Essay: Women Painters of the Ming Dynasty by Tseng Yu-Ho
First published in Artibus Asiae , 1993, Vol. 53, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 249-261
Note from the author: This article is based on a paper presented in Chinese at the Symposium on Painting of the Ming Dynasty, sponsored by Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in October 1988, where time and space limitation necessitated my omitting two of the five women artists included in the original Chinese symposium manuscript. This English version, compressed from the Hong Kong paper with a brief discussion of the social background of the period, discusses only three women artists.
An understanding of classical Chinese women artists requires some background regarding traditional Chinese society. Concepts about righteous womanhood at the Later Han dynasty court were greatly tightened by the Yili (Book of Rites). (1) For example, women were required to observe the sancong (Three Subordinates) toward male members of the household: Toward their father before marriage, toward their husband after marriage, and toward their son when widowed. Chinese women lived within a narrow social world with obligations inside the family only and no rights in the community. In the tenth century, when the custom of foot binding swept over the nation, it affected mainly women of higher social status. The procedure crippled women physically and greatly reduced their creative faculties. However, by the Ming and Qing dynasty, especially during the la Ming and early Qing period, clusters of women poets and painters emerged (fig. I). Finally, in the seventeenth century, women were accepted as professionals and the sale of their artworks regarded as an honorable means of livelihood.
An understanding of classical Chinese women artists requires some background regarding traditional Chinese society. Concepts about righteous womanhood at the Later Han dynasty court were greatly tightened by the Yili (Book of Rites). (1) For example, women were required to observe the sancong (Three Subordinates) toward male members of the household: Toward their father before marriage, toward their husband after marriage, and toward their son when widowed. Chinese women lived within a narrow social world with obligations inside the family only and no rights in the community. In the tenth century, when the custom of foot binding swept over the nation, it affected mainly women of higher social status. The procedure crippled women physically and greatly reduced their creative faculties. However, by the Ming and Qing dynasty, especially during the la Ming and early Qing period, clusters of women poets and painters emerged (fig. I). Finally, in the seventeenth century, women were accepted as professionals and the sale of their artworks regarded as an honorable means of livelihood.
Characteristics of Ming Dynasty Society
In traditional China, parents arranged marriages when their children were still young. Should families be especially good friends, an engagement could begin even before the children were born. Marriages generally were determined by similarities of family background, economic circumstance education and by bazi, horoscopes cast on the basis of the cyclical characters of the hour, day, month and year of the births of the people who were to be betrothed. Sons and daughters had no rights the marital selection. After the wedding, should the marriage not be to their liking, men were free to find paramours. Wealthy men collected as many concubines or fancy maids as they could afford. Others were content to indulge themselves in the courtesan quarters, an activity that was never considered immoral in traditional Chinese society.
While wives were never included in social functions of mixed company in traditional East Asian society, the services of courtesans (better known by the Japanese term geisha) were obligatory. Parties were generally held in the courtesan quarter; a custom welcomed by statesmen and officials, but more favored by poets and young scholars. Courtesans of high rank were purchased at an early age, trained to sing and dance by professional teachers, as well as educated in arts and letters. Cultivated high-class courtesans were addressed as jiaoshu ("readers" or "book revisors"). In the Ming dynasty, their residences were titled shuyu ("studios").
At the age of fifteen a girl was ready to begin her formal career as a courtesan. A wealthy patron would often give a coming-out party to introduce or retain the new girl of talent. Chinese records confirm that men would pay high prices just to look at a renowned beautiful courtesan. Young student-lords gathered in the courtesan quarters to compose poetry and dramas; the girls would play music and sing the new lyrics, which would be circulated and, eventually, spread throughout the town. In such settings many men and women established their lyrical reputations.
