The Three Friends of Winter

Chao Meng-chien, Sung dynasty

Original: Album-leaf, Ink on paper, 32.2cmX53.4cm

Unsigned, two seals Tzu-ku and I-chai

Collector's seals: T'ien-lei-ko, Hsiang Mo-lin chien-shang chang, and fifteen others

Chao Meng-chien (1199-1292) was a member of the Sung royal house, being the eleventh generation fromT'ai-tsu. His style-name was Tzu-ku and his sobriquet was I-chai chu-jen. He received his chin-shih degree in1226 and served as a scholar in the Han-lin Academy. On the fall of the Sung dynasty he refused to serve the Yuan Mongols but lived in retirement at Chi-chou (the present Chia-hsing in Kiangsu).

A man of wide cultivation, he resembled Mi Fei in manner; he was an excellent poet and calligrapher. He was a master of ink who liked to paint outline drawings of plum blossom, orchids, bamboos, rocks, and narcissi. All his paintings possess an exquisite spiritual consonance. Once, when he was living in Hai-t’a he equipped a boat with the accoutrements of scholarly leisure and went sailing on the billows, singing and whistling. Passers-by called his boat "the boat of calligraphy and painting."