Ting Yun-p'eng, Ming dynasty

Original: Hanging-scroll, Ink and colours on paper, 130.9cm x 54.5cm

Signed by the painter and dated "Autumn 1649". Two seals

Collector's seals: eight Ch'ien-lung chien-ts'ang seals

　Ting Yun-p'eng (fl. 1580-1621) was a native of Hsiu-ning, Anhui. His style-name was Nan-yu and his sobriquet was Sheng-hua Chu-shih. He excelled at painting Taoist and Buddhist figures, deriving his style from the T'ang master Wu Tao-tzu and his technique of outline drawing from Li Kung-lin. It is said that he painted lines so that they were like silken strands and that he did not miss a single hair from the eye-lashes and eye-brows. This painting depicts a story about Ts'ai Yin, who, in 65 A.D., set off at the command of his emperor to bring back the Buddhist scriptures from India. Two years later he returned, riding a white horse, accompanied by two monks and bearing the scriptures.