Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board

I am unable to find out the artist and era of this picture. I have had it for many years and just love the artwork, but have never been able to find out anything about it. It's either on silk or rice paper. If anyone could tell me I would greatly appreciate it. A picture without a story bothers me.

This is a good quality narrative picture on silk, though the round modern quality of the faces and the peculiarity of having the authority figure sit in a recessed room makes it hard for me to place it in time. I think therefore more recent than less, perhaps Republic.

The scene is given by the label 叔詹據鼎抗晋侯: "Shu Zhan seizes a cauldron to resist the Duke of Jin". It's an illustration of story based on the history of the Eastern Zhou period (771-256 BCE) that was all about a series of states battling each other for dominance. Your story appears as chapter 44 of "Records of Eastern Zhou States" 东周列国志. I don't know whether there's an English translation available though. I don't have the energy or skill level to do it at the moment.

I can't even begin to thank you enough!!! That gives me an amazing starting point, to research further. Thank you for taking time out to tell me this information. Your knowledge is greatly appreciated!!!

Sure, glad to help. (I asked a couple of Chinese friends about the story yesterday though, and it isn't one they recognize.) I expect that your picture is one from a series of similar illustrations of historical scenes that were originally bound in an album of 8 or 12, perhaps accompanied by some calligraphic discussion on the facing page. But that presumes your picture is no larger than the size of an LP record cover or so; you didn't disclose the size of the image, but my guess it's from a larger album. The painting was done by a skilled professional.

Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board