Epitome of National Disgrace: A Painting Illuminating
Song–Jin Diplomatic Relations
S H I -Y E E L I U
Research Associate, Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
N
arrative images with figures interacting in a landscape typify the earliest phase of Chinese scroll
painting. As exemplified by the Goddess of the Luo
River (Figure 1) attributed to Gu Kaizhi, its commonly
acknowledged patriarch, works in this genre interpret a literary or historical theme through thoughtfully conceived
imagery and composition to reveal the artist’s or the recipient’s perspective on the issues involved, be they political,
philosophical, or moral.1 The artistic caliber of the pictorial
representation is crucial to the persuasive power of the message and its successful conveyance. A horizontal scroll in
the Metropolitan Museum, A Diplomatic Mission to the Jin
(Figure 2), embodies an advanced stage in the development
of Chinese narrative landscape painting, when the dominant palette had changed from the early red and black (danqing) to blue and green (qinglü) and the scale and spatial
relationship of the motifs had become rationally defined. As
usual, however, the painter’s primary motivation and his
intended recipient’s relish of it lie beyond the rarefied realm
of “art for art’s sake.”
The Metropolitan Museum scroll (hereafter the Mission
scroll) bears no title, date, or painter’s signature and seal.
Though it lacks textual references, it appears to depict an
event taking place at a specific site. The massive mountain
ranges with angular, fissured rock formations and the steeproofed building surrounded by trees near the scroll’s center
(Figure 3) are characteristic of China’s northern landscape.
Sinuous bands of mist drift across a river valley in the middle
ground, making the mountains appear higher by blurring
their baselines. The river runs toward a wide bridge near the
left end of the scroll and then disappears into the distance
(Figure 4). To the right of the bridge a fortified town with
Metropolitan Museum Journal 45
© 2010 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
crenellated walls and prominent turrets guards the hilly terrain, most likely a mountain pass of strategic importance.
The painting’s narrative focus is the scene in the right
foreground (Figure 5), where three groups of people gather
near a pine-sheltered pavilion. The middle group consists of
four men on horseback wearing official apparel of the Song
dynasty (960–1279). To their left are two equestrians in fitted
uniforms, one, evidently a messenger, carrying a scroll on
his back and the other turning to respond to the Song officials. To the right of the tall pines are five men in loose
robes, three of whom hold musical instruments: a lute, a
flute, and a zither (Figure 6). The conical hats worn by these
five men and the two riders at the far left (Figure 7) identify
them as nomadic Jurchen soldiers of the Jin, or Jurchen,
dynasty (1115–1234), whose leaders kidnapped the last
two Northern Song emperors, Huizong (r. 1100–1125) and
his son Qinzong (r. 1126–27), and assumed sovereignty
over northern China in 1127.2 The rest of the Song imperial
family fled south and established the Southern Song dynasty
under Emperor Gaozong (r. 1127–62; son of Huizong and
half-brother of Qinzong). The Song court, based in Lin’an
(modern Hangzhou), continued the dynasty’s mandate until
1279, when Khubilai Khan conquered the Southern Song
empire and reunited China.
From the presence of the musicians and the empty table
and wicker stools in the pavilion, it can be inferred that a
repast hosted by the Jurchens has just ended, and the guests
are ready to depart, guided by the Jin soldier and heralded
by the messenger. The painting may thus be read as illustrating a stopover in a Song delegation’s journey to the Jin court,
one of many recorded diplomatic missions during the hundred years of Song–Jin relations between 1118 and 1218.
The diplomatic relationship between the Song and the Jin
began with the Northern Song emperor Huizong’s sending
Ma Zheng to the Jin in 1118 with the proposal that the two
states join forces to expel the Khitan Liao. It officially ended
Epitome of National Disgrace 55
1. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi
(ca. 344–ca. 406).
Goddess of the Luo River.
Section of a handscroll.
China, 11th-century
copy(?) of 4th-century
original. Ink and color on
silk, overall scroll 10 3⁄8 in. x
21 ft. 2 3⁄8 in. (.26 x 6.46 m).
Liaoning Provincial
Museum. Photograph:
Zhongguo gudai shuhua
jianding zu 1997–2001,
vol. 1 (1997), pl. 46
2. Attributed to Yang
Bangji (ca. 1110–1181).
A Diplomatic Mission to
the Jin. Handscroll. China,
Jin dynasty (1115–1234),
ca. late 1150s. Ink and color
on silk, 10 1⁄2 x 60 1⁄8 in.
(26.7 x 152.5 cm). The
Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Edward Elliott Family
Collection, Purchase, The
Dillon Fund Gift, 1982
(1982.1.1)
56
in 1218 when the Southern Song barred the Jin emissary
from entering their territory south of the Yellow River region.
There were 190 missions in all, 15 in the Northern Song
period and 175 in the Southern Song.3
In a colophon to the Metropolitan Museum scroll dated
1953 (see Appendix, Figure 34), the scholar and collector
Chen Rentao first identified the subject matter as a Song diplomatic delegation to the Jin, a loyalist lament over the disgraced Song state. He also suggested Yang Bangji (ca. 1110–
1181), a Jin official-artist, as the painter based on the work’s
stylistic similarity to a painting by Yang Bangji he had seen
earlier.4 Another scholar, Chiang I-han, examined the history of Song–Jin negotiations and warfare from 1111 to
1127 in a pioneering study of this scroll in 1979. He proposed that the painting depicts a special mission headed by
four Song officials to Yanjing (present-day Beijing) to negotiate the return of six northern prefectures to the Song in 1123
and that it was painted by an unidentified Song artist in
celebration of the recovery of the lost territory.5 Although
Chiang’s conclusion is questionable, his methodology—
drawing on primary historical sources to interpret pictorial
imagery—was appropriate. In 1990 Yu Hui affirmed Chen
3. Detail of the center section of Figure 2
Epitome of National Disgrace 57
4. Detail of the left section of
Figure 2
5. Detail of Figure 2,
showing the pavilion scene
58
Rentao’s attribution of the painting to Yang Bangji on the
grounds that Yang followed Li Gonglin (ca. 1049–1106) in
painting horses and Li Cheng (919–967) in landscape and
that late in his career he held positions in transportation and
the military in Shandong and Hebei under the Jin. In addition, judging from the titles of his paintings recorded in various writings and painting catalogues, Yang was fond of
depicting mountain passes with travelers.6
Building on the earlier scholarship, this article aims at a
comprehensive understanding of the Mission scroll, including
its execution date, authorship, intended recipient, and most
importantly, unique standing as a political painting. The
inadequacy of the earlier studies was due mostly to the serious loss and fading of the vibrant colors that once distinguished the pavilion scene, the thematic focus of the scroll,
from its somber backdrop. As a result, the ambivalent portrayal of the Song delegation, the key to the meaning of the
painting, failed to engender serious inquiry.
The style of the Mission scroll corroborates earlier scholars’ argument that this portrayal of twelfth-century Song–Jin
6. Detail of Figure 2,
showing the group of
musicians
7. Detail of Figure 2,
showing the two riders
at the left
Epitome of National Disgrace 59
8. Emperor Huizong
(1082–1135). Returning Boat
on a Snowy River. Section
of a handscroll. China,
Northern Song dynasty
(960–1127), early 12th
century. Ink and color on
silk, overall scroll 12 x
75 1⁄8 in. (30.3 x 190.8 cm).
Palace Museum, Beijing.
Photograph: Zhongguo lidai
huihua 1978–91, vol. 2
(1981), p. 85
diplomacy was a contemporary production. Except for the
bright green ground and the figures’ colorful robes, the
painting exhibits a strong stylistic affinity to paintings of the
late Northern Song period, the late eleventh and early
twelfth centuries. Like Emperor Huizong’s Returning Boat
on a Snowy River (Figure 8) and other late Northern Song
handscrolls, the Mission scroll represents expansive space
by progressing leftward along a consistent horizon, without
9. Detail of the right section
of Figure 2
60
shifting perspective, and the composition features a distinct
tripartite structure of foreground, middle ground, and distance.7 And the sensitively rendered atmospheric effects of
distant mountains in cloud and mist also find striking comparisons in paintings of the period.
Although the Mission scroll has suffered losses on the
top, bottom, and right edges, still visible along the bottom
are the upper part of a building and the tops of rocks and
10. Hu Shunchen (active first
half of 12th century). For
Hao Xuanming on Being
Dispatched to Qin. Handscroll. China, Northern Song
dynasty (960–1127), dated
1122. Ink and light color
on silk, 11 7⁄8 x 43 3⁄4 in. (30 x
111 cm). Osaka Municipal
Museum of Fine Art. Photograph: Chūgoku shoga meihin
zuroku 1994, pl. 13
11. Zhang Zeduan (active
early 12th century). Qingming
Festival along the River.
Section of a handscroll.
China, Northern Song
dynasty (960–1127), early
12th century. Ink and color
on silk, overall scroll 9 3⁄4 in. x
17 ft. 4 1⁄8 in. (.25 x 5.29 m).
Palace Museum, Beijing.
Photograph: Fu et al. 1988,
pl. 51, top image
trees that share a hidden common plane (see Figures 3, 9).
This is a framing device used in early twelfth-century paintings such as Hu Shunchen’s For Hao Xuanming on Being
Dispatched to Qin and Zhang Zeduan’s Qingming Festival
along the River (Figures 10, 11). It distances the painter from
his subject matter by setting up a boundary, however fragmented, between them. The implied detachment of the
painter connotes the higher objectivity of his vision and the
greater truthfulness of his work.
