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Bamboo-Covered Stream in Spring Rain
by Xia Chang
Inscriptions
Inscribed by the artist: 海虞周君季宏築室西疇，脩竹萬竿環繞溪上。予嘗造焉，愛其泉石清幽，竹色蒼潤，足以洗滌塵慮。一日季宏命中子廷悅持素卷來求墨君。予方納涼松亭，因想其勝，為寫竹泉春雨圖以復之。雖不能造古人閫奧，抑亦仿佛乎西疇之勝概也耶。季宏博雅君子，見之豈無彼此相感之意焉！時正統辛酉夏六月初吉，東吳夏昶仲昭識。 Zhou Jihong of Haiwu built a house at Xichou, where ten thousand long bamboo trees surround the stream. I love the quiet and beautiful scenery of stream and rocks, and the green and moist color of bamboo is enough to clean away worldly worries. One day Jihong had his second son, Tingyue, bring me a roll of blank paper and ask for a painting of bamboo. At that time, I was enjoying the coolness at the Pine Pavilion; therefore, I thought about the scenery and painted the Bamboo-Bordered Stream in Spring Rain. Although my painting cannot match the old masters’ essence of learning, it resembles the scenery of Xichou. I wonder if Jihong, who is a scholar of profound knowledge, has the same feeling when he looks at this painting. On the first day of the sixth month, in the xinyou year of the Zhentong reign [1441], Xia Chang Zhongshao of Dongwu.
Exhibition history
The Art Institute of Chicago : Ming (1368-1644) Ching (1644-1921) dynasties Exhibition 1964
Publications
Charles F. Kelley, "The Bamboo Stream Spring Rain Picture," Bulletin of Art Institute of Chicago, 45, 2 (April-May 1951), pp. 26-28. Osvald Siren, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles (Ronald Press, 1956-58), 4, p. 122, pl. 134. Sherman E. Lee, Chinese Landscape Painting, 2nd ed, rev. (Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 57-58, pp. 58-59 (ill), as Bamboo Bordered Stream in the Spring Rain. The Art Institute of Chicago 1964 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-25438, p. (13) Kei Suzuki, comp., Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings [Chugoku kaiga sogo zuroku], American and Canadian Collections, (University of Tokyo Press, 1982), 1, pls. A3-019. Kathlyn Liscomb, “Wang Fu’s Contribution to the Formation of a New Painting Style in the Ming Dynasty,” Artibus Asiae 47, 1/2 (1987), p. 69. fig.14. Elinor L. Pearlstein and James T. Ulak, Asian Art in the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/ Harry N. Abrams,1993), p. 75, 149, p. 2,3 ( frontispiece, ill. detail)
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Xia Chang (Chinese, 1388-1470)
- Date
- Ming dynasty (1368–1644), dated 1441
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 41.3 × 1500 cm (16 1/4 × 600 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- handscroll
- Style
- Chinese (culture or style)
- Place
- China
- Department
- Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund
- Accession no.
- 1950.2
Provenance
Qing Imperial Collection. Tan Jing (1911–1991), Shanghai. Ching Tsai Loo (C.T. Loo, 1880‒1957), Paris and New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, Jan. 25, 1950.
More by Xia Chang in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00001180
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