These social conventions culminated in the peculiar phenomenon of many gifted concubines and courtesans who are recorded in literature and who far outnumbered the educated women of gentry families (fig. 2). Since ladies of good family were never allowed to associate with men outside their own households or to step outside their front doors freely, they were deprived of public knowledge. Gifted courtesans, by contrast, had a much better opportunity to develop themselves intellectually and artistically. Hence the traditional Chinese saying, nuzi wucai bian shi de ("a woman without talent is virtuous)." Superficially those restrictions might have been meant to promote decency among women but in reality they discouraged the majority of women from developing their innate gifts.
Shen Hao (I585-I66I), a Ming dynasty literary-artist, comments on the origins of painting in the opening passage of his Huazhu:
“People generally gave credit to Feng Mo as the first person who founded the art of painting. They did not realize the founder of painting was Lei, sister of Shun [a ruler in pre-historic China]. Someone responded, ‘What a pity that such a wonderful craft should have been invented by a woman.’
I replied, "Lei saved Shun from a murderous plot by Sou Xiang. She had creative hands, worthy of being the ancestor-founder of painting.’” (2)
In fact, Shen Hao did not have to claim a legendary person as the ancestor-founder of painting. Recent scientific reports reveal that China was a matriarchal society during the Neolithic period. While men were generally hunting and fishing, women remained in the village weaving, making pottery vessels and taking care of community affairs. (3) Countless examples of Neolithic painted pottery vessels, with stunning designs of infinite variety and beautiful colors and perfect brush line drawing, have been discovered at sites along the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers. The mature artists who created these works of art most likely were women.
Jiang Shaoshu (1573-I638) included twenty-two Ming dynasty women painters in his Wusheng Shishi (History of Silent Poems). His foreword to juan five reads:
“The more exciting and earnest [art works] are not by men but women. Rare purple-fungus is not more noble than the wild flowers growing along the river bank. Paintings done by women are god-given talents not on predatory drives. Often I saw paintings by women surprisingly rich in spirit and perception; their gentleness and refinement owing to concentration and quiescence. Such ladies should not be neglected.” (4)
Regrettably, no more than a handful of works by the twenty-two women painters Jiang Shaoshu encountered is known to us. Following the model established by Wusheng Shishi, a few other Chinese publications recorded the names of women artists. Yutai Shushi (History of Calligraphy on Jade Terrace), a record of women calligraphers by Li E (I692-1752), is a more comprehensive study. (5) Tang Souyu, a woman artist active early in the nineteenth-century, compiled a supplement, Yutai Huashi (History of Paintings on Jade Terrace), that lists 2I6 women painters who were active throughout the ages. (6) Entries in Yutai Shushi and Yutai Huashi are arranged chronologically by dynasty, with a further division according to social status, beginning with empresses and imperial consorts and ending with maids and courtesans.
Of the 216 women painters recorded by Tang Souyu, one hundred lived during the Ming dynasty; the majority were active during the late Ming period (ca. sixteenth-seventeenth century). During the discussion session of the symposium on Ming dynasty painting held in Hong Kong in 1988, Professor Rao Zongyi mentioned that he was amazed to find, in the course of his research for a comprehensive volume of Ming dynasty (1368-I644) poetry, that half of the nine hundred Ming dynasty poets were women, the majority of whom lived during the late Ming period. We know that political unrest and social instability during this period agitated a surge in the number of literati-painters. Be they male or female, those literati-painters all seemed to have a greater urge to express their inner feelings through art and the innovative spirit of the time was high.
The number of women painters remained small in comparison with their male contemporaries, and an even smaller percentage of their artworks survives. Because of these limitations a study of individual women artists may never be regarded as complete. This paper selects three representative Ming period women artists whose individuality can be discussed on the basis of sufficient documentation and surviving art works. They are presented chronologically, according to the year of their birth: Ma Shouzhen (1548-I605), Xue Wu (circa 1573-I620), and Wen Shu (1595-I634).
