Cleveland Museum of Art

Calligraphy in Semi-Cursive Style (xing-caoshu)

Yueshan DaozongLinkedCulture matchlcp-1be2a9aaaf0a

Date: c. 1660–1709
Medium: hanging scroll; ink on paper
Culture: China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Department: Chinese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 162869

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This bold calligraphy written by Yueshan, an Ōbaku school monk, consists of five characters tentatively translated as “Pine trees singing in the wind.” The line is from Cold Mountain Poems (Hanshan shi) . Cold Mountain is the pen name ( hao ) of the poet monk Han Shan, as well as the name of a place. In one poem Han describes getting lost on the road to Cold Mountain, perhaps an allusion to the search for religious enlightenment. The Ōbaku school of Chan (Zen in Japanese) Buddhism was founded in Japan by Chinese monks in the 1600s. The monk Yueshan emigrated from the Chinese province of Fujian to serve as priest and later abbot at Manpukuji, the headquarters of the Ōbaku school in Japan.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Gow
Provenance: Private Collection, Maine | (Chinese Porcelain Factory, NY, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gow) | ?–2003: Robert [1940–2019] and Kay Gow [b. 1951], Naples, FL, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2003–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH