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Ming Dynasty Zhou Chen "Rogue Picture"

Now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Dimensions: 31.9 x 244.5 cm

According to Yang Xin's "Zhou Chen's "Beggar Picture", "Beggar Picture" was originally an album, depicting 24 beggars, which were collected in the Cleveland Museum and the Honolulu Museum of Art in the United States. The one in the Cleveland Museum of Art was converted into a scroll with 12 characters. The "rogue" in the title at the beginning of the scroll refers to the unemployed vagrants, and it mainly depicts the beggars and vagrants in the city at that time.

At that time, the emperor was Emperor Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, named Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Houzhao was extremely licentious and indulged in sensual pleasures. Zhu Houzhao successively appointed Liu Jin, Qian Ning, Jiang Bin and other favorites, and handed over important government affairs to Bin Ning and others. He called himself a mighty general, causing the government to be neglected and was called "the most absurd emperor".

Zhu Houzhao's self-criticism edict stated that "the people were poor and thieves were rampant. The troops were mobilized far and wide. The transportation of fodder and grain involved women, who were exhausted and starving." "The hard work may not have been fully rewarded, and the righteousness may not have been fully praised." It can be seen that he was aware of his own mistakes. Although he killed Liu Jin during his tenure, he allowed many years of laissez-faire, frequent rebellions, and the poverty of the refugees. Zhou Chen's "Rogue Picture" can be said to be a portrayal of this.

Zhou Chen (birth and death years unknown), courtesy name Shunqing, pseudonym Dongcun, was a native of Wuxian (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), active from the late 15th century to the early 16th century. He was good at painting landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, and his painting style was mainly based on the court painting style of Li Tang, Ma Yuan and others in the Southern Song Dynasty, and was influenced by literati painting to a certain extent, with profound skills. Zhou Chen was an innovative professional painter. In order to adapt to people's appreciation, on the one hand, he broke through the limitations of professional painters and created a large number of works with literati life as the theme, and on the other hand, he tried to learn the brushwork and interest of literati painting in terms of technique, so that his works have a meticulous, vigorous, clear and beautiful style, which is unique in the painting world. Tang Yin and Qiu Ying were his disciples.