The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Calligraphy in Semi-Cursive Style (xing-caoshu)

c. 1660–1709

Yueshan Daozong

(Chinese, 1629–1709)
China, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Image: 28.6 x 64.1 cm (11 1/4 x 25 1/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 115.6 x 73.8 cm (45 1/2 x 29 1/16 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Gow 2003.353
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Ōbaku-style calligraphy favors rounded—rather than angular—brushstrokes. It is not a subtle style of calligraphy, as the Chan monks preferred a bold approach.

Description

This spontaneous, bold calligraphy style is characteristic of members of the Japanese Ōbaku school (Huangbo in Chinese) of Chan (Zen in Japanese) Buddhism, which was founded in Japan by Chinese monks in the 1600s. The monk Yueshan emigrated to Japan from the Chinese province of Fujian, taking a priestly post at Manpukuji, the headquarters of the Ōbaku school in Japan. He later became the seventh abbot of the distinguished temple.

Yueshan’s calligraphy features rounded characters that allow him to fuse strokes and characters in speedy brush movements. Here the text begins with the large character chu (初, “the beginning”), the initial focus of meditation on the text: The dragon murmurs after sunset. The tiger roars before dawn.
  • (Chinese Porcelain Factory, NY, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gow)
    ?–2003
    Robert [1940–2019] and Kay Gow [b. 1951], Naples, FL, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2003–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Chang, Willow Hai. Song of Life: Chinese Art from the Gow Family Collection. Naples, FL: Naples Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 24, p. 72.
    Yu, Jing 余靜. “Introduction of Huangbo Calligraphy and Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art
    Collection in the United States = 美國克利夫蘭藝術博物館所藏黃檗書畫譯介.” Research on Fujian Merchant Culture: Special Issue on Huangbo (Ōbaku) Studies 闽商文化研究 黄檗学 特刊（黄檗艺术号) 0105 (2023): 49–53. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 2, p. 51
  • Power and Possession: Chinese Calligraphy and Inscribed Objects – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 13, 2018-February 3, 2019).
    Recent Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 13–June 28, 2004).
  • {{cite web|title=Calligraphy in Semi-Cursive Style (xing-caoshu)|url=false|author=Yueshan Daozong|year=c. 1660–1709|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.353