- Provenance
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To 1998
Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (born 1929), New York City, to 1998From 1998
Freer Gallery of Art, given by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth in 1998 [1]Notes:
[1] All Chinese calligraphy in the gift were published in Mr. Ellsworth's Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800-1950, vol. 3 (New York: Random House, 1986) (according to Curatorial Note 1, Joseph Chang, May 19, 1998, in the object record).
- Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)
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Robert Hatfield Ellsworth 1929-2014
- Label
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The Pavilion of Borrowed Bamboo, Xu Ming's residence was very small, so over near his neighbor's bamboo garden he built a little framework pavilion, which received the cool shade through its window, and he stayed there during summer months to escape the heat. He therefore wrote a sign for it, which read: Borrowed Bamboo.
Translation by Stephen D. Allee
Wu Xiqi used a typical scholarly style of running script to write the text of this short anecdote about Xu Ming, a poor, obscure scholar, who cleverly found a way to use his neighbor's bamboo for his own enjoyment and relief. Xu Ming remains unidentified and may have been a contemporary of the calligrapher; however, several other poor scholars during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties also "borrowed" bamboo from their neighbors and named their constructions "The Pavilion of Borrowed Bamboo."
Wu Xiqi was a prominent poet and prose stylist during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. After receiving his advanced degree (jinshi) in 1775, he served in the imperial Hanlin Academy, briefly became a tutor to younger members of the imperial family, and eventually rose to the position of Chancellor of the National University in 1801.
- Published References
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- Robert Hatfield Ellsworth. Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800-1950., 1st ed. New York. vol. 3.
- Thomas Lawton, Thomas W. Lentz. Beyond the Legacy: Anniversary Acquisitions for the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. vol. 1 Washington, 1998. pp. 256-261.
- Collection Area(s)
- Chinese Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
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