Erotic Themes and Romantic Heroines Depicted by Ch'iu Ying

Author(s): Ellen Johnston Laing

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 49 (1996), pp. 68-91
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20111266 .
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Erotic Themes and Romantic Heroines

Depicted by Ch'iu Ying

Ellen Johnston Laing

University ofMichigan

X his article presents a close reading of some erotic im woman seems depressed "but submissive in acceptance of
agery seen in six paintings by the famous Ming dynasty doomed love." She projects "appealing emotional vulnera
Suchou artist Ch'iu Ying ttJ? (ca. A.D. 1494?ca. 1552). The bility and pathetic physical weakness." The woman's love
content of these paintings is illuminated by evidence from becomes "obsessive"; on a lover
"dependent emotionally
literature and traditional culture as a means of extracting who prefers to withhold his love, awoman's thoughts turn
deeper significance and meaning in some of Ch'iu s paint to amorous reverie, day-dreams, fantasy and morbid brood
ings and perceiving how Ch'iu achieved his goals.1 The paint ing." Seclusion, weeping, complaining about life's injustices
ings to be discussed are Picking Lotus, A Lady in a Pavilion Over are all evidences of the advanced stages of lovelorn decline.4
a A Woman and Attendant under Tall Bamboo, Lady "Love is not celebrated. . . .Rather the passing of love is
looking Lake,
Holding a Fan, Pounding Clothes, and Beauty in Spring Thoughts. mourned."5 Many of the stock situations and images were
Dozens of pictures of famous women, or just simply continued in the tz'u P song verses. The tz'u form began
beautiful women, are attributed to Ch'iu Ying. In tech in the eighth century and "was fully developed in the ninth
nique, the pictures range from pai-miao S ?? ink outline and tenth centuries in the milieu of singing girls; hence the
only to colored, soft or gaudy. They come singly and in sets central figure is often a beautiful woman."6
of anywhere from four, to ten, to 60 and to ioo.2 When properly recognized, seemingly innocent themes
In this genre Ch'iu Ying was heir to a long tradition of in Chinese painting can have sexual overtones. Well
many strands, including mildly erotic themes whose con known examples ?f the genre come from the oeuvre of the
tent was obliquely suggested through poetic images or ref Yuan dynasty artist Ch'ien Hsuan, whose of
depictions
erences. There are numerous paintings by Ch'iu Ying as Yang Kuei-fei Mounting a Horse and Emperor Ming-huang
well as by many other Chinese artists that fall into this "sug Teaching Yang Kuei-fei to Play the Flute were identified as
gestive" category, which has several subgroups, some of semi-erotic by James Cahill in 195 8.7
which overlap, but almost all of which rely upon a famil Complicated sexual implications underlie the image of a
iarity with the symbols, allusions, and euphemisms of po young woman hitting at a with a flat fan.
butterfly
etry and with well-known visual motifs carrying erotic Ostensibly, the theme refers to a practice during the spring
meaning, often of great antiquity. Some paintings are sim time "Birthday of the Flowers" festival when ladies hit but
ply labeled "beautiful woman"; others are depictions of fa terflies. A servant in the tenth-century handscroll depicting
mous femmes fatales or, just as often, deserted women. In court Ladies Wearing Flowers inTheir Hair (Tsan-hua shih-n?
other instances, the inclusion of certain key terms, such as Vu H?fcft^cB, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Fig. 1) holds
"springtime" and related words, in the title automatically a long-handled fan with a full peony blossom painted on it;
connote the mildly erotic overtones. Still other paintings il the final figure in the scroll stands next to a flowering mag
lustrate established poetic themes of erotic content. nolia and daintily holds a swallowtail butterfly in her hand.8
Most helpful in this respect are Anne BirrelTs observa The peony is an ancient love-token and becomes later a
tions about courtly or palace style poetry, and her analysis symbol of female genitalia. Here the "hitting butterflies"
of its conventions and images.3 The conventions of courtly theme has merged with the equation of beautiful women
love poetry were codified by the mid-sixth century. These with flowers, whose colors and fragrances attract butterflies
standards for love poems and lyrics remained in force in (i.e., men). In another painting, the seemingly simple rep
later centuries.According to Birrell, there are a number of resentation of a palace lady in a garden is replete with
mandatory conventions of courtly love poetry. The poems mildly erotic images from the incense burner, which im
focus on women. Luxurious interiors provide the proper plies the destructive fires of passion, to the banana plant,
setting for the well-born wealthy woman. The woman's which by virtue of the melancholy sound of rain on its
lover is absent. She pines for him "with unrelieved sadness." leaves, suggests the "loneliness of the abandoned, lovelorn
Her time is spent mooning over the absent lover, the woman."9

68
 Fig. i. Ladies Wearing Flowers inTheir Hair (tenth century). Once accepted
as by Chou Fang. Ink and color on silk. 46 x 180 cm. Liaoning Provincial
Museum. After Yangjen-k'ai, Tsan-hua shih-nii t'u yen-chiu (Peking: Ch'ao-hua mei-shu ch'u-pan-she, 1962), front cover.

The pervasiveness of these sorts of pictures and subjects, A neglected lute lies next to him on the mat-covered plat
along with the fact that their import was transparent to the form, and on a small side table are the ornaments of a
educated, is demonstrated in the most important chapter in scholar's room. On the large screen behind the gentleman's
the prelude portion of the great eighteenth-century novel couch is a monochrome landscape of a hillside and a lake
Dream of theRed Chamber. In this critical chapter, the young with a boat with two people in it. A boy servant wearing
hero, Pao-y?, bored at a party, decides to take a nap and is thin summer
garb cools the master with a
transparent gauze
led into the bedroom of his nephew's wife. Hanging on the fan. Other servants, perhaps bringing cooling refreshments,
wall of her chamber is a scroll by T'ang Yin (1470?1524) are seen approaching the kiosk. Beyond an expanse of wa
entitled Spring Slumber, depicting a beautiful woman asleep ter is a distant bank where, beneath a bamboo grove, a ser
(by extension, dreaming) under an apple tree whose buds vant carries a large box on his back across a flat footbridge.
have not yet flowered. Two couplets hanging on either side And, finally, in the last segment is a skiff with three diminu
carried the poetic phrases: "The coldness of spring has im tive figures of women in it; these are the lotus pickers.
prisoned the soft buds in a wintry dream" and "The fra Picking Lotus is an explicitly erotic theme established in
grance of wine has intoxicated the beholder with imagined Han dynasty songs and ballads (yueh-fu ^fi?), as in South
flower-scents."10 On the table below T'ang Yin's painting of the River:
are erotic relics of famous enchantresses of the past. It is in
South of the river we can
pick lotus,
this setting that Pao-yii dreams of the Land of Illusion, How the leaves have out!
opened
where the goddess Disenchantment teaches him about Fish play among lotus leaves,
love."11 Fish play east of lotus leaves,
"enlightenment through
were Fish play west of lotus leaves,
Illustrations to themes of erotic nature also
poetic
Fish play south of lotus leaves,
In many cases, an of the set
popular. understanding poetic Fish play north of lotus leaves.14
allusions was for a of
necessary complete comprehension
the erotic content of the painting.12 According to Anne Birrell, some of the erotic sentiment of
this song is conveyed through puns and word-play. Lotus,
PICKING LOTUS
lien M , also carries the meaning of sexual passion (lien S );
A primary example of clich?d, mild eroticism is Ch'iu "pick" also suggests enjoy, have pleasure. "Play" develops
Ying's handscroll in light ink and color entitled Picking the idea of sexual frolics hinted at by the lotus. Birrell notes
Lotus (Ts'ai-lien Vu Sil, present location unknown; Fig. that the erotic symbolism of fish playing is universal. The
2).13 The scroll opens with a gentleman reclining in a broader ramifications of the imagery in this song as inter
thatched kiosk located in awillow grove at the edge of a lo preted by her "might represent the vestige of an old fertil
tus pond. The hot, humid summer season is immediately ity rite: the propagation of the species will ensure the con
established by his relaxed pose with one leg on the other tinuity of the rural community."15 Additional erotic motifs
knee and his state of undress. He is barefoot (his shoes are include the willow trees, whose silky strands are compared
on the floor by the platform), his chest and belly are ex with silk thread, a pun for love.16Willows can also be asso

posed, and the sleeve of his robe is rolled up to bare his arm. ciated with beautiful women.

69
 A IN A her lord took when parting from her. She notes the signs of
LADY PAVILION OVERLOOKING A LAKE

In later times poets developed their ideas around a group of spring, a metaphor for renewed love: clear water, sweet
grass, orchis, and a goose in flight."19
special eroticized motifs. One standard image was the lady
In A Lady in a Pavilion Overlooking a Lake Ch'iu Ying
in a tower. Titillating thoughts in the mind of the viewer
contrasts the lush, delicate foliage of the groves of trees and
might be evoked by Ch'iu Ying's exquisite hanging scroll
in ink and light color on paper, A Lady in a Pavilion Over profuse details of the pavilion with the sparse definition of
the landscape elements: nearby, the sheer bluff jutting from
looking a Lake (Yuan-Viao Vu j?KH, Museum of Fine Arts,
the low bank of the stream and, far away, the low hills ris
Boston; Fig. 3).17 Germaine Fuller caught the import of a
woman in a tower in this painting and in the similar com ing from forested landspits. Above a grove of trees by a lake
rises a two-story building. The tall diagonal cliff along the
position by Wen Cheng-ming :?8fcB^ (1470-1559) dis
cussed below. Fuller interpreted this trope as "a standard right side, a grove of thickly foliaged trees, and a high com
pound wall that cuts horizontally across the painting
image-type with romantic associations" further to be affili
distance the riverside
ated with poems on "Spring in the South."18 In the Chinese effectively pavilion from the viewer.
The two-story building rises from among the roofs of lower
symbolic vocabulary, a woman standing on the second structures. In the spacious, elegantly furnished second
a
story balcony of house implies romantic sentiments, as in
floor chamber are two low tables, two sets of books, two
the anonymous Han dynasty verse I Lean from theHighTerrace,
antique bronze vessels, and a vase containing a peacock
part of which, in Anne BirrelTs translation, goes:
feather. To the right, a servant carrying a bundle ap
I lean from the high terrace balcony.
proaches through the anteroom. To the left is the subject of
Below there are clear waters, clear and cool.
the painting, a lovely woman who stands on the pavilion
In the river there is sweet grass, my eyes hold orchis.
balcony and gazes out over the lake. Her hands are in her
A brown goose flies high, how far off it soars!
sleeves, and one hand is raised to her chin in a standard ges
to Birrell, "The images suggest that the lady of ture of a lovelorn woman. Above her, the awning
According fringe is
a noble lord gazes from her in the direction buffeted by a strong breeze.
high balcony