The Personality of Women Artists
Chinese literature provides few descriptions of the everyday lives of educated women. The best-known exception is Fousheng Liuji (Six Chapters of a Floating Life) written by Shen Fu (I763-circa I8I0). (7) Shen Fu described his wife, Chen Yun, with lucid simplicity; her gentle personality is vividly portrayed and one feels that she was a person of flesh and blood, loved by her husband in their modest lifestyle. Yet, because of Chen Yun's rather unconventional behavior, her parents-in-law could not tolerate her and eventually forced Shen Fu and Chen Yun out of the family house. Chen Yun died an untimely death. Shen Fu's memoir preserves details of the life of one cultivated Chinese woman. While there are other loving accounts by scholars who did not hesitate to express affection for their chosen paramours, most of these essays read like obituaries, remote and saturated with morality.
Without the availability of sufficient artworks it is difficult to recreate the lives and personalities of these ladies as living and active artists. Ma Shouzhen is one of the woman painters in the group to be best documented, both by contemporaries, and later writers, and her works were regarded as collector's items.
Ma Shouzhen, I548-I605
Ma Shouzhen is better known by her artistic name, Xianglan (Orchid by the River Xiang). (8) She was not outstandingly beautiful but had an amiable and affectionate nature. She was intelligent and could sense people's feelings at a single glance. Her sympathetic manner enabled people who were talking with her to feel relaxed and willing to confide in her. According to an eyewitness Ma Shouzhen's residence, situated on the bank of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, included intricate courtyards and chambers. In the garden, attractive flowers grew beside pools where rocks were placed sparingly. The peaceful and comfortable ambiance was such that those who once entered her home found it difficult to take their leave.
Ma Shouzhen may have been owned by the proprietor who educated her from her childhood. Her debut, at fifteen, was launched by Peng Nian (1505-66), the well-known man of letters and art connoisseur. Once Ma Shouzhen was established in courtesan society, she attained the status of a matriarch who trained girls as professional singers and actresses; there were nightly concerts and opera performances in her residence. Cautious of her reputation, Ma Shouzhen admitted only educated men. She was generous, often handing out funds to help poor students. Peng Nian, Zhou Tianqiu (1514-95), Xu Wei (I521I-93), and Xue Mingyi (late sixteenth century) were among the better-known poets and artists who were her friends and who composed complimentary poems. One may assume that, like contemporary restaurant owners, Ma Shouzhen requested poems from men of letters to enhance the prestige of her business. Had she been an ordinary brothel keeper, those men could easily have turned down her requests. Ma Shouzhen must have had a truly critical sense for literary gifts and possessed intelligence beyond that of the hundreds of other cultivated courtesans. Reading those social poems one senses the genuine admiration the poets had for her and that they were rather pleased to be her friends. Ma Shouzhen owned a houseboat on which she held parties for the literati while drifting slowly on the scenic lakes of Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. During those parties she enjoyed equal status with her guests, composing poems and painting pictures with her male companions.
Wang Zhideng (1535-I6I2) was Ma Shouzheng's devoted lover and the two people expressed their affection for each other openly. They met during the latter part of their lives when Wang Zhideng, thirteen years her senior and the distinguished leading intellectual of the Wu region, was residing in Suzhou . On those occasions when Wang Zhideng visited Ma Shouzhen in Nanjing she would close her house to all other visitors until he left. Their mature friendship lasted until death parted them.
In 159I when Ma Shouzhen published her poems, Wang Zhideng wrote the preface. On Wang Zhideng's seventieth birthday in I605, Ma Shouzhen, then fifty-seven, brought her storied house-boat, together with her large entourage of musicians, from Nanjing to Suzhou for a celebration to the accompaniment of music and dance until dawn that lasted more than a month. Ma Shouzhen fell ill after returning to Nanjing. According to records, one day Ma Shouzhen lighted her lamp, burned incense, and asked for the Buddha's blessing. She then bathed and dressed herself with special care, sat properly in a chair and died. It is impossible to verify whether Ma Shouzhen had a premonition of impending death or whether she took her own life. Contemporary accounts state that although aged, Ma Shouzhen retained her graceful appearance until the year of her death. Scholars preferred her dignified departure. Wang Zhideng wrote Ma Shouzhen's obituary and composed twelve poetic eulogies.
