Attributed to
Liang Kai
Chinese (Dongping (Shandong Province, China), ca. 1186 - ca. 1246, Lin'an (Zhejiang Province, China)) Primary

Anecdotes of Eight Eminent Monks

Southern Song
After original of 1150 - 1225

Sheet
10 7/16 x 345 1/4 in. (26.5 x 876.935 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• boats - Watercraft generally smaller and less seaworthy than ships and generally not designed to cross large open waters.
• Chinese - The cultures, styles, and periods characteristic of China. To specifically refer to the cultures of ancient Chine, use "Ancient Chinese."
• facsimiles - Exact copies of an original object, usually in the same dimensions as the original, especially of books, documents, prints, and drawings. Today often reproduced photographically; in the past, reproduced by engraving or other printmaking process.
• inscriptions - Words, texts, lettering, or symbols marked on a work, including texts, legends, documentation notes, or commemoration. For standardized symbols or notations on objects that convey official information, use "marks (symbols)."
• monks - Members of a religious brotherhood who are devoted to a discipline prescribed by their order. Monks take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Performance of religious duties and contemplation are traditional priorities. Monks typically live apart from society in communal monasteries, but some live alone (hermits or anchorites). Monks are distinguished from "friars" in that for the monk retirement and solitude are undisturbed by public ministry, except in exceptional circumstances. Some of the more prominent orders of Christian monks include the Benedictines, Cluniacs, Cistercians, Trappists, Carthusians, the Premonstratensians, and Camaldolese.
• paintings - Unique works in which images are formed primarily by the direct application of pigments suspended in oil, water, egg yolk, molten wax, or other liquid, arranged in masses of color, onto a generally two-dimensional surface.
• scroll paintings - Refers to paintings having a long, narrow scroll format. Term is often used in the context of Chinese and Japanese paintings on either hanging scrolls (kakemono, if Japanese) or on handscrolls (emakimono, if Japanese). For written documents on long, rolled strips, see "scrolls (information artifacts)."
• Southern Song - Refers to a Chinese dynastic culture, style, and period dating 1127 to 1279. The dynasty was established by Gaozong (reigned 1127-1162), son of the last emperor of the Northern Song. The dynasty had its capital at Nanjing and later at Lin'an and it ruled the area south of the Huai River. Foreign influence was avoided and archaic traditions were often drawn on. Landscape remained the most important genre of painting with artists such as Ma Yuan and Xia Gui depicting local, ethereal, gentle scenery in contrast to the craggy landscapes of Northern Song painters. This school of painting, called the Ma-Xia school, came out of the emperor's painting academy. In sharp contrast are the active and spontaneous brush paintings of Zen monks of the period. Since northern kilns were now unavailable, new southern centers of ceramic production began to be patronized by the court. Special guan (official) wares were made near the palace. Celadon-glazed stoneware in explicitly archaic forms was made at Longquan. A small factory producing Qingbai wares at Jingdezhen expanded during the period, eventually becoming the greatest center for ceramics in China. Jades and metalwork were often made in archaistic forms. The manufacture of the fine silk tapestry known as 'kesi' reached its pinnacle in the Southern Song. Gilded and painted wooden Buddhist sculptures featured sensuous bodies, enigmatic smiles, and a sense of vitality.

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