The Mission scroll seamlessly integrates the vocabulary
of Northern Song court painting and monumental landscape painting with the aesthetic established by the poet
and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101) and his circle of literati
in reaction to court taste. The landscape is painted in the
blue-and-green style that flourished at the Tang court in the
mid-eighth century in the sway of father-and-son masters Li
Sixun and Li Zhaodao and was revitalized in the late
Northern Song period by Wang Shen (ca. 1048–after 1104),
a scholar-artist and member of the imperial family.8 Instead
of filling crisply delineated contours with flat, bright mineral
colors in the Tang manner, Wang Shen applied blue and
green pigments over ink washes and textures to create volume from the mildly fluctuating colors and to minimize the
decorative charm of the Tang mode.9 After Wang Shen, the
style continued to be favored until the twelfth century by
Zhao Boju, Zhao Bosu, and other scholar-artists associated
with the court. The painter of the Mission scroll juxtaposed
the two different blue-and-green modes for a theatrical
effect: while the mountains, rocks, and trees are rendered in
subdued hues and naturalistic shading, the terrain of the
plateau, where the pavilion scene takes place, is flat, pure
green. Its fresh luminosity transforms the site into a stage for
human intrigue, set against the backdrop of the more muted
landscape.
Several motifs in the scroll were derived from Northern
Song prototypes. The tall pines with straight, columnar trunks;
angular, knobby branches near their tops; and clusters of
needles rendered in delicate brush lines and color washes
(Figure 12) recall the trees in Intimate Scenery in a Hunan
Countryside by Zhao Shilei (Figure 13), a relative of Emperor
Huizong (r. 1100–1125). The horses’ anatomical proportions
and their dark, bony legs recall the horses in Li Gonglin’s
Pasturing Horses, after Wei Yan (Figure 14). The massive,
ponderous mountain ranges exude an austere grandeur,
with the rugged profiles and parallel folds delineated with
the emphatic broken contours that were Yan Wengui’s stylistic idiom (see Figure 15). As Hu Shunchen’s landscape
scroll (Figure 10) demonstrates, Yan’s influence remained
strong in the early twelfth century. The textural patterns of
the rock surfaces show a mixture of Fan Kuan’s “raindrop”
dots and Li Tang’s slanted hatch marks (see Figures 16, 17),
but rendered loosely, without the earlier masters’ rigorous
Epitome of National Disgrace 61
12. Detail of Figure 2,
showing the pines by the
pavilion
tactility. The painter’s apparent lack of interest in his models’
pictorial dynamism or complexity suggests a temporal and
perhaps cultural distance between them.
The stylized bands of mist that wind across the river
valley in the Mission scroll, on the other hand, are promi-
13. Zhao Shilei (active ca. 1100).
Intimate Scenery in a Hunan Countryside. Section of a handscroll. China,
Northern Song dynasty (960–1127),
late 11th century. Ink and color on silk,
16 5⁄8 x 92 in. (42.2 x 233.5 cm). Palace
Museum, Beijing. Photograph: Fu et al.
1988, pl. 38, lower image
62
nent characteristics of the late works of Mi Youren, a major
exponent of a new artistic sensibility who lived through the
transition from the Northern to the Southern Song. In Mi’s
Wondrous Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers of 1135
(Figure 18), for instance, the bands of mist that meander
14. Li Gonglin (ca. 1049–1106).
Pasturing Horses, after Wei Yan.
Section of a handscroll. China,
Northern Song dynasty (960–1127),
late 11th century. Ink and color on
silk, overall scroll 1 ft. 6 in. x
14 ft. 1 in. (.46 x 4.28 m). Palace
Museum, Beijing. Photograph:
Zhongguo gudai shuhua jianding
zu 1997–2001, vol. 2 (1999), pl. 92
15. Yan Wengui (active late 10th century). Buddhist Temple amid Streams and Mountains. Section of a handscroll. China, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), 11th century.
Ink and color on paper, overall scroll 12 1⁄2 x 63 1⁄2 in. (31.9 x 161.2 cm). Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Art. Photograph: Chūgoku shoga meihin zuroku 1994, pl. 8
along the river, obscuring trees and foothills, are rendered
in intermittent, fluctuating dry brush outlines like those in
the Mission scroll.10 Constantly changing in tonality and
width, the lines twist and turn to evoke volume and movement, which is lacking in the hard-edged, patterned mistclouds in court paintings (see Figure 17) and the vaporous
ribbons of mist in lakeside scenes by Zhao Lingrang (see
Figure 19). Drawing on calligraphy, Mi’s simple but expressive method of representing mist-clouds reflects the intel-
lectual aesthetic initiated by Su Shi and his (Mi’s) illustrious
father, Mi Fu (1052–1107), in reaction to the high naturalism of Northern Song monumental landscape painting and
the craftsmanlike polychromatic works traditionally favored
by the court. That aesthetic valued the artist’s inner character and creative impulse over verisimilitude and sensuous depiction of the physical world. A true artist, it held,
revealed himself through freely, even playfully sketched
natural imagery.11 In both Mi’s works and the Mission scroll,
Epitome of National Disgrace 63
16. Fan Kuan (active ca. 1023–1031). Travelers among Streams and Mountains. Detail of a
hanging scroll. China, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), ca. 1000. Ink and color on silk,
overall scroll 811⁄2 x 40 2 ⁄3 in. (206.3 x 103.3 cm). National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photograph:
Zhongguo gudai shuhua jianding zu 1997–2001, vol. 2 (1999), pl. 58
the vivacious mist that separates the foreground from the
distant mountains and also makes them mutually responsive is fundamentally a subjective vision of the artist.
Mi Fu is known for creating rich, substantial, cloudcovered mountains with layers of wet, gradated ink dots.12
The contoured bands of mist were Mi Youren’s innovation in
the 1130s, when he outgrew his father’s influence and
began working in a more personal style and aesthetic. His
Cloudy Mountains of 1130 (Figure 20) marks the crucial
transition: Mi Fu’s stippling technique was still applied in
the mountains, but the clouds were rendered with tentative,
vague contour lines.13 The fluid, kinetic linear patterns of
the mist in Mi’s 1135 scroll (Figure 18) bear witness to the
maturity of his new technique.
Mi Youren’s unique method for representing mist, developed in the south, may have traveled north via diplomatic
channels. Southern Song envoys routinely brought works
of art as gifts on diplomatic missions to the Jin. The Song
scholar-official and renowned poet Yuwen Xuzhong (1079–
1146), for instance, carried a number of paintings and calligraphies with him on such a mission in 1128.14 Highly
respected by Emperor Gaozong as a connoisseur of painting
and calligraphy, Mi Youren also held high-ranking court
offices from 1141 on.15 Given his eminence at Gaozong’s
court and his father’s national fame, his paintings would
seem to have been a natural choice for gifts to the Jurchen
elite. On a more personal level, Mi Youren’s brother-in-law
Wu Ji (1090–1142) was detained by the Jin on a diplomatic
mission in 1127 and forced to serve in the Jurchen Hanlin
Academy, the court’s academic and administrative branch,
until the last year of his life.16 An accomplished painter and
calligrapher in the Mi style, Wu Ji also eventually became
northern China’s leading composer of the lyric poetry known
as ci. Although there is no record of direct correspondence
between the two brothers-in-law, their family tie and Wu’s
luminary status in lettered circles must have raised interest
in Mi Youren’s art among northern artists in the early decades
of the Jin regime.
The strong presence of Mi Youren–type mist in the
Mission scroll, in a landscape that combines the Northern
Song monumental landscape styles with the blue-and-green
tradition of the Tang court, points to the early Jin period,
when such stylistic syncretism was still possible. Early Jin
painters were either unaware of or unconcerned with the
aesthetic opposition between these representational modes
and felt free to mix them in a given composition. Later, as
they became more attuned to the sociopolitical implications
17. Li Tang (ca. 1070s–ca. 1150s). Wind in the Pines amid Ten
Thousand Valleys. Detail of a hanging scroll. China, Song dynasty
(960–1279), dated 1124. Ink and color on silk, overall scroll 74 1⁄4 x
55 in. (188.7 x 139.8 cm). National Palace Museum, Taipei. Photograph: Lin 2006, no. 14
64
18. Mi Youren (1075–1151). Wondrous Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers. Section of a handscroll. China, Song dynasty (960–1279), dated 1135. Ink on paper, overall scroll
7 3⁄4 in. x 9 ft. 6 in. (.2 x 2.9 m). Palace Museum, Beijing. Photograph: Zhongguo gudai shuhua jianding zu 1997–2001, vol. 3 (1999), pl. 109
19. Zhao Lingrang (active ca. 1070–after 1100). Whiling away the Summer by a Lakeside Retreat (detail). Section of a handscroll. China, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127),
dated 1100. Ink and color on silk, complete image 7 1⁄2 x 63 3⁄4 in. (19.1 x 162 cm). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Keith McLeod Fund, 1957 (57.724)
20. Mi Youren. Cloudy Mountains. Section of a handscroll. China, Song dynasty (960–1279), dated 1130. Ink, lead-white, and color on silk, 17 1⁄4 x 76 in. (43.7 x 193 cm).
Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund (1933.220)
Epitome of National Disgrace 65
21. Li Shan (active late 12th
century). Wind and Snow in
the Fir Pines. Handscroll.
China, Jin dynasty (1115–
1234), late 12th century.
Ink on silk, 12 1⁄4 x 31 1⁄8 in.
(31.2 x 79.2 cm). Freer
Gallery of Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington,
D. C.: Gift of Eugene and
Agnes E. Meyer (F1961.34)
22. Yang Wei (active
ca. 1180). Two Horses.
