The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 21, 2023

Zhi and Xu's Pure Conversation

支許清言圖

1643

Lan Ying 藍瑛

(Chinese, 1585–after 1664)

China, Ming dynasty

(1368–1644)

Hanging scroll; ink on paper

Painting: 141 x 56 cm (55 1/2 x 22 1/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 246 x 80 cm (96 7/8 x 31 1/2 in.)

Gift of Stephen O. K. Chen 1970.128

Location

003 Special Exhibition Hall

Description

Lan Ying’s painting is a gift to his friend, the Chan monk Wuyun, in which he depicted two sages of the Six Dynasties period: the Buddhist monk Zhidun (314– 366 CE), and the Daoist priest Xu Xun (265–420 CE). Meant to be understood as an analogy of the friendship between artist and monk, the painting also offered a retreat into the past, a year before the fall of the Ming dynasty.

A professional painter born in Hangzhou, Lan Ying is traditionally considered a last representative of the Zhe school. Lan wrote poetic inscriptions and interacted with the literatus Chen Jiru (1558–1639), whose portrait is exhibited nearby

Inscriptions

Inscription

六朝多奇人，寄隱玄與釋。/ 支遁許道士，情意合相適。/ 長松古巖下，高譚對終日。/ 大志擲流水，好句聯袂覓。/ 世事世之外，千秋我自識。 五雲禪師道古行潔，與世無涉。喜山水，喜文 墨。至老神逾王。余與方外交，遂作支許清言 圖，乞為開示。 蝶叟藍瑛癸未七月杪。

Inscription Translation

Artist's inscription, signature, and 2 seals: The time of Six Dynasties was full of eccentrics./ They took refuge in Daoism or Buddhism./ Thus came [the pair of] Zhidun and the Daoist priest Xu [Xun]:/ Their sensibilities and ideals were fully in tune./ Under a tall pine and ancient cliff,/ They chatted away all day long. / Grand ambitions were cast away like the flowing stream/ In quest for linked poetic lines./ Practical affairs were outside of their concerns./ Thousands of autumns later, I come to realize the truth./ Regarding the Chan Master Wuyun, his way is ancient and his actions pure. He has not involved himself in worldly affairs. He loves landscape and also belles lettres. In his old age, his spirit exceeds that of a king. He and I share much in common, he being a priest and I a layman. Consequently, I painted this Zhi Xu qing yan tu, and hope that he would enlighten me. Diesou Lan Ying, in the end of the seventh month, [the year of] kuiwei [1643].

Inscription

2 additional seals of Cheng Qi 程琦 (1911–1988)

Provenance
Cheng Qi 程琦 [1911–1988], by descent to his son, Stephen O. K. Chen
?-1970
Stephen O. K. Chen [20th century], New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1970-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Cheng, Qi 程琦. Xuanhuitang shuhua lu [萱暉堂書畫錄 = Paintings and calligraphy in the collection of Hsüan-hui-tʻang]. Hong Kong: Xuanhuitang, 1972. Reproduced: II, 117(b)-118(a)
Lee, Sherman E. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [New York]: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. Published: cat. no. 34
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 196, pp. 252-253
Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 321-323
Exhibition history

Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 12, 2003-July 16, 2003).

Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).

The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).

Conversations: Past and Present in Asia and America. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (August 30-December 23, 2016).

China's Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta (Jiangnan). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.128