Xu Jingyang Moving His Family (1644): Art, History and Details

Xu Jingyang Moving His Family (1644) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Cui Zizhong (Chinese, 1574–1644).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Xu Jingyang was a dedicated fourth-century Confucian official who allegedly turned into a Daoist immortal. This scroll depicts the legend that when he attained immortality, he took his entire household, including chickens and dogs, to paradise. Cui Zizhong’s painting style intentionally referenced ancient masters. Typical of the pre-Song dynasty landscape tradition, there is the use of blue and green colors and an emphasis on outline rather than texture. While the trembling outlines are reminiscent of earlier painters, the flickering light on rocks and trees is a stylistic feature of Cui’s own time.

Object facts

• Title: Xu Jingyang Moving His Family
• Date: 1644
• Creator attribution: Cui Zizhong (Chinese, 1574–1644)
• Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 268.2 x 66 cm (105 9/16 x 26 in.); Painting only: 165.3 x 64 cm (65 1/16 x 25 3/16 in.); Overall with knobs: 268.2 x 74.1 cm (105 9/16 x 29 3/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1961.90

A detail from the museum

Xu Jingyang, wearing red, is in the upper register of figures, while below his servants transport a rooster, dog, and other supplies.

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ho, Wai-Kam. “Nan-Ch'en Pei-Ts'ui: Ch'en of the South and Ts'ui of the North.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 49, no. 1, 1962, pp. 2–11.
• Cahill, James. The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period. Berkeley: University Art Museum, 1971.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.