Handscroll. China, Jin
dynasty (1115–1234), dated
1184. Ink and color on
silk, 10 x 31 7⁄8 in. (25.2 x
81 cm). Liaoning Provincial
Museum. Photograph:
Zhongguo gudai shuhua
jianding zu 1997–2001,
vol. 3 (1999), pl. 76
of pictorial styles, most Jin artists took sides. Wang Tingyun
(1151–1202), for instance, painted purely in the vein of
Su Shi’s and Mi Fu’s principles, whereas Li Shan and Wu
Yuanzhi, who both worked in the late twelfth century, along
with the early thirteenth-century painter known as Taigu
Yimin (Man from Antiquity), derived their styles solely from
Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Yan Wengui, among other northern
masters. Particularly relevant to the Mission scroll is Li
Shan’s Wind and Snow in the Fir Pines (Figure 21). The shape
of the thatch-roofed pavilion, the pines’ imposing size and
remarkably straight trunks balanced by gently drooping
branches, and the central placement of the pavilion scene
echo the Mission scroll. The artist pulled the mountains in
the background much closer to the viewer, however, flattening the pictorial space by virtually eliminating the middle
ground. The better-defined tripartite spatial structure of the
Mission scroll reflects a stronger link to the Northern Song
landscape tradition. The representation of the horses was
also derived directly from the Li Gonglin prototype, before
Jin art established the more distinct identity shown in such
works as Yang Wei’s Two Horses of 1184 (Figure 22). The
Mission scroll can therefore be dated on stylistic grounds to
66
the early decades of the Jurchen occupation of northern
China.17
Diplomatic procedures are ritualized manifestations of
political relations. The visits of foreign envoys provide the
best occasions for asserting national prestige and power.
Paintings commemorating these occasions can convey messages that are not explicitly articulated in fact-based historical writings. And by objectifying them in pictorial terms, the
paintings invest such messages with the aura of an embodied truth.18 As works of art, they are treasured by future generations as well as contemporary viewers. Aware of this
potential for broad transmission, Chinese painters calculated how to fashion their idioms most effectively.
The presentation of the diplomatic procedures in the
Mission scroll raises questions. In a departure from standard
etiquette, the personnel of the two states clearly come from
very different ranks. The Jin couriers and musicians are lowly
soldiers in everyday uniforms, whereas the four Song delegates are officials in formal, color-coded robes. Song officials were divided into nine ranks. Starting in 1078, those in
the top four ranks wore purple, ranks five and six wore red,
the bottom three ranks wore green, and white robes could
23. Attributed to Xiao
Zhao (active ca. 1130–60).
Auspicious Omens of
Dynastic Revival (Zhongxing
ruiying). Section of a handscroll. China, Song dynasty
(960–1279), 12th–13th century. Ink and color on silk,
overall scroll 1 ft. 1 1⁄2 in. x
48 ft. (.35 x 14.63 m).
Private collection. Photograph: China Guardian sale
2009, lot 1256
24. Detail of Figure 2, showing the Song officials and a
servant boy descending the
steps of the pavilion
Epitome of National Disgrace 67
25. Welcoming the
Honorable at Wangxian.
Detail of a hanging scroll.
China, Song dynasty
(960–1279), 12th–13th
century. Ink and color on
silk, 763⁄4 x 431⁄8 in. (195.1 x
109.5 cm). Shanghai
Museum. Photograph:
Zhongguo gudai shuhua
jianding zu 1997–2001,
vol. 5 (1999), pl. 60
68
be worn by any official regardless of rank.19 In the fourth
section of the Southern Song scroll Auspicious Omens of
Dynastic Revival, which has been attributed to Xiao Zhao
(Figure 23), a group of officials and their entourage pass
through a city gate.20 Although none of the officials wear
white, the Prince of Kang, the future Song emperor Gaozong
(r. 1127–62), wears a purple robe, and he is flanked by two
officials wearing red and preceded by four horsemen in
green.21
The three Song officials riding at the front of the group in
the Mission scroll are dressed in red, white, and green,
respectively (Figure 24). The pigments on the robe of the
fourth equestrian are completely gone; only the ink underdrawing remains. Because those pigments have survived
elsewhere on the scroll, his robe was not red, white, or
green. It was therefore most likely purple, the only possibility left for an official robe. The purple plant pigment lac, or
gum-lac (zikuang in Chinese), has been used in traditional
Chinese painting since as early as the ninth century. Made
from natural tree resin and insoluble in water, lac must be
ground into a fine powder and mixed with glue before it is
applied to the painting surface. As it is not absorbed into silk
or paper, it can easily peel off, leaving no trace of color. This
may be what has happened on the Mission scroll. (The
purple that has survived on the Auspicious Omens scroll
may be a water-based vegetable pigment or a blending of
such pigments.)22
Other features of the official in a presumably purple robe
distinguish him from his colleagues. He alone has an arc
marked on the chest of his robe, the curvature and the position of which identify it as the upper edge of a circular ornament. This kind of pattern is used to indicate prestigious
status in nondocumentary Song paintings, which sometimes
take liberties with official apparel regulations. For instance,
in the anonymous Southern Song painting currently entitled
Welcoming the Honorable at Wangxian (Wangxian yingjia)
(Figure 25), which presumably depicts an emperor welcoming his father to the capital, the emperor’s red robe has such
an ornament in gold, whereas the attire of his father and
subordinates is unadorned.23 Then too, the Song delegates
in the Mission scroll wear different hats. The hats of the
three in front have pairs of downward-curving tails, while
the hat of the official riding behind them features straight
tails that extend stiffly sidewise. Although the straight tails
normally denote formal apparel and the curved informal,24
the painter may have used the distinction to underscore the
fourth figure’s superiority over his three companions, who
precede him in a hierarchical arrangement loosely comparable to that in the Auspicious Omens scroll (Figure 23).
Rather than lowering his dignity by addressing the Jin couriers directly, he turns to talk to his own servant, the figure
dressed in Han costume standing on the stairs of the pavilion, and in so doing displays the ornament on his chest, as
if incidentally.
This dignified envoy in formal apparel would never have
been received by lowly Jurchens, with no official present,
during the early phase of Song–Jin relations, when the two
states were equals.25 Xu Kangzong detailed the protocol for
emissaries in this period in his account of his mission to the
Jin court’s spring residence in Maoli (near present-day
Harbin) in 1125.26 Upon entering Jin territory, Xu was met
by an official escort (jieban shi, literally “reception conductor”) dispatched to receive him. The escort ushered him all
the way to the Song embassy near the Jin court and was then
replaced by an “ambassadorial conductor” (guanban shi)
who accompanied him to all the activities at court. On his
return, a “departure conductor” (songban shi) escorted him
from the Jin court to the Song–Jin border, where his Song
colleagues were waiting. Once in Jin territory, Xu was never
without an official escort of appropriate rank. The pavilion
scene in the Mission scroll thus clearly violates diplomatic
conventions observed prior to 1126.
The political equilibrium between the Song and Jin states
collapsed early on. After the Jin laid siege to the Song capital, Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan), in 1125, the
Song emperor Qinzong offered to change the relationship
to that of uncle (Jin) and nephew (Song). When Bianjing fell
on January 9, 1127, Qinzong formally relinquished his title
as emperor and declared himself a minister (chen) to the Jin
ruler, but he was still taken captive by the Jurchens. The succeeding emperor, Gaozong (r. 1127–62), tried without success to negotiate a peace treaty with the Jin, who were intent
on conquering the south. It was not until the autumn of
1141, after the Song army had scored a few significant victories, that the two states began negotiating a peace treaty,
which was completed in October 1142.27 Although this
Peace Treaty of the Shaoxing Era (Shaoxing heyi) ended the
ravaging decade-long military conflict, the Song empire was
degraded to a vassal state of the Jin in a hierarchical relationship defined as minister to ruler. Peace was broken in
1160 when the Jin ruler Hailing (r. 1149–61) led a military
campaign against the Southern Song. His failed attempt
encouraged the newly enthroned Song emperor, Xiaozong
(r. 1162–89), to seek national and diplomatic equality in
1161. Wrenching disputes and tensions resurfaced as a
result. A second peace treaty, in 1165, raised the Song–Jin
relationship to that of nephew and uncle, though some of
the highly humiliating terms, including the Song emperor’s
obligation to rise from his throne to receive the Jin ruler’s
letter, persisted. After repeated failures, the Song gave up
their struggle for equality in 1175.28 The second period of
peace lasted thirty years, until conflicts resumed in 1206.
The change in Song–Jin relations had a direct impact on
diplomatic procedures, from the choice of delegates to
reception formalities. Northern Song envoys to the subordinate Liao or Jin were mostly officials of the fifth or sixth
rank, and sometimes even the seventh or eighth. Once the
Southern Song dynasty declared itself a vassal state of the
Jin, its envoys were invariably selected from officials of
higher rank than before.29 This further supports the assumption that in the Mission scroll the Song envoy’s robe with a
chest ornament was originally purple, as would have befit
an official of the highest rank.
Most peculiar in the pavilion scene on the Mission scroll
are the attitudes the two parties manifest toward each other
(see Figure 5). Though he is still engaged in a conversation
with the Song delegation, the Jin courier-guide has started
riding away, not even bothering to turn his horse around to
face them. The musicians, too, talk among themselves in
total disregard of the departing Song delegation. Their manners, as Chen Rentao and Yu Hui have observed, verge on
insolence.30 Nevertheless, the scene is notably serene, and
no one appears tense or discontent. Song officials would
more likely have tolerated such a slight during the two periods when they and the Jin were not disputing diplomatic
formalities, from 1141 to 1161 and from 1175 to 1206. And
since the Song–Jin relationship was that of minister to ruler
in the first period and nephew to uncle in the second, this
scene could more plausibly have taken place in the midtwelfth century. The Song’s greater humility during those
years provides a better explanation for the Jin’s disrespect of
diplomatic decorum and the Song delegation’s seeming
acquiescence.
The portrayal of the group of musicians in the Mission
scroll (see Figure 6) confirms the mid-twelfth century date.
