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Lot Essay
At once witty and whimsical, Outlaws of the Marsh is an exquisitely rendered seminal work by Huang Yongyu inspired by the classical novel The Water Margin. Painted in 1997, it captures the 108 heroes in a cartoonish fashion, each in a single scroll, skillfully demonstrating the artist’s keen interest in the expression of individual personality in his shrewd treatment of the characters. In Outlaws of the Marsh, the artist complements each colourful figure with his commentary on their individual faults and virtues in a way that is relatable to a contemporary audience – and by doing so, bringing the classical literary characters alive.
Originally published in 1589, The Water Margin is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature that grew to become the source for inspiring later novelists and folk tales. Based on the exploits of historical figure Song Jiang and his companions recorded in the historical text History of Song and others, the story, set in the Song dynasty, tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang to form a sizable army, eventually being granted amnesty by the government and sent on campaigns to resist foreign invaders and suppress rebel forces. Rooted in historical events and mixed with popular imagination, the 108 heroes of The Water Margin are mostly fictional characters unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms whose characters are nearly all based on historical figures. The Water Margin has made its heroes household names, introducing many of the most memorable characters in Chinese literature, such as Wu Song, Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen. These 108 heroes are experts in martial arts, committed to brotherhood, and dedicated to righting the wrongs of those who are unjustly treated – throughout the novel, loyalty and justice remain the most prominent themes.
With vivid brushstrokes, the heroes come alive in Huang Yongyu’s painting. The inscriptions on the scroll range from succinct summaries of the protagonists’ fate to the artist’s witty aphorisms, making the characters relatable to the contemporary audience: in one, he connects the seal-carving hero Jin Dajian to the artist Qi Baishi, also known for his love of seals; in another, he compares his quick temper to that of Li Kui’s, the hero who is often described charging straight into the battlefield brandishing his axes. Huang Yongyu’s fascination with The Water Margin is no accident: as he said in an interview dated 2013, he had always loved literature but the practical limitations of becoming a novelist led him to become an artist instead.
From the inscription on the last two leaves of this set of 110, Huang Yongyu recounts the story of how he dreamed about painting a depiction of the 108 heroes from the novel The Water Margin since the 1960s. As an expert woodblock print artist, he originally planned to create a set of woodblocks depicting the characters, and yet he was deterred by the lack of artistic freedom and the political climate at the time. In 1987, while he was in Hong Kong, he was able to finally concentrate on creating a set of 142 paintings depicting those characters. It was not until 1997 that Huang Yongyu created the present set, his second rendition of a full set based on the novel. The artist stamped each of the 108 paintings with a special seal that reads “Huang Yongyu’s painting of The Water Margin,” different from the seal used in his first rendition. This suggests that the seal was carved after the first was painted, perhaps specifically for the present rendition.
On the inscription, he dedicates the set to He Yunfeng (1922-2013), a general and politician of the People’s Republic of China who once served as the Committee Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the mayor of Chongqing. Huang writes that He, a great supporter of his art, collected many of his best paintings. He requested that Huang paint another set of characters of The Water Margin to demonstrate his unswerving aspiration towards artistic perfection, and after two months of painting, Huang completed this second rendition of Outlaws of the Marsh in 1997, a great testament to the close friendship between He Yunfeng and the artist.
Huang Yongyu has once noted that his interpretation of the classics changes as he ages: the older one grows, the more one experiences – the works are often more interesting. Executed a decade later than the first rendition, the present set of Outlaws of the Marsh is perhaps also an elegy for the time past, intertwined with the memory of the artist.
Originally published in 1589, The Water Margin is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature that grew to become the source for inspiring later novelists and folk tales. Based on the exploits of historical figure Song Jiang and his companions recorded in the historical text History of Song and others, the story, set in the Song dynasty, tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang to form a sizable army, eventually being granted amnesty by the government and sent on campaigns to resist foreign invaders and suppress rebel forces. Rooted in historical events and mixed with popular imagination, the 108 heroes of The Water Margin are mostly fictional characters unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms whose characters are nearly all based on historical figures. The Water Margin has made its heroes household names, introducing many of the most memorable characters in Chinese literature, such as Wu Song, Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen. These 108 heroes are experts in martial arts, committed to brotherhood, and dedicated to righting the wrongs of those who are unjustly treated – throughout the novel, loyalty and justice remain the most prominent themes.
With vivid brushstrokes, the heroes come alive in Huang Yongyu’s painting. The inscriptions on the scroll range from succinct summaries of the protagonists’ fate to the artist’s witty aphorisms, making the characters relatable to the contemporary audience: in one, he connects the seal-carving hero Jin Dajian to the artist Qi Baishi, also known for his love of seals; in another, he compares his quick temper to that of Li Kui’s, the hero who is often described charging straight into the battlefield brandishing his axes. Huang Yongyu’s fascination with The Water Margin is no accident: as he said in an interview dated 2013, he had always loved literature but the practical limitations of becoming a novelist led him to become an artist instead.
From the inscription on the last two leaves of this set of 110, Huang Yongyu recounts the story of how he dreamed about painting a depiction of the 108 heroes from the novel The Water Margin since the 1960s. As an expert woodblock print artist, he originally planned to create a set of woodblocks depicting the characters, and yet he was deterred by the lack of artistic freedom and the political climate at the time. In 1987, while he was in Hong Kong, he was able to finally concentrate on creating a set of 142 paintings depicting those characters. It was not until 1997 that Huang Yongyu created the present set, his second rendition of a full set based on the novel. The artist stamped each of the 108 paintings with a special seal that reads “Huang Yongyu’s painting of The Water Margin,” different from the seal used in his first rendition. This suggests that the seal was carved after the first was painted, perhaps specifically for the present rendition.
On the inscription, he dedicates the set to He Yunfeng (1922-2013), a general and politician of the People’s Republic of China who once served as the Committee Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the mayor of Chongqing. Huang writes that He, a great supporter of his art, collected many of his best paintings. He requested that Huang paint another set of characters of The Water Margin to demonstrate his unswerving aspiration towards artistic perfection, and after two months of painting, Huang completed this second rendition of Outlaws of the Marsh in 1997, a great testament to the close friendship between He Yunfeng and the artist.
Huang Yongyu has once noted that his interpretation of the classics changes as he ages: the older one grows, the more one experiences – the works are often more interesting. Executed a decade later than the first rendition, the present set of Outlaws of the Marsh is perhaps also an elegy for the time past, intertwined with the memory of the artist.