Hong Kong Palace Museum | The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Stories Untold — Figure Paintings of the Ming Dynasty from the Palace Museum

4100. Opulent versus Untrammelled

There was a cultural rejuvenation in the early Ming dynasty, with the court actively recruiting cohorts of painters and granting them official positions. The painters primarily served the royal family, and their subject matter was strictly regulated. Their paintings had distinctive political and didactic function, often portraying the virtuous rule of the Ming dynasty or the Ming emperors’ wise appointments of officials. The painters’ style and technique were often precise and meticulous, and their colours were vibrant to reflect the royal family’s stature and dignity. These painters created what came to be known as “court painting” style.

During the early to mid-Ming dynasty, another group of artists were active farther south, in the Zhejiang area. They were professional painters, and their style was different from the court painters. The works of the Zhejiang painters encompassed diverse styles and usually featured fast, bold brushstrokes. Since daily life was their main subject, their paintings resonated with the general public and gained popularity. These professional painters were later classified as the “Zhe school” of painting. Two notable representatives were Dai Jin and Wu Wei.

Court painting and Zhe school painting thrived within the palace and the public sphere, respectively, but both traditions can be traced back to the court painting of the Southern Song dynasty, the last Chinese dynasty before Mongol rule. The two eminent painters of the Zhe school, Dai Jin and Wu Wei, had even served at court before leaving it and becoming leading artists outside court. They were well versed in the techniques and styles associated with court painting, and when they left, they fostered an exchange between court art and popular art. In this section, you can appreciate the similarities and differences between t the painting traditions of the court painters and the Zhejiang school.

4102. Nine Elders of Mount Xiang

Let's first focus on the lower part of the painting. Nine elderly figures, accompanied by young attendants, are appreciating a painting, observing the waterfall, playing the zither, or engaging in leisurely conversations underneath pine trees. The atmosphere is serene and leisurely. Who are these nine elders? One of them is Bai Juyi, a poet from the Tang dynasty who spent his later years in Xiangshan, Luoyang, Henan province, living a carefree life. In the fifth year of the Huichang era (845), he and eight other like-minded elderly friends organised a literary gathering. They later became known as the "Nine Elders of Xiangshan" or the "Nine Elders of Huichang". This elegant event has been frequently depicted in paintings throughout history.

The figures in this painting are depicted with swift and precise brushwork, reminiscent of the bold brushwork style of Wu Wei, a master painter of the Ming dynasty's Zhe school. The brushwork for the rocks and mountains is unrestrained and expressive, showing the influence of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, court painters of the Southern Song dynasty.

4200. Antiquarian and Elegant

In the mid-Ming dynasty, a group of painters known as the “Wu school ”rose to prominence. The rise of the Wu school coincided with the growing prosperity of the Jiangnan region’s economy. The increasingly affluent society pursued refinement and elegance in their lifestyles.

A group of painters gathered in and around Wu County, which is the Suzhou region of present-day Jiangsu province. With these painters, a fresh and elegant painting style emerged. Two renowned painters, Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, successively played a leading role in this group. They primarily inherited the literati painting tradition of the Yuan dynasty. The Yuan literati painting tradition was exemplified by the works of Zhao Mengfu, Huang Gongwang, and Wang Meng. The painters who inherited their style and created their masterpieces in Wu County during the Ming dynasty were collectively referred to as the “Wu school ”or the “Wen school”—literally the “literati school”.

The leaders of the Wu school—Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, along with Tang Yin and Qiu Ying—are remembered as the Four Masters of the Wu school or the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty. Shen Zhou excelled in poetry, literature, and calligraphy. He mainly demonstrated his talent in landscape and bird-and-flower painting. His disciple Wen Zhengming—who mastered not just painting but also poetry, literature, and calligraphy—had numerous students of his own. Together, Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming established the fresh and elegant style of the Wu school. The two other masters of the Wu school were Tang Yin and Qiu Ying. Tang Yin, who was known as the First Talent of Jiangnan, was proficient in poetry, calligraphy, and painting. He integrated both literati and court painting traditions into his practice, displaying versatility in subject matter and techniques. Qiu Ying, who followed the tradition of copying ancient paintings, excelled in figure and landscape paintings, which he executed with fine brushwork (gongbi) and heavy colours.

