Page 435 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

and fall of the four-hundred-year-old Han unlike the grave and reserved figure paintings
dynasty. Narrative, action, and dialogue in this illustrating various classical episodes of Confucian 288
work are basically pictorial, and were embroidered decorum. Some of the drama in the painting is Dai Jin
for dramatic, popular, and theatrical effect. The derived from the convincing detail of the military 1388-1462
late Yuan and early Ming period also witnessed costumes. These are rendered with a realism and
the rise of Chinese drama, and Shang Xi's complexity quite different from the flatter, sim- ZHONG Kui TRAVELING AT NIGHT
painting may well owe much in its appearance plified symbolic fragments of nature in the set-
to the grand poses and heroics beloved of the ting—pine, bamboo, briar, rock, cedar, and water Chinese
Chinese theater. Even though the point of view in forming a somewhat perfunctory mise-en-scene hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
47 /s)
(74 /s
120.2
x
5
x
3
189.7
these new literary genres was populist and anti- for the fully realized figures. signature and two seals of the artist at center left
elitist, they were still most popular among In another hanging scroll in the Palace references: Siren 1958, 4:128-133; Cahill 1978, 45-
scholar-officials. Judging from Shang's large-scale Museum, comparable in size to this one, Shang Xi 53, pis. 10, 12-14; Rogers 1988, 117-118
decorative painting shown here, they pleased the depicted The Xuande Emperor and His Hunting
court as well —at least in its relaxed and "unoffi- Party. But how different this work from the scene Palace Museum, Beijing
cial" moments. of Guan Yu and Pang De! Here the eclectic-tradi-
The subject came from chapter 74 of San Guo tional mode is dominant, and a more Confucian Traditionally the legend of Zhong Kui began in an
Zhi Yan Yi, in which the powerful officer Pang De decorum rules. Overall composition and disposi- emperor's dream. During the Kaiyuan reign-era
(d. A.D. 219) was charged by the wicked general tion of the figures derive from traditional Tang (713-741) of the Tang dynasty Emperor Ming
Cao Cao (A.D. 155-220) with the capture of the dynasty (618-907) depictions of imperial proces- Huang dreamt that a small demon stole his jade
virtuous general Guan Yu (d. A.D. 219). But Guan sions. The horses clearly echo the fourteenth- flute and his concubine Yang Guifei's purple scent
was a master strategist: taking advantage of an century manner of the classic masters of the bag, whereupon a large and frightening demon
imminent flood, he turned the tables on Pang De, genre, Zhao Mengfu, Zhao Yong, and Ren Renfa, in scholar's cap and boots grabbed the thieving
taking him prisoner after destroying most of his in turn beholden to Tang masters like Han Gan. demon, gouged out his eyes, tore him to pieces,
army in a heroic assault abetted by the rising But the landscape and wild-animal elements are and devoured him. In the dream the large demon
waters. Guan Yu then held a summary court on all owed to the court painters of the Song dynasty identified himself as Zhong Kui, who some hun-
the field of battle: (960-1279). Indeed a survey of the gully on the dred years earlier had dashed out his brains in
right presents almost a compendium of the shame and chagrin at having failed the civil ser-
[Guan Yu] then returned to the higher ground achievements of twelfth- and thirteenth-century vice examination. The then emperor had ordered
where his tent was pitched and therein took his masters —the crackling branches of Ma Yuan, the an honorable burial befitting an official for the
seat to receive his prisoners [Pang De] was birds and animals of Li Di, the pines of Liu Song- failed scholar, who in gratitude vowed to be a
sent for. He came, pride and anger flashing Demon Queller. Pictures of Zhong Kui with a
from his eyes; he did not kneel but stood nian. Mastery of these styles was required of an retinue of obedient, subservient demons still are
important court painter of early Ming, as was
boldly erect.
emulation of the realist style practiced in the displayed during the twelfth lunar month just
"You have a brother in [Hanzhong] and your famous "Academy" of the last Northern Song before the Chinese New Year, and on the fifth day
old chief was Ma Chao (A.D. 176-222), also emperor, Hui Zong. of the fifth month, "Dragon Festival" day. Natu-
in high honor in Shu. Had you better not What truly distinguishes this scene is its inac- rally Zhong Kui also became a kind of patron saint
join them?" tivity. No one is hunting. No one has hunted. for scholars and a generally protective and auspi-
In place of the older, more believable huntsmen cious deity.
"Rather than surrender to you I would perish found in earlier scenes of this type, here we find The New Year was customarily celebrated at the
beneath the sword," cried [Pang]. boy attendants resembling those at scholars' Imperial Palace by a great exorcism of demons,
He reviled his captors without ceasing till, party-gatherings. The cases that they bear could carried out by attendants and servants dressed to
represent various demon expellers, including
losing patience at last, [Guan Yu] sent him to contain qin — a kind of zither, and the badge of the Zhong Kui, Pan Guan (Daoist Judge of Hell), Zao
his death. He was beheaded. He stretched out gentleman-scholar—as easily as bows. This is a Jun (the Stove King, or God of the Kitchen), and
his neck for the headsman's sword. Out of pity hunting scene for a sybaritic and aesthetic mon- others. Among commoners the Twelfth Moon
he was honorably buried. arch. Tradition continues, but reality escapes. The festivities were mostly focused on the Stove God,
(Translation by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor.) artist's talent for the dramatic, so fully expressed
in Guan Yu Capturing Pang De, has been over- Zao Jun, but small groups of beggars and unfor-
Obviously Shang Xi has not literally followed come by the requirements of archaism and tunates impersonated Zhong Kui's demons and
the text: there is no tent for Guan Yu; Pang is protocol. thus provided visual stimulation for pictorial
shown pinioned by his hair and right leg to a post Besides Song Hui Zong (r. 1101-1126), the only representations.
and stake; the flooded battlefield is suggested only really gifted and accomplished painter in the long This masterly depiction of a demanding subject
by ribbons of water gliding between cedar copses. roster of China's imperial rulers was the Ming situates Zhong Kui and his accompanying six
But simplifications such as these were used, then Xuande emperor (r. 1425-1435). And like Song demons in a chilly, wintry landscape, with twisted
and after, in Chinese theater. All emphasis is on Hui Zong, the Ming artist-emperor was a trees and branches competing with powerfully
the actors, especially the two protagonists, who devoted, even too-generous patron of the arts, drawn rocky cliffs and a waterfall foaming over
are portrayed significantly larger than the bland recapturing at least in part the reputation of his stepped rocks. Nevertheless figures dominate the
attending official, the guard with his halberd, and Song predecessor. S.E.L. landscape, by virtue of strongly brushed drapery
the two soldiers binding the defeated general. The and body boundaries as well as shaded ink wash
facial expressions are histrionic, and suggest the- modeling. This is not a landscape with figures but
atrical makeup. Probably the overall effect is just figures in a supporting setting. In its manner of
what was intended —high drama, highly visible resolving the tension between figures and land-
from a distance, not unlike the mural art of Bud- scape, Dai Jin's work resembles Sesshu's
dhist temples during the Tang dynasty but wholly Daruma and Eka. The sheer size of the scroll

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