Wind and rain scroll of Xia Chang Xiang River

[The Rainstorm Map of the Xiangjiang River by Xia Chang]

The Rainstorm Map of the Xiangjiang River, written by Xia Chang in the Ming Dynasty, is 35 cm in length and 1206 cm in width
At the top right of the picture, the title “Rain and Rain in the Xiangjiang River” is inscribed with the words “Xia Changzhong Zhao of the Eastern Wu Dynasty”, “Xia Changzhong Zhao of the Eastern Wu Dynasty” and “Yan Lie Ning Xiang”
Xia Chang’s bamboo painting is famous for its profound skills and unique artistic style. He changed the form of previous bamboo paintings, and used a huge scroll to depict the thousands of bamboo trees. At the same time, he also “extended it to the island and added to the wind and rain”, which made it more magnificent and magnificent. The ink bamboo in his paintings is not only a simple literati-style expression of emotion, but also integrates the ink artistic conception of landscape painting with its natural growth environment. This roll of bamboo forest looms with the change of scenery on both sides of the Xiangjiang River, starting from the light and wide sand bar, followed by the gentle slope, then the hard rock, then the cool river water, then the wall cliff, and finally through the rapid waterfalls and gurgling streams into the mountain, the bamboo trees are either whole or zero, or sparse or dense, old stems and new branches, all in their respective states. The painter made full use of the breadth of the scroll to elaborate a kind of undulating fluidity and plot, which is actually the combination of traditional ink bamboo and ink scroll. Xia Chang painted bamboo, emphasizing the charm and advocating “finishing at one time”. “This is especially necessary for painting huge pictures”. This scroll of bamboo leaves is just like ink, and there is no duplicate brush. The mountain stone is made by chopping and chopping a large amount of side edges with an axe. From the beginning to the end, the qi pulse is flying continuously
This picture was painted in the autumn and September of Zhengtong Jisi (1449), when Xia was 62 years old and knew Ruizhou. It is the representative work of his long scroll of black bamboo in his later years.