Although regular Jurchen attire featured narrow sleeves, 31
the musicians wear garments with wide, flowing sleeves
and dark borders on the cuffs, bottom, and sides, which is
26. Eight Immortals Offering
Birthday Blessings. China,
Song dynasty (960–1279),
12th–13th century. Tapestry,
151⁄8 x 9 in. (38.3 x 22.8 cm).
Liaoning Provincial Museum.
Photograph: Yang Renkai
1983, pl. 10
Epitome of National Disgrace 69
characteristic of the informal dress of Song scholars and
commoners alike (see Figure 26).32 Han attire was prohibited in the early Jin dynasty, and violators faced the death
penalty in 1129, during Taizong’s reign (1123–35).33 The
succeeding emperors, Xizong (r. 1135–49) and Hailing
(r. 1149–61), who ushered in the first florescence of the
Jurchens’ sinicization, reversed the policy.34 Educated in the
Confucian tradition, Xizong “chanted the classics with
elegance and dressed himself as a Confucian scholar, . . .
deviating from the old customs of his ancestors.” He contemptuously called his conservative ministers “ignoramuses,” while they wryly compared him to “a youngster of
Han origin.”35 Brought up in the same way as Xizong, Hailing
“adored the apparel, cultural artifacts, and ceremonial and
official establishments of Jiangnan.”36 He adopted the
Chinese emperor’s sacrificial ceremony to heaven and earth
(jiaosi zhi li), in which he wore the black-and-red ceremonial robe (xuan yi xun shang) and the regal crown (gun
mian) and held a jade tablet (gui) as he rode through the
countryside in a jade-ornamented carriage (yu lu) to the
temple, a practice identical to its Song model even in
terminology.37
As early as 1125, the year of a reception banquet described
by Xu Kangzong, Jin musicians were playing Northern Song
tunes with Chinese instruments.38 The zither and the lute
held by the musicians in the Mission scroll had been popular in China for centuries. One of them plays a flute, an
indigenous instrument of the Jurchens,39 but even that must
be a Han version to fit into the ensemble. The Jurchen fascination with Han music and costume was criticized when
Emperor Shizong (r. 1161–88) ascended the throne.40 While
continuing to promote Han culture, he never forgot the old
Jurchen customs practiced in Manchuria and regretted that
the voracious absorption of Han culture was driving those
customs into oblivion. In 1173 he announced at court that
he was displeased with the prevalence of Han-style music
and ordered singers to sing Jurchen tunes. In 1187 wearing
Han-style apparel was again made a criminal offense.41 The
Jin soldiers’ Han-style attire and musical instruments in the
Mission scroll, an uninhibited manifestation of Han fashion
on the part of the state military, point to a time no later than
the 1160s, which corroborates the dating of the execution
of the scroll to between 1141 and 1161.
The style and the subject matter of the Mission scroll suggest that its creator was familiar with the landscape and
horse painting of the Northern Song and technically accomplished enough to integrate the various motifs into a coherent whole. Unconcerned with the rivalry between the tastes
of the literati and those of the court in the late Northern
Song dynasty, he comfortably drew inspiration from both.
His fair portrayal of the Jin soldiers as energetic equestrians
and civil musicians reflects no ethnic bias against the
70
Jurchens. He was familiar with the diplomatic formalities of
the mid-twelfth century and may even have been personally
involved in the reception of Song envoys, which suggests
that he may have been a Jin military officer posted on a
regular courier route.
The Mission scroll is a highly refined and sophisticated
work. All four connoisseurs who wrote the extant colophons
(see Appendix) claimed that it was painted by a great master
between the eleventh and the early thirteenth century. It
must have been treasured since its creation, as witnessed by
the ten early collectors’ seals that are no longer legible. It
was owned by the renowned Ming artist Wen Zhengming
(1470–1559) and authenticated by the leading early Qing
painter Wang Hui (1632–1717). Qualified early Jin candidates for authorship of the scroll are extremely few, and
Yang Bangji seems to have been the only one capable of
such a feat. Yang was a scholar with literary and artistic talents. After earning his jinshi degree under the Jin in 1139,
he took the position of military supervisor of Luanzhou
(present-day Luan Xian, Hebei) and later served in Taiyuan
(in Shanxi) before being summoned back to court in 1148.
He stayed at court through the 1150s, when he was demoted
to a post in Shaanxi.42
The unusual stylistic pluralism of the Mission scroll presupposes that its creator had access to a broad range of
paintings and absorbed them despite the Han elite’s aesthetic preferences and conflicts. In the chaotic early Jin
society, few could rival Yang Bangji in his exposure to a
broad range of artistic influences. There is no record of
Yang’s training as a painter, but he may have been exposed
in his youth to private art collections and later to the imperial collection at the Jin court. A considerable portion of the
Song imperial collection was dispersed during the yearlong
siege prior to Bianjing’s fall in 1127, as works of art were
given away to princes and ministers or stolen by palace
staff. Many of these works ended up in private collections
in the north.43 The best-known Jin private collector was Ren
Xun (1133–1204), a native of Yizhou (present-day Yi Xian,
Hebei), southwest of Yanjing. The Ren family collection
must have begun with Ren Xun’s father, Ren Gui, a known
painter. By the time of Ren Xun’s death, the collection
amounted to several hundred scrolls of painting and calligraphy.44 As his father served in Yizhou for many years
until the city fell to the Jurchens, Yang Bangji may have
known the Ren family since his youth. More important is his
later experience in the Jin capital. After sacking Bianjing the
Jurchens took the Song emperor Huizong’s immense art collection to Huining (present-day Acheng, Jilin), in Manchuria.
Between 1151 and 1153, when the capital was relocated to
Yanjing, the collection was moved there. During his roughly
decade-long service at court beginning in 1148, Yang Bangji’s
official distinction as secretary of the Ministry of Rites and
vice director of the Ministry of War may have won him easy
access not only to the imperial collection but also to private
collections in the capital region.
Yang was known to excel in landscape and figure painting as well as horse painting in the style of Li Gonglin, all of
which are featured in the Mission scroll. The specificity of
the depiction of the pavilion (Figures 6, 12) may relate to
Yang’s official career in the 1140s. The pavilion is elevated
on a platform with a flight of stairs to the entrance and rails
on four sides. A pointed crown tops its thatched roof. The
building is not simply a generic accessory in a landscape
painting. Rather, its unusual size and rich, sensitively characterized details, even down to the square table and wicker
stools inside, give it a conspicuous presence. The domineering scale and dark tone of the three pines further enhance
the significance of the site.
In 1124 the Jin emperor Taizong decreed that postal
stations be established at regular intervals of fifty li (about
seventeen miles) between the superior capital in Huining
and Yanjing.45 Because fresh horses had to be ready for dispatches, the route and stations in this courier system, which
was exclusively for government use, were predetermined.46
This was the route that both Xu Kangzong and the Song
delegation in the Mission scroll took on their respective diplomatic missions. In the diary of his 3,150-li (ca. 1,000-mile)
journey to the Jin court in 1125, Xu Kangzong recorded
numerous important places but only one pavilion, the
Zhuoqing Ting (Cleansed Pure Pavilion) in Luanzhou, a
large prefecture of great strategic value located on the
courier route to Huining:
The prefecture sits on a flat plain with hills at its back
and rock ridges in front. About three li to the east are
layers of rugged mountains, very steep and topographically precarious. The [Luan] river, three hundred footsteps wide, runs through them. The place
holds strategic advantage in terms of controlling the
area. The water is very pure and deep. By the river
stands a large pavilion named Zhuoqing. It is a most
extraordinary spectacle at the northern frontier. The
resident military commander receives me here. On
my way back, a banquet is held in this prefecture.47
While serving as military supervisor of Luanzhou in the
1140s, Yang Bangji doubtless came to know the Zhuoqing
Pavilion and its surrounding landscape well, and receiving
Song envoys was within his official capacity. This makes him
the strongest, in fact the only, candidate for authorship of the
Mission scroll. It is likely that he painted the Mission scroll
in the 1150s, when he served in Yanjing. The stylistic diversity and technical assurance demonstrated in the painting
bespeak a mature artist who had benefited from exposure to
a variety of sources. In addition, this painting recording the
disgrace of the Southern Song was meant to please the Jin
ruling elite. Such an adulatory act would have appeared
presumptuous for an official posted to the provinces.
The painting’s stylistic sophistication and subtlety of
expression could only have been appreciated by someone
versed in Han Chinese culture. The once brightly colored
official robes were calculated to appeal to such an individual’s fascination with Song bureaucratic rituals. And a political painting is effective only with an audience attuned to
the political function of art. Emperor Hailing, who ruled
through the 1150s, was therefore most likely the intended
recipient of the Mission scroll. Hailing, whose reign saw the
greatest proliferation of government offices and effectively
transformed the Jurchen state from a tribal body politic into
a Chinese-style government,48 was the first Jin ruler to love
Chinese art so much as to become a practitioner himself.
He is known to have painted in the vein of Su Shi’s and
Mi Fu’s “ink plays” and was particularly fond of rendering
bamboo.49 Nicknamed Boliehan (Aping the Chinese) by his
fellow Jurchens,50 he unabashedly assumed the role of
guardian of the Chinese cultural heritage. In 1157 he implemented a policy that prohibited the exportation of antiquities to the south.51
In spite of, or rather because of, his love of Han culture,
Hailing was determined to vanquish the Southern Song in
order to rule all of China, and he used painting to pursue his
goal. In 1151, less than two years after he ascended the
throne, he initiated the relocation of the Jin capital from
Huining to Yanjing, in China’s heartland. In 1155 he made
plans to move the capital farther south to Bianjing to facilitate his conquest of the Southern Song.52 As a preparatory
tactic, he hid a painter in a diplomatic delegation to the
Southern Song in January 1160 to draw the topography of
Lin’an (present-day Hangzhou), the Song capital. Later,
envisioning the glory of unifying the empires, he added his
own image, on horseback on top of Mount Wu, to the painting of Lin’an.53 He launched his southward campaign in the
fall of 1161. Defeated within a few months, he was assassinated in Yangzhou that winter.
