Gu Kaizhi’s Luo Shen Fu scroll (copy of Song Dynasty)

[Gu Kaizhi’s Luoshen Fu Tu Volume (Song)]

Luoshen Fu Tu Volume, Jin, Gu Kaizhi (Song), silk, colored, 27.1 cm vertical, 572.8 cm horizontal
This picture is a story painting based on the “Luoshen Fu” written by Cao Zhi, a Wei native of the Three Kingdoms (220-265). At the beginning of the picture, Cao Zhi meets the goddess of Luoshui in an instant at the bank of the Luoshui River. Cao Zhi steps forward and looks at the dragon flying in the distance. A goddess of Luoshui who “has a cut shoulder and a simple waist” and “has a bun on the cloud and a beautiful eyebrow,” comes floating in and out of the sky. In the later part of the painting, Luo Shen drove away in a six-dragon cloud car, accompanied by Yuluan, Wenyu, whale salamander, and so on. Luo Shen looked back, reluctantly, a feeling of helpless separation appeared
This picture depicts the content of Fu in sections, and the composition is coherent. The main characters appear repeatedly with the meaning of Fu. The colors are thick and colorful, the painting method is ancient and clumsy, the mountains and trees are not chapped, and “if you plant them in a row, you can stretch your arms and fingers”. The so-called “people are bigger than the mountains, and the water cannot be flooded” is the painting style before the early Tang Dynasty. At the beginning, there is a running script of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, “Wonderful into the Peak”. After the volume, there are Zhao Mengfu’s running script “Luo Shen Fu”, Li Yan, Yu Ji, Ming Shen Du, and Wu Kuan’s postscript. And the title of Qianlong poem. Seal “Mingchang”, “Royal Mansion Treasure Painting”, “Secret in the Group of Jade”, “Mingchang Royal Mirror” and the Tibetan seals of Qianlong, Jiaqing and Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty.
This picture is not written in the “Luo Shen Fu”, nor is it named. From the perspective of painting, silk, color and other aspects, it should be a copy of the Song Dynasty, but the style of painting still retains the charm of the Six Dynasties, and its original is handed down to Gu Kaizhi
The first edition of Shiqu Treasure Collection and Shiqu Essays are described.