Wang Shizhen Composing Poems and Admiring Plum Blossoms

Wang Shizhen, a native of Xincheng, Shandong, changed his name twice, first to avoid violating the taboo of sharing a personal name with Emperor Yongzhen and then at imperial order in the 39th year of the Qianlong reign (1774). By the time he was born, his family had already been high in prestige for generations and was rated the foremost of all clans by the late Ming scholar Wen Zhenheng. Wang Shizhen’s grandfather Wang Xiangjin was a bureau secretary in the Ministry of Rites in the Ming dynasty but chose to retire and to teach his grandchildren instead when the court was taken over by the Qing. Finding time to compose poems while studying for civil examinations together with his brothers Shilu and Shihu, Shizhen’s advocacy for spiritual harmony exerted a great influence on the development of Chinese poetry. Two years after distinguishing himself in the palace round of examinations in the 15th year of the Shunzhi reign (1658), he was posted to Yangzhou, where he held two significant literary events called the Red Bridge xiuxi-gatherings and bonded well with Jiangnan poets, painters and calligraphers as much as he had in Beijing. His outstanding performance won Emperor Kangxi’s attention and he was recalled to the capital at the end of his Yangzhou tour.

Wang Shizhen loved to sit for portraits and there were no less than 34 in circulation in the early Qing. Of the extant ones, the earliest two were produced during his tour of duty in Yangzhou. One of these is the present specimen as supported by the dated inscriptions. Realistically portrayed, the smiling sitter with a plump face and a long beard appears to be in his 30s. The head, down to details like the kerchief and the angle of the face, is believed to have been copied, with the realism somewhat compromised in the process, by Dai Cang for the other portrait in which the sitter holds a qin-zither in his arm.

Returning to the present painting, the sitter is as nonchalant and charismatic as any Wei- Jin forsaker of mundane concerns, prompting the epithet “divine” in You Dong’s inscription. Although palely coloured, the reclining sitter and his accoutrements stand out against the unpainted background. His literarism is emphasized by his scholar robe, the scroll in his hand, and the writing implements on the animal skin rug while his refined taste and noble character by the vase of plum blossoms he is gazing at, which is reiterated through the allusions in the inscriptions. Following the publication of Gao Lian’s Zunsheng Bajian (Eight Essays on Being in Accord with Life) and Yuan Hongdao’s Ping Shi (A History of the Vase), which are devoted to arranging flowers in vases, the activity immediately became a passion among the late Ming literati such that flowers in vases recurred in portraits to highlight the sitters’ taste and cultivation. In this light, the present specimen reveals the young Wang Shizhen’s disposition to late Ming culture.

The painting was originally mounted as a hanging scroll with a patterned silk mounting. It was subsequently remounted into a scroll to accommodate the frontispiece and all the inscriptions and colophons, which are unfortunately in disarray. Chronologically, the earliest of the 51 colophons was written in 1664 in Yangzhou and latest in 1773. After his death, Wang Shizhen was fondly remembered by literati of the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, who not only collected his portraits but also kept his legacy alive through emulating his poetry and painting and worshipping his portraits.9 The likeness of this literary icon as a young man has been immortalized by this portrait in pristine condition.

(Entry written by Lung Tak-chun, in "The Bei Shan Tang Legacy: Chinese Painting" p. 110 - 111, translated by Tina Liem.)