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Lot Essay
Lotus and Birds: The Spiritual World of Bada Shanren
Bada Shanren (1626-1705) is the most exploratory artist of the late Ming and early Qing period. Research on his name, life experience, devotion, signatures, seals and terrestrial views have been conducted by modern scholars far and near.
A critical artist, Bada Shanren’s landscape, lotus, fish, deer and bird are stern and unyielding, which reveal his alienated attitude towards the outside world. Being a descendent of the Ming imperial family, he escaped to a Buddhist monastery after the downfall of the Ming dynasty and became a monk for more than thirty years. When the perils of persecution receded, he renounced his monkhood and became a professional painter. His paintings have always been a means of protest, expressing his idiosyncrasies as he never adapted to secular life.
Lotus and Birds depicts two little birds standing on a rock and chatting beneath two lotuses that peeping through a canopy of lotus leaves. In Buddhism lotus symbolizes purity and flexibility, while bird represents tranquility and free of worldly concerns. For Bada Shanren, they stand for seclusion, which exemplifies his state of mind. His inscription on the painting tianouzi (unworthy of the seagulls), affirmed by Wang Fangyu and Liu Jiu’an, was deciphered by Zhang Daqian as tianxin ouzi (carefree seagulls). In either interpretation, Lotus and Birds presents Bada Shanren’s longing for spiritual detachment from the secular life.
Bada Shanren (1626-1705) is the most exploratory artist of the late Ming and early Qing period. Research on his name, life experience, devotion, signatures, seals and terrestrial views have been conducted by modern scholars far and near.
A critical artist, Bada Shanren’s landscape, lotus, fish, deer and bird are stern and unyielding, which reveal his alienated attitude towards the outside world. Being a descendent of the Ming imperial family, he escaped to a Buddhist monastery after the downfall of the Ming dynasty and became a monk for more than thirty years. When the perils of persecution receded, he renounced his monkhood and became a professional painter. His paintings have always been a means of protest, expressing his idiosyncrasies as he never adapted to secular life.
Lotus and Birds depicts two little birds standing on a rock and chatting beneath two lotuses that peeping through a canopy of lotus leaves. In Buddhism lotus symbolizes purity and flexibility, while bird represents tranquility and free of worldly concerns. For Bada Shanren, they stand for seclusion, which exemplifies his state of mind. His inscription on the painting tianouzi (unworthy of the seagulls), affirmed by Wang Fangyu and Liu Jiu’an, was deciphered by Zhang Daqian as tianxin ouzi (carefree seagulls). In either interpretation, Lotus and Birds presents Bada Shanren’s longing for spiritual detachment from the secular life.