Title:
Landscape
Creator/Contributor:
Tai Pen-hsiao (Dai Benxiao)
Date:
1664
Identifier:
CC.147
Format:
Painting
Hanging scroll: ink on paper
China
h 48 x w 11 -1/2 inches
Description:
t: Wen-chin
h: Ching-an
Inscription by the artist: "Deep green gives rise to shadows, trees coalesce as curtains,/ Agitated clouds float whitely,
water gives birth to waves./ Thus I know the world's mundane affairs/ Will not reach this short bamboo fence in the mountains./
A solitary pine takes hold of the pond, the halcyon shadow is long./ On the whole road, mountain flowers send [their fragrance]
far./ There is also a clear spring contributing to listening quietly./ It is as if I were at Wangchun village. The first day
of the eighth month of jiachen [1664]. The old woodcutter of Ying'a Mountain, Benxiao (Pen-hsiao)." Translation by Haruki
Yoshida
Tai Pen-hsiao was from Anhui province, the son of a Ming loyalist who moved his family several times to avoid the chaos of
the late Ming period. This undoubtedly affected Tai's own choice to remain outside the court and to seek reclusion in the
mountains of Anhui. His painting style is extremely linear; in this he resembles another Anhui artist, Hung-jen. Tai also
followed the Yüan masters, painting the same kind of spare landscapes as Ni Tsan.