The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Bamboo in the Wind

1300s

Puming (Xuechuang)

(Chinese, active before 1274-after 1329)
China, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368)
Hanging scroll; ink on silk
Painting: 77.6 x 45.7 cm (30 9/16 x 18 in.); Overall with knobs: 209.5 x 75.5 cm (82 1/2 x 29 3/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1953.246
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Bamboo, pine, and plum, often referred to as the "three friends of winter," are popular motifs in Chinese literati art.

Description

Bamboo is an evergreen plant that does not break under the weight of snow or the force of the wind, and thus became a favorite motif in literati painting and Chan Buddhism as a metaphor for the virtue of not yielding to worldly temptations.

Xuechuang, also known as monk Puming, was a native of Songjiang, near Shanghai, who spent his life as a monk in Suzhou. In 1338, he presided over Yunyan temple on Tiger Hill. Here, he masterfully depicts a bamboo gently bent in a subtle breeze. Puming’s paintings were revered in Japan and Korea.
  • Marquis Asano Nagakoto 侯爵 淺野長勳 [1842–1937], Hiroshima, Japan
    ?–1953
    (Howard Hollis & Company, Cleveland, OH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1953–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Harada, Yoshito 原田淑人 and Kazuchika Komai 駒井和愛. Shina koki zukō 支那古器圖攷. Tōkyō: Tōhō Bunka Gakuin Tōkyō Kenkyūjo, Shōwa 7 [1932]. Reproduced: pl. 397
    Dubosc, Jean-Pierre. Mostra D'arte Cinese = Exhibition of Chinese Art. Venezia: Alfieri Editore, 1954. cat. no. 788
    Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. Mentioned: volume VII, Lists 129
    Lee, Sherman E. "A Bamboo in the Wind by P'u Ming." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43, no. 2 (February 1956): pp. 22-24. Reproduced: p. 18
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 856 archive.org
    Lee, Sherman E. Tea Taste in Japanese Art. New York: Asia Society, dist. by H. Abrams, 1963. Reproduced: cat. no. 6; Mentioned: cat. no. 6, p. 95
    Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968. cat. no. 244
    Lee, Sherman E. “Zen in Art: Art in Zen.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 59, no. 9, 1972, pp. 239–259. Reproduced: p. 247, fig. 7 25152451
    Lee, Sherman Emery, and James Robinson. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974. cat. no. 16
    Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman, and Marc F. Wilson. Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting: The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1980. Reproduced: cat. no. 85, p. 106
    Jungmann, Burglind. "Sin Sukju's Record on the Painting Collection of Prince Anpyeong and Early Joseon Antiquarianism." Archives of Asian Art, 61 (2011), pp. 107-126. Reproduced: p. 111, fig 4 www.jstor.org
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 127-129
    Chou, Ju-hsi and Anita Chung. Silent poetry: Chinese paintings from the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015. Reproduced: pp. 127-29
    Itakura, Masaaki. “Jiangnan’s Beauty: Song and Yuan Paintings Prized in Medieval and Early Modern Japan.” In China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta, edited by Clarissa Von Spee, 64–71. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 70, fig. 38, no. 168
    Griswold, William, Xiaofei Tian, Richard Von Glahn, Feng Zhao, S. J. Vainker, Masaaki Itakura, Jiang Wu, et al. China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. Edited by Clarissa Von Spee. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 330, no. 168
  • China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024).
    The Spirit of Hiroshima's Asano Clan - Resurrecting Daimyo Culture. Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, Hiroshima-city, Japan (organizer) (September 10-October 20, 2019).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 119). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 16-October 28, 2003).
    Asian Autumn: Masterpieces from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17, 1991-January 5, 1992).
    Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (November 7, 1980-January 4, 1981); The Cleveland Museum of Art (February 11-March 29, 1981); Tokyo National Museum (October 4-November 17, 1982).
    The Colors of Ink. Asia House Galleries (January 10-March 3, 1974); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 9-May 12, 1974).
    Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 24, 1968) and Asia House, New York (January 16-March 2, 1969).
    Tea Taste in Japanese Art. The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (February 20-April 21, 1963).
    Asia and the West. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (October 28-December 1, 1957).
    Mostra d'arte cinese = Exhibition of Chinese art. Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy (1954).
  • {{cite web|title=Bamboo in the Wind|url=false|author=Puming (Xuechuang)|year=1300s|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1953.246