Currently not on view
Poems on Plum Blossoms While Ill (Mei hua bing zhong zuo),
1491
Chen Xianzhang, an important Neo-Confucian philosopher, practiced an unusual style of calligraphy. He particularly liked to use homemade brushes fashioned from miscanthus rush, which, unlike normal brushes made from the hair of goats, weasels, or other animals, did not leave evenly inked strokes on paper. His students claimed his calligraphic style reflected his philosophy about "naturalness," the fundamental unity of mind and matter, a key concept he claimed to have grasped only after years of arduous study.
Chen exploited the tendency of his special brush to produce rough, fuzzy shapes and rugged, awkward strokes. In this handscroll, he complains about ill health, contrasting it to his good health of the previous year, yet manages to produce energetic, dramatic brushwork.
Last year, boasting of my health,
I searched for plum blossoms in the mountains.
Emptying wine cups by the cliff until shadows darkened,
Clothes damp with fragrant dew, I returned home.
What direction does the Northern Dipper now point?
Southern branches have lost half their blossoms.
As I come downstairs, my sons and daughters laugh
While I limp along on my old, weak feet . . .
Information
1491
Asia, China
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1980", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 40, no. 1 (1981): p. 14-31., p. 20 (illus.)
- 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. 42
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 215
