Dong Qichang’s spacious Dongting scroll

[Volume of Dong Qichang’s Openness of Dongting]

Volume of Dong Qichang’s Openness of Dongting, Ming Dynasty, Dong Qichang’s painting, paper edition, ink pen, 21.3 cm vertically and 227.3 cm horizontally
The title of this picture is: “In the Baling Boat, look at the empty view of Dongting and write it here. Yimao Xuanzai knows.” Seal “Dong Qichang” and “Taishi”. Back paper: “Milao, who lives at the entrance of Beijing, often boarded Beigu at clear dawn and looked at the changes of clouds and said, ‘This is the most similar picture of Xiaoxiang Tiger and Chu Mountain at clear dawn.’ Most of the people who entered the road wrote about the wonders of Xiaoxiang. I often said that painters should take the ancients as their teacher, and the world as their teacher for a long time. The so-called Tianstables of ten thousand horses, this is my powder. The tiger has a long picture that said, ‘After the early rain at night, the smoke has not cleared at dawn, that its shape is similar to this.’ I also imitated it. Dong Qichang wrote it and sent it to Song Luo Shi Yu.” The seals of “Zhi Zhi Zhi Zhi Zhi Guan” and “Dong Qichang”. The seal is “the treasure of Jiaqing imperial tour”, “the treasure of Qianlong imperial tour”, “the treasure collection of Shiqu”, “the authentic work of Shangqiu Song Luo”, etc
Yimao was born in the 31st year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1603), and the author was 49 years old
This painting uses ink brush to draw the scenery of Dongting Lake. The left is empty and the right is solid. The brush is clumsy and the strength is restrained. At first, the scene is filled with clouds and mists, and the sky is misty. The peaks, flat slopes and trees are indistinct. It mainly shows the distant mountains with Miji’s points and small trees with light ink. The theme part of this painting is in the middle section. The sky is high and the clouds are light, the peaks are towering, the lake is vast, the trees are luxuriant, the houses are shaded, and the artistic conception is far-reaching and has its own vitality. The rocks are chapped and dyed at the same time, the trees are hooked, written and dyed at the same time, and the strokes are changeable. In the latter part, the mountains and trees are sketched with a few strokes, which fade out of the picture, like lingering sounds and endless aftertaste
The first edition of Shiqu Treasure Collection describes this painting as “Dong Qichang’s Mimi Xiaoxiang Wonderland in the Ming Dynasty”.