Zhúpǔ 竹譜
A Treatise on Bamboo by 李衎 (Lǐ Kān, 1245–1320, 元, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Lǐ Kān’s ten-juàn comprehensive treatise on bamboo painting, the most systematic such work in the Chinese tradition. The Sìkù editors, working from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn (a parallel one-juàn abridgement was already extant in late Míng), restored the work to its original four-part organisation: (1) Huàzhú pǔ 畫竹譜 (techniques of bamboo painting), (2) Mòzhú pǔ 墨竹譜 (techniques of ink-bamboo), (3) Zhútài pǔ 竹態譜 (the postures and forms of bamboo), (4) Zhúpǐn pǔ 竹品譜 (species of bamboo, in sub-categories: quándé 全德 the complete, yìxíng 異形 unusual forms, yìsè 異色 unusual colours, shényì 神異 wonder-bamboos, sìshì ér fēi zhú 似是而非竹 false bamboos, yǒumíng ér fēi zhú 有名而非竹 named non-bamboos) — six sub-categories under four headings, in ten juàn each illustrated. Lǐ’s preface explains that the omission of illustrations for species “the same as ordinary bamboo” is intentional, not a textual loss.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Zhúpǔ in ten juàn, by Lǐ Kān of the Yuán. Kān, zì Zhòngbīn 仲賓, hào Xīzhāi 息齋, a man of Jìqiū 薊邱. In Huángqìnɡ 1 (1312) he became Lìbù shàngshū, advanced to Jíxián dàxuéshì, posthumous title Wénjiǎn 文簡. Sū Tiānjué’s Zīxī jí has a tomb-inscription for Kān, describing him as “in the leisure of brush-and-ink fond of painting ancient trees, bamboo and rocks, with the high airs of Wáng Wéi and Wén Tóng.” Xù Hóngjiǎn lù records: “Lǐ Kān as a youth saw others paint bamboo and would steal close to glimpse the brushwork — it pleased him initially, but he would then notice the unlikeness and sigh and leave. Later he went with Huánghuāzǐ Dànyóu to study; on observing what Huá[nghuā] had painted in ink, he again found it wholly unlike. So he abandoned again. At the start of Zhìyuán he went to Qiántáng, obtained one leaf by Wén Tóng, and joyfully reconciled himself; from that point on he singlemindedly studied him; he was further good at painting bamboo in the qīnglù (blue-and-green) colour method. After he served in Jiāozhǐ and went deep into the bamboo-country, he was minutely discerning of the form, colour, and condition of bamboo. He composed the Huàzhú and Mòzhú two pǔ; all the methods of mounting and alum-sizing silk are detailed.” Dèng Wényuán’s Lǚsùzhāi jí has two poems weeping for Kān, with the note: “Zhòngbīn recently cut his Zhúpǔ in 20 juàn.” This book is rare in transmission; the Zhèjiāng Bào-family hand-copy is only one juàn and extremely sparse. Only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn contains the complete book: four sections: Huàzhú pǔ, Mòzhú pǔ, agreeing with the Hóngjiǎn lù; further Zhútài pǔ and Zhúpǐn pǔ, the Pǐnpǔ further subdivided into Quándé, Yìxíng, Yìsè, Shényì, Sìshì ér fēi zhú, Yǒumíng ér fēi zhú — six sub-headings, ten juàn in all, each with illustration; so each two-juàn unit appears as one. The book’s citations are wide and abundant, broadly considered ample and elegant; we have copied it out for preservation — not merely as an art-leisure topic, but as a help to broad-knowledge investigation. Where there is text but no illustration, the self-preface notes “for those identical with ordinary bamboo we have not re-illustrated” — not a textual loss. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), ninth month.
Abstract
Lǐ Kān 李衎 (zì Zhòngbīn 仲賓, hào Xīzhāi 息齋, 1245–1320), a man of Jìqiū 薊邱 (modern Běijīng region), was the dominant bamboo painter of the Yuán dynasty and one of the principal masters of mòzhú in any period. He served as Jíxián dàxuéshì under Rénzōng and as Lìbù shàngshū from 1312; was sent as Yuán envoy to Annam (Jiāozhǐ), where he experienced subtropical bamboo at first hand; and was a close associate of Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 and the early-Yuán Hángzhōu literati circle. The Zhúpǔ — the only Chinese treatise that combines a complete painting manual with a systematic botanical catalogue — represents the convergence of his artistic training (Wén Tóng’s mòzhú tradition learned from a single original obtained at Qiántáng at the start of Zhìyuán, i.e. 1264) and his fieldwork in Annam. The treatise’s botanical taxonomy is the most extensive premodern Chinese systematic account of bamboo species.
Translations and research
- Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279–1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976 (on Lǐ Kān).
- Bickford, Maggie, ed. Bones of Jade, Soul of Ice: The Flowering Plum in Chinese Art. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1985.
- Yang Xin et al. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997 (on Yuán mò-zhú).
- Yú Jiànhuá 俞劍華 (ed.). Zhōngguó gǔdài huàlùn lèibiān, vol. 2. Beijing: Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1957.
Other points of interest
The illustrated section preserves the earliest systematic series of cūnfǎ line-cut drawings for bamboo culms, nodes, branches, leaves and shoots in any phase, with their associated brush-method instructions — a unique resource for the practice-history of mòzhú.