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Lot Essay
Xu Beihong’s Three Chickens Amidst Mountain Flowers, painted in 1942, depicts a proud rooster perched on a rock while a black and a white hen forage below among mountain blossoms. Large in scale and rich in detail, it stands as a representative work from this period. Xu created the painting after returning to China from Southeast Asia via Yunnan, where he held an exhibition in Kunming and donated the proceeds to support the war effort.
The painting originally bore a dedication that was later removed. According to earlier unofficial accounts, it was presented to Li Jingxi during Xu’s “War of Resistance Art Exhibition” in Yunnan in 1942. Li, a Lijiang merchant, cofounded the trading house Yuanxingchang with his sister and operated a caravan of more than 200 horses along the Tea Horse Road, trading medicine, tea, and goods across Lijiang, Tibet, and Calcutta. A committed supporter of the war effort, he made a generous donation at Xu’s exhibition, and Xu gifted him the painting in gratitude. The imagery—rooted in the saying “When the rooster crows, the world brightens”—symbolizes Xu’s confidence in ultimate victory.
Inspired by Xu’s patriotism, Li later studied Chinese medicine and developed an effective herbal treatment for rheumatism and bone ailments, earning the reputation of a “living Hua Tuo.” His descendants continue his legacy at the Lijiang Ancient City Rheumatology Clinic that he founded.
According to the Han Shi Wai Zhuan, the rooster embodies five virtues—civility, martial prowess, courage, kindness, and faithfulness—qualities urgently needed during the darkest years of the war. By contrasting the rooster’s vitality with the hens’ calm demeanor, Xu conveys both the soldiers’ unwavering resolve and a yearning for peace, expressing his hope for the nation’s restoration and tranquility.
The painting originally bore a dedication that was later removed. According to earlier unofficial accounts, it was presented to Li Jingxi during Xu’s “War of Resistance Art Exhibition” in Yunnan in 1942. Li, a Lijiang merchant, cofounded the trading house Yuanxingchang with his sister and operated a caravan of more than 200 horses along the Tea Horse Road, trading medicine, tea, and goods across Lijiang, Tibet, and Calcutta. A committed supporter of the war effort, he made a generous donation at Xu’s exhibition, and Xu gifted him the painting in gratitude. The imagery—rooted in the saying “When the rooster crows, the world brightens”—symbolizes Xu’s confidence in ultimate victory.
Inspired by Xu’s patriotism, Li later studied Chinese medicine and developed an effective herbal treatment for rheumatism and bone ailments, earning the reputation of a “living Hua Tuo.” His descendants continue his legacy at the Lijiang Ancient City Rheumatology Clinic that he founded.
According to the Han Shi Wai Zhuan, the rooster embodies five virtues—civility, martial prowess, courage, kindness, and faithfulness—qualities urgently needed during the darkest years of the war. By contrasting the rooster’s vitality with the hens’ calm demeanor, Xu conveys both the soldiers’ unwavering resolve and a yearning for peace, expressing his hope for the nation’s restoration and tranquility.