In addition to painting and writing calligraphy, Ma Shouzhen also composed poetry and wrote a play, [which] were lost. Those paintings by Ma Shouzhen that have survived to the present day include ink landscapes, orchids and bamboo (fig. 3). She always applied colors lightly and tastefully. Unlike the descriptions of Ma Shouzhen's decisive personality, her brush work is loose and rather timid, like that of a young girl. Since she was a social person, many of her paintings may have been executed quickly during parties. However, Ma Shouzhen's artworks may reveal her actual feelings: insecure and basically frail at heart (fig. 4). The collector Pei Jingfu (1894-I924) recorded a collaborative hand-scroll with ink narcissus painted by Ma Shouzhen and rocks added by Wang Zhideng. Pei praised Ma Shouzhen's lines as being as thin as human hair and her calligraphy as being as elegant as that of Wen Zhengming. (9) C.C. Wang of New York mentioned having seen an example of Ma Shouzhen's xingshu, or actional calligraphy, that was excellent; I have not seen that work but note it here for further reference.
Xue Wu, circa 1573-I620
While the dates of Xue Wu's birth and death remain uncertain, she is said to have had a long life. She was the fifth child of her mother, hence the name Wu ("five"). Her nickname, Qiaoqiao, referring to the day she was born - the seventh day of the seventh month, a date marking the traditional Chinese festival of needlework competitions - provides an important biographical detail: Xue Wu had many alternate names. (10)
Next to Ma Shouzhen, Xue Wu is the best-remembered, talented Nanjing courtesan. When Xue Wu made her debut at fifteen, her patron was the poet Wang Xingfu. Among Wang's friends who visited Xue Wu's quarter regularly, was Hu Yinglin (1542-8I), one of the ten most gifted literati of the later Ming period. Although Hu Yinglin died when he was only forty years old, he wrote extensively and many of the poems he dedicated to Xue Wu were composed at parties given by Wang Xingfu.
Hu Yinglin had genuine sympathy for the youthful Xue Wu and described her as the most graceful and attractive courtesan of the time. She excelled in calligraphy and painting, and was also an able musician and unique crossbow archer. While galloping along on horseback Xue Wu is said to have been able to shoot a bullet into the air, which she then smashed with a second bullet while it was still in midair. She could hit a bullet placed on the ground with her back turned or, equally impressive, shoot a bullet off the head of a maid so deftly that the maid would not even notice." (11)
Xue Wu reserved her highest regard for men of letters. She considered herself a valiant and sometimes signed her name Wulang (Fifth Boy). When riding horseback with men, shooting and racing around the open countryside, Xue Wu attracted scores of spectators. Hu Yinglin's collected poems contain many descriptions of evenings spent with friends at Xue Wu's abode. Like members of the modern jet-set, those young lords could afford wine and women, and they feasted regularly. The only difference is that the Ming dynasty literati wrote poetry and painted between their flirtations.
Happy days did not last very long. Wang Xingfu soon departed from Nanjing and never returned. Hu Yinglin felt sorry for Xue Wu and sent two poems to console her. Xue Wu then turned her affections to two other members of the group, whose surnames were Yuan and Li. Li was employed at the government office in change of the Man ethnic minority. When Li's superior, named Peng, became interested in Xue Wu and paid a large sum to secure her attentions, she ignored him. Peng took his revenge by transferring Li to the remote Man territory in southern China and did not release him from that duty for more than ten years. Xue Wu followed Li and remained at his side. The Man people, too, marveled at the excellence of Xue Wu's equestrian and archery skills.
Records of Xue Wu's life become scarce after Hu Yinglin's death in 158I. At some time around I598, when Xue Wu was in her thirties, she lived with the dramatist Shen Defu (I578-1642). Shen was only twenty years old at the time, prompting rumors that Xue Wu possessed the witchcraft to attract younger men.
