Art Institute of Chicago

Song of a Fisherman

Wang Wen (1497-1576)

Date

Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Medium

Handscroll; ink on paper

Culture

China

Department

Arts of Asia

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Wang Wen exemplified the life of the scholar-official in Ming dynasty China. He retired from government service to his lakeside retreat and pursued painting, calligraphy, and poetry. For this painting, Wang Wen wrote a poem (also entitled “Song of a Fisherman”), which includes several allusions to moral integrity. This poem displays the artist’s distinctively fluid, cursive “draft script” (cao shu). Its first section reads as follows: Most men of the world fish with crooked hooks: I alone trust in hooks, but never in fancy baits. After rain, I carry my long pole to the terrace edge and dangle if from among pines and clouds above the ripples of Qi. (translated by Irving Yucheng Lo) Qi refers to a river in north-central China. This river is cited in several verses of the Shijing (Book of Odes) – a compilation of more than three hundred poems datable between about 1000 and 600 B.C that extol men of principle. Government officials often alluded to these poems to convey Confucian teachings.

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