Page 97 - Bonham's Asian Art London November 2015
P. 97
236
236 2. ‘White clouds before behind, mountain
ANONYMOUS (CHOSON DYNASTY) peaks/Clear Moon, east and West, mountain
Six Poems, six-leaf screen valleys/Monks are sitting, flower petals and
Ink on paper, written in a wild cursive script. fallen rain/The Guest asleep/The mountain
Each: 35cm (13 3/4in) x 74.5cm (29 3/8in), birds singing.’ Tao Yuan Ming (365-427)
257.5cm (101 3/8in) wide in total 3. ‘At the Bamboo Lodge’: ‘Sitting alone in
a quiet bamboo forest/Playing a stringed
£1,500 - 2,500 instrument, breathing deeply and singing/In
CNY15,000 - 24,000 the forest nobody knows that I’m there/Only
HK$18,000 - 29,000 the rays of the moonlight.’ Wang Wei (699-
759)
The Korean screen was both an object for 4. ‘The long road is straight like hair/The
interior design, and a Scholar’s symbol of Spring day is full of cheerful spirit/Fine young
status and learning. Calligraphy was highly men from the Capital/With bells ringing like a
prized for its association with Confucian jade river.’ Chu Guan-Xi (706-760)
thought, and with the long traditions of 5. ‘My friend is already many miles away by
Chinese literati painting. Some great poets the end of Spring/Wild cranes beside the
like the Tang writer Wang Wei were also three rivers are rarely seen now.’ Wang Wei
renowned landscape painters, so this fusion (699-759)
was especially significant. Korean scholar (Interestingly, the Korean calligrapher has
artists emphasised the link, painting eight-leaf apparently substituted the poet’s original
examples, which enabled each one of the reference to migrating geese with cranes)
Confucian virtues to be a single theme for 6. ‘Climbing in the cold remote mountain
each panel (For further discussion see Jane ranges/There are houses above the white
Portal, Korea: Art and Archaeology, p. 152- clouds/Stop the carriage and enjoy the
153). evening woods/The frosted leaves are even
redder than flowers in the second month.’ Du
The six poems by five different Tang Dynasty Mu (803-852)
poets are full of metaphor and may be
translated as follows:
1. ‘I slept in the spring morning, and so
missed the dawn/Everywhere I can hear the
birds singing/That night the sound of wind
and rain came/So who knows how many
petals had fallen.’ Meng Hao-ran (689-740)
236 (detail)
ASIAN ART | 95