Underlying Hailing’s aggressive act was his conviction of
the Southern Song emperor Gaozong’s unworthiness and
his belief in his own superiority as ruler of China. He certainly had good reasons to challenge Gaozong’s claim to
Heaven’s mandate. Ascending the throne when his elder
half-brother, the rightful emperor Qinzong (r. 1126–27,
d. 1161), was living in captivity under the Jurchens, Gaozong
was deeply concerned with the issue of legitimate succession (zhengtong). Many of his court’s artistic projects, the
most actively programmed in all of Chinese history, were
geared toward establishing dynastic legitimacy.54 Most notably, the narrative scroll Auspicious Omens of Dynastic
Revival (Figure 23) illustrates Gaozong’s life prior to his
Epitome of National Disgrace 71
27. Zhao Lin (active mid-12th
century). Six Steeds of the
Tang Emperor Taizong.
Handscroll. China, Jin
dynasty (1115–1234),
mid-12th century. Ink and
color on silk, overall scroll
10 3⁄4 in. x 14 ft. 6 7⁄8 in.
(.27 x 4.44 m). Palace
Museum, Beijing. Photograph: Fu et al. 1988, pl. 63
72
becoming emperor, when several supernatural signs presaged his ordained destiny to sovereign power. The painting
Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State in the Metropolitan
Museum illustrates the story of Prince Chong’er, who in the
seventh century B.C. returned from exile to become Duke
Wen, ruler of the state of Jin, a classic precedent of dynastic
revival. By commissioning the painting, Gaozong affirmed
the identification of himself with Chong’er in the official
proclamation of his succession in 1127.55 Another painting,
Welcoming the Imperial Carriage (Ying luan), in the
Shanghai Museum, commemorates the return of Gaozong’s
biological mother, the empress dowager Wei, and the
remains of his father, Emperor Huizong, and his empress
from the north to Lin’an in 1142.56 The painting publicizes
not only Gaozong’s filial piety but also the legitimacy of his
succession, for the proper burial of the former emperor was
an act symbolic of the direct transmission of power that rendered the faraway existence of Qinzong inconsequential.
Throughout his long reign Gaozong consistently sought
peace with the Jin, often at the expense of national and
personal dignity. The return of the imperial coffins resulted
from the Treaty of Shaoxing of 1142, which was phrased in
terms extremely humiliating to the Song. The treaty declared
the Song, “our insignificant fiefdom” (biyi), a vassal state of
the Jin, “your superior state” (shangguo). In official correspondence with the Jin, Gaozong, whom the Jin did not
recognize as emperor, referred to himself as “your minister”
and used his personal name, Gou. The annual material
compensation of the Song to the Jin was termed a tribute
(gong). Each new border was considerably farther south
than the previous one. Gaozong’s acceptance of the Jin as
ruler of the Song in a diplomatic document in the form of
an edict (zhao) may be considered the gravest humiliation
in Song history.57
Even more demoralizing, the Treaty of Shaoxing was
negotiated when a few Song generals of extraordinary prowess, namely Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, and Yue Fei, had just
reached a military stalemate with the Jin forces, and for the
first time in decades there was a glimpse of hope of recovering the lost northern territory. The sudden removal
of the military command of those hawkish revanchists and
especially the unjust execution of the most outspoken of
them, Yue Fei, smoothed the way to peace, which Gaozong
desperately needed to secure his sovereignty, however
debased it may have become.58 His conciliation-oriented
policies in military and diplomatic affairs alienated the educated class.59 From the perspective of the Jin emperor
Hailing, an acknowledged master of statecraft, Gaozong’s
failure as a ruler justified his ambition to unify China. The
Mission scroll was therefore a pictorial embodiment of the
Jin’s triumph and the Song’s humiliation that catered directly
to Hailing’s political aspirations. Hailing was suspicious and
ruthless by nature. Being a Jin official of Han origin, Yang
Bangji might have felt the need to show his loyalty to the Jin
ruler by demonstrating his support of the planned conquest
of his own people that was in its preparatory stages in the
late 1150s.60
Before the Jurchens, the Khitan rulers of the Liao dynasty
(907–1125) had already learned from the Chinese the
potential of painting as political propaganda. In 1018
Emperor Shengzong (r. 982–1031) commissioned Chen
Sheng, a painter in attendance at court, to depict the Khitan
army’s victory over the Northern Song on a palace wall in
the Upper Capital (present-day Chifeng, Inner Mongolia).61
And in 1048, during the reign of the next emperor, Xingzong
(r. 1031–55), a Jurchen envoy on a tribute mission to the
Liao saw in the devotional temple of Emperor Taizu
(r. 907–25) a wall painting showing the conquest of Liao
emperor Taizong (r. 925–47) over the Jin region (roughly
equivalent to modern Shanxi province).62 These wall paintings celebrated dynastic pride. Placed in a palace or imperial temple, they served to strengthen the solidarity of the
ruling elite. Emblematic of national prestige and military
prowess, they inspired awe and fear in the envoys of vassal
states.
With the Southern Song and the Jin competing for the
claim of legitimate succession to the unified polity of the
Tang and the Northern Song, the issue of dynastic legitimacy assumed greater importance. The Mission scroll was
not the first politically motivated Jin painting. Early Jurchen
leaders may have known about the Khitan wall paintings.
The painting projects at the Southern Song emperor
Gaozong’s court must have intensified the interest of Jin
emperors Xizong and Hailing in political art. One precious
specimen of early Jin art, Zhao Lin’s Six Steeds of the Tang
Emperor Taizong (Figure 27), is distinctly political. Zhao
Lin, a painter active during Xizong’s reign, specialized in
painting animals, horses in particular.63 Six Steeds translates
into painting the reliefs of the six beloved horses of Tang
emperor Taizong (r. 626–49) that were carved on the wall of
his mausoleum, Zhao Ling (near present-day Liquan,
Shaanxi). Zhao’s painting, enriched with transcriptions of
Taizong’s statement exalting military accomplishments and
a eulogy for each horse, celebrates the founding of a great
dynasty through the power of horses, a national pride that
the Jin shared with the Tang.64
Self-conscious in their role as invaders, the Jurchen rulers
took the issue of dynastic legitimacy seriously. In order to
justify his invasion of the Song in 1125, the Jin emperor
Taizong (r. 1123–35) invoked the righteous cause of eliminating the treacherous Song ministers who had persecuted
the followers of Su Shi and Huang Tingjian (1045–1105).
When Bianjing fell a year later, the Jurchens attributed the
Song defeat to the disastrous politics of Prime Minister Cai
Jing (1047–1126) and took special pains to collect the
writings of Su, Huang, and their circle as a gesture of restitution and a display of their superior leadership.65 The comprehensive Jin-sponsored compilation of official Song–Jin
correspondence from the 1120s to the early 1140s is selfrighteously entitled Records of the Great Jin’s Consoling
(the People) and Punishing (the Evildoers) (Da Jin diao fa lu)
to euphemize their aggression.66
The concern with legitimacy, as Susan Bush has observed,
might have lain behind Jurchen efforts to continue the
Northern Song’s restoration of Tang imperial tombs when
they took control of the Xi’an region in 1129. In 1134 a stele
was erected at Qian Ling, the mausoleum of the Tang
emperor Gaozong (r. 649–83) and his empress Wu Zetian
(r. 684–704), with an inscription written in both Chinese
and Jurchen.67 Zhao Lin’s painting of the Tang imperial
horses indicates that the Jin rulers’ interest in Tang mausoleums continued well into Xizong’s reign. Emulating the
Northern Song emperors, the Jin assumed the role of rightful
successors to the Tang by conserving their imperial tombs.
By the 1140s they had successfully cultivated their image as
guardians of China’s cultural legacy. It should come as no
surprise, then, that the initial large-scale migration of the
educated class from the north to the Chinese state of Song
did not last beyond the late 1120s and 1130s.68 By commissioning Zhao Lin’s Six Steeds to invoke the glory of the Tang
in the 1140s, Xizong insinuated a historical link to that prestigious dynasty and the legitimacy of his own state as its
successor. His endeavor was carried on by Hailing and
revived in 1194 in an off and on court debate that lasted for
twenty years on the appropriate cosmological symbol for
the Jin in the line of legitimate dynastic transmission.69
The Mission scroll addresses the legitimacy issue by illuminating the diplomatic inequality between the Song and
the Jin. But it also refers to the Tang, because the subject of
diplomatic procedures is particularly associated with Tang
court painting. During Tang rule, China dominated its
neighbors, and this bore directly on the depiction of diplomatic procedures. A mural in the tomb of the Tang prince
Li Xian (654–684) near present-day Xi’an that was painted
in 706 (Figure 28) may be the earliest known work on the
subject. It shows an encounter between three foreign envoys
and the Chinese delegation that receives them. Stereotypically, the Tang courtiers are endowed with fine facial
features, elaborate apparel, and natural grace, while the foreigners, whose faces seem to be caricatures with animal
features, approach clumsily in rustic outfits and either wearing outlandish headgear or hatless. The Chinese officials
chat among themselves, ignoring the visitors who stare at
them in a deferential manner, eager for recognition.
