Currently not on view
Portrait of Zhuge Liang,
1720 (stone); late 19th to first half of 20th century (rubbing)
Chinese
Qing dynasty, 1644–1912
Information
1720 (stone); late 19th to first half of 20th century (rubbing)
Hanging scroll; ink rubbing on paper
image: 188 x 87.8 cm. (74 x 34 9/16 in.)
211 x 93.1 cm. (83 1/16 x 36 5/8 in.)
Gift of George Rowley
Asia, China
Zhao Hong’en 趙弘恩 (act. early 18th century), hao: Yunshu 芸書
梁甫吟
步出齊城門，遙望蕩陰里。
里中有三墳，纍纍正相似。
問是誰家墓，田疆古冶子。
力能排南山，文能絕地紀。
一朝被讒言，二桃殺三士。
誰能為此謀，國相齊晏子。
[峕]
康熙庚子清和良旦鄖襄觀察劍水後學趙弘恩芸書氏盥沐敬錄鐫像立石
I walked from Qi city gates
And gazed far off to Dangyin village.
In the village there were three burial mounds,
Piled up, one just like the others.
I ask, ‘Whose family graves are they?’
‘Tian Jiang, Gu Yezi.
Their strength could topple South Mountain,
And could sever the Ropes of Earth.
One morning they were defamed.
Two peaches slew three knights.’
‘Who could have hatched such a plot?’
‘Prime Minister of Qi, Master Yan!’
(trans. by Anne Birell, Popular Songs and Ballades of Han China [1988, 1993], p. 80)
...10th month of the gengzi cyclical year of the Kangxi reign, Zhao Hong’en, or Yunshu, the General Administrator (guancha) official of Yunxiang and humble scholar of Jianshui, purified himself and respectfully engraved this portrait and erected it.”
Notes:
1. Yunxiang 鄖襄, a circuit in Hubei. At times also named Xiangyang 襄陽.
襄陽道（襄阳道、鄖襄道、安襄鄖荊道）是湖北省的一个行政区
Figure of the Three Kingdoms period (220-265) strategist, scholar, and statesman Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 (181-234) sitting on a rock with one leg over the other and both hands clasped around his knee. Engraved above the figure in running-script calligraphy is the “Lament of Liangfu,” an ancient folk ballad from the Spring and Autumn period (770-ca. 470 BC) about how two peaches were used to kill three warriors that Zhuge Liang was said to have liked.
Zhao Hong’en was a Chinese bannerman official. In 1719 when holding office in present-day Hubei province, he drove out to Longzhong 隆中 to search for traces of the Marquis of Wu (Wu Hou 武侯) Zhuge Liang. He found a broken stele in the river and had rebuilt a Wu Hou Shrine, which was finished in 1720. Inside the shrine he erected three stelae. The center stele was engraved a portrait of Zhuge Liang and the “Lament of Liangfu.” Flanking stelae were erected inscribed, respectively, with the “Former” and “Latter Chu Shi Biao,” two memorials written by Zhuge Liang.
