Eighteen Views of Huzhou

By the 1500s, visits to historic and scenic sites in the lower Yangzi delta stimulated an increase of printed illustrated travel books. Topographical depictions of local scenery flourished.

Leaves from this album illustrates sites around Lake Tai of the two adjacent counties Changxing and Wuxing (modern Huzhou). Song Xu, who lived intermittently in Jiaxing and Songjiang, must have passed through Wuxing by boat and thus knew the region.

The paintings are inscribed with gazetteerlike notations, suggesting that the album was produced for clients as commemorative works, a travel guide, or for “armchair travel” (woyou) in one’s mind.

A square ink and color painting on silk is encased in a dark brown wooden frame. The surface features a dense, rhythmic pattern of small tan blossoms nested within concentric green hexagons. Overlapping the design in the upper right is a rectangular cream label punctuated by fine brown speckles. The muted palette and geometric repetition create a uniform, textured appearance across the canvas, where the intricate grid repeats in a steady sequence.

Eighteen Views of Huzhou

c. 1588

Song Xu

(Chinese, 1525-c. 1606)

China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Wanli reign (1573–1620)

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