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Lotus and Ducks
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A conversation about shuimo xieyi, or impressionistic ink-wash painting — one of the most distinctive genres of traditional Chinese fine arts — would not be complete without mentioning the name of the great but rather eccentric master, Bada Shanren (1626-1705), one of the best known painters and calligraphers of the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The master painter had not only taken the impressionistic ink-wash painting in China to a new level, but also influenced the evolution of this genre for the following 300 years.
Bada Shanren lived a storied life. Born as Zhu Da in Nanchang, capital of east China’s Jiangxi Province, he was the ninth descendant of Prince Zhu Quan of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Bada was certainly a prodigy, who began to write poetry at the age of seven and learned to paint landscapes when he was 11. This was partly because painting seemed to be a family tradition as his father, grandfather and an uncle of his were all well-known painters.
But the royal descendant lost his social status at the age of 19 when the dynasty collapsed after the invasion of Jurchen troops from northeast China.
Soon after, his father passed away. Heartbroken about both his father’s death and the fall of Ming Dynasty, he became a Buddhist monk at the age of 22 and adopted the pseudonym Bada Shanren. Art critics have said that during that time, Bada suffered not only heartbreak, but also a nervous breakdown. From time to time, he seemed hovering between “real insanity and impassioned creativity.”
However, others say that both his becoming a Buddhist monk and recurring insanity actually served as a disguise for Bada to escape political persecution and to survive under the new rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Many believe that Bada wasn’t really a very religious man and his outlook was hard to fathom. After following Buddhism for 13 years, he became the founder of a local Taoist temple, but another 23 years later, he resumed secular life and emerged as a prominent painter and calligrapher.
His troubled state of mind and painful life had certainly found their expression in his most daring and idiosyncratic art works.
His paintings, usually in ink monochrome, could be deceptively simple. For instance, in one of his paintings, Bada used less than five or six brush strokes to paint just a few flower pedals. In others, he painted a single, strangely-shaped stone and a tiny fish.
But in such enigmatic abbreviation, the master resorted to his unique visual vocabulary and awe-inspiring ink-wash painting techniques to capture the essence of flowers, rocks, birds and other creatures.
His paintings also feature unconventional compositions, exaggerated forms and sometimes even perverted personifications.
For example, Bada often deliberately left large areas of neagtive space in the center of his paintings, which can be interpreted as a symbol of the key Taoist concept of “nothingness”.
In his late years, Bada painted Hehua Shuangfu Tu or Lotus and Ducks, a 185×95.8 cm ink on paper handing scroll which exemplifies his unique style.
The painting shows two stones, one large and one small; two ducks, each perched on a stone; several lotus leaves; and a large open space in the middle.
There’s no interaction between the two birds, but both are painted with their pupils in the upper part of their eyes. It’s typical for Bada’s depiction of birds and gives them a certain look of rage, cynicism or defiance.
The painter painted the lotus leaves here with ink of various shades to create an effect of depth. And he drew the five long lotus stems in a seemingly random manner. If you look closer, they are actually strategically executed to create an elegantly vertical white spaces. This technique fully embodies the important concept of jibai danghei, literally, “counting white as black” or wise use of blankness in traditional Chinese painting.
Most of Bada’s paintings have been labeled as cool, impassive, enigmatic or unfathomable. But for Stephen Allee, associate curator for Chinese painting and calligraphy at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in the United States, it is the “enigmatic quality” of Bada’s work that brings one back to his art again and again.
Bada’s masterpiece Lotus and Ducks is now in the collection of Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Brush away the mystery of traditional Chinese painting
CHINESE painting, also known as brush painting or ink-wash painting, is one of the oldest art forms in the world. However, the varied styles, techniques, perspectives and symbolism of such paintings are often very different from most Western art works. Also, the tools and media employed by the artists of traditional Chinese painting, such as inksticks, inkstones, rice paper and brushes, are unfamiliar to many Westerners. As a result, Chinese paintings, including many masterpieces, may seem mysterious to our readers.
This column, jointly generated by our columnist Peter Zhang and art editor Chen Jie, aims to explain the aesthetic concepts behind Chinese paintings and tell some interesting stories about their creation and their creators. Zhang and Chen will also explore the often multiple layers of meanings hidden in Chinese paintings and give a better understanding of such works through visual analyses.
We hope this column will prove to be a valuable guide in exploring the fabulous, yet mysterious world of great Chinese paintings.
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