This lovely work of art was done by Ren Yi who lived from 1840 until 1896, and it is part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.You can see a bird with a crest on its head, perched on a tree branch. It is believed this is a kingfisher, also known as ribbon-tailed bird, prized for its beauty.
This scroll, also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, was painted by the Chinese artist Shen Nanpin who taught art in Japan during the Qing Dynasty. You can see the long tail feathers which give the bird its name.
On One Bams we usually see standing birds, or swooping birds, usually pheasants, peacocks, cranes and swallows. The following are more unusual birds.
Above is a rare One Bam. We see a bird with a crest on a branch. It is not so dissimilar to the one above, and it is believed to be a kingfisher although the tail is not as long as we would expect.
This one above is also believed to be a kingfisher, sitting on a thin bending branch.
This one is too, also sitting on a stylized stalk of bamboo. A kingfisher on bamboo may mean birthday wishes: bamboo is a pun for "congratulate." (Bartholomew)
Although this one obviously is not a bird, but a bamboo sprout, it too is seen "perched" on a bamboo stalk.
This magnificent fan in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was painted by Ren Xun who lived in China from 1835-1893. You can clearly see the bird, perched on a rock resembling what probably could be called a scholar's rock. We can see those wonderful holes, created by the movement of water over thousands of years, going through the rock.
On this lovely porcelain featured on Live Auctioneers, we have another bird, this time standing on one leg, as we often see on Mahjong tiles. The following interpretation was applied by Terese Bartholomew Tse about an eagle standing on one leg, it might be also true that "any bird standing on one leg shows independence of spirit."
We have a lot of birds seen on rocks in Mahjong.
This One Bam is from a miniature ladies' set, a fairly typical scene of a peacock standing on one leg on a rock.
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It is not so different from this One Bam above, from a more recently carved set, probably from the late 1960s or early 1970s.
This One Bam is perched on a rock too, one foot raised in a bit of a balancing act.
And this recently carved One Bam from a tri-color lucite tile continues the same tradition.
We thank Mahjongmahjong for the use of some tiles seen here from their collection.
This lovely painting, dating from the Ming Dynasty, is in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. If you look closely right under the lilies, just to the right, you can just make out a rock, with perhaps another just to the back left. Terese Tse Batholomew says the pairing of a daylily and a rock symbolizes
"May the daylily and rock extend your years, or May you have sons and live long"
We often see rocks paired with potted plants on Flower tiles.
Above, each rock is beside each plant here, each one almost the same size as the pot.
In these two tiles the rocks have a bit more irregularity, more like scholar's stones that we will discuss in a future post.
Above we have a Flower tile made by the Imperial Company of France. (The black gold-flecked material is Ebonite, a hard rubber.)
You might have noticed there is a bit of green on all the rocks seen above. This is a bit confusing, but there might be answer here, provided by Patricia Bjaaland Welch:
"The appearance of moss on a longevity stone intensifies the idea of seniority.."
This lovely work dating from the Song Dynasty is in the collection of the Cleveland Art Institute. We see two figures surrounded by trees, with mountains in the background. In the foreground, we have a huge rock. As mentioned before, the Chinese have a great appreciation for the natural beauty of rocks. According to Patricia Bjaaland Welch,
"interesting rocks ("strange stones" known as guaishi) were collected as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-906), a practice that was firmly established by the Song (960-1279)..."
The most valued rocks and stones were those that resembled sacred mountains or which were believed to embody inner energy. Many of the larger rocks or stones found in Chinese paintings, gardens, still lifes and floral arrangements are "longevity stones" but not all."
Certainly, in the work above, the rock would have leant itself to contemplation.
Many of you have noticed how difficult it can be to identify images on mahjong tiles, and it is very easy to make mistakes differentiating stones from lingzhi.
We saw these tiles the other day. The lingzhi has a rounded organic look to it, and, in this case, is shown with its stalk.
These birds are seen with rocks. Rocks in Mahjong often have a bit of an angular look to them. At other times they have holes going from one side to the other, such as the one below.
As you can see, this Mahjong rock has a porous quality to it, similar to the real one in the photograph just below this. The red Chinese character on this tile translates as "mountain." It is a character you will often see on Flower tiles.
This rock, from the Ralph M. Chait Gallery, is of the Taihu variety, limestone found at the foot of Dongting Mountain near Taihu Lake. The continuous movement of the water produces this porous effect. You can see how similar it is to the one on the Mahjong tile.
Here we have a piece of fabric dating from the Ming Dynasty in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here you can see stylized phoenixes and ruyi, the scepter based on lingzhi, the herb of immortality, that oval organic form that looks like it is folded in on itself.
