Cleveland Museum of Art

Calligraphy in Semi-Cursive Style (xing-caoshu)

Yueshan Daozong

Date

c. 1660–1709

Medium

hanging scroll; ink on paper

Culture

China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

Department

Chinese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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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