polity yuan dynastyyuan dynasty
Fishermen
Album leaf or handscroll by Wu Zhen (Yuan Dynasty, 1352 CE). Ink on paper. Depicts solitary fishermen in boats on a broad, misty river — the fisherman as the paradigmatic emblem of the self-sufficient recluse scholar. Executed with bold, wet, free ink brushwork contrasting with Ni Zan's dry minimalism. Multiple works in this subject exist; the dated 1352 version is among the most celebrated. Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Scholarly Significance
Wu Zhen's signature fishermen handscroll; emblematic of the literati recluse ideal in Yuan ink painting.
Notes
- ·The fisherman as a literary-pictorial subject derives from the Chu Ci ('Songs of the South') poem 'Fisherman' — in which a fisherman challenges the poet Qu Yuan's rigid moral stance, asking why he doesn't adapt to the dirty world rather than drowning himself in the Miluo River.
- ·The fisherman embodies the ideal of a person who lives freely outside officialdom, subsisting on nature, uncontaminated by political corruption.
- ·Wu Zhen's bold, wet ink brush contrasts with Ni Zan's dry minimalism — both are considered legitimate approaches to the literati ideal.
- ·Poetic inscriptions on Wu Zhen's fishermen works adapt the Chu Ci 'Fisherman' poem and related recluse poetry.