70
 A lovelorn woman is often depicted in poetry as being Just when my heart is turned to loneliness?
To what the red-sleeved in the high
within a room or other sort of barrier that isolates her and family belongs (beauty) leaning
pavilion?21
further prevents communication. In Ch'iu Ying's picture
Thus the connotation of the painting is shifted from a
the steep cliff, the thick trees, and the high compound wall
a
lonely lady in hopeless situation to a lonely man antici
are partitions underscoring the seclusion and solitude of the
a romantic rendezvous, or home.
pating perhaps returning
woman's world. Later verses incorporating the "high pavil
ion" motif often also refer to the east wind of springtime,
Because of the "mood of wistful longing" of the poem,
Richard Barnhart suggested thatWen inscribed this poem
because in the poetic lexicon, spring wind is "an impetu
"in the years following the death of his beloved wife in
ous lover."20 Ch'iu Ying conveys the spring breeze, which
1542."22
stirs amorous thoughts, through the nuance of the agitated,
fluttering awning fringe. A WOMAN AND ATTENDANT UNDER TALL BAMBOO
Comparing Ch'iu Ying's Lady in a Pavilion with a simi
lar composition by Wen Cheng-ming, Red Sleeves in aHigh Sometimes the dreamy woman is rendered in large scale, a*
Pavilion (Hung-hsiu kao-lou Vu ?Uftiuff?, Wong Nan-p'ing in Ch'iu Ying's vertical scroll in ink and color on silk, A
Collection, Fig. 4) emphasizes the subtlety of Ch'iu's vi Woman andAttendant under Tall Bamboo (Hsiu-chu shih-n? Vu
sion. InWen's painting access to the pavilion is unimpeded iffW ??tcM , Shanghai Museum; Fig. 5).23 There the lightly
by wall or trees. Instead of languidly gazing out over the erotic atmosphere is less subtle. In this picture, a woman
lake, the lady appears to be looking at the gentleman in a leans against
a
garden stone, one arm supports her head and

boat, and he at her. In the upper right corner, Wen has the tip of one red shoe is just visible below her skirt hem.
transcribed a verse titled On theWay toNanling by the T'ang Near her is a small servant girl and above them rise three
dynasty poet Tu Mu tt^ (803-852). The poem is cast in a stalks of bamboo. A narrow border of stone facing marks
male voice: the edge of the terrace, beyond it is a pool where a pair of
surface is broad mandarin ducks stands on a low stone in the water. The ed
At Nanling the water's and far,
An urgent wind and light clouds extend the beauty of autumn. itor of a book on the Shanghai Museum of Art published

71
 Fig. 3. Ch'iu Ying, A. Lady in a Pavilion a Lake, B. detail.
Overlooking
Ink and light color on paper. 89.5 x 37.3 cm. Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. Chinese and Japanese Special Fund. Courtesy, Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston.

in 1983 described this painting in phrases succinctly con

veying the mildly erotic nature of the picture: "a woman in
deep thought" and "a pair of mandarin ducks nestle on a
rock."24 The quiet stance of the woman combined with her
contemplative expression suggest she is in a state of day
dreaming. The mandarin ducks, symbols of marital har
mony, indicate the focus of her musings. Ladies gazing at
ducks was a common erotic theme for Chinese painters. In
one example, an anonymous fan (National Palace Museum,
Taipei) given to the tenth-century artist Chou Wen-ch?
(but later in date of actual execution), ladies are shown on
a small waterside surrounded
pavilion by willow fronds and
flowering shrubs watching ducks swimming in the water
below. In another painting, an album leaf by Ch'iu
Ying's
follower, Yu Ch'iu, depicts a lady dreamily standing by a
willow tree and gazing at pairs of ducks swimming in the
stream (Shanghai Museum).25

72
 A LADY HOLDING A FAN
s \ ? *
As attractive as Picking Lotus, A Lady in a Pavilion Over
an Attendant
looking a Lake, and A Woman and under Tall
ii <5 ** * Bamboo are, however, the feelings and sentiments they pur
port to convey remain distant, coldly abstract, objectively
detached and impersonal. None matches the intensity of
com
feeling and the depth of human emotion Ch'iu Ying
municates in his depictions of romantic heroines as figure
At paintings of women with little or no setting, in particular A
Lady Holding a Fan and Pounding Clothes.
The unique artistic qualities of Ch'iu Ying's A Lady
Holding a Fan are best discovered by comparing his presen
tation of the subject with that of other artists.
A handscroll of monochrome renditions of women, ti
tled Eminent Women (Lieh-nii Vu ^'J^cB, History Depart
ment, Nanking University; Figs. 6, 7) is a collection of
figures on various sized sheets of paper, mounted together
to form a handscroll; it bears the name of Ch'iu Ying.
Among the women depicted are the Princess of the Hsiang
River and the Lady of the Hsiang; concubine P'an Fei,
whose tiny feet left prints of lotus flowers; tipsy Yang Kuei
fei, the favorite of T'ang Ming-huang, assisted by three at
tendants (Fig. 6); Green Pearl, the beloved concubine of
Shih Ch'ung, holding a branch of coral; Chao Fei-yen
("Flying Swallow") playing a ch'eng; Ts'ui Hui painting
her self-portrait with the aid of amirror to send to her ab
sent lover; Su Hui weaving her palindrome; Favorite
Beauty Pan writing on a fan (Fig. 7); the courtesan Su
Hsiao-hsiao holding her clappers; and Hsi Shih.26 Although
not by Ch'iu Ying, this scroll is useful as a foil against which
to measure the success of three of Ch'iu Ying's unusual and
sensitive of women.
portrayals
Ch'iuYing's scroll in ink on paper, A Lady
vertical
Holding a Fan (Wan-shan shih-n? Vu If?MttfcM ,present lo
cation unknown; Fig. 8)27might be seen simply as a female
court attendant and her maid, like those familiar from the
T'ang tomb murals of the early eighth century. The depic
tion of A Lady Holding a Fan, however, cannot be divorced
from the story of Pan Chieh-yu $??t?f, Favorite Beauty
Pan, and her on a fan. Favorite Pan was born
poem Beauty
into a family of officials and scholars during the first cen
tury b.c. Given the level of education in her family, David
Knechtges says, "we should not be surprised to discover
that she too had acquired book as a
learning and skill
writer."28 She entered the imperial harem and rose to the
rank of Chieh-yii or Favorite Beauty. She bore the emperor
two sons, both of whom died soon after their birth. One
time, she refused to share the on the
emperor's carriage

Fig. 4. Wen Cheng-ming (1470-1559), Red Sleeves in a High Pavilion. Ink

and color on paper. 126.7 x 48.6 cm. Wong Nan-p'ing Collection, Hong
Kong. After Richard Barnhart, The Jade Studio: Masterpieces ofMing and

Qing Painting and Calligraphy from theWong Nan-p'ing Collection (New

Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1994), fig. 9.

73
 It goes in and out of my lord's breast and sleeve;
Waved, it stirs a breeze.
I always fear autumn's coming,
When chilling winds dispel blazing heat.
Then itwill be thrown into a box,
And his love will be cut offmidcourse.

In later times, this poem was commonly believed to be au

tobiographical, describing Beauty Pan's umbrage at being
discarded by the emperor like a fan necessary in summer,
useless in autumn.

