How great it could be were I the true author of it!!

In the recorded history of Chinese painting, the one who started the drawing of ink-plums [1] was a monk called Huaguang, more commonly known as Zhongren [1] (d. 1123), who lived during the Northern Song Dynasty. “When drawing plums earthlings apply coloured powder; this mountain monk mashes water inks instead” [2]. His hometown was in the present-day Zhejiang Province, yet he had for a prolonged period, lived in Huaguang Temple in Hengyang (Hunan). While admiring the beauty of plums through the air soaked in the lunar beam, he was inspired by “the sparse and flickering shadows of the twigs in the water” [3]. Thus began his drawing on mildly ink-misted papers, the plum blossoms as white patches. This successful depiction of the plums’ lonely beauty and cool dignity in the moonlit night was what made him famous.

Yang Buzhi’s (c. 1098 – 1167) [4] plums are different from Zhongren’s. The technique he used was, literally, “thin-lined flower circling”, or the “circled petal technique” [4] – each petal was completed in one single circular stroke. It was said that his drawings were imbued with “sharp and sturdy” calligraphy, which is what he drew his plums with. This could indeed be verified in his paintings from the “ringing sharpness and flying white [5]” of the twigs. Yang’s ink-flowers had once a chance encounter with Emperor Gaozong’s [6] eyes. The emperor himself loved the arts of painting, sort of; but on seeing it, he commented disapprovingly, and ridiculed it as “country plum” against the more exquisite and realistic “court plum”. Shown here is “Icy-tipped Plum Blossoms” [7] (Ceng-Die Bing-Xiao Tu), a piece by Ma Lin (c. 1185 – 1256) [8], son of Ma Yuan (c. 1155 – 1225) [8]. Although its composition and its artistic conception are also saturated with the literati’s spirit, its depiction of plums is still very much the typical style of court painting. Yang Buzhi did not feel shameful about his country aroma at all; on the contrary, he inscribed on his painting the four words “feng chi cun mei”, which meant “imperially endowed country plums”. This episode reflects the consciously manifest differences in aesthetics between the literati and the imperial court officials.

1 “The Dictionary of Art”, ed. Turner, J., vol. 6. New York: Grove’s Dictionaries (1996).
2 From Hua Zhen (Northern Song Dynasty), “Ti Zhongren Mojuan Meihua” in “Yunxi Jushi Ji”.
3 From Lin Bu (Northern Song Dynasty), “Shanyuan Xiaomei”.
4 “The Dictionary of Art”, ed. Turner, J., vol. 33. New York: Grove’s Dictionaries (1996).
5 Munsterberg, H., “Dictionary of Chinese and Japanese Art”. New York: Hacker Arts Books (1981).
6 Zhou Gou (1107 – 1187), was Southern Song Dynasty’s first emperor.
7 Website of “Beijing Zijin Cheng Tiandi Cultural Development Co., Ltd” (北京紫禁城天地文化發展有限公司) :
http://www.gugongworld.com.cn/songdai/cengdiebingxiao.html
8 “The Dictionary of Art”, ed. Turner, J., vol. 19. New York: Grove’s Dictionaries (1996).

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Doing translation is not funny at all when you have to quote references and add footnotes.