Page 29 - Sotheby's Part II Collection of Sir Joeseph Hotung Collection CHINESE ART , Oct. 9, 2022

SPIRITUAL FREEDOM

IN THE YUAN DYNASTY

REGINA KRAHL

‘The Pleasures of Fishes’ is the title of a handscroll painting by For the literati-officials loyalist to the deposed Song dynasty, this
Zhou Dongqing, a ‘fish painter’ active in the Yuan dynasty, almost sentiment must have evoked bitter-sweet associations with their own
six meters long, dated in accordance with 1291, and today in the freedom from the constraints of a government position, under the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Stephen Little with Shawn Mongol-ruled dynasty.
Eichman, Taoism and the Arts of China, Art Institute of Chicago,
Chicago, IL, 2000, no. 7) (fig. 1). Zhou was a native of Jiangxi and Fish paintings were always associated with a famous passage in the
his paintings were most likely well known to the porcelain painters of book Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou (c. 369-286 BC), Daoism’s leading
Jingdezhen. proponent, and a colophon on Zhou’s painting ‘The pleasures of
fishes’ explicitly refers to it. It relates a discussion between Zhuangzi
Ink paintings with naturalistic scenes featuring fishes are recorded and the Confucian Huizi about the pleasures of fishes. While
in China since the 3rd century and were a recognized genre of ink Zhuangzi claims that freely darting about as they please, is what fish
painting at the Song dynasty (960-1279) imperial painting academy. really enjoy, Huizi counters that Zhuangzi, not being a fish, cannot
The precise observation of different varieties of fish and their know what fish enjoy. The exchange ends with Zhuangzi, guided
movements under water was considered particularly challenging by Daoist intuition, winning the argument over the Confucian, who
since observation from nature is difficult, and represented the kind employs formalist reasoning.
of technical mastery that was admired at court. Liu Cai (active c.
1080-1120) was a court painter, who specialized in paintings of fishes Fish among water plants represent one of the most powerful designs
already in the late Northern Song, and in the Southern Song dynasty, of Yuan blue-and-white porcelain. The porcelain painter responsible
Emperor Lizong (r. 1224-64) invited another fish painter, Fan Anren, for the scene on the present jar admirably rendered the serene state
a native of Zhejiang, to paint for the court. of the four fat fishes, grouped in pairs, silently floating through water
plants, seemingly at total ease in their surroundings. Even without
Fish paintings were, however, not just stupendous exercises of the the historic philosophical reading of this motif, the scene emanates
brush; among China’s literati they were also revered because they an air of peace and contentment, transferring the viewer to the idyllic
carried a deeper meaning. The genre was held in great esteem for scenery of a lake in the Jiangnan region of south-eastern China,
its Daoist association, with fish being considered the manifestation whose still surface is covered with large green lotus leaves and their
of spiritual freedom, one of the eternal ideals of China’s intellectuals. ravishing white and pink flowers and whose clear waters are teeming
In the Yuan dynasty, the topic was taken over by scholar painters. with golden-orange and silvery-blue fish.

fig. 1
Zhou Dongqing, The Pleasures of Fishes, Yuan dynasty, dated 1291, handscroll, ink and colour on paper, detail; The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, 47.18.10
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56 I FOR COMPLETE CATALOGUING ༉းྡ፽ʫ࢙ሗᓭᚎ SOTHEBYS.COM/HK1292 THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF THE LATE SIR JOSEPH HOTUNG I 57