The Orchid Pavilion

Copying the compositions of previous master painters, or producing new paintings in their style, is an important part of traditional Chinese art education. It’s both a way to train young artists and to ensure the transmission of culture. An unknown Ming or Qing Dynasty artist painted this ink landscape scroll in the style of Zhao Mengfu. The scroll depicts the Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, a legendary ancient literary gathering in which famed calligrapher Wang Xizhi convened illustrious poets for a night of drinking and poetic competition. Zhao Mengu had himself assiduously copied a famous preface to a collection of poems from the Orchid Pavilion Gathering. The fact that a successor then copied Zhao Mengfu demonstrates the enduring importance of the Orchid Pavilion Gathering in Chinese painterly and literary history.