A similar intrigue in the diplomatic power game accounts
for the seriously unbalanced composition of a short handscroll entitled Emperor on an Imperial Sedan Chair (Bu nian
tu) attributed to Yan Liben (Figure 29). This painting commemorates the Tang emperor Taizong’s audience in 641
with Ludongzan (d. 676), prime minister and chief general
of the Tufan state (present-day Tibet), who had approached
the Tang court on behalf of the Tufan leader to request a
Chinese princess as his consort.70 Sitting casually on a moving sedan chair amid elaborate imperial paraphernalia and
lovely female attendants, the informally dressed Chinese
emperor displays his superiority to the Tibetan envoy, the
figure wearing an ornately decorated formal robe who
stands respectfully between two other supplicants. This
painting was well known among the Northern Song educated elite. Seventeen men of letters, most notably Mi Fu,
wrote appreciative colophons between 1080 and 1086 that
are still attached to the end of the scroll. Once in the collection of Zhao Zhongyuan (1054–1123), a member of the
Song imperial family,71 it remained in the north after the
Jurchen conquest and entered the Jin imperial collection
by the 1180s.72 Given the painting’s tremendous fame as
Epitome of National Disgrace 73
28. Visit of Foreign Envoys.
Section of a wall painting in
the tomb of the Tang prince
Li Xian near Xi’an. China,
Tang dynasty (618–907),
datable to 706. Photograph:
Zhang 2002, pl. 24
both a historical document and a work of art, there can be
little doubt that someone of Yang Bangji’s stature would
have been interested in it and had opportunities to view it
in person.
The psychology involved in diplomatic procedures is
always central to pictorial representations of them. By the
time the Mission scroll was created, the status of the Han and
non-Han states had reversed, and so had the characteriza-
tion of the figures and their manner in painting. Instead of
degrading stereotypes, the Jurchens are now genteel musicians and energetic soldiers. By contrast, the Song delegates
appear “low-spirited” and “submissive and ill at ease,” as
Chen Rentao described them in his colophon to the painting
dated 1953.73 And here it is the formally dressed Chinese
officials who are slighted and ignored by the casual Jurchens.
The evocation of the Tang prototype and the reversal of
its original connotation in the Mission scroll make its portrayal of the Song’s disgrace all the more poignant. The Song
envoys would no more have worn color-coded official
robes on their long journey through an alien land than the
Tang emperor would have received a foreign ambassador in
the company of charming maids. Both paintings are “more
an expression of a political idea than a record of an event.”74
The Song officials in colorful outfits and the vibrant green
foreground stand out against the subdued, naturalistic landscape. The Tang chromatics spotlight the paradox, symbolizing as they do both the Song’s cultural eminence and their
national disgrace. Created by an educated Han Chinese to
demonstrate his moral support of the Jin emperor Hailing’s
conquest of the south, the scroll shows how firmly the
Jurchen sense of dynastic legitimacy had taken root among
the northern Chinese intelligentsia by the mid-twelfth century. From an art historical perspective this illumination of
Song–Jin diplomatic relations that revels in China’s humiliation by drawing on well-established subjects and styles in
Chinese painting is a unique anomaly. As such, it occupies
a special place in the tradition of Chinese political art.
29. Attributed to Yan Liben (d. 674). Emperor on an Imperial Sedan Chair. Section of a handscroll (with detail). China, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), copy of 7th-century
original. Ink and color on silk, 15 1⁄8 x 50 3⁄4 in. (38.5 x 129 cm). Palace Museum, Beijing. Photograph: Zhongguo lidai huihua 1978–91, vol. 1 (1978), pp. 36–37
74
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to James C. Y.
Watt, Brooke Russell Astor Chairman, and Maxwell K.
Hearn, Douglas Dillon Curator, of the Department of Asian
Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art for their encouragement and guidance of my research on this important painting. Without their generous support I would have had
neither the time nor the resources for this broad-range
contextual study. My gratitude also goes to Yuan-li Hou,
associate conservator, and Christine Lam, research assistant,
in Asian Art Conservation for helping me examine the painting surface and the application of pigments in great detail.
I extend my thanks as well to Professor Richard M. Barnhart,
my former advisor at the Yale University Graduate School
and an authority on Song dynasty painting. His definitive
study on Li Gonglin’s Classic of Filial Piety and insightful
interpretation of Li’s Pasturing Horses, after Wei Yan
(Figure 14), in particular, have inspired this venture into
unexplored territories.
N OT E S
1. For a thorough study on the versions of this painting, see Ch’en
1987.
2. It is recorded in Bi Yuan, Xu Zizhi tongjian (1801), that in 1129 five
thousand mounted Jurchen soldiers approached the Huai River, all
wearing metal armor and white conical hats made of felt (see Zhou
1984, p. 353, ill.). Only traces of white powder now remain on the
hats of the soldiers in the Mission scroll.
3. The names of 359 envoys are recorded in Song shi and Jin shi. See
Zhang 2006, p. 31.
4. On Yang Bangji, see Chen 1984, pp. 800–813.
5. Chiang 1979a, pp. 32–40. Chiang identified the mission depicted
as the one that took place in the fourth lunar month of 1123 regarding the return of Yanjing and six northern prefectures to the Song
because four delegates, namely Yao Pingzhong, Kang Sui, Wang
Gui, and Zhao Liangsi, were recorded in historical documents on
this particular mission and there are four Song officials on horseback in this painting. But the Song diplomatic delegation to the Jin
routinely constituted nearly one hundred people (see Zhang 2006,
p. 32). The painter had no intention of literally representing the
number of people in the mission. Chiang argues that the painting
depicts the four Song officials hosting a repast for the Jin envoy on
their way to Yanjing to negotiate with the Jin leaders residing there
at the time and that it was meant to commemorate the success of
their mission to retrieve the lost territory. Both views were challenged by Yu Hui (1990, pp. 38–39). Yu correctly interpreted the
scene as Jin representatives receiving the Song delegation at a courier station, stating that a painting intended to glorify the Song triumph would have focused on the celebratory activities at court, as
in the court painting tradition of the Song, rather than on a minor
event that took place in the mountains. Chiang also suggested that
the site depicted is the Pine Pavilion Pass (Songting Guan). He
erroneously located this pass in Jingzhou (present-day Jing Xian,
Hebei), south of Yanjing. The pass was actually in Luanhe Xian
(present-day Luanyang or Kuancheng, Hebei), northeast of Yanjing;
see Chen 1988, pp. 86–89. Departing from Bianjing, the Song delegation on the 1123 mission could not have stopped at the Pine
Pavilion Pass on their way to Yanjing.
6. Yu 1990.
7. See also Wang Shen’s Fishing Village after Light Snow and Wang
Ximeng’s Thousand Miles of Streams and Mountains in the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
8. See Barnhart 1984, p. 66.
9. This practice was probably originated by Dong Yuan (d. 962), a
court painter of the interim Five Dynasties between the Tang and
the Song (see Wang 1995, pp. 4–5). Dong Yuan was famous for his
paintings in the blue-and-green manner, none of which has survived. Judging from Subjects under Beneficent Reign (Long su jiao
min), a painting attributed to him that is now in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, his work in this manner relied heavily on the use
of ink washes and textures. Wang Shen’s blue-and-green landscape paintings, for example Layered Peaks along Misty River in
the Shanghai Museum, exhibit the same method of applying color
over ink. They confirm Mi Fu’s statement that Wang Shen “used
gold and green pigments to render textures of forms.” See Mi Fu
1967, p. 25.
10. For a sensitive discussion of this painting and Mi Youren’s painting
style in general, see Sturman 1997, pp. 8–11.
11. Mi Youren once wrote of one of his own paintings, “It is truly my
work of childish play that was successful” (recorded in Mi Fu,
Haiyue tiba, translated and discussed in Bush 1971, p. 71).
12. Mi Fu produced very few paintings, and none has survived.
13. For the significance of this painting in Mi Youren’s career, see
Howard Rogers’s comments in Ho et al. 1980, pp. 42–44, no. 24.
14. Yu 1992, p. 40. Yuwen was detained in the Jin empire for seventeen years, during which he impressed the Jin luminaries with his
literary and artistic compositions.
15. According to Tang Hou’s Hua jian (1329), whenever Emperor
Gaozong found new paintings and calligraphies he would ask Mi
Youren to authenticate and inscribe them (cited in Chen 1984,
p. 584). Mi was appointed vice director of the Ministry of War
(Bing Bu Shilang) in 1141 and promoted to the position of auxiliary
academician of the Hall for the Diffusion of Literature (Fuwen Ge
Zhixueshi) in 1145. See Xu Song, Song huiyao jigao, cited in Chen
1984, p. 560.
16. Ill equipped with administrative skills, early Jin rulers detained
learned Southern Song envoys to help them deal with the large
Han population in the north. On Wu Ji, see Tuotuo et al. 1344 (JS),
juan 4, 125, 126.
17. In her discussion of an anonymous Jin landscape painting in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Bush (1965, pp. 163–72, in
particular n. 4) rightly observed that the Mission scroll lacks recognizable Jin characteristics such as the sketchy calligraphic brushwork
and certain types of landscape elements seen in later Jin paintings.
18. Cahill 1988, p. 15.
19. Tuotuo et al. 1345, juan 106.
20. This handscroll originally consisted of twelve sections, three of
which are preserved in the Tianjin Museum. At least two different
but complete versions have survived, but I have not been able to
examine them to verify their authenticity. Four sections of one
scroll are reproduced in black and white in Xie 1957, no. 18, pls.
65–81. The other is published in color in the catalogue of China
Guardian sale 2009, lot 1256.
21. As a prince, he is wearing the same style of official hat and robe as
his subordinates. Only the color purple reveals his superior status.
Epitome of National Disgrace 75
22. See Yu 1961, p. 8, and also the well-annotated translation,
Silbergeld and McNair 1988, p. 12.
23. The painting bears a label strip by Yongxing, the Qing Prince of
Chengqing (1752–1823), that identifies the subject matter as the
Tang emperor Suzong (r. 756–62) welcoming his father, Emperor
Xuanzong (r. 712–56), back to the capital after a devastating rebellion, which took place at Wangxian in 757. The modern scholar
Li Lin-ts’an, however, thinks that the painting depicts the Han
emperor Gaozu (r. 206–195 B.C.) welcoming his father to the capital after his founding of the Han dynasty, which took place in
Xinfeng. See Zhang Lei’s comment on this painting in Zhongguo
gudai shuhua jianding zu 1997–2001, vol. 5 (1997), p. 14, nos.
