Lotus and Little Birds
3 min readPainter: Zhu Da
Painting Year: the Qing Dynasty
Material: silk scroll
Dimension: vertical length of 182 centimeters and horizontal length of 98 centimeters Collection Place: Shanghai Museum Lotus and Little Birds is a painting of flower and bird in excessively freehand style, which was created by Zhu Da in the Qing Dynasty. In the left part of this painting, lotus stems stand high. In the upper part ofthis painting, blooming lotuses hide in dense lotus leaves. In the lower part of this painting, two kingfshers stand on two strange stones to echo with each other. This artwork features bizarre and exagserated images, concise, implicit and solid ink and lonely and hollow artistic conception. With few strokes, this artwork contains many connotations to express the painter’s lament for annihilated Ming Dynasty and highlight his high-hearted character.
Several lotus leaves cluster up with different ink shade, and blooming lotuses hide in dense lotus leaves. Lotus is colorless and outlined with ink line, which looks pure and embodies the painter’s noble morality of”rising and being unsullied from mud.”
Art Master
Zhu Da(1626-1705)
Zhu Da was a painter of the early Qing Dynasty, who was a native of Nanchang(in today’s Jiangxi). He was good at painting of landscape and painting of fower and bird, and made greatest achievements in painting of fower and bird in excessively freehand style. He was descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang(Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty), and his clan used to live in Nanchang for generations. After the Ming Dynasty was annihilated, he took refuge with family members in other regions, and soon converted to Buddhism. He feigned madness to refuse to come over and pledge allegiance for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. He is among”Four Senior Monks in the early Qing Dynasty”(the other three were Shi Tao, Hong Ren and Kun Can).
Two kingfishers stand on two strange stones and show the whites of their eyes to look at the world.This mirrors the painter’s innermost emotion.He found no way out to express his sorrow and pain.The posture of standing high on stones embodies painter’s superiority.
Distorted and exaggerated images reveal his grief and indination in his heart.
Painting of fower and bird in excessively freehand style Painting of flower and bird in excessively freehand style is a category of painting in freehand style.Itis characterized by bold and concise ink，distorted and exaggerated images of fower and bird，calligraphy-styled brushwork，pursuit for unconstrained fun and straightforward expression of painters’feelings.
Anecdote
Pseudonyms of Zhu Da
Zhu Da used as many as 53 pseudonyms in his lifetine.The Chinese character”Da’consists of”da”and”er”（it is said that Zhu Da had big ears in childhood）.He also used”Xue Ge”，”Lao Na”，”Ge Shan”，”Ge Shan Lv”，”Lv”，”Lv Wu”，”Shan Wu”，etc.Every pseudonym has profound implication.For example，in”Xue Ge”，”Xue”is white，and”个Ge”means a man.”Xue Ge’means a man dressed in white monk clothes，which implies mourning over the Ming Dynasty.After he was 59 years old，Zhu Da adopted pseudonym of”Ba Da Shan Ren”until his death.
It is said that when”八大山人Ba Da Shan Ren”is written in joined-up manner，the font style is like”哭之Kuzhi”and”笑之Xiaozhi”so as to imply”bei n g at a loss whether to cry or laugh.”In this way，the painter expressed his lament for annihilated Ming Dynasty.
