Page 462 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

"Constantly its form is changing, chances are it (He listens to sounds farther and farther off—
312 will never be captured; its dragon-whiskers bristle the wind in the bamboo, the growling of dogs,
like lances, rank after rank/' the drumbeats that mark the hours, and finally,
Shen Zhou Shen Zhou's Three Junipers needs no literary near dawn, the sound of a distant bell. His
1427-1509 embellishment. Anyone who has seen and studied meditations turn to the difficulty of breaking
THREE JUNIPERS OF CHANGSHU junipers recognizes the reality Shen produced. through the constant operation of his own
Careful and just observation guided his hand and intellect, which seeks for knowledge more in
c. 1484 guarded against the enemy of exaggeration. The books than in direct experience.)
Chinese ink is rich and the brush strokes subtly varied
three album sheets mounted as a handscroll; ink on from full and fat to dry and lean, from pale to My nature is to enjoy sitting in the night. So I
paper dark, and from sharp to a shaded wash. The quite often spread a book under the lamp, going back
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46.1 x 120.6 (i8 /s x 47 /2J free and easy delineation of the natural shapes and and forth over it, usually stopping at the second
with artist's inscription and colophon by Wu Kuan watch. Man's clamor is not at rest, and the
(1436-1504) dated to 1484 and 1492 profiles gives the impression of a sketch "from mind is yet bent on bookish learning. Until
references: Tseng 1954, 22-30; Edwards 1962, 93; life," although it is certain that the scroll was now, I have never attained a state of outer tran-
Cahill 1978, 95-96 painted in the artist's study or workroom. Its per-
fect blend of strength, movement, solidity, and quillity and inner stability [rest].
Nanjing Museum description is a major visual accomplishment. To
write about this masterful scroll is a frustrating Now tonight all sounds and colors come to me
through this state of tranquillity and rest; they
Some twenty miles northeast of Suzhou, home of task. "I am a picture; do not ask me to speak!" serve thus to cleanse the mind, spirit, and feel-
Shen and birthplace of the Wu school, is Chang- (Heine) would be advice well taken here. S.E.L ings [instead of, as ordinarily, muddying them]
shu. There, in the time of Shen Zhou, grew one of
the remarkable sights of the region, the "Seven and to arouse the will. (But this will, this
easily
central point of consciousness, cannot
Stars/' seven juniper trees of aged and hoary dissociate itself from attachment to sensory
aspect. Of the seven originally planted by a Daoist
priest of the Liang dynasty (502-557), four had data.) It is not that these sounds and colors do
been replaced by Shen Zhou's day but three had not exist at other times, or that they do not
survived. Presumably these were the ones painted 313 strike one's ears and eyes. My outward form
by Shen Zhou when he visited the compound in [body] is [usually] slave to external things, and
1484 with his friend, the poet, statesman, and Shen Zhou my mind takes its direction from them. [True
calligrapher Wu Kuan (1436-1504). 1427-1509 perception through] hearing is obscured by the
Old trees are most particularly honored by the sounds of bell and drum; [true perception
Chinese scholar, partly for reasons of self-identifi- NIGHT VIGIL through] seeing is obscured by patterns and
cation, since they connote incorruptible endur- dated to 1492 beauty. This is why material things benefit
ance through many an adverse season, but also Chinese people seldom, harm them often. (Once,
because of their traditional connection with the hanging scroll; ink and slight color on paper however, he has arrived at a state of inner tran-
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world of myth and the powers of nature. Old trees 84.8 x 21.8 (H /8x8 / 8) quillity, the effect of sensory stimuli is very
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were a favorite subject of the great early masters signed: Shen Zhou; two seals of the artist: Qi'nan, different.) Sometimes it happens, though, as
of Chinese landscape painting such as Li Cheng Shi Tian with tonight's sounds and colors, that while
(c. 9i9~c. 967) and Guo Xi (c. looi-c. 1090) of references: Edwards 1962, 56-58; Sullivan 1974, they do not differ from those of other times,
the Five Dynasties period and the Northern Song 52-55; Cahill 1978, 90-91 yet they strike the ear and eye all at once,
dynasty. But this subject received particular atten- National Palace Museum, Taipei lucidly, wonderfully becoming a part of me
tion from Shen Zhou and his pupil Wen [absorbed into my very being]. That they are
Zhengming. In contrast to Three Junipers of Changshu (cat. bell and drum sounds, patterns and beauty, now
The picture we now consider was probably the cannot help but be an aid to the advancement of
first major effort of its kind in Chinese painting — 312), here the inscription, its content and implica- my self-cultivation. In this way, things cannot
tions, dominate the scroll. Words prevail over the
a depiction solely of old trees, without background image, even mold and magnify it. Since most serve to enslave man.
or setting. As their branches twist and turn, and scholars of wen ren painting consider this scroll a (Physical sensations are ephemeral, while the
their twigs reach and gesture, these trees evoke key monument, it is necessary to present the will remains more constant.) Sounds are cut
dragons, those benign but awesome lords of water inscription in full, as translated and paraphrased off, colors obliterated; but my will, absorbing
in all its aspects, anthropomorphic powers of rain by James Cahill (see References): these, alone endures. What is the so-called
and cloud and mist. What is tree? What is will? Is it inside me, after all, or outside? Does
dragon? Here? There? The metamorphic character On a cold night, sleep is very sweet. I woke in it exist in external things or does it come into
of this scroll, implied by the way in which the the middle of the night, my mind clear and being because of those things? In this [i.e., the
trees are represented, becomes explicit in later untroubled, and as I was unable to go to sleep realization I am now experiencing] there is a
variations of the theme by other artists. Judging again, I put on my clothes and sat facing my means of deciding these questions. Ah! I have,
from a rather dry copy in the Honolulu Academy flickering lamp. On the table were a few folders through this, decided them.
of Arts, Shen Zhou's pupil Wen Zhengming of books. I chose a volume at random and began
(1470-1559) attempted a handscroll of all seven of to read but, tiring, I put down the book and sat How great is the power of sitting up at night!
the junipers along with an inscription by the calmly doing nothing. A long rain had newly One should purify his heart and sit alone, by
artist emphasizing their anthropomorphic, meta- cleared, and a pale moon was shining through the light of a newly trimmed, bright candle.
morphic, and dragonlike character. Wen was the window. All around was silence. Then after Through this practice one can pursue the prin-
equally explicit in the inscription on his hand- a long time absorbing the fresh brightness, I ciples that underlie events and things, and the
scroll of an old pine (Cleveland Museum of Art): gradually became aware of sounds. subtlest workings of one's own mind, as the

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