Water Buffalo and Herdboys China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)

Water Buffalo and Herdboys

牧牛圖

late 1200s–early 1300s

China, Yuan dynasty

(1271-1368)

Hanging scroll; ink on silk

Painting: 23.7 x 50.5 cm (9 5/16 x 19 7/8 in.); Overall with knobs: 109 x 67.6 cm (42 15/16 x 26 5/8 in.)

Gift of Herbert F. Leisy in memory of his wife, Helen Stamp Leisy 1977.200

Location: not on view

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Description

In southern China, farmers use water buffalos to help plow their fields, which children often tend. In Buddhist teachings, the subject of herding or taming an ox was used to illustrate the 10 steps to enlightenment, or spiritual awakening. A single image may be read as a metaphorical representation of the Chan process of attaining enlightenment, the difficulty of which was likened to that of finding a strayed buffalo. Here, a buffalo is watered by a boy, another takes a bath in the pond. Chan paintings introduced to Japan were often remounted to fit them into niches for display (tokonoma), which explains the painting’s current format.