This is a scepter auctioned off by Christies. It is a ruyi, and thus is associated with immortality, good luck and power. This shape can appear in many aspects of Chinese art, including Mahjong.
The box above was auctioned off by Kaminski Auctioneers. Its handle is shaped like a ruyi. The set was owned by Marla Maples, the former wife of Donald Trump. It is now part of a major private Mahjong collection.
This exquisite dragon Mahjong box also features ruyi, certainly toward the lower left and right center, but probably above, hiding part of the right side of the dragon as well.
This detail is of a sutra cover in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dating from the Ming Dynasty, it shows flowers, the round shapes, and lingzhi, the one toward the lower right.
As many of you know, lingzhi is a fungus, considered to be the Plant of Immortality. (C.A. S. Williams) It is so revered by the Chinese that often it was preserved and stored in temples, or copies of it might be made and placed there.
The heads of scepters were based on lingzhi. These scepters are called ruyi.
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You can see how the head of the scepter has a very organic look to it. The ruyi became associated with power, and good luck and blessings. (Wiki) Ruyi appears in Mahjong too, on tiles and on boxes. Often it is hard to see because it is so stylized, but if you look hard enough, you can see it.
Ruyi can come in the shape of clouds:
On this side of a Mahjong box we looked at before, we see this magnificent dragon. His leonine head is in the center of the design, and his body surrounds it. But what is in the background? Ruyi shaped clouds! Those clouds take up most of the space around him.
On the back of this same box you can see the dragon, once again surrounded by clouds shaped like ruyi! ( I still love that fish involved with his inhale or exhale. Perhaps fish and dragons can be another post some day!)
These are two sets of Flowers from a Chinese Bakelite set that has 16 Flowers. Above we see above some gods on ruyi shaped clouds.
We also have some gods here. The two men in the middle are the He-Hes, the heavenly twins. The two tiles at either end of the row also have a bit of extra meaning. The one on the right is the magic bowl, often seen containing the lotus (left) and the herb of immortality, which here is represented by the clouds! The bowl, lotus and lingzhi mean "concord as your hear desires" according to Wolfram Eberhard. The He Hes are associated with marital harmony, so these Flowers bode well for happiness within the home.
(After writing this, I used the app Pleco, available for ipad, and got the translation which worked with the visual interpretations of the bottom tiles, from left to right: harmony, combine, two, celestials!)
A book by this author and Ann Israel is entitled Mah Jongg The Art of the Game.
You can read reviews on the book's website and find author appearances:
On this Ming Dynasty scroll from the Metropolitan Museum you can easily see the lingzhi, growing right out of the earth. Given its close resemblance to a flower, and at times a rock, you really have to look closely to know what you are seeing. Above the lingzhi is growing near clumps of flowers, as we often see on mahjong tiles.
From C.A. S. Williams Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs
"The lingzhi, or Plant of Immortality, is a species of fungus, probably the Polyporus lusidus, which grows at the roots of trees."
The above two sets of flowers might resemble lingzhi, but these are felt to be rocks.
The Flowers below are lingzhi; you will see the difference:
The above ones are lingzhi, and you can see that the fungus is much more rounded, with a noticeable stem on these tiles at least.
Here is a photograph of a real lingzhi, taken from Wikipedia:
This one has the more rounded head than the ones we saw on the Mahjong tiles above.
As many of you know, Flower tiles can be wonderfully varied, ranging from flowers in pots, to landscapes, to scenes from literature, etc. The tiles today represent a scene from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Liu Bei met Zhuge Liang. (Zhuge Liang was the brilliant military strategist who fooled the attacking enemy when he appeared relaxed as he played the qin on top of the wall surrounding his empty city.)
Today's post was made possible by Ray Heaton who translated these four tiles.
Ray suspects
"these tiles refer to Zhuge Liang (or Kongming, the great military strategist) being recommended to Liu Bei, but the four characters shown are just part of a longer 6-8 character phrase.
The name Zhuge Liang should be three Chinese characters, but on these tiles his name is abbreviated to just one character, the "ge" part!
(On tile 4 it shows the 'ge' part (葛) of Zhuge (諸葛), itself all short for Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮).)
"Portraits" of Zhuge Liang are plentiful, as he was very important in Chinese history.
Zhuge Liang MJ portrait 2
above photo courtesy of Laurie
The following shows the meeting of Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, from Oriental Discovery
The love of Zhuge Liang and his story continues to this day. This poster is from a recent film
Red Cliff, featuring Zhuge Liang portrayed by Takeshi Kaneshiro.
