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18"x24" |
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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
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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."
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