The earliest extant depiction of Lady Pan holding a fan

is in a Chin dynasty (twelfth century) woodblock print,
published in Shensi and discovered at Kharakhoto in 1909
(The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia; Fig. 9). This
woodcut shows four beauties promenading in a courtyard
with a rock and peony on the other side of a high
plant
balustrade. Each figure is labeled; they are Green Pearl,
Wang Chao-ch?n, and Chao Fei-yen (all of whom hold
flowers). Lady Pan, holding a fan on which is rendered sev
eral bamboo sprigs, brings up the rear. All the ladies are op
ulently dressed and wear large headdresses. In the print,
nothing about Lady Pan's pose or demeanor distinguishes
her from her companions.
In the Ming period, a lady a fan was several
holding
times the subject of a painting. A review of a few of these
provides background for a further analysis of Ch'iu Ying's
rendition of the theme. In T'ang Yin's ^^ depiction (Pan
chi Vuan-shan Vu IE #15 SI Hill, National Palace Museum,
Taipei; Fig. 10), Lady Pan stands impassive on a garden
path, quietly holding her fan, ornamented with a painting
of the branch of flowering peony. Her pose is quiet and her
Fig. 5. Ch'iu Ying, A Woman and Attendant under Tall Bamboo. Ink and
face blank. In a somewhat more vivacious portrayal of Lady
color on silk. 88.3 x 62.2 cm. Shanghai Museum. After Shen Zhiyu
Pan (Ch'iu-feng wan-shan Vu, ^^ ftHW ?Shanghai Museum;
(ed.), Tlie Shanghai Museum ofArt. (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
133. Fig. 11), assigned to T'ang Yin but of dubious authenticity,
1983), fig.
the garden setting is reduced to just a rock and a small bam
boo; Lady Pan rests the fan on her shoulder, the hem of her
robe spreads outward on the ground. Wen Cheng-ming's
grounds that degenerate rulers always had their female fa 1539 picture shows a lady holding a fan; she is dwarfed by
a towering garden rock and banana
vorites at their sides and she feared the emperor might also plants with drooping
be seen as depraved. She won for herself a place in didactic leaves and flowers (Chiao-yin shih-n? Vu WMtiitcM National
,
a position as a moral role model and in Palace Museum, Taipei; Fig. 12). The significance of the
history holding
as the of one of the illustrations of background images, the constancy of the rock contrasting
painting history subject
the Admonitions the Palace Favorite Pan with the desertion implied by the banana, hint at the
of Preceptress. Beauty
was replaced in the emperor's favor theme. But the theme is not further explored byWen Cheng
by the two Chao sisters.
Accused of conspiring with the empress to do away with ming. The surface of the lady's round fan, like her face, is
pregnant palace ladies and perhaps even the emperor him blank, and she gazes out over the top of it. In the Nanking
self, Lady Pan eventually requested permission to leave the University scroll of Eminent Women, Lady Pan (see Fig. 7) is
Her request was she died about 6 b.c. shown seated on amat, a low table in front of her. She holds
palace. granted;
Today, three literary works are attributed to Lady Pan, two up a large fan and her brush is poised above it as if in the
fu IS prose-poems and one poem. Her Poem /Song of Resent midst of writing on it.
ment, translated by Knechtges, describes a fan: Ch'iu Ying's version (see Fig. 8) is totally different from
any of these representations of Lady Pan. His scroll shows a
Newly cut white silk from Qi [Ch'i],
and pure as frost and snow: dynamically posed woman, whose head turns to the right
Glistening
Made into a fan of "joined for joy," as she strides to the left. Her skirts and sashes flare out be
Round, round as the bright moon. hind her in natural response to her movement. The long
74
 skirt obscures the feet of a much smaller young attendant,
who bends in unison with her mistress. A small dog scam
pers after the two women. The identity of the large figure
as Lady Pan is confirmed by references to her in the cou
plet by Wang Chih-teng 3E#1? (1535?1612) inscribed at
the top of the painting. Lady Pan holds a brush in her right
hand and a long, unrolled blank scroll in her left hand; the
attendant holds a fan on which is depicted a spray of nar
cissus. The figures of the two women and the dog are rem
iniscent of those in the tenth-century handscroll Ladies
Wearing Flowers inTheir Hair (see Fig. 1).
In contrast to the representation of Lady Pan by T'ang
Yin, here Ch'iu Ying adds his distinctive touches. One of
these is the blossom on the fan. In the case of T'ang Yin,
the peony on his fan is the familiar love-token; when the
emperor discards the fan, he merely discards a love(r). In
the case of Ch'iu Ying, there is a narcissus ornamenting the
fan held by the attendant. Narcissus is a springtime flower ?\ <
'

and is a symbol of a happily married couple.29 When the

emperor discards the fan (the woman) of springtime (in the
poem, the "fan of joined for joy'"), he is also throwing
Fig. 6. From Eminent Women (sixteenth century). Yang Kuei-fei and
away "married happiness" (recall that Beauty Pan had two her attendants. Ink on paper. 29.7 x 973.6 cm.
History Department,
children by the emperor). A second special touch intro After T'ang Sung Yuan Ming hua-hsuan
Nanking University. Ch'ing
duced by Ch'iu Ying is that his Lady Pan does not passively (Canton: I-shu hua-pao she, 1963), fig. 51.

acquiesce in her rejection by the emperor, for Ch'iu Ying

dramatically reformulates the image of the abandoned Lady
Pan as a proud woman aggressively striding while formu
lating her poetic denunciation of his act. Availing himself
of older figure poses, Ch'iu Ying energizes them and
through this invigoration, conveys the intense emotion of
the unhappy Lady Pan.

POUNDING CLOTHES

Another ink on paper hanging-scroll depiction of awoman

by Ch'iu Ying illustrates Pounding Clothes (Tao-i Vu SSI,
Nanking Museum; Fig. 13),30 a standard poetic theme with
an evolved cluster of clich?s and images, and attendant
erotic interpretations. Women pound or "full" silk in the
autumn in preparation for making winter clothing. The
convention is that a woman's lover is absent, in the army
stationed distantly on China's border. She worries that he
will not have enough warm clothing. One poem on fulling
cloth comes from the brush of Wang Seng-ju (465?522):
I leave my loom, the slanting moon speeds west,
Pound my block, the glowing sun hurries east.
Sweet sweat like an orchid rinse.
I avoid carved gilt dragon candles.
Fig. 7. Lady Pan, from Eminent Women.

The meaning of the poem depends upon understanding

the poetic symbolic lexicon: the word for the fulling tool
was a complicated pun for husband or lover; pounding has The chill suggests not only the cooling of the romance, but
the erotic connotation of a lover, and the woman in this also the declining beauty of the woman.
poem is beating the silk/love all night; sweat is the link be Ch'iu Ying's rendition of this poetic theme has five po
tween the prosaic action of fulling and the suggested activ ems inscribed at the top of the scroll.32 The verses contain
ity of love-making.31 Autumn is the time of "desertion." the standard allusions associated with the Pounding Clothes

75
 Fig. 9. Four Beauties (twelfth century). Woodblock print from
Shensi found at Kharakhoto. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
After Chung-kuo pan-hua-shih t'u-lu (Shanghai: Jen-min mei
shu ch'u-pan-she, 1988), vol. 1, fig. 82.

a Fan. Ink on paper.

Fig. 8. Ch'iu Ying, A Lady Holding Present location
unknown. After Chung-kuo ming-hua (Shanghai: Yu-cheng Book

Company, 1923), vol. 19.

76
 ''
* -PI 4J SSI * **
If H
* w ? ?- II ? ?* <*
?!
g , ^||Ki?*f|* ?i? ?1 >*? jfr :.:

*v ^8* ** Attributed to T'ang Yin, Lady PanHolding a Fan. Ink on pa

'" - ^^JB^sSM^A.
.^y
w?fw^SS^^^^?t!
* Per* 77A x 39*3 cm* ShanghaiMuseum. After T'angYin hua chi
' - '
<m ^S.
lEHM^^f^^* (Shanghai:Jen-min mei-shu ch'u-pan-she, i960), fig. 6.

io. T'ang Yin a Fan.

folded silk placed on a block. But it is Ch'iu's special forte
Fig. (1470-1524), Lady Pan Holding Ink and light
color on paper. 150.4 x 63.6 cm. National Palace Museum, to give fresh life to the potentially banal. To the usual po
Taipei,
Taiwan, Republic of China. etic images, the artist adds the catalpa (wu-t'ung JSt?l ) tree,
a punning for "we together" (wu-t'ung SRI ). In Chinese
theme: dew (which is like sweat); frost (frozen dew); au romantic lament, the happiness of nature is often contrasted
tumn wind; autumn night; a myriad li (great distance), with human grief. Pairs in nature, such as mandarin ducks
dreams of Liaoyang (the far northeast border). or swallows, when placed in conjunction with a solitary
Ch'iu Ying's illustration is deceptively simple: a woman person, connote enduring love versus lonely separation. To
seated on the ground pounding with a mallet layers of the abandoned woman's face Ch'iu Ying brings expression:

77
her brows are pulled together in a worried frown as she
gazes off into the distance.

*
BEAUTY IN SPRING THOUGHTS
?!'#* i * + :* - ? A
Ch'iu Ying's masterpiece in the genre of the softly erotic * * #
portrait is a handscroll painted in delicate light color and *?3 * 5.
ink on paper (National Palace Museum, Taipei; Fig. 14 ).33
It is an exquisite rendition of a beautiful damsel standing on
a misty cloud floating just above a surface of waves. The
?^?S**
<* It
******
four characters of the title, Mei-jen cWun-ssu HA#S, were
inscribed by Chou T'ien-ch'iu Jl^^ (1514-1595) in
I**
1547. Mei-jen means "a beautiful woman" and the term
cWun-ssu, translated here as means erotic
"spring thoughts,"
or amorous Thirteen verses were written on a
thoughts.
separate sheet of paper, now mounted after the painting.34
Beauty in Spring Thoughts is recorded in part three of the
imperial painting collection catalogue. The connoisseurs
responsible for preparing this catalogue raised questions
about the actual subject of this painting. After giving the ti
tle and other information about the scroll, the catalogue
entry says, in part:
In light color is painted The Nymph of the Lo River in cloudy skirt and

misty garments, turning and standing amidst waves.

The compilers of the catalogue added this comment at the

conclusion of the entry:
What is depicted in this scroll really is The Nymph of the Lo River.
Alone and charming, [she] stands in clouds and water. This is exactly the
so-called "Traversing the waves in tiny steps, Her gauze slippers seem to
stir a dust."35 The title Beauty in Spring Thoughts and the poems at the

end, however, are all concerned with erotic phrases and are inappropri
ate for the painting.

They speculate:
Perhaps Ch'iu Ying separately had a Beauty in Spring Thoughts picture
and a mounter transferred the colophons [title and poems, from it] to
this scroll.36

The woman in Ch'iu Ying's painting stands on a cloud

above waves. Her garb is that of the Ming dynasty, as is her
soft hair-do. Her body sways slightly to her left. Three sets
of sashes float gently to her right. Her right hand, covered
with her sleeve, is brought up to the side of her face. Her
left hand seems to toy with her belt ties.
Is this woman, asmaintained by the compilers of the im
perial painting collection catalogue, the Nymph of the Lo
River,37 the subject of a famous poem, or is she, as indicated
by title attached
the to the painting, in Spring
Beauty Fig. 12. Wen Cheng-ming, /4 Lady in the Shade of a Banana-tree (1539).
Thoughts? The Nymph theme will be addressed first, and Ink on paper. 46.4 x 21.9 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei,
then the Beauty possibility. Taiwan, Republic of China.

