Page 345 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

TEXTILES, WOVEN SILKS, ETC. 99

kind are often filled in with the brush to give a finish to the decora-
tion.
An important collection of k'o ssU pictures brought from Peking
has been recently secured for the museum, which throws an un-
expected light on some of the themes and methods of comjiosition
of Chinese pictorial art, and is therefore worthy of study. They
are intended for the decoration of the reception room their general
;
character is indicated by the two examples selected for illustration.
In Fig. 116 is shown a picture woven in coloured silks and gold
thread, with occasional touches subsequently painted with the
brush. It is one of a series of four (Nos. 1644-1647) woven with
scenes of the dragon procession, which is held in all parts of China,
as an annual festival, on the fifth day of the fifth month, in memory
of Chii Yuan, the loyal minister, who drowned himself on that
day in the year B.C. 295. The Dragon-boat Festival is a search
for the body of the hero, and ends with offerings of rice in bamboo
tubes cast into the river as a sacrifice to his spirit.
The second picture of woven silk reproduced in Fig. 117 represents
a view of the Taoist paradise, which is called Shou Shan, i.e.,
" Hills of Longevity," in Chinese art. It is a mountain landscape
with water, spanned by an arched bridge in the foreground, stretch-
ing between rocky banks in the distance ; the rocks support pillared
pavilions shaded by immense pines, while a peach tree, the fabled
fruit of life, spreads its branches over the water. The well-known
eight genii. Pa Hsien, are grouped on the rocks in the centre of the
picture, and they may be recognised by their attributes, like the
other hermit-immortals below, crossing the bridge and climbing
the hills, among whom the twin merry genii of union and harmony,
Ho Ho Erh Hsien, are conspicuous, and Liu Han, waiting on the
bank for his familiar the three-legged toad, which is swimming across
the river. The storks flying above with rods in their beaks are
the couriers of the immortals. There is a companion picture of
woven silk in the collection (No. i648-'oo) which gives another
8941. -2 p •>