59–61.
24. See Zhou and Gao 1984, p. 176.
25. For a detailed account of the conflicts and negotiations between
the Song and the Jin regarding diplomatic proprieties, see Zhao
1996.
26. Xu and Zhong 1125, sections 10, 39. Xu Kangzong has traditionally
been regarded as the author of the account of the 1125 journey to
the Jin court. Chen Lesu argued quite convincingly in 1936, however, that Zhong Bangzhi, the official in charge of gifts on this
mission, was the actual writer. See Chen 1936, pp. 262–64. But as
leader of the mission Xu Kangzong would certainly have been
involved in the writing process. In the chapter on foreign envoys’
activities in the Jin shi (History of the Jin Dynasty), there is a section detailing the reception of the envoys from Xi Xia that closely
corresponds with Xu’s account (see Tuotuo et al. 1344 [JS], juan 38).
27. For a detailed study on the diplomatic correspondence that led to
this peace treaty, see Franke 1970, pp. 76–81.
28. On Emperor Xiaozong’s failed attempts during the decade, see
Zhao 1996, pp. 61–62.
29. Zhang 2006, pp. 32–33.
30. See Chen Rentao’s 1953 colophon to the Mission scroll in the
Appendix and Yu 1990, p. 38.
31. Tuotuo et al. 1344 (JS), juan 43.
32. See also a scholar in the Song painting Discussing the Dao under
Pine Trees (Songyin lundao) (Zhou and Gao 1984, pp. 165, 178).
33. Yuwen 13th c., juan 5.
34. It was under Xizong and Hailing that the Jin morphed from a tribal
polity into a Chinese-style autocratic state with a highly hierarchical bureaucracy (Franke 1994, pp. 265–66). For a summary of the
evolution of the Jin leadership from a tribal council to a full-fledged
government, see ibid., pp. 265–77. Due to his crimes of regicide
and usurpation, among other atrocities, Emperor Hailing is always
referred to as Prince of Hailing, Hailing Wang, in official histories
of the Jin.
35. Xu 1194, juan 166.
36. Yuwen 13th c., juan 13.
37. For a description of Hailing’s ritual practice, see ibid., juan 33. The
Song emperors’ ceremonial costumes and paraphernalia are
recorded in much more detail in Tuotuo et al. 1345, juan 151. For
contemporary illustrations, with corresponding texts, of the
emperor’s ceremonial apparel and carriage, see Nie 962, 1: 3a–b,
9: 4a–5a, 10: 1a.
38. Xu and Zhong 1125, the 28th section of his journey to the Jin court.
Most of the 200 musicians and singers at the Jin court were Khitans
who had been captured by the Jurchens upon the loss of the Liao
territory to the Jin between 1120 and 1125 (ibid., 39th section).
39. Originally the Jurchens had only drums and flutes for making music
(Yuwen 13th c., juan 39, “Chuxing fengtu” [Native Customs]).
76
40. For a summary of Shizong’s attempt to restore native Jurchen culture, see Yang Zhongqian 2005, p. 30.
41. Tuotuo et al. 1344 (JS), juan 7.
42. On Yang Bangji’s biography, see ibid., juan 90.
43. On the works in the early Jin collection, see Chiang 1979b,
pp. 29–30.
44. Yang Renkai 2005. On Ren Xun, see Chen 1984, pp. 795–99.
45. Tuotuo et al. 1344 (JS), juan 3.
46. Franke 1994, p. 297.
47. Xu and Zhong 1125, the 11th section of his journey.
48. Franke 1994, pp. 269–70.
49. Xia 1365, juan 4.
50. Franke 1994, p. 240.
51. Ibid., p. 299.
52. Yuwen 13th c., juan 13, 14.
53. Yu 1992, p. 41.
54. There have been several in-depth studies on this topic. See, for
instance, Murray 1985, Murray 1986, Shih 1987, and Murray 1989.
55. Gaozong was the ninth son of the former emperor Huizong, while
Chong’er was the only one of his father’s nine sons who survived
to succeed the throne. And both faced multiple adversities drifting
from place to place in early life. The coincidence prompted
Empress Dowager Yuanyou (Madame Meng), the consort of
Emperor Zhezong (r. 1085–1100), to identify the two men with
each other in her official proclamation of Gaozong’s succession in
1127 (Li 1211, 4: 30–31, vol. 1, p. 91).
56. For a detailed study of this painting, see Murray 1990–92.
57. Franke 1970, pp. 78–80.
58. For a succinct but lucid exposition of the complex situation during
this period, see Tao 2009, pp. 677–89. On the complicated issues
related to Yue Fei’s execution, see Wilhelm 1962.
59. Liu 1995, pp. 43–44.
60. Yang Bangji was eventually demoted after a failed plea to Hailing
on behalf of an in-law.
61. Tuotuo et al. 1344 (LS), juan 16.
62. Ibid., juan 20.
63. In his colophon to this painting dated 1220, the eminent Jin
scholar-official Zhao Bingwen (1159–1232) said that Zhao was a
court artist under Shizong (r. 1161–89). Other later biographical
sources, such as Zhu Mouyin’s Huashi huiyao and Wang Yuxian’s
Huishi beikao, however, identify him as a painter during Xizong’s
reign (see Zhu 1958, pp. 332–33). He may have been active from
the 1140s into the 1160s. Since this painting relates directly to the
Jin government’s restoration of Tang imperial tombs in the late
1120s and 1130s, it was most likely painted at Xizong’s court.
64. For a concise and insightful study of this painting, see Bush 1995,
pp. 188–94.
65. Franke 1994, p. 307; Toyama 1964, pp. 594–618.
66. For a well-annotated edition of this book, see Jin 2001.
67. Bush 1995, p. 194.
68. Franke 1994, p. 319.
69. See Chan 1984.
70. On the subject of the painting as related in the colophons attached
to the scroll and in historical documents, see Su 1976.
71. Recorded in Mi Fu, Hua shi (History of Painting), cited in Su 1976,
p. 25.
72. This painting bears three seals of the Jin emperor Zhangzong
(r. 1188–1208).
73. See also Yu 1990, p. 38.
74. Cahill 1988, p. 15.
A P P E N D I X : D O C U M E N TAT I O N O F A D I P L O M AT I C M I S S I O N T O T H E J I N ( F I G U R E 2 ) 1
金 傳 楊邦基 聘金圖 巻
(Pin Jin)
Attributed to Yang Bangji (ca. 1110–1181)
No artist’s signature or seals
癸酉三月十九日友石齋中伊秉綬記︒ [印]: 墨卿, 吾得之忠
信
LABEL STRIP
Chen Rentao 陳仁濤 (active mid-20th century), 1 column
in standard script (Figure 30):
A Diplomatic Mission to the Jin by Yang Bangji (ca. 1110–
1181) of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
聘金圖, 金楊邦基
COLOPHONS
Yi Bingshou 伊秉綬 (1754–1815), 7 columns in running
script, dated 1813 (Figure 31):
In the tenth year of the Jiaqing reign era [1805] Yungu [Ye
Menglong, 1775–1832] invited me to take this anonymous
painting to see Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial
Weng Tanxi [Weng Fanggang, 1733–1818], who firmly
identified it as a work of Ma Yuan (active ca. 1190–1225).
He also pointed out in detail its refinement and subtle
depth. It has been eight years since then. Viewing it now, I
am convinced. On the nineteenth of the third lunar month
in the guiyou year [April 19, 1813] Yi Bingshou wrote this
in the Youshi Zhai studio.
[seals]: Moqing, Wu dezhi zhongxin
嘉慶十年雲谷邀予持此無款畫過翁覃溪鴻臚, 毅然斷以為
馬遠之作, 且細指其精微澹遠之趣︒ 今越八年, 讀之而信︒
30. Chen Rentao, label strip attached to
Figure 2
Xie Lansheng 謝蘭生 (1760–1831), 4 columns in standard
script, dated 1814 (Figure 32):
This painting must have been a longer scroll but lost part of
its beginning and end due to damages. Examining its brushwork, I found lines sometimes thinner than a hair but all
executed with the centered tip of a brush held from a suspended wrist, of which none but the Song masters were
capable. Yungu bought it from a painting store at a low price.
It has been identified as a work by Painter-in-Attendance Ma
[Yuan] because its style was close to that of the Academy,
and Ma was the best of the Academy painters. Xie Lansheng,
Lifu, inscribed this in summer, the fifth lunar month, of the
jiaxu year in the Jiaqing reign era [1814].
[seal]: Xie Lansheng yin
此圖當是長巻, 因剝蝕脫去前後矣︒ 細玩用筆, 時或微於絲
髮, 而皆懸腕中鋒, 非宋人高手不辦︒ 雲谷向於畫肆以賤值
得之, 論者指為馬待詔, 以畫近院體, 待詔則院中獨步故耳︒
嘉慶甲戌夏五里甫謝蘭生題︒ [印]: 謝蘭生印
Luo Tianchi 羅天池 (1805–after 1856), 10 columns in running script (Figure 33):
In terms of brushwork, [this painting] is close to those by
Yan Wengui (active ca. 970–1030) and Liu Songnian (active
ca. 1175–after 1195). Ma Yuan’s brushwork has comparable
vigor and antique flavor, but not its purity and expansiveness.
