1356-1428), in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by
Hou-mei Sung, Decoded Messages: The Symbolic Language of
Chinese Animal Painting, New Haven, 2009, p.68. The painting
(though with five birds) shows wild geese on a river shore in the four
aspects of flying, calling, sleeping and eating, a traditional grouping.
Geese over time had many different meanings from orderliness in
flight, to their ability to come and go as they pleased, to their apparent
busyness and friendship. During the Yuan dynasty, wild geese appear
to have symbolised the self-enforced leisure and freedom of retired
Han Chinese scholars, indignant at their treatment under Mongolian
rule. It could be perhaps, that Han Chinese scholars felt the same with
impending foreign Manchu rule. It is likely that the present’s lot design
was based on the woodblock printed book Tuhui zongyi (圖繪宗彝),
juan 8, which also shows geese descending, and was published in
1607.

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