The Demon Queller Zhong Kui Giving His Sister Away in Marriage 鍾馗嫁妹圖
Item
Title
The Demon Queller Zhong Kui Giving His Sister Away in Marriage
鍾馗嫁妹圖
鍾馗嫁妹圖
Description
Artist’s signature (1 column in standard script)
Yan Geng
顏庚
Artist's seal
Cungeng 存畊
Yan Geng
顏庚
Artist's seal
Cungeng 存畊
identifier
40294
Source
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40294
Creator
Yan Geng
顏庚
顏庚
annotates
Frontispiece
Huang Hui 黃輝 (jinshi 1589), 1 horizontal line in semi-cursive script, undated; 1 seal:
A casual and entertaining excursion
Hui [seal]: Huang Hui zhi yin
閑遊博戲
輝 [印]： 黃輝之印
Colophon
Wu Kuan 吳寬 (1435–1504), 11 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1470; 2 seals:
Once drunk, old Kui’s beards bristle like spears.
With fresh makeup, his sister’s face appears black.
Where are her buffalo mount and entourage going?
Those with bare feet are mostly mere skeletons.
As the emperor of the Kaiyuan reign era [713–741] ignored state affairs,
It depended on the heroic ghost [Zhong Kui] to straighten up the court.
Yan Geng must be fond of things mysterious and strange;
Even the ugly and grotesque creatures left their images behind.
Yan Cungeng [Yan Geng] lived in the Southern Song dynasty [1127–1279], whose paintings are rarely seen. This one depicts the scholar Zhong’s excursion in a grotesque, unearthly manner, fully capturing the features of the demons. Demons, however, are like shadows, amorphous in their movements. I wonder how Cungeng managed to portray them so convincingly. On the 26th of the first lunar month of the gengyin year in the Chenghua reign era [February 26, 1470] Wu Kuan from Changzhou [Suzhou][1] [seals]: Wu Kuan, Yuanbo
老馗既醉髯奮戟，
阿姨新粧臉如漆。
牛輿先後將何之，
往往徒腳皆骨立。
開元天子人事廢，
清宮欲藉鬼雄力。
顏庚毋乃好幽怪，
醜狀奇形尚遺蹟。
顔存畊南宋人，其筆墨世不多見。此寫《鍾進士出遊圖》，古怪幽眇，曲盡鬼物情狀，抑鬼如影去來無形，不知存畊何從而得圖其形似也。成化庚寅正月廿六日長洲吳寬 [印]： 吳寬、原博
[1] Translations from department records.
Huang Hui 黃輝 (jinshi 1589), 1 horizontal line in semi-cursive script, undated; 1 seal:
A casual and entertaining excursion
Hui [seal]: Huang Hui zhi yin
閑遊博戲
輝 [印]： 黃輝之印
Colophon
Wu Kuan 吳寬 (1435–1504), 11 columns in semi-cursive script, dated 1470; 2 seals:
Once drunk, old Kui’s beards bristle like spears.
With fresh makeup, his sister’s face appears black.
Where are her buffalo mount and entourage going?
Those with bare feet are mostly mere skeletons.
As the emperor of the Kaiyuan reign era [713–741] ignored state affairs,
It depended on the heroic ghost [Zhong Kui] to straighten up the court.
Yan Geng must be fond of things mysterious and strange;
Even the ugly and grotesque creatures left their images behind.
Yan Cungeng [Yan Geng] lived in the Southern Song dynasty [1127–1279], whose paintings are rarely seen. This one depicts the scholar Zhong’s excursion in a grotesque, unearthly manner, fully capturing the features of the demons. Demons, however, are like shadows, amorphous in their movements. I wonder how Cungeng managed to portray them so convincingly. On the 26th of the first lunar month of the gengyin year in the Chenghua reign era [February 26, 1470] Wu Kuan from Changzhou [Suzhou][1] [seals]: Wu Kuan, Yuanbo
老馗既醉髯奮戟，
阿姨新粧臉如漆。
牛輿先後將何之，
往往徒腳皆骨立。
開元天子人事廢，
清宮欲藉鬼雄力。
顏庚毋乃好幽怪，
醜狀奇形尚遺蹟。
顔存畊南宋人，其筆墨世不多見。此寫《鍾進士出遊圖》，古怪幽眇，曲盡鬼物情狀，抑鬼如影去來無形，不知存畊何從而得圖其形似也。成化庚寅正月廿六日長洲吳寬 [印]： 吳寬、原博
[1] Translations from department records.
Abstract
Collectors' seals
An Guo 安國 (1481–1534)
Guipo An Guo shangjian 桂坡安國賞鑑
Cheng Xun 成勲 (18th c.)
Cheng Xun 成勲
Yiting 儀庭
Unidentified
Jiwo Xuan 寄我軒
Jiwo Xuan zhencang shuhua yin 寄我軒珍藏書畫印
Lianqiao jianshang 蓮樵鋻賞
Sha Ji shijia 沙濟世家
An Guo 安國 (1481–1534)
Guipo An Guo shangjian 桂坡安國賞鑑
Cheng Xun 成勲 (18th c.)
Cheng Xun 成勲
Yiting 儀庭
Unidentified
Jiwo Xuan 寄我軒
Jiwo Xuan zhencang shuhua yin 寄我軒珍藏書畫印
Lianqiao jianshang 蓮樵鋻賞
Sha Ji shijia 沙濟世家
Rights Holder
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Identifier
1990.134
References
Cahill, James. An Index of Early Chinese Painters and Paintings: T'ang, Sung, and Yüan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 368–72, pls. 82a–c.
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, pp. 368–72, pls. 82a–c.