The figure paintings of the Wu school reflect a collective nostalgia for ancient elegance. The Wu school painters frequently depicted famous stories, like the story about Tao Yuanming and the Orchid Pavilion Gathering hosted by Wang Xizhi. Their paintings also document the refined lifestyles in Wu County in the mid-Ming. They portrayed the Ming admiration for ancient practices as well as local gatherings of social elites.

You can appreciate the refined elegance of Wu School paintings in the following section.

4202. The Tree in the Wind

Tang Bohu is familiar to many as a talented and brilliant figure of the Ming dynasty. Tang Bohu is the style name of Tang Yin, who also has the sobriquet Liuru Jushi. He was a native of Suzhou in present-day Jiangsu province, and excelled in poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Later generations included Tang Yin among the Four Talented Scholars of Jiangnan and the Four Masters of the Wu school of the Ming dynasty.

The work is titled The Tree in the Wind and symbolises the sorrow when parents pass away before their children fulfil their filial duties. In the painting, two old leafless trees sway in the wind. A man dressed in scholarly clothes sits between them, covering his face while he weeps. Tang Yin experienced the pain and emotions depicted in the painting firsthand, as several of his close relatives passed away when he was in his twenties. The painting is executed solely in ink, with concise and skillful strokes, and expresses on paper a profound sense of desolation and grief.

This scroll represents the fusion of Tang Yin’s poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal carving. The inscription on the painting mentions that the work was “written and gifted to Xi Mo”, suggesting that the figure depicted might be a filial son named Xi Mo. The painting also features a seven-character poem written by Tang Yin:

The west wind blows the leaves and the whole courtyard is filled with coldness.
The son of mischief, wordlessly, goes on to burst into tears.
His heart is in the jiuquan netherworld; the lamp is hanging on the wall.
The front of his garment is covered with clear blood and his tears moisten the balustrade.

The imagery in this poem expresses desolation. “West wind” was generally used to refer to an autumn wind. The last line expresses the sentiment of a filial son crying for such a long time that he has no more tears.

4300. Worldly and Strange

In the mid-Ming dynasty, the philosopher Wang Gen said, “The daily life of the common people is the Way”. In other words, he suggested that the Way of the sage can be found in everyday life and can be understood and achieved by anyone. This concept places common people and sages on an equal footing and affirms the value of popular culture. In this context, some painters focused on representing secular customs. Paintings depicting the lives of common people flourished from the mid- to the late Ming dynasty.

This was also a time of intellectual liberation and a yearning for freedom. The exotic and the unusual became fashionable. A group of painters who emerged in the late Ming represented these trends. They became known as the Transformative school and included Ding Yunpeng, Wu Bin, Chen Hongshou, and Cui Zizhong.

Chen Hongshou, who was active in Jiangnan, in the south, and Cui Zizhong, who was active in the north, were leading regional figures in the late Ming period. Chen Hongshou’s paintings had stylistic elements of both literati and professional painting. He excelled at figure painting: his figures, which are both majestic and melancholic, reflect his profound humanism. Cui Zizhong, who was equally erudite, aspired to ancient elegance and transformation in his paintings while retaining the spirit of the Confucian literati. Because of his reclusive and aloof nature, Cui rarely showed his paintings to others, so only a limited number of his works have survived.

In this section, you can explore the paintings depicting everyday life from the mid- to the late Ming dynasty, as well as representative works of the Transformative school.

4302. Lady Wenji Returns to Her Homeland

This fan painting was created by the painter Fang Zong in the late Ming dynasty. In the painting, the woman who is kneeling, dressed in hanfu (a traditional robe and skirt), is Cai Wenji, the daughter of Cai Yong, a prominent scholar-official of the Eastern Han dynasty. Captured by the Xiongnu people during a period of chaos, she lived with them for about twenty years. During that time, she gave birth to two children. After she was redeemed, she returned to her home in the Central Plains and spent time organising over four hundred manuscripts left by her father Cai Yong, ensuring the preservation and dissemination of his literary works. The historical event “Wenji Returns to Han” has inspired numerous enduring works by painters and playwrights.

In the painting, Wenji’s two children are playing in the company of Xiongnu court ladies. Several Xiongnu soldiers tend to their horses in the mountain valley. Wenji herself gazes thoughtfully at the sky, torn by her dilemma: she longs for her homeland but does not want to part with her young children. Her conflict is vividly portrayed. The artistic style of this work shows the clear influence of female figure paintings by Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, two painters of the Wu school.