Picture scroll of Zhou Wenju Wenyuan

[Volume of Zhou Wenju’s Wenyuan]

Volume of Wenyuan’s Painting, five dynasties, Zhou Wenju’s painting, silk version, color, 37.4 cm vertical, 58.5 cm horizontal
There is no signature of the author on this picture. According to the inscription of “thin gold body” of the Song Huizong on the left: “Han Huang Wenyuan picture, Ding Hai’s imperial letter”, the next book is “one person in the world”, so it is determined as Han Huang’s work of the Tang Dynasty. However, from the perspective of the style of the times, the most obvious flavor of Shaotang painting is the trembling and tortuous lines of clothing patterns, which is very similar to the “war brush drawing” created by Zhou Wenju of the Five Dynasties. In addition, the Futou style of “workers’ feet up” worn by the characters did not appear until the Five Dynasties. At the same time, the Metropolitan Museum of the United States has a volume of Zhou Wenju’s “Figures in the Coloured Glaze Hall”. The second half of the picture is exactly the same as this picture. Therefore, it is certain that the author of the “Figures in the Literary Garden” is Zhou Wenju, and the content of the painting is the story of people in the Coloured Glaze Hall. Which of the two pictures is the original? Or are they all copies? According to the investigation, the volume of “The Figure of the Coloured Glaze Hall” in the United States is of poor quality, the figure’s face is slightly less attractive, and the clothing pattern is quite weak, and the title of “The Figure of the Coloured Glaze Hall of Zhou Wenju” and the seal of “The Seal of the Book of the Inner Government” on the head of the figure are both fake, so this figure should be a copy of the Song Dynasty. The figure in “The Painting of Literary Gardens” is energetic and powerful. In the lower right corner of the painting, there is the “imperial painting seal of the Jixian Academy” of the Southern Tang Dynasty ink seal, which proves that this painting is no later than the five dynasties. It is very likely that it is the original work of Zhou Wenju, but the first half has been lost. Maybe Zhou Wenju has come back to the second half, and it is also not ruled out that it is also a copy of the master at the same time. In short, “The Painting of Literary Garden” is an authentic and famous product of the five dynasties, and there is no doubt about it
The story of the characters in the Liulitang painted in the work is the story of Wang Changling, a famous poet in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, who held a banquet with friends at the Liulitang near the county government when he was the prime minister of Jiangning County. The participants may include his poetry friends, Cen Shen Brothers, Liu Shuxu, etc. “The Painting of Literary Garden” depicts four scholars pondering poems around pine trees, some relying on a stone to hold a pen to find a sentence, some relying on a pine trunk to conceive, and two people sitting side by side to explore and revise the poem, with different moods and complete forms and spirits. The first half of the missing section can be seen from the “Figure of the Coloured Glaze Hall”, which shows four people sitting around and talking, including a monk and a servant. You can appreciate the grand occasion of the banquet from the whole scene
The painting method of this painting is similar to that of the “People in the Coloured Glaze Hall” and the “Double Screen and Chess Circle” (Song copy), another volume of Zhou Wenju. Both of them show the typical appearance of Zhou, but their level is high and low. The “battle brush” used in the figure’s clothing pattern is thin and powerful, smooth in twists and turns, smooth in roundness, light and heavy in roundness, fine in tree and stone, rich in layers and elevation, and the character’s modality is particularly vivid and different in personality. As an authentic painting of the Five Dynasties, it really reflects the level reached in that era
This picture can be found in the “Shiqu Treasure Collection” and the “Xuanlan Collection” by Zhan Jingfeng of the Ming Dynasty. It may have been included in the “Pavilion Collection” by Li Yu, the later leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and later in the “Xuanhe Ruilan Collection” by the Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty.