Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (68 columns in semi-cursive and cursive scripts)
Kang Jiean of my hometown, a painter of ink plum blossoms, has asked me for a poem, so I will explain what is important and what is unimportant in this art.
Taochan [Yang Wujiu, 1097‒1169] followed the style of Huaguang [Monk Zhongren, ca. 1051‒1123];
He captured the pure resonance of the master.
Xianan [Tang Zhengzhong, ca. mid-late 12th c.] studied with Taochan;
He learned clear composition from his master.
As one looks at the jade-like flowers and mouse-whisker stamens,
One knows his skill is more exquisite [than that of Huaguang].
His branches are always depicted in the shape of deer horns,
The vitality of his painting comes from this kind of execution.
Although it is not important to consider the orthodox tradition,
Compared to the true method [of Yang and Tang] the others are not proper.
Monk Ding paints the flowers skillfully but the branches are roughly done,
Liu Mengliang has good ideas but his technique is insufficient.
Surprisingly there is a lady painter, Madame Bao,
She has been able to inherit her master's method.
It is a pity for me knowing the fame of the fine plum painter
Bi Gongji of Jiangxi but never having met him;
The painting of Yang Jiheng is coarse, distasteful, and clumsy;
He is the first to introduce bad taste but Yao Xuepeng is even worse.
This is like the saying of Zhang Rong:
"I regret that the two Wangs did not have my calligraphy method."
How many girls who lived near the beautiful Xishi tried to compare with her?
How can something interesting not be transmitted?
One must have the eye to discover beauty.
A flower should be painted with only seven stamens and three sepals;
New buds should be executed with dots like pepper,
The tip of the branch must be painted like a rat's tail.
Light and dark ink are applied
For showing the branches in three layers of ink tones.
Flowers should be depicted with front and back sides
While buds are painted in various shapes.
You already comprehend the secret of this art,
If I repeat this method, my words become verbose.
Whose family will have your painting on a screen?
My poem may be used to explain your art.
Kang Jie’an seemed not to comprehend my poem, but Xu Meigu asked me for another poem on the same subject, so I wrote the following:
Dark ink is used for the blossoming branches,
Light ink is used for the tip of the branches.
The old trunk with scales and wrinkles should be painted
With slightly dark and dry ink.
The flower petals can be depicted with three strokes
Separately drawn but still connected.
Pepper dots used to show the new buds should be drawn like pearls.
Strokes fine as bee whiskers are painted around the heart of the flower
Like a smiling face with a dimple,
The long branch tip is executed with a stroke
Steadily dragged like a rat's tail.
Painting the plum blossoms in the wind,
All the flowers should be moving in the same direction.
Half the branch may be covered with snow
When painting the plum in this guise,
The plum blossoms must be arranged properly
When painted together with pine and bamboo.
When flowers are depicted floating on the water,
Make them seem to dance and toss.
When painting evening scenery, accompany it with the bright moon.
Besides long and short bridges,
Plum blossoms may be arranged along clear shallow mountain streams.
A group of blossoming branches painted close to each other
Seem to have a clamorous and cheerful feeling;
Branches depicted back-to-back quietly
Display a listless expression.
Although the brushwork of a painting is distinctively finished,
It is obviously more than just brushstrokes;
On a scroll, the vertical and horizontal lines are not merely drawing.
[Looking at a painting] one will feel the room
Filling with the atmosphere of springtime,
Or recall passing through plum blossoms in the rain.
From beginning to end, Yang and Tang's methods should be followed;
Continue studying hard; how can skill be mastered in just a day?
I wrote the following for the bamboo painter Wang Cuiyan, who asked for a poem on this subject:
The most ancient paintings showed objects without definite forms,
Then forms were depicted closely following the actual objects.
People later followed the methods of early masters,
Tracing their footprints as though stamping a seal on clay.
But a close copy is like building the same house upon another,
When new ideas are added the work is more satisfying.
It has been several hundred years since the Wei and Jin dynasties.
Who can carry on the calligraphic tradition of Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi?
People nowadays forget the poetry of Li Bai and Du Fu.
They are eager to study the new style of the Jianghu school.
I hope you can plant a thousand acres of bamboo
Like those growing along the Wei River;
After a meal you can relax and take a walk.