Here follow some excerpts from wikipedia:
"Zhuge Liang(181–234),[2]courtesy nameKongming, was achancellorof the state ofShu Handuring theThree Kingdomsperiod. He is recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era, and has been compared to another great ancient Chinese strategist,Sun Tzu.[3]
Often depicted wearing a robe and holding ahand fanmade of crane feathers,[4]Zhuge Liang was not only an important military strategist and statesman; he was also an accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, earning him the nickname "Wolong" (literally: "Sleeping Dragon").
According to historical texts, Zhuge Liang was eightchitall, roughly between 1.85 metres (6 feet and 1 inch) and 1.95 metres (6 feet and 4.75 inches)...
The Temple of the Marquis of Wu inChengdu,Sichuan, a temple worshipping Zhuge Liang.
....Liu Beiresided atXinyewhile he was taking shelter underJing Province's governor,Liu Biao. Liu Bei visitedSima Hui, who told him, "Confucian academics and common scholars, how much do they know about current affairs? Those who analyse current affairs well are elites. Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix are the only ones in this region."[11]Xu Shulater recommended Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei again, and Liu wanted to ask Xu to invite Zhuge to meet him. However, Xu Shu replied, "You mustvisit this man in person. He cannot be invited to meet you."[12]Liu Bei succeeded in recruiting Zhuge Liang in 207 after paying three personal visits.[13][I]Zhuge Liang presented theLongzhong Planto Liu Bei and left his residence to follow Liu. Afterwards, Liu Bei became very close to Zhuge Liang and often had discussions with him.Guan YuandZhang Feiwere not pleased and complained. Liu Bei explained, "Now that I have Kongming (Zhuge Liang's style name), I am like a fish that has found water. I hope you'll stop making unpleasant remarks."[14]Guan Yu and Zhang Fei then stopped complaining."
This work by Wu Changshu (1844-1927) is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here we see lovely delicate orchids, wisp-like in their appearance.
Mahjong tile carvers often kept to the ethereal appearance of this lovely flower. On this bone and bamboo tile we have just a hint of the blossom.
Here is a tile, from what is thought to be an unusual Rottgames set, showing an orchid which has the same delicate quality as the bone and bamboo versions.
The plant above is so abstract it is difficult to make out much about it, although it seems to be growing in front of a rock in the pot.
This russet beauty, from a rare Ashton & Rietz set, shows the same feathery treatment of the blooms we saw earlier.
We will end this post with photographs of orchids found at the Inkaterra Hotel near Machu Picchu, Peru. The hotel has one of the biggest collections of orchids (372 varieties!) in the world. Some orchids are so tiny you can only really see them with a magnifying glass. The ones seen here are bigger than that though.
With all the variety seen in this plant , it is easy to understand why the Chinese were so entranced by it.
In China the orchid is traditionally associated with spring. The polar vortex has left our area, after what seemed to most of us to be a very long stay, so it is time to celebrate. And how better than to look at orchids, some created by nature and others brought to us by artists. We will look at Mahjong tiles with this pairing, and a photograph of some real beauties on display in the Bronx.
The above ink work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was painted by Ma Shouzhen during the Ming Dynasty. Here is an orchid; a few of the delicate blooms have fallen to the ground, but some remain intact. As we have seen in some other posts, the artist has chosen to position the plant next to a rock, a very common theme in Chinese art.
In China the orchid represents delicacy and elegance. Patricia Bjaaland Welch, in her book Chinese Art A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery
"They are specifically associated with women, love beauty and fertility; and secondly with virtue, moral elegance" and the refinement of a superior man who stands out in a crowd because of being a learned gentleman.
Rocks were often prized as objects of beauty, and we know they are objects of permanence. And so the rock with the orchid might be a play upon visual beauty, some of which is short lived and some permanent throughout time.
Above we have a version of paired Mahjong flowers. The hand carved bone and bamboo tile flower on the left is the orchid, with a rock just below the edge of the pot. Of course a rock appears in the other half of the diptych as well.
Above a vase, holding a hand carved Mahjong tile orchid, has a rock right next to it. Again, it seems like some of the blossoms may have fallen, thus alluding to the impermanence of some kinds of beauty.
Although not hand carved, these tiles by Imperial feature a vase of orchids and the rock beside them.
Above is a photo from a set by Selfridge's, with a paper face showing the orchid in a vase with a rock in a pot right behind. Clearly the pairing of the two was important enough to feature on all tiles of Mahjong tiles.
And we'll end with a photo of some other stars of the orchid show at the Bronx Botanical Garden, these exquisite pink orchids. There is no indication of nearby rocks, but, then again, this show is not Chinese art, but rather a celebration of the beauty of orchids. Given that the show ends today, it is another indication of the need to appreciate etherial beauty when we have a chance.
