Bamboo, Plum, and Other Plants

Amateur painters, from Su Shi and his friends on, had favored painting bamboo and flowering plum in ink monochrome, in part at least because those skilled in the use of the brush for calligraphy could master these genres relatively easily. Bamboo, plum, orchid, pine, and other plants had over the centuries acquired a rich range of associated meanings, largely from poetry. In Song and especially Yuan times, scholar painters began to systematically exploit these possibilities for conveying meaning through their pictures.
Orchids, ever since Qu Yuan in the Warring States Period, had been associated with the virtues of the high-principled man. The orchid is fragile, modest, but its fragrance penetrates into hidden places.

Zheng Sixiao, the painter of this picture, did the poem on the right, a friend the one on the left.

Note that there is no ground in this painting. When asked why he omitted it, Zheng said that the barbarians had stolen the ground.

Zheng Sixiao (1241-1318), Orchid

SOURCE: Chugoku kaiga: torokuhen, Chinese Paintings in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Arts (Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1975), pl. 46. Collection of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Arts. Handscroll, ink on paper, 25.7 x 42.4 cm.

The artist here has inscribed a poem on the painting that refers to the coolness and refreshing quality of the autumn melon for one who is experiencing the full heat of summer.
Because of this poem, well-educated viewers of this painting would think of literary references to melons, giving the painting deeper meaning.

Just from looking at this painting, would you have guessed that it carried any larger meaning?

MORE: The artist, Qian Xuan was a loyalist who became, in effect, a professional painter to support himself. He did many paintings of flowers, probably because there was a good market for them. Stylistically, however, he disassociated himself from professional painters who continued the tradition of Song court painters in doing decorative, richly colored paintings.

Qian Xuan (ca. 1235- after 1301), Autumn Melon

SOURCE: James Cahill, Ge jiang shan se - Hills Beyond A River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368, Taiwan edition (Taipei: Shitou gufen youxian gongsi, 1994), pl. 1.8, p. 29. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Hanging scroll, light colors on paper, 63.1 x 30 cm.

This painting has all three of the "three friends of winter," pine, plum, and bamboo.

Bamboo, because it is flexible and can withstand storms without breaking, is a symbol of survival in adversity.

Zhao Mengjian (1199? - 1264 AD), Three Friends of Winter

SOURCE: Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Songdai shuhua ceye mingpin tezhan - Famous Album Leaves of the Sung Dynasty (Taipei: Guoli gugong bowuyuan pianzhuan weiyuanhui, 1995), pl. 66, p. 222. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taibei. Album leaf, ink on paper, 32.2 x 53.4 cm

For a closer view, click here. [In the guide, below]

What do you think pine and plum symbolize?

ANSWER: Pine, because it can grow in poor, rocky soil, and stays green even in the worst of the winter, symbolizes survival through difficult circumstances. Plum, because it blooms in winter and has delicate pure white blossoms, stands for both the purity of the scholar as well as beauty amid harsh conditions. Plum, bamboo, and pine taken together evoke the Confucian virtue of maintaining one's integrity even in the most adverse conditions.

Zhao Mengjian (1199? - 1264 AD), Three Friends of Winter, detail

SOURCE: Zhao Mengjian (1199? - 1264 AD), Three Friends of Winter, in Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Songdai shuhua ceye mingpin tezhan - Famous Album Leaves of the Sung Dynasty (Taipei: Guoli gugong bowuyuan pianzhuan weiyuanhui, 1995), pl. 66, p. 222. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taibei. Detail of album leaf, ink on paper, 32.2 x 53.4 cm

Note the inscriptions on the painting below, added by scholars who viewed it.
Do you think the artist left space for the inscriptions?

Wu Zhen (1280-1354), Plum and Bamboo

SOURCE: Fu Xinian, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Huihua bian 5: Yuandai huihua (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1989), pl. 64, p. 93. Collection of the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Handscroll, ink on paper, 29.6 x 79.8 cm

SOME THOUGHTS: By this point, it was very common for scholars to write inscriptions on paintings, either ones they had just seen painted, or old ones in their friends' collections. Therefore, painters could have anticipated that empty space would later be filled by inscriptions. However, it is not the case that all paintings were inscribed until all empty space was filled, so an artist could not assume the addition of inscriptions and would have to come up with a composition that would work whether or not inscriptions were added later.

Wu Zhen, the painter of this rock and bamboo, was a true recluse, who rarely left his hometown and made his living by practicing fortune-telling and selling paintings.

Wu Zhen (1280-1354), Old Tree, Bamboo and Rock

SOURCE: Fu Xinian, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Huihua bian 5: Yuandai huihua (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1989), pl. 63, p. 92. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink on silk, 53 x 69.8 cm

Although bamboo leaves could be painted with single, calligraphic strokes, of the sort Wu Zhen used above, some literati painters also did bamboo with outline and fill techniques associated more with professional and court painters.
Do you think the way the bamboo was painted affected the way people interpreted its meaning?

Compare this bamboo painting to the ones above and below in terms of brushwork and composition.

MORE: Li Kan wrote a treatise on bamboo painting in which he criticized amateurs who thought that they could skip step-by-step learning and simply release their momentary feelings with their brush. Li Kan himself did both bamboo in ink monochrome in broad brushstrokes, and, like this one, in outline and fill manner, using colored washes.

Li Kan (1254-1320), Bamboo and Rock

SOURCE: Fu Xinian, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, huihua bian 5: Yuandai huihua (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1989), pl. 13, p. 19. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Beijing. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 185.5 x 153.7 cm.

Tan Zhirui (Yuan), Bamboo and Rocks

SOURCE: Tan Zhirui (Yuan), Bamboo and Rocks, in James Cahill, Ge jiang shan se - Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368, Taiwan edition (Taipei: Shitou chuban gufen youxian gongsi, 1994), pl. 4.16, p. 185. Collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 63 x 33.5 cm.

Why would scholar painters paint brightly colored flowers like peonies in different tones of ink?

Wang Qian (Yuan), Peony

SOURCE: Fu Xinian, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Huihua bian 5: Yuandai huihua (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1989), pl. 80, p. 117. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Beijing. Handscroll, ink on paper, 37.7 x 61.6 cm.

One of the qualities sought by scholar painters was simplicity, plainness, understatement, seen as the opposite of showy, flashy paintings. Paintings of plums often were done using very simple strokes.

This is just a small detail of a painting of a blossoming branch by Wang Mian. To see the entire painting, click here.

Wang Mian (1287-1359), Ink Plum

SOURCE: Fu Xinian, ed., Zhongguo meishu quanji, Huihua bian 5: Yuandai huihua (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1989), pl. 94, p. 139. Collection of the Shanghai Museum. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 68 x 26 cm.

Wang Mian inscribed six poems on the painting, and four contemporaries added other poems.

How would this painting of branches of a plum tree in bloom have rated on a scale from flashy to plain?

Three artists collaborated to paint this painting. Gu, Zhang, and Yang did the painting together, then Ni Can, some time later, added the rock and the inscription in the upper right.

Would you have been able to tell that this painting was done by several different hands?

What would artists have gotten out of collaborating to make a single painting?

Gu An, Zhang Shen, and Ni Zan with an inscription by Yang Weizhen, Winter Bamboo and Rock

SOURCE: James Cahill, Ge jiang shan se - Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368, Taiwan edition (Taipei: Shitou chubanshe fen youxian gongsi, 1994), pl. 4.26, p, 200. Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 93.5 x 52.3 cm.