- 635
Attributed to Chen Hongshou 1598-1652
Estimate
18,000 - 25,000 USD
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Description
- Attributed to Chen Hongshou
- HEROS OF THE WATER MARGIN
- ink and color on silk, album of twenty leaves, set of two
Title page by Deng Hanyi (1617-1689), with two seals, deng han yi, xiao wei. Colophons by Gu Ling (active 17th century), signed Dongwu Gu Ling, with one seal, gu yun mei; Zhou Shouchang (1814-1884), signed Changsha Zi Daoren, dated the sixth year (1867) of the Tongzhi reign, the sixteenth day of the ninth lunar month, with eight seals, chang sha zhou shou chang jian cang jing ji ban bei shu hua yin (4), gen fu xuan, chang sha zhou shi, ping nong, zi an; Cao Chuican (active 17th century), signed Qiexian Daoren, with one seal, qie xian dao ren; and Cheng Qi, signed Xin'an Cheng Qi, dated xinhai (1971), the third lunar month, with ten seals, cheng shi bo fen (2), shi shui an ju shi, ke an mi zhen, cheng bo fen zhen cang yin, shuang song lou zhen shang yin (2), ke an suo de min xin jue pin, xuan hui tang, and cheng qi zhi yin. And four other collectors' seals, wei chuang, kang yi, jiao ye shan fang, lai jiang pan shi li an zhen cang
Catalogue Note
Colophons:
Gu Ling: Luo Guanzhong, who lodged with the warlord Zhang Shicheng, subtitled his novel Water Margin “loyalty and righteousness.” Later readers of this work thus admired petty thieves as righteous and praised bandits as heroes. Confucius’s disciples did not talk about the conduct of the sage kings Heng of Qi and Wen of Jin. Where does Guanzhong rank? Mencius said, “Chanting the ancients’ poetry and reading their books, but failing to know their characters - is this acceptable? Thus we must consider their backgrounds and times.” The chaos of the Zhizheng reign was more severe than that at the end of the Song, and Shicheng’s opportunism was worse than Song Jiang’s. Water Margin was in truth a satire of Shicheng, but Shicheng did not realize this. Three centuries later, the likes of Gao Jie and Li Dingguo rose with the times, beginning as thieves and robbers but ending in loyalty and righteousness. They may indeed have learnt from Guozhong. Chen Hongshou of Shanyin painted the characters of Water Margin during the end of the Chongzhen reign, and surely shared Guanzhong’s intentions. It is said that he modeled his brushwork after the Tang painting True Aspects of the Five Planets and Twenty-eight Lunar Lodges because Song Jiang and the other heroes are spirits of celestial bodies descended on earth. Alas, they are all of the past. Heroes? Bandits? It is enough to consider them according to their times. On the Purification Day of the jihai year (1719). Inscribed by Gu Ling of Dongwu.
Zhou Shouchang: In autumn on the sixteenth day of the ninth month of the sixth year of the Tongzhi reign (October 16, 1867), I unrolled this painting under lamplight. Moved by recent affairs, I write this with a sigh. Inscribed by Zidaoren Pu of Changsha.
Gu Ling: Luo Guanzhong, who lodged with the warlord Zhang Shicheng, subtitled his novel Water Margin “loyalty and righteousness.” Later readers of this work thus admired petty thieves as righteous and praised bandits as heroes. Confucius’s disciples did not talk about the conduct of the sage kings Heng of Qi and Wen of Jin. Where does Guanzhong rank? Mencius said, “Chanting the ancients’ poetry and reading their books, but failing to know their characters - is this acceptable? Thus we must consider their backgrounds and times.” The chaos of the Zhizheng reign was more severe than that at the end of the Song, and Shicheng’s opportunism was worse than Song Jiang’s. Water Margin was in truth a satire of Shicheng, but Shicheng did not realize this. Three centuries later, the likes of Gao Jie and Li Dingguo rose with the times, beginning as thieves and robbers but ending in loyalty and righteousness. They may indeed have learnt from Guozhong. Chen Hongshou of Shanyin painted the characters of Water Margin during the end of the Chongzhen reign, and surely shared Guanzhong’s intentions. It is said that he modeled his brushwork after the Tang painting True Aspects of the Five Planets and Twenty-eight Lunar Lodges because Song Jiang and the other heroes are spirits of celestial bodies descended on earth. Alas, they are all of the past. Heroes? Bandits? It is enough to consider them according to their times. On the Purification Day of the jihai year (1719). Inscribed by Gu Ling of Dongwu.
Zhou Shouchang: In autumn on the sixteenth day of the ninth month of the sixth year of the Tongzhi reign (October 16, 1867), I unrolled this painting under lamplight. Moved by recent affairs, I write this with a sigh. Inscribed by Zidaoren Pu of Changsha.