Page 180 - Beyond Compare Christie's Hong Kong RU WARE .pdf

BEYOND COMPARE: A Thousand Years of the Literati Aesthetic

Gengchen year was the 25th year of Jiaqing, the same year the current inkstone mountain
was made. The inscription stated that Hu was the maker of the piece, and he made it in the
Governor’s Residence in Yangcheng (present day Guangzhou), which would be in Ruan
Yuan’s residence.
Another inkstone mountain (fig. 3) from the collection of Tianjin Museum is decorated
with a similar theme to the Lally example, but with much deeper carving and more three-
dimensional. The inscription on this piece is worthy of note. On the base is an inscription
by Ruan Yuan:
“A rock from Duan river carved as a mountain, with lined paddy fields in its midst;
Cultivate it with brush and ink to keep for generations; pass on the baton without
lagging for an instant.
My son Fu came to visit me in Yangcheng. By chance I acquired this inkstone
mountatin at the same time, so I inscribed on it as commemoration.
The Old Librarian (Yuntai Laoren).”

At the back there is another inscription:
“Inhaling the scenery of the lake, and drinking from the mountain green
For the pure pleasure of Hu Changling in the first year of Daoguang”
Fu in the inscription is in reference to Ruan Yuan’s son Ruan Fu. He was recorded to have
visited Guangzhou in the second year of Daoguang, which would date the Ruan Yuan
inscription one year later than the Hu Changling inscription. It is therefore possible that Hu
Changling made the inkstone mountain a year earlier, before handing it to Ruan Yuan.

There are a few other pieces which are carved in the Hu Changling style, all of which
are related to the Ruan Family. One is a shallow-relief inkstone mountain (fig. 4) in the
collection of Tianjin Museum, inscribed:
“Made by the Immortal Chamber of the Heavenly Library, using a slab of Duan River rock,
in the style of the Yuan painting Fishing Boat in a Clear Stream.”
The other, also in the collection of Tianjin Mueum, is carved in shallow relief with clouds
amongst woods, and inscribed with sealmark
“for Boyuan’s (Ruan Yuan) discerning pleasure”
It is worth mentioning that all three pieces from the Tianjing Museum were collected by one
of the most avid inkstone collectors in the early Republic period, Xu Shizhang. The inkstone
mountain bearing the Hu Changling inscription was acquired by him in the winter of 1934
at great expense, and one of his favourites. He employed the legendary rubbing maker Zhou
Xiding to make rubbing of the inkstone, and left a lengthy inscription on it detailing how he
acquired it. The last known piece in the Hu Changling style is the ‘House of Hundred Singing
Plums’ inkstone mountain carved for Ruan An, illustrated in Emperor, Scholar, Artisan, Monk,
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1984, pp. 210-211, no. 74.
The Lally example, dated gengchen year of Jiaqing, is the earliest dated piece bearing the
signature of Hu Changling. This is also the same year that Zhang Xi arrived in Guangzhou,
and the same year the current green Duan inkstone mountain was made. Could it be the case
that it was Zhang Xi who, after acquiring the green Duan boulder, also made acquaintance
with Hu Changling, and asked him to carve the mountain for him? Could it also be Zhang
Xi who then introduced Hu to Ruan Yuan, thus starting a fruitful relationship between the
artist and the patron family? In any case, from the inscriptions Hu Changling left on these
pieces, he did not appear to be a regular artisan, but a learned literati. The few pieces he made
for the Ruan Family are very distinctive in style, and in keeping with the literati aesthetics.
The current inkstone mountain is not only documented in great detail, but also bears an
informative inscription. It is an important piece that sheds much light on the relationship
between Hu Changling and the Ruan Family.

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