Currently not on view
Three Letters (San zha 三札); a: Abundant Harvest (Sui feng tie 歲豐貼), b: Escaping Summer Heat (Tao shu tie 逃暑貼), c: Hasty Reply before Guests (Dui ke caocao tie 對客草草貼). ,
ca. 1093–94
More Context
Handbook Entry
The artist, collector, connoisseur, and scholar-official Mi Fu developed a personal, idiosyncratic form of running script. He also took pride in having mastered many earlier models, and admired the unaffected spontaneity of such Eastern Jin calligraphers as Wang Xizhi (303–361), whose brushwork seemed to reflect personal moods. Similar qualities enliven Mi’s <em>Three Letters</em>, written when he was serving as a local official. The letters display subtle contrasts of brushwork that correspond to the differing circumstances under which they were written. In <em>Abundant Harvest</em> (illustrated here), Mi refers to his good fortune in holding office during a time of peace and prosperity; his calligraphy was written at a leisurely pace with smooth, elegant turns of the brush. <em>Escaping Summer Heat </em>reports his satisfaction at spending summer in the cool mountains, without mention of his refusal to collect taxes after a bad harvest; he employs more angular brushwork in characters that appear slightly misshapen. In <em>Hasty Reply before Guests</em>, Mi confesses that he is dodging a visit from a court official sent to investigate his management of district affairs, and his unease seems to be reflected in the impetuous, more cursive brushwork.
Information
ca. 1093–94
Asia, China
- Suzuki, Kei, comp. Chūgoku kaiga sōgō zuroku, vol. 1 of Amerika-Kanada hen. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982., p. 126, pl. A16–073
- Wen C. Fong, Images of the mind: selections from the Edward L. Elliott family and John B. Elliott collections of Chinese calligraphy and painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1984)., cat. no. 45
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"The checklist of the John B. Elliott Bequest," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 61 (2002): p. 49-99.
, p. 73 - Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 265 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 317