The question of whether this woman depicts the Nymph

of the Lo River has to be approached from two directions. The Nymph of the Lo River was immortalized in Ts'ao
One, the "character" of the Nymph as revealed in the Chih's Wli (192-232) famous rhapsody, Lo-shen Fu &WSS,
poem, must be determined. Two, the iconography of the composed in 223. The translation of this prose-poem
seen in this must be es is by Burton Watson.38
Nymph paintings illustrating poem quoted below Resting by the Lo
tablished. River on his journey homeward, the poet finds himself sud

78
denly discomforted. Looking upward, he spies a lovely lady
by the slopes of the riverbank. She was the object of his un ais*
love Her and deportment were
requited
described
quest. appearance
in some detail by Ts'ao.
III!.
He compared her movements to "a dragon in flight, In
splendor brighter than the autumn chrysanthemum." She
like the sun rising from morning she
"sparkles mists";
"flames like the lotus flower topping the green wave."
ii?'i
Bright eyes skilled at glances,
A dimple to round off the base of the cheek?
Her rare form wonderfully enchanting,
Her manner quiet, her pose demure.
Gende-hearted, broad of mind,
entrances with . . .
She every word she speaks.

She was splendidly dressed in silken garments, jasper and

jade earrings, with hair ornaments of gold and feathers.
After she thus manifested herself to the poet:

Then, suddenly she puts on a freer air,

Ready for rambling, for pleasant diversion.

To the left planting her colored pennants,
To the right spreading the shade of cassia flags,
She dips pale wrists into the holy river's brink,
Plucks dark iris from the rippling shallows.
is charmed . . .
My fancy by her modest beauty.

The communicated
poet with the Nymph and pledged a
jade pendant as his vow of love; she responded with gems
and a promise of an assignation in the river depths. At this
point, the poet had second thoughts about the wisdom of
such an action. The Nymph, sensing his reluctance,
Paces to and fro uncertainly,
The holy
light deserting her, then reappearing,
Now now again;
darkening, shining
She lifts her light body in the posture of a crane,
As though about to fly but not yet taking wing.
She walks the heady perfume of pepper-scented roads,
Strides through clumps of spikenard, scattering their fragrance,
a
Wailing distractedly, sign of endless longing,
Her voice, more
sharp with sorrow, growing prolonged.

Spirits materialized to lend her their support. Preparing to

leave:

Lifting the rare fabric of her thin jacket,

She makes a shield of her in hesitation,
long sleeve, pausing
Body nimbler than a winging duck,
Swift, as befits the spirit she is;

Traversing the waves

in tiny steps,
a dust.
Her gauze slippers seem to stir
Her movements have no constant pattern,
Now now sedate;
unsteady,
Hard to predict are her starts and hesitations,
Now now back.
advancing, turning

Ink on paper. 95.2 x 28 cm.

Fig. 13. Ch'iu Ying, Pounding Clothes. Nanking
Museum. After S?gen Minshin meiga taikan (Tokyo: Otsuka kogeisha, 1931), vol. 1,
pi. no.

79
 3

Her roving glance flashes fire;

A radiant warmth shines from her jade-like face.

She commanded a dragon chariot, and accompanied by

various gods of wind and wave, departed. From her chariot:

She bends her white neck, Clear eyes cast down,

Moves her red lips, Speaking slowly;
Discussing the great principles that govern friendship,
She complains that men and gods must follow separate ways,
Voices anger that we cannot fulfill the hopes of youth,

Holding up her gauze sleeve to hide her weeping,

Torrents of teardrops drowning her lapels.

T-;-..-.'<.vl:'"'.' She laments that our happy meeting must end forever,
Grieves that, once departed, we go to different lands.

She offered the poet a "bright earring," and swore, "My

heart will forever belong to you, my prince!" With this she
disappeared. The poet searched for her, always hoping she
would return. She does not return.
In most of this poem the Nymph of the Lo River was
aloof and proud. She fairly glittered with charismatic ap
f?
.-.'
peal. She orchestrated and dominated the meeting. She lec
tured her suitor about his lack of trust. Although she had
brief moments of uncertainty, she was almost always in
control of her emotions. Her sorrows or disappointments
are expressed in physical actions closer to anger: she appears
about to fly away, she walks pepper-scented roads, strides
through spikenard clumps, scatters their fragrance, wails
distractedly, her glance flashes fire. Only in the security of
her departing dragon chariot did she lift her sleeve to mask
A. Beauty in Spring Thoughts, B. detail.
her tears at parting. In contrast, the poet sought the love of
Fig. 14. Ch'iu Ying, Ink and
color on paper. 20.4 x 58.2 cm. National Palace Museum, the Nymph, but his quest was futile. He was left deserted
Taipei,
Taiwan, Republic of China. and lovelorn on the riverbank: his "feet went forward but
[his] soul remained behind. Thoughts taken up with the
memory of her image, [He] turned to look back, a heart
full of despair." His endless remembrances made his long

80
 ing greater. Fretful, he could not sleep. He found it difficult "She dips pale wrists into the holy river's brink, Plucks dark
to resume his journey.39
iris from the rippling shallows." Here she stands on the wa
Soon after its creation, Ts'ao Chih's The Nymph of the Lo ter, both body and head face her left as she bends slightly.
River became a subject for the artist's brush. Perhaps the Her fan ismissing. With her right hand she pulls back the
was of her dress as her left arm extends toward the
earliest rendition of it by the Eastern Chin emperor, left sleeve
Ming-ti (r. 323-326).40 This painting is no longer extant. water. Again, her sashes flutter to her left. She is next seen
a
We know of it and of number of other illustrations of this in the sky between a "cassia" flag and a pendant. Again the
poem and the Nymph only through written records.41 An torso is erect; both body and head face her right. Her right
examination of these notices fruitless, for they never
proved hand is covered with her sleeve and raised to shoulder
divulge the actual pictorialization of the Nymph herself. height. Her left hand is uncovered and also raised to about
Only a survey of surviving depictions definitely known to shoulder level. The subsequent passage is missing in the
show the Nymph of the Lo River can disclose something Peking scroll. Turning to what is seen in the Shenyang ver
concrete about how she was visualized. In addition to the sion at this juncture, this is the Nymph's fourth appearance
narrative composition associated with the name of Ku K'ai (Fig. 15c). She stands on the ground before the poet who
chih ?ta?. (born ca. 344, died ca. 406), thirteen other pic offers her his gemmed girdle pendant. She stands erect, fac
tures of The Nymph of the Lo River (Lo-shen Vu f?f?HI) will ing the poet on her right. She again holds her jeweled fan
be considered here. These are a hanging scroll by the Yuan in her left hand. Her right hand is extended as if to receive
dynasty artist, Wei Chiu-ting WA.HR ; a round fan by an the proffered love-token. Returning to the Peking scroll, in
anonymous Ming painter (once assigned to the Sung artist her final appearance but one, she takes leave of the poet
Wu Chiin-ch'en); a fan painting and a hanging scroll by (Fig. 15D). Floating in mid-air, her body faces her right
Ch'iu Ying's follower, Yu Ch'iu; an album leaf by Chang with the upper torso slightly twisted as she turns toward the
Hung 3S^ (1580-after 1660), dated 1649; a version by the poet on her left. She holds her fan in her left hand. Her
seventeenth-century painter, K'ung Po-ming; two hanging right arm is pendant, the hand covered with the long
scrolls by Shen Tsung-ch'ien (c. 1770?1817) dated 1770 sleeve. In her final appearance, her seated figure is partly
and 1782; a folding fan by Ku Lo (1762-after 1837); a round obscured as she flees in her dragon chariot.
fan by the woman painter, Ai-lien n?-shih, ?1??*? dated Let us turn now to the later paintings. Wei Chiu-ting's
1893; another by a woman artist, Ch'en Wei hanging scroll in pai-miao outline drawing (National
depiction
chih; and two more late nineteenth-century pictures.42 An Palace Museum, Taipei; Fig 16) depicts the Nymph only as
analysis of these depictions of the Nymph establishes her she bids the poet farewell. The pose is nearly identical to
iconography with some degree of accuracy and consis that in the Ku K'ai-chih tradition. Her body faces to her
tency. right, her head to her left. She holds an oval fan in her left
Ofseveral scrolls preserving the Nymph of the Lo River hand. Her right arm is pendant, the hand covered with the
composition usually attributed to Ku K'ai-chih,43 the one long sleeve. Although the costume has changed somewhat
in the Palace Museum, Peking is the most complete. The (the apron, the ruffles on the sleeve above the elbow, for
comments below are based upon this scroll. As is known, example,
are
gone),
numerous sashes stream out to the
one section of this scroll is lost, but the missing figures can right. The coiffure, not exactly the same as Ku K'ai-chih s
be supplied from the version now in Shenyang.44 Nymph hair-do, nevertheless has an archaic flavor. It is
In the Ku K'ai-chih composition, the Nymph appears done up in a single, twisted loop at the top of her head. The
six times. She is usually dressed in a robe with a spreading fan still has the hair duster attached at the top but is no
hem, a long apron with streamers and ribbons, a jacket longer the jeweled one of yore, for it is now decorated with
bound at the waist and with long sleeves ruffled above the a landscape scene. The background of river and mountains
elbow. Her hair is arranged in two large loops on the top of provide, as in the Ku K'ai-chih scrolls, the appropriate ref
her head. In five of her appearances she stands directly on erence of setting. A distinctive new touch is the spread of
the waves, or on the
ground,
or in mid-air. Her final, sixth, clouds that supports the nymph just above the waves. Wei's
appearance is of less concern to us because she is seated in matronly nymph maintains a decorous dignity.
side her dragon chariot. Each of her five standing poses is The anonymous Ming fan painting, once assigned toWu
slightly different. Chiin-ch'en, depicts the Nymph when she first manifests
When she first appears to the poet she stands directly on herself to the poet (National Palace Museum; Fig. 17). She
the surface of the river near blossoming lotuses (Fig. 15a). stands on the water near a lotus pond beside a pinnacle and
Steep hills and trees are nearby. Her erect torso is turned to two trees. She stands erect, her body faces to her left, her
her right while her head is turned to her left. Her right arm head to her right. Her loose full garments billow around
is raised, the sleeve-covered hand at about shoulder height. her. Long, heavy sashes curl and coil to her left. One sash
A circular five-jeweled fan with two tufts of hair is in her even loops above her head. She holds the oval
requisite
left hand. Many ribbons, sashes, and streamers flutter hori duster-fan in her right hand. Her hair, in a large, narrow,
zontally to her left. In her second appearance (Fig. 15B), club-like chignon on her head, is suitably old-fashioned.

