China: 3000 Years of Art and Literature

204 Pages·2008·104.69 MB·English

by  Jason Steuber

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EDITED
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JASON STEUBER
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Over the last decade, J A SO N STEU BER has
contributed to major projects related to Chinese art,
including the 1999 international loan exhibition The
Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries
from The People's Republic of China (National Gallery,
Washington, DC) and the 2004 two-volume set New
Perspectives on China's Past: Chinese Archaeology in the
Twentieth Century published by Yale University Press.
As a curator for the renowned Asian art collections
housed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in
Kansas City, Missouri, he has published articles in
such international journals as Apollo, Arts of Asia,
ArtAsiaPacific, The Burlington Magazine, Orientations,
and Gugong Wenwu Yuekan (National Palace Museum
Monthly of Chinese Art). In addition to many years
of university-teaching experience in the United
States, he was recently named the Leverhulme Trust
Visiting Fellow in the Department of the History of
Art, Glasgow University.
Plum Blossoms, Liu Shiru (ca. 1355-
FRONT COVER:
1623). Hanging scroll, ink on paper.
Magic Carpet, Xu Bing (b. 1955). Digital
BACK COVER:
rendering for carpet design.
welcome
BOOKS
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Copyright © 2007 Welcome Enterprises, Inc.
Jacket design by Naomi Irie
Printed in China

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BIRTI-I LIFE
AND
12 .M" " .,. BIRTH & LIFE
CALLING TO THE RECLUSE
Zuo 5i (ca. 253-CQ. 307)
jleaned on my staff and called to the recluse
whose weed-grown path is blocked now as ever.
No structures are built in the caves on cliffs,
yet a harp is playing among the hills.
A white cloud halts on the shadowed ridge,
red petals gleam in sunlit groves.
Stony streams scour their agates and jades,
fine fins rise to the surface and sink.
There is no need here for harps or flutes,
hills and streams make their own clear notes.
And why depend on whistling or song,
when tree clumps hum so movingly?
Dried grains are mixed with fall's chrysanthemums,
hidden orchids inserted in folds of gowns.
As I pace here, pausing, my feet grow weary -
I would cast down the pins of my officer's cap.
PRECEDING SPREAD:
Poet on MountGintop,
(I
Shen Zhnu (1427-1509).
Album leaf mounted
as handscroll, ink on
paper. Detail
RIGHT: Scholar wifh.
Staff and Bnuh, Chen
Hongohou (1598-1652).
Album luf. ink. and
color on silk.
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POTtrait of Artist', Great
Grand Uncle Yizhai at
Age Eighty-Fi1Je, Zude
(active mid-16th or
early 17th century).
Hanging scroll, ink and
color on silk.
ON HIS BALDNESS
BO luyi (772-846)
at
dawn I sighed to see my hairs fall;
At dusk I sighed to see my hairs fall.
For I dreaded the time when the last lock should go ...
They are all gone and I do not mind at all!
I have done with that cumbrous washing and getting dry;
My tiresome comb for ever is laid aside.
Best of all, when the weather is hot and wet,
To have no top-knot weighing down on one's head!
I put aside my dusty conical cap; and loose my collar-fringe.
In a silver jar I have stored a cold stream;
On my bald pate I trickle a ladle-full.
Like one baptized with the Water of Buddha's Law,
I sit and receive this cool, cleansing joy.
Now I know why the priest who seeks Repose
Frees his heart by first shaving his head.
The great Tang dynasty poet Bo Juyi reflects on aging and its physical transformations, particularly the loss of hair. Although at fim he sighs at the
daily departure of his locks, he learns to appreciate the aging process as a natural.freeing of spirit. Zude's accompanyingfonnal portmit of his great
grand-uncle Y"tzhai suggests the same affirmation of the spirit that Bo wrote about seven hundred years earlier. The painting reflects the uncle's gentle
retirement in the wonderful iriformal blue robe and cap he wears while his image is captured on silk.