KESI CALLIGRAPHY AFTER DONG QICHANG, IN THE STYLE OF SONG DYNASTY MASTERS Qing Dynasty, 18th Century

Silk, mounted in handscroll format on paper, with calligraphy in xingshu, running script, woven in kesi technique in black silk on unbleached silk ground, following an original by Dong Qichang (1555-1636), beginning with the title, 'Calligraphy of the Four Masters: Cai, Su, Huang, Mi', and ending with two kesi seals in red vermilion silk reading Zongbo xueshi and Dongshi Xuancai

Weaving China's Past: The Amy S. Clague Collection of Chinese Textiles, cat.no.18; exhibited at Phoenix Art Museum, 2000, El Paso Museum of Art, 2001, and The China Institute, New York, 2003.

Claudia Brown, "The Amy S. Clague Collection of Chinese Textiles," Orientations, February 2000, p. 42, fig. 14

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: (by Martha Winslow Grimm. Courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum, used with permission)
Warp: Tan silk; Z twist; single ply.  Count: 27 yarns per centimeter.  The warps are running horizontally in the scroll.  Weft: Tan, dark blue and red silk; no apparent twist; no ply (bundled yarns not twisted together).  Count: 27 yarns per centimeter.  Weave: Kesi.  Tapestry is woven in the tapestry technique (weft faced tabby) with slit joins.  There is eccentric weaving in the curves.  The textile is adhered to paper (mounted as a handscroll) so only the obverse is available for examination.  Dyeing: Yarn dyed.  Selvages: none remaining.  All four edges are cut.

Scroll Cover
Brocade

Commentary
All decoration is woven, including the two seal impressions.

TEXT TRANSLATION: (by An-yi Pan. Courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum, used with permission)

Calligraphy of the Four Masters [of the Northern Song Dynasty]: Cai [Xiang], Su [Shi], Huang [Tingjian], and Mi [Fu]

[style of Cai Xiang]
Xiang in deference;
Mr. Gongjin,
Because of the summer heat, I have not been able to write to request a visit.  I assume that you have recovered from your illness.  From day to night, wind and heat are bothersome.  I have no place to hide.  Alas, human life is bridled as such!  Do you have some fine tea?

[style of Su Shi]
I have specially asked someone to come to pick it up.  You personally instructed me and cared for me.  I am mortified and speechless.  I am consoled after hearing that you are cautious with official duties and you are living well.
Mr. Wang passed through and I was fortunate to meet him.  He is as fine a gentleman as you have informed me.  I regret that he was in mourning, so I could not care for him long.  He left here a while back, and should soon arrive.
I am as usual.  Ziyou is fine as well.  My son went out to look for a job, and he has not returned yet.
Yesterday the imperial carriage passed through; today the new governor arrived.  In a day the old governor left.  Bureaucrats all follow the custom of feigning busyness; they dare not keep messengers waiting for long.
As I am not far away, you need not send letters.
The weather has suddenly become chilly.  Please take care.
Su Shi, respectfully.

[style of Huang Tingjian]
Mr. Jiming, my young friend;
Tingjian in deference; I have two letters for you.
I dare not forget your greeting.
It is worthy of celebration that Wuqi studies hard and is cautious with his speech.  I regret that I was in such a hurry in the capital that I could not take care of him.  Even though he did not do well in the examination, there is nothing to worry about.  Soon he will be a good scholar.  As for the rest of the matter, Wuqi will discuss it in detail after his arrival.
Tingjian in deference, again.
Zhixing will definitely be rewarded for his restraint and calm character.
With his bedroom facing a pure stream, he is able to forget human emotion when getting up in the morning.  In an empty forest, fine rain falls, creating ripples all over the water.  He has no other matters all day, but listens to the sound of woodcutting.  I know he has been in the dusty world for long, and can temporarily toss away the troublesome official cap.

[style of Mi Fu]
Fu in deference;
I have followed you long, but soon I will depart to a faraway place.
I want to hold up my hand to weep, but I feel much more relieved if I cry like heavy rain.  I know I am not worthy, but you take good care of me.  When I was with you, you encouraged me to be virtuous.  It was like old times when we met in various places.  I want to compose poetry, but I am afraid to conjure up fond memories of the past.  Therefore I retreat.  After arriving at my new post, I will write to report my safety.
Written by Fu.

[Dong Qichang]
The ancients had all practiced calligraphy for a long time, so when writing letters, they all let the brush act on spontaneous inspiration.  So they are innocent and carefree, revealing their true natures.  But only Zhao Chengzhi (Mengfu) was especially formal, and the letters of Mr. Lu Wenyu of our Ming dynasty are not carefree, matching the idea of Wuxing (Zhao Mengfu).  But Song dynasty masters were different; the wonder of their calligraphy is in its spontaneity.
[signed] Dong Qichang

[seals] Zongbo xueshi; Dongshi Xuancai.

This is a remarkable handscroll; commemorating in kesi technique the Qianlong emperor's admiration for the caligraphy of Dong Qichang (1555-1636), and memorialising Dong's own admiration for the calligraphy of four Song Dynasty masters, namely Cai Xiang (1012-1067), Su Shi (1037-1101), Huang Tingjian (1045-1105) and Mi Fu (1052-1107). The present handscroll appears to be identical to another kesi example in the collection of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, see Yang Renkai et.al., Liaoning sheng bowuguan cang kesi zixiu, Series 1, vol.3, Tokyo, 1983, no.52.

While the original work on paper by Dong Qichang for the present piece appears unpublished, compare two closely related ink-on-paper handscrolls, both in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and exhibited The Century of Tung Ch'i-Ch'ang 1555-1636, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1992, cat.nos.10 and 64, illustrated pp.203-204 and pp.236-237 respectively. The Qianlong emperor clearly favored Dong's calligraphic style, and a handscroll by Dong after the Four Song Masters is recorded in the 1744AD Imperial Catalog of Painting and Calligraphy, Shiqu Baoqi, p.539, as being kept in Qianlong's personal study, the Yangxin Dian. As Claudia Brown writes, in the entry in the Clague exhibition catalogue, op.cit., p.115,  "Calligraphy was in many ways the most lofty of all the arts, with its attention to pure form paramount in both its practice and its appreciation. To copy in this manner is called lin, a term that suggests an effort to study and learn from a model while reproducing it. The emperor copied other models, but works by the Four Song Masters and by Dong Qichang were his most frequent models, and their works also formed an important core of calligraphic masterpieces in his collection."

Several surviving commissions of their calligraphy in kesi technique are published, mainly in hanging scroll format; as it would presumably be easier to weave the characters while reading them in a vertical (normal) orientation. In contrast, the handscroll format of the present piece is all the more remarkable since it was probably woven in horizontal orientation, the weft-threads building up the characters rotated ninety degrees sideways, and the length of the warp forming the whole length of the unbroken silk ground. Compare a kesi hanging scroll with calligraphy after Mi Fei, in the collection of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, exhibited Heaven's Embroidered Cloths. One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995, cat.no. 115; and two similar examples exhibited Special Exhibition of Tapestry, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1989, cat.nos. 39 and 40. A kesi of calligraphy after Dong Qichang, was recently sold, Christie's New York, 20 September 2002, lot 167, another of calligraphy of the Qianlong emperor himself, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3 May 1994, lot 356; and compare a kesi 'Shou' panel commemorating his eightieth birthday, Christie's Hong Kong, 30 April 2000, lot 574.