81
Fig. 15. A-D. Details from The Nymph of the Lo River, attributed to Ku K'ai-chih. A, b, d from the scroll in the Palace Museum, Peking. Ink and
color on silk. 27.1 x 572.8 cm. After Chung-kuo li-tai hui-hua, Ku-kung po-wu-yuan vol. 1 mei-shu 1978),
ts'ang-hua, (Peking: Jen-min ch'u-pan-she,
figs. 2, 4; c from the scroll in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang. Ink and color on silk. 26 x 646 cm. After Liao-ning shengpo-wu-kuan ts'ang
hua chi (Peking: Wen-wu ch'u-pan-she, 1962), vol. 1, fig. 4.

82
 The remaining depictions of the Nymph to be discussed
were done later than Ch'iu Ying's rendition. A brief look
at these paintings is necessary to establish the persistence of
the Nymph's iconography.
The two works by Yu Ch'iu, Ch'iu Ying's follower, are
the closest to Ch'iu Ying's work under consideration in
that the figure in both of Yu's renditions stands with torso
bent toward her right and with scarves fluttering to the
right. In both instances, however, the image is clearly the
Nymph of the Lo River. In Yu's fan painting (once in the
Peking Palace Museum collection) she holds a long
stemmed lotus blossom that identifies her as the damsel
whose beauty the poet likened to that of the watery lotus.45
In the hanging scroll formerly in the N. P. Wong Col
lection in Hong Kong, a sedate Nymph, rather stern of
mien, stands with hands clasped in front of her torso and /f?
the tips of her sash barely move in the river breeze.46
An archaic jeweled fan, now provided with a long han m1
dle, is held by one of the Nymph's floating retinue of five
attendants in the
seventeenth-century version by K'ung
Po-ming (present location unknown). As an additional clue
to the identification of the Nymph, riverbanks are seen in
the distance.47 In Chang Hung's album leaf dated 1649
(George J. Schlenker Collection; Fig. 18), the Nymph
floats above the waves with her body bent to her left. Her
*****
scarves and sashes also flutter to her left. Her right arm is
pendant and in her left hand she holds a whisk, vestige of
the ancient fan-duster. Shen Tsung-ch'ien's hanging scroll
versions of 1770 and 1782 basically follow the same model
as seen in Chang Hung's depiction.48 In Ku Lo's fan, the
Nymph stands with both arms pendant in front of her, her
hands covered with sleeves. What appears to be amountain
peak, serving as a locale indicator, is at the left side.49
By the late nineteenth century, peacock feathers were
incorporated into images of the Nymph of the Lo River.
The round fan by the little-known woman painter Ai-lien
nii-shih (dated 1893; Hong Kong Museum of Art; Fig. 19),
shows the Nymph above haze-streaked water. Her body is
strongly arched to her right. Her sashes are almost violently
wind-flung to her right. She holds a single peacock feather
as a distant reminder of the fan-duster. Similarly, the pea
cock feather is featured in the depiction of the Nymph by
the Shanghai woman artist Ch'en Wei-chih,50 while the
popular Shanghai figure painter Wu Chia-yu endowed the
Nymph with a peacock feather cape.51 And finally, an un
signed scene, perhaps also byWu Chia-yu, published by the
Tien-shih-chai studio shows a morose poet seated in a
river-side pavilion while nearby a beautiful, proud Nymph
holding awhisk-duster and wearing a peacock feather boa,
her scarves fluttering off to her left, treads the waves.52

16. Wei on
Fig. Chiu-ting (ca.1350-1370), Tlie Nymph of the Lo River. Ink
paper. 90.8 x 31.8 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic
of China.

83
 ff Fig. 17. The Nymph of theLo River (Ming dynasty). Once
attributed toWu Ch?n-ch'en. Ink and color on silk. 23.1
x 22.8 cm. National Palace Museum, Taiwan,
Taipei,
Republic of China.

Over the centuries the presentation of the Nymph of the the contrary, credit Ch'iu Ying with creating a new image
Lo River remained relatively consistent: a river goddess re of the fabled nymph: one that differs from all the others be
mote from her admirers and
scarcely subject to the frailty of cause it presents her as an emotional, yearning human
being.
human passions. Her iconography remained standard. Her We now turn to explore the other possible theme in
primary identifying attribute was the jeweled fan-duster, Ch'iu Ying's painting: Beauty in Spring Thoughts. Here, the
later converted into a feather or hair whisk. If she does not conventions of love poetry again are of great assistance in
hold this attribute, a lotus or a bit of landscape establishes pursuing this question.
the riverine location of her meeting with the poet. love poetry grew out of the Encountering Sorrow
Courtly
In none of these examples is there anything resembling tradition. Ts'ao Chih's poem The Nymph of the Lo River is a
Ch'iu Ying's pensive damsel who raises one sleeve-covered late manifestation of that genre. Ts'ao's poem and its an
hand to her cheek and with the other hand toys with the tecedents dwell on melancholy, sorrow, anguish, rejection.
ties of her skirt. Except for the barely delineated waves and The of is then intimately con
imagery spring thoughts
nearly imperceptible clouds, there are no landscape ele nected with the Lo River nymph rhapsody. The conven
ments, such as mountain cliff or lotus pond, to verify the tions of courtly love poetry remained in force in later cen
locale and thereby the identification. There is no fan. The turies: the absent lover, the woman pining for him "with
pose has no prototypes in earlier depictions. The modest unrelieved sadness," mooning over the absent lover, depres
array of sashes wafts gently. In their fluttering to the left sion, "doomed love." She appears with "appealing emo
they break with tradition. The dress and coiffure areMing tional vulnerability and pathetic physical weakness"; "de
dynasty. The real Nymph of the Lo River walks on water on a lover who to withhold his
pendent emotionally prefers
from which dust arises. This is an indicator of her divinity: love, her
thoughts
turn to amorous reverie, day-dreams,
water to her is as land to humans. In Ch'iu Ying's depic fantasy and morbid brooding," or, seclusion, weeping, and
tion, the woman is supported by a cloud. If this really is the complaining about life's injustices.53
Nymph of the Lo River, then we must, lacking evidence to In Ch'iu Ying's painting, the lovely lass seems to fit these

84
 requirements. She is frail. She gazes offpensively She raises
her sleeve-covered hand to her face in a self-consoling ges
ture, or perhaps one of anguish. Holding a sleeve-covered
hand near the face is a routine gesture in the repertoire of
love-tormented beauties, as in the rendition of the heroine
of Dream of the Red Chamber (Hung-lou meng, SEA?, Fig.
20) and in Ch'iu Ying's A Lady in a Pavilion Overlooking a
Lake (see Fig. 3).
Other more specific conventions found in love poetry
are also seen in Ch'iu
Ying's Beauty. In love poetry men
tion of actual parts of the body was avoided. Instead, these
were suggested by references to clothing. Transparent gauze
sleeves, for example, suggested the lovely flesh of arms. The
bare waist was conjured up through mention of the jeweled
belt. Similarly, sexual dalliance was never explicitly de
scribed. Here the woman's belt or sash played an important
role.54 The woman twisted her belt as a teasing erotic ges
ture;55 when the belt was undone, the gown fell open. The
implication of Ch'iu Ying's lady whose hand holds her skirt
ties is now obvious. It should be noted that this erotic ges
ture is found neither in Ts'ao Chih's fu on The Nymph of
the Lo River nor in the paintings illustrating that poem.
It is true that Ch'iu Ying's Beauty is not in an indoor set
ting, the one preferred by the love poets. She instead stands
on a thin cloud above lapping waves. Divinities habitually
appear in art on floating clouds. But both the cloud and the
waves might have sexual connotations. The cloud, aside
from its half of the "clouds and rain" euphemism for sexual
intercourse,56 might signify a dream state. In love poetry,
the man never entered the woman's boudoir except in
dreams.57 Love affairs take place in dreams. This is an an
cient convention for which the locus classicus is the well
known poem about a king meeting with the Goddess of
Mt. Wu.58 Commentators that one function of
agree
18. Chang Hung 1660), The Nymph of the Lo River
dreams is to bring lovers together.59 One of the love poems Fig. (1580-after
Ink and color on silk. 28.3 x 20 cm.
(1649). George J. Schlenker
by Li Ch'ing-chao, the famous Sung dynasty woman-poet,
Collection, Piedmont, California.
is titled As If in a Dream.60 In the romantic play The Peony
Pavilion, a dream sequence permits explicit descriptions of
love-making.61 Readers can enjoy descriptions of these oth
erwise forbidden eroticisms because of the Chinese con is in Liu Yuans touching pictorialization of Ssu-ma Ts'ai
cept of dreams.
chungs Dream of the Courtesan, Su Hsiao-hsiao (Ssu-ma Tsyai
chung meng Su Hsiao-hsiao, rMI^^^?^M^ , Cincinnati
Once asleep, part of the ching-ch 'i ft
m. (essential
life-force) of an indi Art Museum; Fig. 21). The story isNorthern Sung in date
vidual, located in the hsin '? (heart), flows out and takes on form as the and tells of how Su Hsiao-hsiao appeared in Ssu-ma s
hun ?& (superior half of the soul or the ethereal soul) which is then free dream and claimed they would meet someday on the
to move about. This soul also controls the passions.62 River near Years Ssu-ma re
Ch'ien-t'ang Hangchou. later,
ceived official appointment to Hangchou and found that Su
Dreamers' thoughts are shaped by the passions rather than Hsiao-hsiao's tomb was behind his residence. A year later,
governed by the rational constraints of the "awake" world. Ssu-ma became ill in a pleasure boat. The helmsman
Dreamers are beyond the dictates of normal social mores claimed to have seen him taking a beautiful girl aboard.
and cannot be held responsible for their dream actions or "Then suddenly a fire broke out at the rear end of the boat.
thoughts. Thus the dream is a perfect, morally acceptable, When he rushed to sound the alarm he hears the crying of
and "safe" vehicle for erotic expression. the family [Ts'ai-chung was dead]."63 In the painting, the
In art, people who appear in dreams were visualized as lovely, weeping courtesan appears amidst soft swirling
being in a cloud. A clear-cut example of the dream cloud clouds as Ssu-ma sleeps in the hall. She holds her clappers

