Rain-coming Pavilion by the Stone Bridge at Mt. Tiantai

1848

Dai Xi

Dai Xi (Chinese, 1801–1860)

Chinese Art

Rain-coming Pavilion by the Stone Bridge at Mt. Tiantai, 1848. Dai Xi (Chinese, 1801–1860). Handscroll, ink on paper; image: 34.5 x 142.6 cm (13 9/16 x 56 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 1979.54 The subject is not just Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang Province, the ancient seat of the most powerful Buddhist sect of Sui and Tang dynasties, but records a specific occasion in 1838 when an official visited Tiantai and began the reconstruction of a historic pavilion. As this coincided with the end of a long drought, the building was auspiciously renamed the Yulai (Rain-Coming 雨來) Pavilion. Ten years later, Dai Xi painted this handscroll to commemorate the occasion. Dai Xi actively resisted the Taiping rebels and drowned himself after their 1860 capture of his hometown, Hangzhou. For this loyal deed, Dai was posthumously rewarded with a temple built in his name.

Original Source

Maker/Artist: Dai Xi
Classification: Painting
Formatted Medium: handscroll, ink on paper
Medium: handscroll, ink, paper
Dimensions: Image: 34.5 x 142.6 cm (13 9/16 x 56 1/8 in.)
Inscribed: Inscription: Artist's inscription, signature, and 2 seals: Painting of Rain-Coming Pavilion by the Stone Bridge at Mount Tiantai. In the twenty-eighth year of the Daoguang era [1848], the third lunar month, requested by and painted for Pan Gongfu 潘功甫 [Pan Zengyi 潘曾沂], a senior family friend. [signed] Your junior, Dai Xi from Qiantang. [seal] Hebi jian Dai 何必見戴. [seal, lower right corner] Shih-ping yeh. Inscription: Title on frontispiece and 3 seals of Ruan Yuan (1764-1849). 1 colophon and 10 additional seals: 1 colophon, dated 1838, and 8 seals of Pan Zengyi (1792-1853); 2 seals unidentified. Inscription: Colophon by Pan Zengyi: The T'anhua [a flower that blooms only momentarily in semi-tropical areas] Pavilion near Shiliang [the natural stone bridge] was built by the Grand Chancellor Jia. It lasted over seven hundred years. After it was destroyed this year, I happened to be there, so I suggested it be reconstructed. Among the six poems commemorating my visit, one reads: The career of the Prime Minister may be as great as the rivers and lakes,/ Unaware himself of the fact there is leaking./ I had been all over the seventy-two peaks of P'eng-lai mountains/ When the timely rain came to T'an-hua Pavilion. It had not been raining for a long time there, then unexpectedly, the rain came simultaneously with my arrival; the old monk there asked me to change the name to Rain-Coming Pavilion, in order to record the joy. The hilly fields at Mt. Tiantai have suffered by droughts. If, from this year on, they have the timely rain to bring along bountiful harvests and make people happy - so may this pavilion be our witness. Hsiao-fu shan-jen, Pan Zengyi recorded this on the first day of the twelfth lunar month in the wuxu year [1838]. Chiang Yung-ching copied respectfully on the first day of the sixth lunar month in the wushen year [1848]. trans. LYSL/WKH Remark: The notorious Grand Chancellor Jia Sidao 賈似道 (1213-1275) served during the reigns of Emperor Lizong and Emperor Duzong before the end of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Departments: Chinese Art
Accession Number: 1979.54
Credit Line: Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund
Exhibitions: Year in Review: 1979, <em>Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting</em>. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 10-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
Rights Statement: CC0