CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 33 



A third panegyrist, after repeating much of what has akeady been 

 given, adds that Fan K'uan "really grasped the very bones of the moun- 

 tains. In his later years, however, he used too much ink, thus making 

 earth and rocks indistinguishable." Herbert A. Giles. 



I YOAN-CHI. Sung Dynasty, Eleventh Century, 



I Yiian-chi, known to the Japanese as I-gen-kitsu, was a native of Hunan, 

 who "began his career as a painter of flowers and birds. When, however, 

 he saw what Chao Ch'ang had achieved he said, ' The age does not lack men; 

 what I must do to make a name is to strike out in some original line not 

 already occupied by the men of old.' Thereupon he set off to travel far 

 and wide, visiting famous mountains and great rivers, and whenever he 

 came across any particularly fine scenery there he would fix his attention, 

 and roam about almost as it were in the very company of the gibbon, the 

 deer, and the wild boar. And so, when he came to transfer with his brush 

 these experiences of mind and eye, the result was something of which the 

 everyday world had never succeeded in catching a glimpse. Then, when 

 at home, at the back of his own house he laid out a garden and dug ponds, 

 with rockwork and bamboos and rushes, and kept there a variety of water- 

 fowl and animals, so as to be able to watch them in movement and in repose, 

 and to reproduce them more successfully in his pictures. Thus it was that 

 in this branch of art no one came out on his right" — i. e., surpassed him, 

 the right hand being then the place of honour instead of the left, as in the 

 present day. 



We hear of him in 1066, employed in decorating the Palace walls. His 

 picture of "A Himdred Gibbons" is several times mentioned as a master- 

 piece, but no details are given to afford a clue either to the composition or 

 to its style. One authority says, " I Yiian-chi painted an immense number 

 of pictures, and signed them himself as follows: 'Painted by I Yiian-chi, 

 otherwise knowTi as Chu-chiao, of Ch'ang-sha.' " The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" 

 gives the titles of 245 works of his in the Imperial collection, among which 

 were many landscapes, animals, birds, flowers, fruits, etc. Herbert A . Giles. 



CH'IEN HSOAN. Sung and Yuan Dynasties. 



Ch'ien Hsiian, or Ch'ien Shun-chii, of Wu-hsing in Chehkiang, known 

 as the Man of the Jade Pool and Roaring Torrent, graduated as chin shih 

 about 1260, and, still faithful to the expiring Sung djTiasty, joined a small 

 coterie of which Chao Meng-fu was president. When later on Chao took 

 oflSce under the Mongols, Ch'ien was very indignant, and wandered about, 

 occupying himself with poetry and painting, until the end. He required 

 the stimulus of wine: "only when he was beginning to get drunk was there 

 co-ordination of mind and hand." When his paintings were finished he 

 troubled no more about them, and connoisseurs used to carry them away. 

 His best efforts were said to be equal to works by the old masters. On one 

 occasion he borrowed a picture of a white eagle, and after copying it care- 

 fully he kept it and returned the copy, the OAvner not discovering the change. 

 He painted human figures, landscape, flowers, and birds. Herbert A . Giles. 

 37137°— 12 3 