Xue Wu was acquainted with Ma Shouzhen. One of their collaborative handscrolls was owned by Pei Jingfu, the twentieth-century collector. Liu Shi (I6I8-64), another well-known courtesan-artist, had a sister named Yang Jiangzi who was a liberated woman with views that were far ahead of those of her time. Yang Jiangzi was dedicated to Chan (Zen) Buddhism. Dressed in ordinary blue cotton garments and holding a bamboo staff, Yang Jiangzi made her pilgrimage to many famous temples on foot. Xue Wu admired Yang Jiangzi and called on her. The two women became friends at once; together they discussed Chan Buddhism and composed poetry, vowing never to depend upon men again. Xue Wu was over fifty years old at the time; she and Yang Jiangzi traveled up the Yangzi by boat, climbed Mount Lu and Mount Emei (fig. 5), and determined to be hermits for the rest of their lives. Finally Xue Wu tired of the secluded life; she left Yang Jiangzi in the mountains and returned to the dusty world. According to Qian Qianyi (1582-1644), Xue Wu remained a vegetarian and an ardent Buddhist; she died in Suzhou in the home of a wealthy admirer.
Unlike Ma Shouzhen, who was in control of herself and the life she led, Xue Wu could not obtain lasting love even with all her talents. She was a true individualist, possessed of a personality that was too strong for her own good and for her time. Although Xue Wu lived a long life and was the most able courtesan painter of the period, she never concentrated on her painting with the result that her artworks are limited (fig. 5). Having been the mistress of many men, her virtuousness was low by traditional standards and she might easily have been considered one of the million courtesans in Chinese history and have been forgotten. In his younger years, Dong Qichang (I555-I636), the distinguished Ming dynasty artist, collector and connoisseur, saw a painting of Guanyin executed in ink by Xue Wu and was so impressed that he added the text of the Xinjing (Heart Sutra) to her work. Xue Wu's artistic reputation continues to the present day.
The handscroll depicting orchids executed in ink on paper, in The Honolulu Academy of Arts, is an impressive and truly outstanding painting, regardless of whether it was painted by a woman or a man (fig. 6). The sureness of the lines and tonality of ink show Xue Wu’s firm hand to be equal to any of her contemporary Wu School artists. There is boldness in her work that matched her independent temperament. Orchids were a common theme, but those painted by Xue Wu have their own individuality
The few characters written by Xue Wu at the end of the Honolulu handscroll reveal her good training, mentioned by Hu Yinglin, in the Huangtingjing calligraphy style of the fourth-century master, Wang Xizhi. When this painting first appeared on the antique market it was in poor condition, with the paper on which the signature is written partially torn loose. In 1943, Gustav Ecke had the scroll remounted in Beijing. When the Xue Wu handscroll was exhibited at the Indianopolis Museum of Art in 1988 questions were raised about its authenticity because of the separation of the signature, an unfortunate circumstance that resulted merely from mishandling by a previous owner. (12)
Wen Shu, I595-I634
Wen Shu was a fourth-generational descendant of Wen Zhengming (1470-I1559), the leading painter of Suzhou. She was the great-granddaughter of Wen Jia (1501-I583), granddaughter of Wen Yuanshan (1554-I589), and daughter of Wen Congjian (1574-I648). The Wen family was an illustrious one in the Wu region, having produced many talented artists without interruption from the Song dynasty. Among the literary gentry the Wen family was regarded as preserving the highest moral standards.
Education was an essential part of the disciplined training in Wen family life and Wen Shu, together with her brother, Wen Ran (I596-I667), began to paint when she was a child. (I3) Before she was twenty years old, Wen Shu was married to Zhao Jun (died 1640), a student of her father and descendent of another old distinguished family. The marriage was a congenial one; Wen Shu and Zhao Jun were devoted to each other and respected their separate interests in painting and etymology.
As the inheritance from both the Wen and Zhao families diminished, Zhao Yun, who had never worked and detested having to attend to financial affairs, simply indulged himself in con- noisseurship. Wu Shu assumed responsibility for their livelihood and became a professional painter (fig. 7). The fame of her forebears must have helped Wen Shu to retain her dignity, even as a woman engaged in the art profession. She achieved great success. There was so much demand for her work that Wen Shu had to train some maids as assistants and unscrupulous artists took advantage of her fame by producing forgeries even during her lifetime.