31. Yi Bingshou, colophon attached to Figure 2, dated 1813
Epitome of National Disgrace 77
0,66,1*
32. Xie Lansheng, colophon
attached to Figure 2, dated
1814
33. Luo Tianchi, colophon attached to Figure 2
Weng Zhengsan [Weng Fanggang] did detailed research on
stone and bronze inscriptions but seldom spent time probing the spirit and principle of calligraphy. On painting he
was even farther from correct. I have seen many genuine
works by Ma Yuan in my life, which bear no resemblance to
this painting. Since it has no [artist’s] signature, I dare not
name anyone as the painter. No one should complain,
though, if I categorically attribute it to a Song master. This
scroll has been remounted several times. A certain bad conservator peeled off its original backing paper, and the painting lost some of its luster as a result. It is regrettable. Luo
Tianchi viewed this in the Haishan Xianguan Studio [of the
Pan family in Guangzhou].
[seal]: Luo shi Liuhu
以筆墨論, 於燕文貴︑ 劉松年為近; 馬遠有此古勁, 無此清遠
也︒ 翁正三考據碑版金石較詳, 而於書法之神理往往不暇尋
索, 若畫理相去不知幾由旬矣︒ 余生平獲觀馬遠真蹟綦多,
與此不類︒ 既無款識, 未敢指為誰何之作, 概以宋人, 庶無訾
焉︒ 是卷歷經裝池, 為劣匠掀去命紙, 致令神彩稍遜, 亦憾事
也︒ 羅天池觀於海山僊館︒ [印]: 羅氏六湖
Chen Rentao 陳仁濤 (active mid-20th century), 37 columns
in running script, dated 1953 (Figure 34):
The long handscroll on silk to the right, which I entitled
A Diplomatic Mission to the Jin, is a rare masterwork among
northern paintings. In it is a courier pavilion-station with tall
pines on its sides. To the right stand clustered mountains
and valleys; to the left is a pass with a bridge. Beyond the
pass and the bridge, fragmented views of mountains and
78
waters flicker in and out of distant clouds and dark mist. In
the pavilion the table is empty without wine utensils. In
front of the pavilion are three members of the Jin courier
station. The one holding a lute seems to be bidding farewell
to his guests before his return. To the left of the path stand
two clerks with clasped hands expressing goodwill and
gratitude. Alone on the stone steps to the left of the pavilion
is a lowly menial in Han costume, reluctant to see the
Chinese delegation leave. To the left of the stone steps are
four Chinese emissaries on horseback. Looking low-spirited,
they whisper among themselves rather than departing
immediately. Farther left, a Jin soldier holds the reins and
looks back, seeming to urge his horse forward with a command. Still farther to the left, a soldier with a courier’s letter
on his back spurs his horse on, seemingly on a mission to
order the pass’s gatekeeper to allow the emissaries’ return.
Spreading out this painting, one vividly senses the humiliation of the defeated Song regime and the arrogance of the
Jin through the silent brush and ink. It used to be considered
a Song work. Yi Bingshou and Weng Fanggang thought it
was painted by Ma Yuan. Luo Tianchi thought it was close
to Yan Wengui’s or Liu Songnian’s style. They were all
wrong. Since the painting’s subject is the Jin, it would not
have been painted by a Song artist. But there is deep, hidden meaning beyond the painted images that a Jurchen artist would not have attempted either. In my opinion, after the
court moved [to the south], a former Song subject who
turned to serve the Jin may have painted it out of longing for
the perished nation, a sad man with conflicting emotions.
34. Chen Rentao, colophon
attached to Figure 2, dated
1953. Above: right side,
below: left side
Its style particularly reminds me of Yang Bangji. Bangji,
whose zi is Demao, was a native of Huayin in Shaanxi.
Under the Jin, he served as Vice Director of the Palace
Library, Hanlin Academician, and Military Commissioner of
Yongxingjun [present-day Xi’an region]. He painted landscapes, human figures, and horses well. His father, Tao,
served as Assistant Administrator of Yizhou [present-day Yi
Xian, Hebei] under the Song. At the fall of the city, he was
killed by the Jin army. Bangji, a young child, hid in a
Buddhist temple and escaped death. He was, therefore, a
descendant of a loyalist, who served his enemies after the
dynastic change. He was the so-called “official of a perished
ruler or son of a concubine who worries with a sense of
urgency and fears disasters with deep apprehension.”2 It was
only appropriate that he exhausted his mind and thought to
paint this scroll to express obliquely his inner loyalty to his
own country. Years ago I saw his landscape painting after
the style of Li Cheng (919–967). In it old pines spread disarrayed branches and the human figures appear energetic and
spirited. Both seemed to be painted by the same artist as this
scroll. So should not this scroll come from the hand of Vice
Director of the Palace Library Yang as well? Chen Rentao
wrote in the winter of the guisi year [1953].
[seals]: Jingui Shi, Jingui Shi zhu, Chen shi Rentao
Epitome of National Disgrace 79
右绢本長巻, 余名之曰《聘金圖》, 北畫中罕見之劇跡也︒ 中
作驛亭, 翼以長松; 右簇巖谷, 左峙闗梁︒ 關梁之外, 杳靄蒼
煙, 剩山殘水, 若有若無︒ 亭中几案空陳, 酒漿不設︒ 亭南金
驛使三, 一抱琵琶, 作酬客已將歸狀; 二吏拱立道左迎勞之︒
獨亭西石磴上一漢服賤役, 眷眷目送中使行︒ 石磴西中使四
輩, 神態蕭瑟, 竊議馬上未即行︒ 又西一金卒攬轡返顧, 若吭
聲速之︒ 又西一卒, 背驛書, 驟馬似銜命飭闗聽使歸︒ 蓋宋
季喪敗之辱, 金人驕矜之情, 披斯圖也, 舉可於無言筆墨之
外, 歷歷得之︒ 圖舊以為宋人筆, 伊秉綬︑ 翁方綱以為出馬
遠, 羅天池以為近燕文貴︑ 劉松年, 皆非是︒ 良以全圖主題
在金, 宋人不應有此︒ 圖外寄慨深隱, 金人亦所不為︒ 意者
殆播遷之後, 宋遺民之仕金者不勝喬木故國之感, 而傷心人
別具懷抱者之所作歟? 而風格尤與楊邦基為近︒ 邦基字德
懋, 陜西華陰人, 仕金為秘書少監︑ 翰林學士︑ 永興軍節度
使, 善畫山水人馬︒ 父綯, 宋易州州佐, 城陷戕於金︒ 邦基以
齒稚匿僧舍得免, 則固忠烈之嗣, 而祚移鼎遷, 服官於讎仇
之國者也︒ 所謂孤臣孽子, 其操心也危, 其慮患也深︒ 其腐心
刻意, 以成斯圖, 以曲達拳拳本朝之心也宜︒ 抑予于昔年所
見其仿李成山水, 老松離披, 人物遒潔, 與此圖如出一手︒ 然
則此巻殆即楊祕監所製歟? 癸巳冬日陳仁濤識︒ [印]: 金匱
室, 金匱室主, 陳氏仁濤
COLLECTORS’ SEALS
Wen Zhengming 文徵明 (1470–1559)
Zhengming jianding 徵明鑑定
Wang Hui 王翬 (1632–1717)
Shigu jianshang 石谷鑑賞
Bi Yuan 畢沅 (1730–1797)
Qiufan shi jiacang 秋帆氏家藏
Ye Menglong 葉夢龍 (1775–1832)
Yungu jiacang 雲谷家藏
Ye shi Liujie? Zhai shuhua yin 葉氏六皆□齋書畫印
Meng Jinyi 孟覲乙 (active first half of 19th century)
Litang jianding 麗堂鑑定
Xu Xiang 許鴹 (Qing dynasty)
Qi’an xinshang 屺庵心賞
Qi’an bingchen fan Yun hou suode 屺庵丙辰返雲後所得
Chen Kuilin 陳夔麟 (1855–1928)
Baoyu Ge shuhua ji 寳迂閣書畫記
Song Qi 宋岐 (1878–1943)
Song Qi siyin 宋岐私印
Shanyin Song Shouyao zi Tiyun hao Zhishan hang
shiwu jiancang jinshi tushu 山陰宋壽堯字梯雲號支
山行十五鋻藏金石圖書
Tiyun guomu 梯雲過目
Xiao Song shending 小宋審定
Chen Rentao 陳仁濤 (active mid-20th century)
Jingui Shi 金匱室
Rentao 仁濤
Jingui baocang Chen shi Rentao 金匱寶藏陳氏仁濤
Rentao qiyuan 仁濤奇緣
Jingui baocang 金匱寶藏
80
Jingui Shi jingjian xi 金匱室精鋻璽
Jingui Shi cang shenqi miaoyi wushang guyi 金匱室藏
神奇妙逸無上古藝
Jingui miji 金匱秘笈
Wushuang 無雙
Ma Jizuo 馬積祚 (b. 1902)
Ma Jizuo jianshang zhang 馬積祚鑑賞章
Unidentified
Fang shi Shi 方氏適
Yunpu shi jiacang shuhua ji 芸浦氏家藏書畫記
Lu Gui zhi yin 盧貴之印
Qianling Shanqiao 黔靈山樵
Pan shi Suyun zhencang shuhua yin 潘氏涑筠珍藏書畫印
Tiehua jianding 鐡華鑑定
Jingxiu xinshang 敬修心賞
Guomu 過目
Ten additional seals are illegible.
N OT E S TO T H E A P P E N D I X
1. References: Chen 1956, vol. 1, pp. 79–81, vol. 2, pl. 16; Chiang
1979a, pp. 25–53, pl. 1; Alfreda Murck in MMA, Notable Acquisitions, 1981–1982, pp. 74–75; Suzuki 1982–83, vol. 1, A17-088; Yu
1990, pp. 30–41; Fong 1992, pp. 187–91, pls. 24, 24a; Lin 1998,
pp. 1–10, ill. p. 2.
2. The quotation is from the chapter “Jinxin” of Meng zi (The Book of
Mencius). See Zhu 12th c., juan 7.
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