Pavilion of Prince Teng (Tengwangge tu 滕王閣圖),

1312

1312

Asia, China

An entry courtyard at lower right leads to a series of intricately rendered halls and pavilions built on terraces, which step down from right to left to a mist filled lake. A boat sails in the lake while the prow of another can be seen rounding the leftmost pavilion. Mountain peaks in ink-wash texture strokes rise in the distance through the mist. Male figures drawn without facial details can be seen inside the buildings and on the distant sailboat. In the upper left is a transcription of the Tang dynasty poet, Wang Bo’s 王勃 “Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng” (675).

The original Pavilion was built in 653 overlooking the Gan River at present-day Nanchang, Jiangxi province. It was erected by Li Yuanying 李元嬰, the son of the founding Tang emperor and enfeoffed as the Prince of Teng. When the local commander-in-chief Yan restored the structure in the 670s, scholars were invited to compose poems. Wang Bo’s preface and poem about human mortality and existential transience became a defining literary monument for the Pavilion’s enduring fame and memory. The poem was later included in many anthologies and rewritten by many well-known calligraphers, and became Wang Bo’s most remembered work. The pavilion became a conventional subject of paintings, and lines from the preface were hung throughout the building.
...
The pavilion’s prince –
Where is he now?
Beyond the railing, the lengthy river
flows by in vain.

A colophon by the Ming dynasty scholar Hu Yan 胡儼 (1361–1443, a native of Nanchang where the Pavilion is located) was reported in 1924 to be on this handscroll. Since 1924, the scroll has been cut and framed, and the colophon is no longer extant.