All the phenomena of bamboo in wind, in clear weather, in mist and in rain
Will be within your heart,
The luxuriant and upright nature of bamboo
Will come forth freely from your brush.
Oh, how common Zizhang looks when Yuan Dafu appears!
These three poems may be seen as a treatise on plum and bamboo painting. However, those who do not have poetry in their hearts will be confounded when they see these poems. Several months after Cuiyan received my poem, he suddenly came to ask me: "What I requested was a poem on bamboo painting, why did you write about the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu?" I answered with a laugh, "This is not beyond your understanding. It's only that no one has ever told you about it. Have you not heard the words: "If you restrict your theme, you can not be a good poet'?" My cousin Huangfu, who has been studying here with me, learned that I had composed these poems, and he delightedly asked me to write them down. I worry that I too may not have a poetic nature and will also be confounded. Those who understand poetry may correct me. I am old now and do not wish to say too much.
Written by Zhao Mengjian, Zigu, Yizhai Jushi of the royal family under the light of a candle at ten o'clock on the sixth day of the tenth month, the first year of the Jingding era [1260]. I am now staying with the Wang family of Salt Bridge [in Hangzhou].[1]
里中康節菴畫墨梅求詩，因述本末以示之。子固
逃禪祖花光, 得其韻度之清麗； 間菴紹逃禪, 得其蕭散之布置。
回觀玉面而鼠鬚，已自工夫較精緻。
枝枝例作鹿角曲，生意由來端若爾。
所傳正統諒末節，捨此的傳皆偽耳。
僧定花工枝則粗，夢良[貴字點去]意到工則未。
女[兒字點去]中卻有鮑夫人，能守師繩不輕墜。
可憐聞名未識面，云有江西畢公濟。
季衡醜粗惡拙祖，弊到雪蓬觴濫矣。
所恨二王無臣法，多少東鄰擬西子。
是中有趣豈不傳，要以眼力求其旨。
踢鬚止七蕚則三，點眼名椒梢鼠尾。
枝分三疊墨濃澹，花有正背多般蘂。
夫君固已悟筌蹄，重說偈言吾亦贅。
誰家屏幛得君畫，更以吾詩疏其底。
康不領此詩也, 又有許梅谷者仍求, 又賦長律。
濃寫花枝澹寫梢，鱗皴老榦墨微燋。
筆分三踢攢成瓣，珠暈一圓工點椒。
糝缀蜂鬚凝笑靨，穩拖鼠尾施長條。
盡吹心側風初急，猶把枝埋雪半銷。
松竹襯時明掩映，水波浮處見飄颻。
黃昏時候朧明月，清淺谿山長短橋。
鬧裏相挨如有意，靜中背立見無聊。
筆端的瀝明非畫，軸上縱橫不是描。
頓覺坐成春盎[缺一字]，因思行過雨瀟瀟。
從頭摠是揚湯法，拚下工夫豈一朝 。
王翠巌寫竹求詩，亦與。
古畫畫物無定形，隨物賦形皆迫真。
其次祖述有師繩，如印印泥隨前人。
尚疑屋下重作屋，參以新意意乃足。
晉魏而成幾百年，羲獻斷弦誰解續。
何况高束李杜編，江湖競買新詩讀。
願君種取渭川一千畝，飽飯逍遙步捫腹。
風晴烟雨盡入君心胸，吐出毫端自森肅。
員大夫來子章何碌碌。
三詩蓋梅竹譜也, 然胸中無詩者見之捍格。翠巌得詩後數月忽問余曰:“所求畫竹詩耳, 乃及李、杜編，何也？”余笑曰：“非君不解, 世無人為君言耳。‘作詩必此詩, 定非能詩人。’不聞此語耶？”皇甫表工學於斯, 聞余詩欣然求書, 正恐胸中無詩種, 又捍格也。識者為余一撥, 余老不事多言云。景定元禩良月六日, 所寓邸乃鹽橋王氏家, 二鼓燭下書諸。王孫趙孟堅子固彝齋居士記。
Artist’s seals
Mengjian 孟堅
Zigu 子固
Yizhai 彜齋
[1] Translation from Kwan S. Wong and Stephen Addiss, Masterpieces of Song and Yuan Dynasty Calligraphy from the John C. Crawford Jr. Collection. Exh. cat. New York: China Institute in America, 1981, pp. 52–57, cat. no. 9. Modified.
