Literary Gathering in the Orchid Pavilion

Dai Jin, artist

1388–1462

Literary Gathering in the Orchid Pavilion, 1500s–1600s, Ming dynasty (1368–1644) or Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Where object was made: China

Material/technique: ink; color; silk

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 333 x 865.7 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 13 1/8 x 34 1/16 in

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1970.0077

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Shattering the Void: Realms of Meaning in East Asian Art

This handscroll illustrates one of the most famous literary gatherings in East Asian history. On the third day of the third lunar month in the spring of the year 353 CE, calligrapher Wang Xizhi hosted a gathering of 42 poets at the Orchid Pavilion, a small gazebo near a stream in southeastern China. The poets engaged in a popular literary game of the time. They seated themselves on the banks of the stream as servants placed small cups of wine on lotus leaves and floated them downstream. If a cup came to rest near a poet, he was obliged to drink and compose an impromptu poem.

Use the touchscreen in this exhibition to view the entire scroll.

Salina Art Center: Shattering the Void: Realms of Meaning in East Asian Art

Use the touchscreen in this exhibition to view the entire scroll.

Archive Label 2003:
This handscroll illustrates arguably the most famous literary gathering in East Asian history. On the third day of the third lunar month in the spring of the year 353, calligrapher Wang Xizhi hosted a gathering of 42 poets at the Orchid Pavilion, a small gazebo near a stream in southeastern China. The poets engaged in a popular literary game of the time. They seated themselves on the banks of the stream, as servants placed small cups of wine on lotus leaves and floated them downstream. If a cup came to rest near a poet, he was obliged to drink and compose an impromptu poem. Wang Xizhi sat in the nearby pavilion and composed and wrote a preface to introduce the collected poems from this gathering. At once joyful and nostalgic, the “Preface to the Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion” became renowned not only as a literary work, but as a work regarded in later times as Wang’s greatest masterpiece of calligraphy. Legend has it that the sinuous movement of the necks of swimming geese influenced his calligraphic style on that day. In the painting, we see Wang gazing at geese in the stream below the pavilion, his brush poised over an open scroll, about to write the famous work in the inspired style that he was never again able to duplicate exactly. This literary gathering became a cultural ideal, inspiring countless admirers and imitators in later periods and in other countries. This painting reflects the style of the fifteenth-century master Dai Jin, an artist of the Ming court who modeled his own style on earlier 12th - to 13th century court styles.

Archive Label:
This handscroll may be one of the earliest extant paintings of the famous gathering of 42 poets at the Orchid Pavilion in A.D.353. The host of the event, the calligrapher Wang Xizhi, is shown in the pavilion at right, preparing to compose his well-known "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering." Across the river, serving boys place cups of wine on lotus leaves to float them downstream. Upon receiving a cup, guests seated along the river bank were obliged to compose a poem. Considered the most important literary gathering in Chinese history, the event has been depicted in numerous paintings since the Song Dynasty. This painting reflects the style of Dai Chin, a fifteenth-century artist who modeled his landscapes after Southern Song works.