Between representations: the historical and the visionary in Chen Hongshou's Yaji.

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Between representations: the historical and the visionary in Chen Hongshou's Yaji.

Some time between late 1646 and early 1647, Chen Hongshou (1598--1652) painted an unusual image of nine men gathered in a wooded close, their company undisturbed by the appearance of a bodhisattva (Figs. 1, 9). He presented the handscroll, now known as Yaji, or Elegant Gathering, to Tao Qubing ("Ridding Sickness" Tao) , whose seals appear beneath Chen's dedication. Tao was an acquaintance from that period of violent disruption, after Manchu armies had occupied the southeastern provinces of China in the summer and fall of 1646. That summer, Chen took refuge in a Buddhist monastery south of Shaoxing, deep within the Yunmen, or "Cloudy Gate," Mountains. (1) Indicating his ambivalence as a Buddhist monk, he signed this painting as "Monk Who Regrets" (Seng hui) and impressed two rare seals, "Regretful Too Late" (Hui chi) and "Not Too Late" (Fu chi) (2)

The present title of the handscroll, yaji, or "elegant gathering," suggests that the picture belongs to a genre of Chinese painting that exhibits groups of like-minded men-- either named or anonymous, historical or imaginary--in celebration of their community. Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden by Xie Huan (fi. 1368-1437), a handscroll from the early Ming court, exemplifies the historical subjects within this genre (Fig. 2) (3) Inscriptions on the painting indicate that it records a gathering of eight bureaucratic colleagues on April 6,1437, at the Apricot Garden, the Beijing residence of the powerful court official Yang Rong (1371-1440). (4) In the section of the scroll reproduced here, the minister Yang Pu (1372--1446) leans toward a colleague who admires a painting. Another, seated at a table, prepares to write. The figures perform, ostentatiously, activities of educated men. The elements of the garden--its luxuriant plantings as well as its pitted rocks--frame them and enhance their presence. These three men, accompanied by servants, are further distinguished by their ceremonial court costumes. Telling attributes of their dress include the wusha mao (black silken gauze hat), furnished at its base with two outstretched ribbons; the colorful outer robe, designed with wide sleeves and a circular collar; the stiff leather belt, decorated with plaques of precious materials; and the badge of official rank, represented here by the figure of two cranes, emblazoned with gold paint, on the front of Yang Pu's robe. (5) Xie Huan's rendition of the "elegant gathering" underscores the ideological impetus for the production of such paintings: they commemorated the association of allied men and celebrated the political and social order that defined and supported their alliance.

In contrast, Chen's Elegant Gathering thwarts the distinctive act of the genre to eulogize. Although the artist identified each of the nine historical figures he portrayed, it is doubtful that they ever actually convened. What the fictive image of community commemorates, therefore, is uncertain. Moreover, Chen did not elaborate the gathering with signs of an established social or political order. Nor did he put the figures on display in a frontally disposed arrangement.

Rather, the group of men is divided. A stand of trees absorbs several of its members at left; another, at far right, is placed entirely apart. Their costumes and headdresses signify withdrawal. It is fitting, then, that the setting is harsh and secluded: the border of a garden, edged with rocks, marked with a solitary cypress, a spire of pitted rock, the tattered fronds of a banana palm. A stone table, at which several of the men sit, bears implements of Buddhist worship, but these are placed in an asymmetrical disorder. A hooded figure seated at the table, positioned with his back to the viewer, intones a sacred text. But the efficacious power of the spoken words is thrown into doubt. For although the appearance of a hodhisattva, who seems to preside over the gathering, may be understood as an act of deliverance in response to the intonation, the members of the group do not openly acknowledge her presence. Since the painting does not present a coherent scene of worship, it is uncertain that these men were u nited by Buddhism. Conflict between the pictured scene and the generic situation of the "elegant gathering" creates a tone of dissonance: the assembly calls for commemoration, but it is not a ceremonial occasion; the manifestation of the bodhisattva calls for acknowledgment and obeisance, but the divinity apparently remains unseen. (6)

Interpretations of Elegant Gathering dwell on the portrait-like depiction of the figural group and its allusion to conventional representations of a historical gathering that occurred in the fifth century. (7) However, in this essay I begin with the premise that the pictured gathering is an imaginary event. Analyzing the fabrication of Chen's unusual "elegant gathering," I look to the historical circumstances under which the painting was produced, that is, the mid-seventeenth-century w...

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