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Source Description
Painted at age 68, this landscape is one of Xiao Yuncong’s most mature works. Extraordinary in its combination of fine details with bold brushstrokes and bluish washes, it is also one of his longest compositions in handscroll format, extending over 23 feet. Throughout his lifetime, Xiao visited Nanjing and Yangzhou, where he met with other painters and literati. Regarded as the founder of the Gushu school (姑孰派) of painting, Xiao painted from nature, and his landscapes are informed by his travels, as well as by his experience as a print designer.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
131672
label
Pure Tones among Hills and Waters
core
obj
dtoType
painting
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
131672
contentType
painting
title
Pure Tones among Hills and Waters
description
Painted at age 68, this landscape is one of Xiao Yuncong’s most mature works. Extraordinary in its combination of fine details with bold brushstrokes and bluish washes, it is also one of his longest compositions in handscroll format, extending over 23 feet. Throughout his lifetime, Xiao visited Nanjing and Yangzhou, where he met with other painters and literati. Regarded as the founder of the Gushu school (姑孰派) of painting, Xiao painted from nature, and his landscapes are informed by his travels, as well as by his experience as a print designer.
date
1664
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60483547
creators
23575
genreSpecific
Painting
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Painting: 31 x 781.6 cm (12 3/16 x 307 11/16 in.); Overall: 34 x 1194.8 cm (13 3/8 x 470 3/8 in.)
cul
China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
accession
1954.262
Source extras
tec
Handscroll; ink and light color on paper
tombstone
Pure Tones among Hills and Waters (山水清音圖), 1664. Xiao Yuncong (Chinese, 1596–1673). Handscroll; ink and light color on paper; painting: 31 x 781.6 cm (12 3/16 x 307 11/16 in.); overall: 34 x 1194.8 cm (13 3/8 x 470 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1954.262
titleInOriginalLanguage
山水清音圖
collection
ASIAN - Handscroll
inscriptions
inscription
種松發秀色，具是高人心。/
鑿石築茅屋，長年覆綠陰。/
白雲無意出，舒卷趨空林。/
萬籟時一寂，微風墮清音。/
此情莫可擬，此景誰能論。/
只向千峰裏，共彈五絃琴。/
桃花依綠水，不覺又春深。
甲辰花朝題于青蓮閣, 鐘山老人蕭雲從。[印] 鐘山老人
inscription_translation
Artist's inscription, signature, and seal:
Planting pine to unveil its natural color:/
This is an idea appealing to all lofty minds./
[He] chiseled into the rocks to build a thatched cottage,/
To shade with greeneries all year around./
The white clouds drift by with no will of their own/
Rolling and stretching toward the vacant forests./
Suddenly all sounds are hushed,/
While a pure tone falls from a light breeze./
This sentiment is impossible to articulate,/
And the scene is beyond words./
To the thousands of peaks we go,/
To play a duet on the qin of five strings./
Petals of peach blossom flow along the green stream;/
Without us being aware, the spring has deepened./
On the "Day of Flowers" in the jiachen year [twelfth day of the second lunar month of 1664], inscribed at the Blue Lotus Pavilion (Qinglian Ge 青蓮閣), by the Old Man of Zhong Mountain. Xiao Yuncong [seal] Zhong shan lao ren.
inscription
Title and inscription, dated 1744, and 3 seals of Shen Feng 沈鳳 (1685-1755).
inscription
4 colophons and 24 additional seals:
1 colophon, dated 1811, and 5 seals of Xiang Yuan 項源 (active about 1811);
1 colophon, dated 1858, and 2 seals of Qi Junzao 祁寯藻 (1793-1866);
1 colophon and 4 seals of Zhang Yunzhong 張允中 (1881–1960?);
4 seals of Jiang Xun 江恂 (active about 1753–after 1780);
1 colophon dated 1943, and 2 seals of Wang Shaoming 汪兆銘 (Wang Jingwei 汪精衛, 1883–1944);
1 seal of Qi Zhiliu 祁之鏐 (active about 1858);
2 seals of Yu Zhimeng 俞芷盟 (second half of 19th century);
4 seals unidentified.
didYouKnow
Biographical notes on Xiao Yuncong relate that he did not pursue the career of an official, but "furnished a cottage in the eastern suburbs [of Wuhu in Anhui province] and amused himself playing the <em>qin</em> (zither) and reading every day."
citations
citation
Lee, Sherman E. <em>Chinese Landscape Painting</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 156, cat. no. 102; Reproduced: p. 127
citation
Trubner, Henry. <em>A Chinese Landscape by Hsiao Yün-Tsʼung. Oriental Art, New Series, V. 1, No. 3</em>. [Surrey, England, etc.]: [Oriental Art Magazine, Ltd.], 1955.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 6, 7
citation
Sirén, Osvald. <em>Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles</em>. New York: Ronald Press, 1956.
page_number
Mentioned: VII, Lists, 337
citation
Lee, Sherman E. “Some Problems in Ming and Ch'ing Landscape Painting.” <em>Ars Orientalis</em>, vol. 2, 1957, pp. 471–485.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 480-82, pl. 13, fig. 17
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 876
citation
Goepper, Roger. <em>Im Schatten des Wu-Tʻung-Baumes </em>[桐陰畫訣 = Tong yin hua jue]. München: Hirmer, 1959.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 26
citation
Goepper, Roger. <em>1000 Jahre chinesische Malerei.</em> München: Haus der Kunst, 1959.
page_number
cat. no. 105
citation
Goepper, Roger.<em> Chinesische Malerei: die jüngere Tradition</em>. Bern: Hallwag, 1960.
page_number
p. 182, no. 105
citation
Lee, Sherman E. <em>Chinese Landscape Painting</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1962.
page_number
Reproduced: pp. 119-21, no. 95
citation
Lee, Sherman E. <em>A History of Far Eastern Art</em>. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 454, fig. 597
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 268
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 268
citation
Suzuki, Kei 鈴木敬. <em>Chūgoku bijutsu </em>[中國美術 = Chinese art in Western collections]. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, 1972.
page_number
Reproduced: II, pt. 2, 231, 232, pl. 40
citation
Rosenzweig, Daphne Lange. "A Landscape Handscroll by Hsiao Yün-ts'ung." <em>Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin </em>32, no. 1 (1974-75): pp. 34-56.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 47, fig. 17
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 356
citation
Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. <em>Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. no. 223, pp. 297-298
citation
Talbot, William S. “Visions of Landscape: East and West.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 70, no. 3 (March 1983): 112–135.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 116–117, fig. 6
citation
Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. <em>Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.
page_number
Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 351–359; fig. 1–3, pp. 354–355
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-06-17 11:19:43.851000
sourceId
131672
dept
Chinese Art
coll
ASIAN - Handscroll
med
Handscroll; ink and light color on paper
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
d307d066c30335fb