CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 35 



under no restraint, and in a short space of time would produce several 

 thousand words. 



In landscape he took Chu Jan as his model, and he also studied the works 

 of Wang Wei. "He did not generally use silk, but sketched out his ideas 

 on paper, finally carrying out his conceptions according to several schools. 

 He would treat landscape in more than ten different ways and trees in a 

 great many more than that. His paths would \\'ind and wind ; his mists and 

 clouds were vague; his mountain forests were wonderfully suggestive of 

 darkness." 



Elsewhere we read: " For T'ao Tsung-i (a well-known art critic who flotir- 

 ished about A. D. 1350) he painted 'The South Village,' with all the details 

 of ducks, cats, dogs, spinning wheel, pestle for hulling rice, and the imple- 

 ments of everyday life. For a sense of solidity and for expression from few 

 touches, Huang Kung-wang and Ni Tsan are supreme in their respective 

 domains; but for general effect they must both yield to Yellow Crane." 

 Herbert A. Giles. 



CHOU FANG. T'ang Dynasty. 



Chou Fang floiuished as an artist under the Emperor Te Tsung, A. D. 

 780-805. His elder brother had accompanied Ko-shu Han on his victorious 

 campaign against the Turfan, when the Chinese army captured the "Stone 

 Fortress, ' ' the kOcvog nup-j-og of Marianus of Tyre and of Ptolemy, recently 

 identified by Dr. Stein. On his retxun he was able to put in a good word 

 for his younger brother, and the latter was summoned to Court and ordered 

 to execute a painting of a religious subject in a temple which the Emperor 

 had just restored. " No sooner had he begun to paint than the people of the 

 capital flocked in to watch him, fools and wise alike, some pointing out the 

 beauties of his work and others drawing attention to its shortcomings. He 

 made changes accordingly, and by the end of a month or so there was not a 

 dissentient voice to be heard, everybody uniting in praise of the painting 

 and declaring it to be the masterpiece of the day." 



Among his other great pictures may be mentioned "Moonlight on the 

 Water," "The Goddess of Mercy," "Vaisravana" (whose features were 

 revealed to him in a dream), and also a portrait of Chao Tsimg, son-in-law 

 to the great general, Kuo Tzii-i. A previous portrait of him had been 

 executed by Han Kan, and the old father-in-law "had the two placed side 

 by side for comparison, but could not decide between them. When his 

 daughter came to see him, he said, 'Who are these?' 'Those are the Secre- 

 tary,' she replied. 'Wliich portrait is most like?' he continued. 'They 

 are both very like, ' she said, ' but the later one is the better picture. ' 'What 

 do you mean by that?' he asked. 'The earlier portrait is the Secretary so 

 far as form and features go,' answered his daughter; 'the later artist has 

 caught in addition the very soul of the man, who seems to be laughing and 

 talking before us. ' " 



The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" enumerates the titles of seventy-two of his 

 pictures in the Imperial collection (twelfth century). 



