This grass-style Chinese calligraphy titled Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru was written by the famous calligrapher Huang Tingjian (1045–1105) in the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The overall handscroll[1] is 34.3 cm in height and 2,178.4 cm in length and contains 652 identifiable Chinese characters. The manuscript was originally collected by New York art collector John M. Crawford Jr. (1909–1988),[2] and currently collected by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.[3]
The words of the handscroll are taken from Chapter 81 of Records of the Grand Historian, written about a thousand years earlier, which describes the conflict between the Zhao historical figures Lian Po and Lin Xiangru. The text is edited to end at a key point, closing with Lin's words,“[When] two tigers fight, one must perish. I behave as I do because I put our country’s fate before private feuds.”, seen as politically significant in the artist's own time.[4]
References
edit- ^ "Huang Tingjian | Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru | China | Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) | The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- ^ "John M. Crawford, Jr. @ SNAC". snaccooperative.org. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- ^ "Met Audio Guide Online". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- ^ Hearn, Maxwell K. (2008). How to Read Chinese Paintings. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 48–49. ISBN 9781588392817.