Yuan dynasty Boyan Buhua (Bayan Buga tegin)
Clouds and Pines in an Ancient Valley
- Hanging scroll, ink on paper
- 122 x 42.2 cm
Boyan Buhua (sobriquet Cangyan) was a member of the Uyghur ethnic group. A grandson and son of royal descent, his mother was also the daughter of the famous early Yuan scholar-calligrapher Xian Yushu. Thus, he not only had the royal blood of the Gaochang clan but also the background of a native Chinese scholar.
TThrough his father's influence, he was able to attain public office. By 1359, he served as the Prefect of Xinzhou. With the collapse of the Yuan and rebel attacks on Xinzhou, he committed suicide. This makes him the only Yuan dynasty painter among the martyrs in the Yuan official history. The book Huashihuiyao (Abstract of Painting History) mentions that he specialized in painting dragons, which may be related to his long term of office in Xinzhou. Xinzhou (modern-day Shangrao, Jiangxi) was near the sacred Daoist site of Dragon Tiger Mountain, and it was also the area where the famous Song dynasty painter of dragons Chen Rong was active.Though none of Boyan's dragon paintings survive, they may be surmised as having been similar in style to those of Chen Rong. This is the only surviving work by Boyan Buhua. The composition is relatively simple; a rocky outcropping appears in the middle with a craggy ancient pine on top. This is similar to the work of Wu Boli, a Daoist of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, and seems to relate to the use of the pine to symbolize the spirit dragon (as seen in Wu's "Dragon Pine," now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The early Ming court calligrapher Jiang Ligang wrote in an inscription that the ancients compared the scaly bark of the pine with the scales of a dragon, which only further associates the transformation of the pine into a dragon spirit.
hough the cursive script of Boyan Buhua derives from the style of his grandfather Xian Yushu, the calligraphy on this painting dos not reflect any obvious source. The use of brush and ink in painting are relatively simple, in which continuous strokes outline the rocks and different brushwork suggest light and shadows of the rocks . No distinct texture-stroke method has been employed and little emphasis has been placed on ink washes. The fact that such artworks do not relate to such important native Chinese painting traditions as the Li-Guo and Dongju styles may bedue to Boyan Buhua's status as a non-native Chinese.
This work was greatly admired in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) imperial collection, so much so that the Qianlong Emperor praised the painter through analogy with the " "atmosphere" and "power" displayed in this work.