85
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 19- Ai-?enn?-shih,TheNymph LoRiver
ofthe
Ink
(1893). and on
color silk.
Diam 25 Urban
^^?^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^P^ Museum ofArt(FA
^?l^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l^^r HongKong
^J^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^r Views
After fiom
Jade Women
Chinese
Museum
1300-1912 (Indianapolis:
Indianapolis
^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
fig
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

in one hand and lifts the other sleeve-covered hand to her whose singing at dawn brings a night of love to a close, bees
face. Another way to represent clouds in Chinese art was by seeking flowers (i.e. males pursuing females, or sometimes
means of a flaring trumpet-shape with a curl in the middle. more sexual intercourse).67 Thoughts of part
specifically,
Such clouds are seen in late T'ang Buddhist murals at Tun ing, or of heart-broken feelings figure in four poems. The
huang64 and in later times these stylized flat, flaring shapes willow is an image in seven of the thirteen poems. It is, of
routinely emanate from a dreamer's head to represent a course, a tree that grows near water, and so
might
be an
ap
dream. This is the way a lover's dream of his beloved is pre propriate image for the painting. The willow has multiple
sented in the decoration of aK'ang-hsi period (1662-1722) associations. It is a clich? for beautiful, slender women. A
porcelain dish.65 The curling dream fixture distinctly recalls broken willow twig symbolized parting and grief. Its
rising, curling smoke. Smoke has its own erotic overtones. catkins are compared with silk thread, a pun for love. Three
It is associated with mountain mists and the Goddess of Mt. of the poems refer to a swing in the willows. Swinging in
Wu.66 Sexual imagery might also be visualized in smoke China was an amusement for women, men, and children.

wisps intertwining. Finally, the rocking motions of the But its appearance in such love poems suggests that it has
waves might be construed as suggesting the motions of specific connotations. Is the swinging motion like that of
love-making. waves? And finally, two poems make use of the dream im
The poems attached to Ch'iu Ying's painting are, as age. One poem speaks of the dream in conjunction with
noted by the compilers of the imperial painting collection the twelve peaks of the Yangtze River, the haunt of theWu
catalogue, all love poems. The stock erotic images woven Mountain Goddess of "clouds and rain" fame. The other
into these verses perforce support the sexual innuendos of reference is to amandarin duck dream. Mandarin ducks are
the painting. In the poems are found images of kingfisher symbols of marital fidelity and sexual happiness. And, it
ornaments and spring fragrance, butterflies, the orioles might be added, they swim and bob on the watery waves.

86
 mm

Fig. 20. After Kai Ch'i, Tai-y?,

an illustration to the Dream of the Red Chamber.
Woodblock print. After Higuchi Hiroshi, Ch?goku hanga sh?sei (Tokyo: Mito shoku,
1967), fig. 99.

In this respect then, the poems and the painting are not as then did the compilers of the
widely accepted. Why
ill-matched as the eighteenth-century editors would have collection feel com
Ch'ing imperial painting catalogue
us believe.68 And thus it seems that
Beauty in SpringThoughts pelled to propose an alternate title for this painting? The
is, after all, the correct title for this lovely painting. answer undoubtedly lies in the "puritanical" attitudes per
Beauty in Spring Thoughts is not the only painting with meating Ch'ing China. Evidence for a heightened vigi
erotic overtones ascribed to Ch'iu Ying, nor was Ch'iu the lance against "immorality" and "impropriety" comes from
only artist to depict such themes. These and other mildly a variety of scattered sources. Within the imperial venue
erotic paintings exist in sufficient number to warrant the as is of to us
(which particular importance here), the Ch'ing
sertion that they had a long history in China and were monarchs set themselves up as moral exemplars for their

87
 Fig. 21. Liu Yuan (Yuan dynasty), Ssu-ma Ts'ai-chung's Dream of the Courtesan, Su Hsiao-hsiao. Ink and color on silk. 29.2 x 74.7 cm. Cincinnati Art
Museum, J. J. Emery Endowment and Fanny Bryce Lehmer Endowment.

subjects.69 They actively suppressed "immorality" by ban Notes

ning erotic novels like The Golden Lotus and suppressing re
sects "where men and women mixed
ligious together and i.
According to tradition
Ch'iu Ying was a major provider of erotic
sold erotic works."70 Some writings, such as a T'ang dy illustrations to sex
handbooks, including those entitled Ten Glorious

nasty account of the courtesan quarter, were proscribed by Postures (R. H. van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China, 1961; reprint,
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974, p. 327), Intimate Scenes of Leisurely Love, and
exclusion from the imperial Ssu-k'u ch'?an-shu library.71 Maiden Embracing Spring (reproduction published by I-yuan chen-shang
Lower down, the imperial stance on such issues was un
she, Shanghai, n.d.). Van Gulik noted that these pictures do not depict
doubtedly felt by the editors of a local gazetteer when they coitus but nonetheless are
highly suggestive (Erotic Colour Prints of the
omitted from their publication an inscription concerning a Ming Period, Tokyo, 1951; reprint, Taipei, 1986, p. 156 and pis. v-vi); the
famous Buddhist folk legend on the grounds that the lan four scenes from this album are also reproduced in his Sexual Life in

guage was "extravagant."72 The once highly popular sex Ancient China, pis. xvi and xvii; van Gulik says that if this album is not

by Ch'iu Ying, it is by one of his followers (Erotic Colour Prints, p. 156).

manuals and handbooks were suppressed.73 Paul Ropp sum
Ch'iu Ying's follower, Huang Sheng, is also credited with erotic pictures,
marized what underlies all of these proscriptions and re to van Gulik, an album titled
producing, according Leisurely After-dinner
strictions by observing that the "insecurity of the Manchu Amusement (Erotic Chinese Prints, pp. 157-158). Van Gulik reproduced
leaders led them to support the most conservative one leaf of Huang's album to Van Gulik) in pl.vii. It is
aspects of (which belonged
a re-do of a scene from the famous
the dominant sanctioned cultures, Night Revels ofHan Hsi-ts'ai. Ch'iu's
[officially upper-class] in the field of erotica was still being proclaimed in 1984 (Hsia
those ethical precepts which expertise
stressed obedience, loyalty and Mei-hsun, Li-shih wen-wu y? i-shu, Taipei: National History Museum,
subordination of all people at the lower end of Confucian hi 1973, p. 289). Van Gulik rightly concedes that most erotic paintings un
erarchical relationships."74 The editors of the imperial der Ch'iu Ying's name are crude
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century

catalogue must have acted in accor

collection works (Erotic Colour Prints, p. 155).
painting
on "morality." They While there are no contemporary records that Ch'iu en
dance with the imperial position suggesting
gaged in this sort of painting, it is entirely possible that he did. Such pic
sought, through the simple expedient of a genre change tures obviously on
focused depictions of the human an area in
figure,
from amorous woman to aloof nymph, to "cleanse" a scroll which Ch'iu excelled. if the later examples of erotica are
Furthermore,
in the imperial art collection of its otherwise seemingly li any guide, the figures sometimes were
placed in elaborate architectural
centious content. settings, another of Ch'iu's strengths. After all, Ch'iu relied solely upon
his painting skills for his living; since there was a demand for such pic
tures, he in all probability them for a fee.
supplied
2. Several of the softer variety
showing single women in a natural set
or are in the
ting beneath bamboo flowering plum, for example,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. A handscroll of 60 fa

mous women, detailed and colored, is in the Field
wonderfully brightly
Museum in Chicago. Another colored handscroll, entided One Hundred
Beauties, attributed to Ch'iu Ying is in the National Palace Museum,
Taipei; two sections of it are reproduced in Ku-kung pao-chi (Taipei:

