CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 23 



the weather was propitious, he would pack up some wine and go out of the 

 city, taking with him two or three congenial companions. Then in some 

 famous garden or leafy wood he would sit on a rock by the water, while 

 the hours passed quickly by. Dtuing all the 30 years of his oiBcial life he 

 never for one day forgot mountain and forest; therefore his pictiu-es were 

 those secenes which he had brought together in his own mind. Late in 

 life, when suffering from rheumatism, between the groans he would raise 

 his hand and sketch as it were upon the bedclothes; and when his family 

 forbade him to do so he smiled and said, 'The old habit has not gone from 

 me; I do this unconsciously. ' " 



He copied all the pictiu-es by older masters that he could lay his hands 

 on, and carefully stored the copies until he had a very large representative 

 collection, to which he could always refer. In forming his own style his 

 endeavor was to reproduce the strong points of each of his exemplars, and it 

 seems to have been universally conceded by native critics that he achieved 

 a marked success. In his own compositions, however, he always managed 

 to introduce some novelties of his own. He painted a Goddess of Mercy 

 "with an exceedingly long girdle, now known as the 'Long-girdled Kuan 

 Yin;' "also a Kuan Yin reclining on a rock, which was quite a new departure; 

 and again he painted a " Placid Kuan Yin" sitting cross-legged with fingers 

 interlocked around the knee and a placid expression of countenance. 

 "The world," said he, "thinks that placidity must necessarily be associated 

 with a cross-legged position; but placidity is in the heart, and not on the 

 outside." Herbert A. Giles. 



YEN LI-P^N. T'ang Dynasty. 



Yen Li-pen, kno\\Ti to the Japanese as En-riu-hon, was, like his elder 

 brother, in official employ, and by A. D. 668 had risen to the highest rank. 

 One day, when the Emperor was amusing himself in his park, he saw a strange 

 and beautiful bird, and was so much interested that he bade Yen paint a 

 pictm-e of it. Yen was forthwith dubbed " The Painter, ' ' and went home in 

 a rage, and said to his son, " Here am I, a not altogether unsuccessful student 

 of literatvue, who can only come to the front as a painter, as if I were a menial. 

 Take care that you do not give way to a hobby of the kind. " Nevertheless 

 he was a very prolific artist. He painted portraits of "The Eighteen 

 Scholars," and also of a number of "Meritorious Officials" for the Imperial 

 galleries, and gained the sobriquet of the Color Magician. It is further 

 stated that he, too, painted many of the foreigners "who brought tribute to 

 Coiul upon the establishment of the Empire," and his treatment of human 

 figures, hats, robes, chariots, etc., was considered to be exceptionally fine. 

 Herbert A . Giks. 



Yen Li-p6n, called Enriuhon in Japan, Li-to's yoimger brother, was his 

 locum tenens as Minister of Public Works about A. D. 656, rose to be Under- 

 Secretary of State and a Baron of the Empire in 658 and Minister of the 

 Cabinet (nei-ko) in 670. More brilliant even than his career was the reputa- 

 tion he earned as an artist, both in calligraphy and painting. He is con- 

 sidered by far the first colorist of his time and had probably the principal 



