Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and Rong Qiqi

The images of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove themselves did not appear until over a century later in an Eastern Jin Dynasty tomb near present-day Nanjing. These exquisite portraits were first carved on a mold with smooth lines, then imprinted onto clay bricks. After firing the bricks, they were assembled on the walls of the tomb chamber to form complete pictorial scenes. On the left wall, the four figures were divided into two groups, seemingly engaged in conversation. However, on the right wall, four unrelated and isolated figures were depicted, each engrossed in their own activities—playing musical instruments, gazing at a wine cup, or lost in contemplation. The two compositions also exhibited different spatial concepts. In the left wall painting, the overlapping tree trunks, flowing robes of the figures, and the cushions they sat on emphasized the sense of space, while the vessels scattered among the figures illustrated the extension of the ground. In contrast, the composition on the right wall appeared stiff and lacked three-dimensionality; only a line of trees was used to define the spatial boundaries of each figure, following the painting traditions of the Han Dynasty and even earlier.

Jin Dynasty (266-420). 80cm*240cm. Molded brick picture in tomb of Jin Dynasty, Xishanqiao, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Collection of Nanjing Museum.

This piece is compiled from the Chinese edition of Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting by Foreign Languages Press and Yale University Press, translated by Chen Ying.