88
National Palace Museum, 1985), pp. 2, 142. None of these can be seri Chuan in his Y?-chi-shan-fang hua wai lu [MSTS 1/8, 85] briefly men
considered as Ch'iu tions a of Lotus Ch'iu An album leaf version is
ously by Ying. painting Picking by Ying.
3. Anne Birrell, translator and annotator, New Songs from aJade Terrace: recorded by Ku Fu (P'ing-sheng, 10:100).
An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry (London and Boston: Allen & The album leaf given to Ch'iu Ying titled Picking Lotus Flowers now
Unwin, 1982). in the Shanghai Museum has nothing to do with Ch'iu Ying (repro
4. Birrell, New a duced in Hsu
Jade Terrace, pp. 7-12.
Songs from Sen-y? (ed.), Hua-yuan to-ying Gems of Chinese Painting,
5. Birrell, New Songs from aJade Terrace, p. 14. Shanghai: Jen-min mei-shu ch'u-pan-she, 1955, 1:13 and in Chung-kuo
6. Hans H. Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady: ku-tai shu-hua t'u-mu, vol. 3, Peking: Wen-wu ch'u-pan-she, 1990, p. 66).
Interpretations of Chinese Poetry (New Haven and London: Yale University 14. Translation with modifications from Anne Birrell, Popular Songs
Press, 1976), p. 56. and Ballads ofHan China (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988), pp. 48-49.
7. James Cahill, "Ch'ien Hsuan and His Figure Paintings," Archives of 15. Birrell, Popular Songs and Ballads ofHan China, pp. 49, 317.
the Chinese Art Society 12 (i958):20. 16. Birrell, New Songs from aJade Terrace, p. 333.
8. See my "Notes on 'Ladies wearing Flowers in Their Hair,' 17. Not recorded in traditional painting catalogues.
Orientations 21(2) (February 1990):32-39. 18. Germaine L. Fuller, "Spring in Chiang-nan": Pictorial Imagery and
9. Ellen Laing, "Chinese Poetry and the Other in Eight Wu School Paintings a Traditional
Johnston Palace-style Aspects of Expression of
Depiction of A Palace Beauty" The Art Bulletin 72(2)(June 1990): 295. Literary Subject (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1984), pp.
10. Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in, meng. Trans. David Hawkes as Cao 316-317.
Hung-lou
Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, vol. 1: The Golden Days (London: Penguin 19. Birrell, Popular Songs and Ballads ofHan China, p. 147.
1973), p. 127. 20. Frankel, The
Books, Flowering Plum, p. 27.
11. On this dream seeWai-yee Li, "Dream Visions of Transcendence 21. Translation based on that by Ling-yun Shih Liu in Richard
in Chinese Literature and Painting," Asian Art 3(4) (Fall 1990^76; Shuen Edwards, The Art ofWen Cheng-ming (1470-15 59J (exhibition catalogue,
fu Lin, "Chia Pao-yii's First Visit to the Land of Illusion: An Analysis of Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1976), p. 152 and
a Literary Dream in Chinese Literature: that by Richard Barnhart in The Jade Studio: Masterpieces and Qing
Interdisciplinary Perspective," ofMing
Essays, Articles, Reviews 14 (i992):77~io6 (I am grateful to Professor Lin Painting and Calligraphy from theWong Nan-p'ing Collection (exhibition cat
for giving me a copy of his article); and Wai-yee Li, Enchantment and alogue, New
Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1994), p. 87.
Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature Prince 22. Barnhart,
(Princeton: Jade Studio, p. 87.
ton University Press, 1993). 23. Not recorded in traditional painting catalogues.
12. In 1988, as a discussant for a paper I presented, out
James Cahill 24. Shen Zhiyu (ed.), The Shanghai Museum ofArt (New York: Harry
lined how the "waiting women" genre, discussed below, could be ex N. Abrams, 1983), p. 229.
panded in Ch'iu Ying's
works, using several of the paintings presented 25. The painting given to Chou Wen-ch? is reproduced in Li-tai mei
a a Lake, and the related
here, including A Lady in Pavilion Overlooking jen hua-hsuan (Selected Paintings of Beauties Through theAges; Taipei: Art
Wen Cheng-ming scroll Red Sleeves in aHigh Pavilion, along with Ch'iu's Book Company, 1984), pi. 43. The Yu Ch'iu work is reproduced in
A Woman and Attendant under Tall Bamboo, and then added to this list the Chung-kuo mei-shu ch'uan-chi, hui-hua pien, 7, Ming-tai hui-hua, chung
are
work by Yu Ch'iu mentioned later. Cahill's observations in his (Shanghai: Jen-min mei-shu ch'u-pan-she, 1989), pi. 152.
"Women Lorn and Longing" paper as a of 26. The full figures and plump faces suggest that this scroll is not by
presented University
Southern California Getty Lecture, April 1994 and to be included in a Ch'iu Ying but represents a
slightly earlier style, perhaps that of T'ang
book; mine are herein. Yin (one similar figure was attributed to T'ang Yin, published in Hu-she
forthcoming presented
13. I am indebted to James Cahill for lending me his slides of this yueh-k'an 100:15). Close scrutiny reveals that the figures were painted by
scroll. On a separate on Picking are at least two
piece of paper fifteen poems Lotuses hands and that the image of Yang Kuei-fei has been re
transcribed by Y? Yun-wen ?JitlC a note and there are some
(1513-1579), along with
by touched. Aside from this, the painting is of quality
him dated in accordance with 1567, in which he says the scroll was made exceedingly delicate passages, as in the rendition of the flowered stole
for a certain Y? Huang-fu (unidentified). On another piece of paper, worn
by P'an Fei. There are two at the end.
colophons by John Ferguson
Wang Po's 31&J (648-676) poem on the
subject is transcribed by Chang The scroll bears the seals of Wang among others, and was
Chih-teng,
%M.% (1527-1613). A painting of this subject, also with tran in the collection. It is recorded in
Feng-i formerly Ch'ing imperial Chang Chao
of old poems and the colophon by Y? Yun-wen stating that it et al., Shih-ch'? facsimile
scriptions pao-chi, 1745 (Taipei reprint: National Palace
had been made for a Y? Huang-fu is recorded by Chang Ch'ou (Chen Museum, 1971), 1:602. The complete is reproduced
scroll in T'ang Sung

chijih-lu, Mei-shu ts'ung-shu ed.; reprint, Taipei: I-wen ch'u-pan she, Yuan Ming Ch'ing hua-hsuan (Canton: I-shu hua-pao-she, 1963), p. 51
6/2, 248). Chang Ch'ou further records an exchange he must have had and in Chung-kuo ku-tai shu-hua t'u-mu, vol. 6 (Peking: Wen-wu ch'u
with a "This painting is 'Picking Lotus,' but the calligraphy
colleague: (of pan-she, 1988), pp. 306-308.
the reads on Mirror said 'Itmust on separate
title?) 'Spring Colors Lake.' Someone 27. Poems piece of paper at the top inscribed by Chou
have been Feng-nien's error at the time.' I said, 'No. No. There are three T'ien-ch'ou, and Chang Recorded in Lu
Wang Chih-teng, Feng-i.
ladies in this painting and they look so captivating. "Spring colors" per Hsin-yuan, Jang-li-kuan kuo-yen-lu, 1892 Hsueh
preface (reprint Taipei:
haps simply describes them. Lotus blossoms to the summer. Who hai ch'u-pan-she, 1975), i8:2ob-2ia.
belong
doesn't know that? Do you really mean to say that Feng-nien's intelli 28. David R. Knechtges, "The Poetry of an Imperial Concubine: The
gence is lower than that of women and children?' That person then Favorite Beauty Ban," Oriens Extremus 36(2) (1993): 128. My comments
claimed he was not as smart and retired" (trans.Tung Yuan-fang). Feng about Beauty Pan's life are drawn from as is the trans
Knechtges' study,
nien is unidentified. lation of her "fan" poem. Professor Knechtges reviews and discusses the
The present scroll bears seals of An Ch'i and is recorded in his cata about the authorship of this poem. I am grateful to
contending opinions
logue (Mo-yuan hui-kuan lu, preface 1742; reprint Taipei: Commercial him for providing me with a copy of his article.
it is also recorded inWu Sheng, Ta-kuan 29. Wolfram A Dictionary
Press, 1956, p. 246); lu, preface Eberhard, of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols
1712 (reprint Taipei: National Central Library, 1970), 2o:57a-6ob and in in Chinese Life and Thought, trans. G. L. Campbell (London: Routledge
Ku Fu, P'ing-sheng 1692 (reprint Shanghai: & Kegan Paul,
chuang-kuan, preface Jen-min 1986), p. 204.
mei-shu ch'u-pan-she, 1962), 10:95-96. Although the scroll also bears 30. Formerly in the collection of P'ang Yuan-chi the
(1864-1949)
Ch'ing imperial seals, it is not recorded in the catalogue ofthat collection. painting is recorded in his Hsu-chai ming-hua lu, 1909 (n.p.): 8:24a-25a.
Another on silk, is recorded
version, by Fang Ch?n-i (Meng-yuan shu Another signed version, of unknown provenance and present where
hua lu, preface 1875; n-P-: Ting-yun Fang-shih, 1877, io:33ab). Ch'en abouts also unknown, was in picture books in the
reproduced early