Wen Shu excelled in painting unusual flowers and small insects, capturing their likeness in meticulous detail. Inspired by illustrated Bencao, or books on Chinese herbal medicine, she worked in the same manner, striving for precise identification. Painting one specimen a day, Wen Shu completed one thousand specimens in as many days; her pen-name, Hanshan, is included in the title of the encyclopedic work Hanshan Caomu Kunchong Zhuang (Patterns of Plants and Insects by Hanshan).
Sadly this album has vanished without a trace. Wen Shu took her profession seriously and worked hard for more than a decade before she died at the young age of thirty-nine.
Wen Shu's paintings are generally attentive to detail. Her work is always disciplined and solid, even when she used broader and freer brush strokes or mogu (boneless) technique (fig. 8).
Transcending the botanical accuracy of the Song dynasty academic style, Wen Shu rendered every blade of grass and each insect with a sense of humanitarian care, a quality that characterizes her feminist fineness. A similar sensitivity can be seen clearly in paintings by male artists who worked later than Wen Shu: Yun Shouping (1633-90), Ma Yuanyu (1669-1722), Jiang Tingxi (1669-1732), and Zou Yigui (I685-1766).
Wen Shu gave private painting lessons to ladies of the gentry class and many of her students achieved recognition for their fine work. She also established a model of respectability for professional women painters from good families. By contrast, Miss Qiu (active mid-sixteenth century), the daughter of Qiu Ying and a professional painter who lived earlier than Wen Shu, was never properly accepted in the field; even her given name is not recorded. Women painters from gentry families who achieved professional success after Wen Shu included Chen Shu (1660-1736), Yun Bing (early eighteenth century), and Ma Quan (early eighteenth century). There are no colorful stories or intimate personal details describing these gentle ladies, but their works were highly regarded by their contemporaries.
Wen Shu was a true Confucian daughter; she relished her art and never tried to outsmart the public.
Footnotes
1 In addition to the principles stated in the Yili (Book of Rites), there are the two classics on female education: Lien Zhan (Biographies of Virtuous Women) by Liu Xiang (77-6 B.C.), and Nujie (Admonitions of Womanhood) attributed to Ban Zhao (active A.D. 45-I20).
2 Shen Hao, Huazhu, Yishu congshu edition (Taibei: Shijie Shuju, I96I), vol. I
3 Xi'an Banpo (Beijing: Wenwu Shuju, I963), 226-228.
4 Jiang Shaoshu, Wusheng shishi (N.p.: Cangxiu Shuwu, n.d), juan 5:I a.
5 Li E, Yutai shushi (N.p.: Congxiu Shuwu, n.d.)
6 Tang Souyu, Yutai huashi (Qiantang: Shenqitang, 1824).
7 Shen Fu, Fusheng liuji (Beijing: Shuangfengshe, I933). English translation by Lin Yutang, Shen Fu's Six Chapters of a Floating Life (Shanghai: Xifengshu, 1950).
8 Ma Shouzhen used other names, including Yuejiao and Xuan (or Yuan) er.
9 Pei Jingfu, Zhuangtaoge shuhua lu (Shanghai: Zhonghua Shuju, I937), juan II:36a-37a.
IO Xue Wu also used other names, including, Runniang, Runqing, Susu, Xuesu, Suqing, and Suxinren.
II Tseng Yu-ho, "Hsuiieh Wu and her orchids in the collection of the Honolulu Academy of Arts," Arts Asiatiques z, no. 3 (1955), 197- 208.
12 Marsha Weidner, ed., Views from Jade Terrace, Chinese Women Artists, 1300-I9I2 (Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, I988), 84.
I3 Wen Shu also used other alternate names, including Duanrong, pen-names Hanshan and Langui huashi.