89
 twentieth century. It is clearly derived from the Nanking scroll and cer Chao Po-ch?, Kuan Tao-sheng, Chao Ch'ing-ch'ien, Tu Chin, T'ang
tain passages, in particular the woman's hands amallet, are mis Yin, Wen Lu Chih, Ch'iu Shih, anonymous and
holding Cheng-ming, T'ang,
understood and consequently muddled (reproduced in Chung-kuo ming anonymous Ming.
hua chi, Shanghai: Yu Cheng Book Co., 1909, 2:23 and in Chung-kuo 42. The ink monochromeNymph of the Lo River and Two Attendants,
ming hua, Shanghai: Yu Cheng Book Co., 1924-1930, vol. 6). An un supposedly by Ch'iu Ying and now in the Freer Gallery of Art (Lawton,

signed painting by Ch'iu Ying by this

name and also having poems by Chinese Figure Painting, p. 68), is so erratic in all respects that it is best to
the same five people (see note 32) was recorded by Lu Shih-hua (Wu leave this work for later consideration.
so-chien shu-hua lu, preface 1776, T'ai-ts'ang: Hua-yen ke, 1910, 43. In addition to the scrolls in Peking and Shenyang, there are two
yueh
3:78ab). sets in the Freer Gallery of Art (see Lawton, Chinese Figure Painting, nos.
New a 21. 1 and 2). For the other pictures, see James Cahill, An Index of Early
31. Birrell, Songs from Jade Terrace, p.
32. These are by Chou Shih J??# , a late sixteenth-century doctor Chinese Painters and Paintings: T'ang, Sung and Yuan (Berkeley and Los
from K'un-shan; three members of the Huang-fu family of Suchou: Angeles: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 11-12.
IHWft (1490-1558), Fang jf^f? (cs. 44. The Peking scroll is reproduced inter alia in Chung-kuo li-tai hui
Huang-fu Ch'ung Huang-fu
and Huang-fu Lien ^?$? and Huang Chi-shui hua, Ku-kung po-wu-yuan 1 mei-shu ch'u
1529), (1508-1564); ts'ang-hua (Peking: Jen-min
mm* (1509-1574) pan-she, 1978),pp. 6-10; the section of the Shenyang version discussed
33. The major points in this section
presented were
by
me in a paper below is reproduced in Liao-ning-sheng po-wu-kuan ts'ang-hua chi 1
titled "Amorous Beauty or Aloof A Study of Qiu Ying's (Peking: Wen-wu ch'u-pan-she, 1962), p. 4.
" Nymph:
in Spring Thoughts' at the annual meeting of the College Art 45. Reproduced in Ku-kung hsun-k'an, 17:68.
'Beauty
Association, Houston, Texas, 12, 1988. This version was am 46. Unpublished. This was to my attention
February painting brought by
in 1989 and again in 1993 in unpublished Professor also provided me with a slide of it.
plified papers. James Cahill, who
34. Recorded in Chang Chao et al., Shih-ch'? pao-chi 2:1055 and Ku 47. Reproduced in Kuang-tung ming-chia shu-hua hsuan-chi (Hong
kung shu-hua lu (1956, 2nd revised ed. Taipei: National Palace Museum, Kong: Ta-kung-pao, i960), p. 27.
thirteen verses are by (1) Lu Chih ^f? 48. These two paintings are in Shincho Shogafu
1965), 2, 4:184. The (1496-1576), reproduced (Osaka:
a friend and in Ming-jen shu-hua
the landscape painter; (2) Shen Y?-wen ?tf?X, dates unknown, Hakubundo, 1922), p. 77 (Shanghai:
Ici?iz (4) Wen Commercial vol. 17.
of Chou T'ien-ch'iu; (3) Wen Po-jen (1502-1575); Press, 1920-1925),
P'eng icm (1498-1573); (5) Shih Yueh E?, unidentified; (6)Wen 49. Illustrated in Suzuki Kei, Ch?goku kaiga s?g? zuroku (Comprehen
ie?^?J A, sive Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo
Chia^H (1501-1583); (7) Chin-feng shan-jen unidentified; of Chinese Paintings) (Tokyo: University
(8) Chin Yung ^^, a disciple ofWang Ch'ung (1491-1533); (9)Y? Press, 1982) 3:63 (JM 1-223).
ir$ ,unidentified; ^f ^ , the brother of 50. Reproduced in Tien-shih-chai ts'ung-hua ch'uan-chi (reprint Taipei:
Chang (10) Huang
Shou-tseng
Lu-tseng (1487-1561); (11) Liu Yin ?H^, unidentified; (12) Liu Chung-kuo shu-hua, 1979), 3:34.
Huang
*W , unidentified; (13) Lu Chih, hao Chi-yu #t?,i?^, 51. Reproduced in Wu Yu-ju jen-wu, shih-nii hua-chi (Tientsin: Tien
Chang calligra
birds, and flowers. ching ku-chi 1982, after the 2:21b.
phier and painter of bamboo, shu-tien, 1930 edition),
The and its attached poems once belonged to the high 52. Reproduced in Tien-shih-chai
ts'ung-ch'ao (n.p., n.d.), p. 9.
painting
official Pi Yuan Two of Pi'sseals appear near the beginning 53. Birrell, New a
(1730-1799). Jade Terrace, pp. 7-12.
Songs from
of the painting portion and two at the end of the poetry segment. The 54. Birrell, New Songs from aJade Terrace, p. 12.
seals are those of the Chia-ch'ing emperor (r. 1796?1820). 55. Suzanne Cahill, "Sex and the Supernatural in Medieval China:
only imperial
The scroll must have entered the imperial collection when the Pi family Cantos on the Transcendent Who Presides Over the River," Journal of the
was in 1799 upon the discovery that American Oriental
property by the throne
confiscated Society 105(2) (April-June 1985^214.
Pi Yuan had in graft (Arthur W Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese 56. The Goddess of Mt. Wu, the goddess of rain and fertility, favored
engaged
Period D.C.: U.S. Government the king of Ch'u, she was the clouds" and the
of the Ch'ing 1644-1912, Washington claiming "morning
Office, 1943-1944, rain." This became a for sexual intercourse.
Printing pp. 622-625). "evening phrase euphemism
35. This line is a quote from Ts'ao Chih's The Nymph of the Lo River, 57. Birrell, New Songs from aJade Terrace, p. 20.
see below. 58. Translated by Lois Fusek, "The Kao t'ang Fu," Monumenta S?rica

36. Hu Ching et al., Shih-ch'? san pien, 1816 (reprint Taipei: 30 (i972-i973):393-425.
pao-chi
National Palace Museum, 1969) 4:1874-1876. The entry is repeated in 59. Suzanne Cahill, "Sex and the Supernatural," p. 203. For additional
shu-hua lu 4:184?186. sources dreams in Chinese culture see note 11.
Ku-kung analyzing
37. Ch'iu Ying did paint two pictures of the Nymph of the Lo River, 60. William H. Nienhauser Jr., "Diction,Dictionaries, and the
both now lost. One awriting of the poem by Wen Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry," T'oung Pao 64 (i978):76~96.
accompanied Cheng
61. Tang The trans. Cyril
ming and belonged toWang Shih-mou (1536-1588) (Wang Shih-mou, Hsien-tzu, Peony Pavilion (Mudan Ting),
chi, Suchou, 1589; Library of Congress microfilm, Birch (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), pp. 47-50.
Wang Feng-ch'ang
1a); the second, known a late mention, was a pai 62. William H. Nienhauser, Jr., "Floating Clouds and Dreams in Liu
5i:iob-i only through
miao rendition in the style of Li Kung-lin and supposedly made for Yung-chou Exile Writings," Jo urnal of theAmerican Oriental
Tsung-y?an's
in Han T'ai-hua, shu-hua chi, preface
T'ang Yin (recorded Y?-y?-t'ang Society 106(1) (January-March 1986): 175.
i85i,MSTS2/3,p. 86). 63. The story is related in Sherman Lee and Wai-kam Ho, Chinese Art
38. The are excerpts from the translation of Ts'ao s fu by Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty 1279-1368 (exhibition catalogue,
following
Burton Watson in Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from theHan Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968), no. 199. The subject and
and Six Dynasties Periods (New York: Columbia Press, 1971), the painting are discussed at length by Susan Bush, who proposes that
University
pp. 55-60. the artist, Liu Yuan, was active under the Chin dynasty (1115-1234)
and of of Animal or Narrative Themes and Their
39. For the possible political autobiographical interpretations ("Five Paintings Subjects
this poem see Thomas Lawton, Chinese Figure Painting (exhibition cata Relevance to Chin Culture," in China Under furchen Rule: Essays on Chin
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, Intellectual and Cultural History, Hoyt Cleveland Tillman and Stephen H.
logue,
West, eds.; Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, pp.
1973), PP- 22-23.
40. Wang Yuan-ch'i et al., P'ei-wen-chai shu-hua p'u, preface 1708 196-199).
(n.p.), ch. 95:3a. 64. Chung-kuo shih-k'w.Tun-huangMo-kao-k'u vol. 4 (Peking: Wen-wu
41. Consult John C. Ferguson, Li-tai chu-lu hua mu (Nanking: ch'u-pan-she, 1987) pi. 82 and elsewhere.
entries for Li Chao-tao, Li Kung-lin, in Richard S. Kilburn, Transitional Wares and Their
Chinling University, 1934) under 65. Reproduced

90
Forerunners (exhibition catalogue, Hong Kong: The Oriental Ceramic 69. Harold L. Kahn, Monarchy in the Emperor's Eyes: Images and Reality

Society, 1981), no. 107 and in Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain from in the Ch'ien-lung Reign (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
the Butler Family Collection (exhibition catalogue, Alexandria, Va.: Art 1971), p. 90.
Services International, 1990), no. no. 70. See Jonathan D. Spence, Emperor of China (New York: Alfred A.
66. Birrell, New a
Songs from Jade Terrace, p. 326. Knopf, 1974), pp. 85, 197.
67. For these and images mentioned below, the reader who is unfa 71. Robert des Rotours, Courtisanes Chinoises ? lafin des T'ang entre circa
miliar with this material should consult the writings of William H. j8g et le 8 janvier 881 (translation and annotation of Sun Ch'i's Pei-li chih),
Nienhauser (see notes 60 and 62) and Suzanne
Jr. Cahill (see note 55). Biblioth?que de l'Institute des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, vol. 22 (Paris:
The glossaries in Birrell, New a
Songs from Jade Terrace and in Lois Fusek Presses Universitaires de France, 1968), p. 21.
(trans.), Among the Flowers: The Hua-chien Chi (New York: Columbia 72. Glen Dudbridge, The Legend ofMiao-shan (London: Ithaca Press,
University Press, 1982) are also extremely useful. 1978), p. 14.
s The
68. Phrases borrowed from Ts'ao Nymph of the Lo River or refer 73. Van Gulik, Erotic Colour Prints, iv.
ences to the of the Lo River in the poems attached to Ch'iu's 74. Paul S. Ropp, "The Seeds of Change: Reflections on the
Nymph
are nothing more than the use of common love poetry vocab Condition ofWomen in the Early and Mid Ch'ing,"
painting Signs 2(1) (1976)120.
ulary.

91