This fifty-foot composition reveals a \u201cslit-view\u201d perspective of bamboo growing along a stream. In single brushstrokes of varied tonality, leaves and stalks are depicted close up, cut off at top and bottom. Xia Chang executed this painting with great breadth and boldness as a gift for a friend who had planted a bamboo grove around his retirement villa.<\/p>\n
As it bends without breaking, bamboo evoked human values of resiliency and endurance for intellectual painters of premodern China. Xia\u2019s dedicatory inscription on this scroll, describing the bamboo garden as \u201cwashing away ordinary thought,\u201d expresses their desire for retreat from the trials of official life. He had served the government in roles of calligrapher, draftsman, and administrative secretary before retiring for a decade in 1439, initially to care for his aged mother. This painting exhibits his style of angular rocks, ink-washed shoreline, and fluent brushwork that matured during that period.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"41.3 \u00d7 1500 cm (16 1\/4 \u00d7 600 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":1500,"height":41,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Handscroll; ink on paper","inscriptions":"Inscribed by the artist:\n\u6d77\u865e\u5468\u541b\u5b63\u5b8f\u7bc9\u5ba4\u897f\u7587\uff0c\u8129\u7af9\u842c\u7aff\u74b0\u7e5e\u6eaa\u4e0a\u3002\u4e88\u5617\u9020\u7109\uff0c\u611b\u5176\u6cc9\u77f3\u6e05\u5e7d\uff0c\u7af9\u8272\u84bc\u6f64\uff0c\u8db3\u4ee5\u6d17\u6ecc\u5875\u616e\u3002\u4e00\u65e5\u5b63\u5b8f\u547d\u4e2d\u5b50\u5ef7\u6085\u6301\u7d20\u5377\u4f86\u6c42\u58a8\u541b\u3002\u4e88\u65b9\u7d0d\u6dbc\u677e\u4ead\uff0c\u56e0\u60f3\u5176\u52dd\uff0c\u70ba\u5beb\u7af9\u6cc9\u6625\u96e8\u5716\u4ee5\u5fa9\u4e4b\u3002\u96d6\u4e0d\u80fd\u9020\u53e4\u4eba\u95ab\u5967\uff0c\u6291\u4ea6\u4eff\u4f5b\u4e4e\u897f\u7587\u4e4b\u52dd\u6982\u4e5f\u8036\u3002\u5b63\u5b8f\u535a\u96c5\u541b\u5b50\uff0c\u898b\u4e4b\u8c48\u7121\u5f7c\u6b64\u76f8\u611f\u4e4b\u610f\u7109\uff01\u6642\u6b63\u7d71\u8f9b\u9149\u590f\u516d\u6708\u521d\u5409\uff0c\u6771\u5433\u590f\u6636\u4ef2\u662d\u8b58\u3002\n\nZhou Jihong of Haiwu built a house at Xichou, where ten thousand long bamboo trees surround the stream. I love the quiet and beautiful scenery of stream and rocks, and the green and moist color of bamboo is enough to clean away worldly worries. One day Jihong had his second son, Tingyue, bring me a roll of blank paper and ask for a painting of bamboo. At that time, I was enjoying the coolness at the Pine Pavilion; therefore, I thought about the scenery and painted the Bamboo-Bordered Stream in Spring Rain. Although my painting cannot match the old masters\u2019 essence of learning, it resembles the scenery of Xichou. I wonder if Jihong, who is a scholar of profound knowledge, has the same feeling when he looks at this painting. On the first day of the sixth month, in the xinyou year of the Zhentong reign [1441], Xia Chang Zhongshao of Dongwu.","credit_line":"Kate S. Buckingham Endowment Fund","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Charles F. Kelley, \"The Bamboo Stream Spring Rain Picture,\" Bulletin of Art Institute of Chicago, 45, 2 (April-May 1951), pp. 26-28. \n\nOsvald Siren, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles (Ronald Press, 1956-58), 4, p. 122, pl. 134. \n\nSherman E. Lee, Chinese Landscape Painting, 2nd ed, rev. (Harper & Row, 1962), pp. 57-58, pp. 58-59 (ill), as Bamboo Bordered Stream in the Spring Rain.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago 1964 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-25438, p. (13)\n\nKei Suzuki, comp., Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings [Chugoku kaiga sogo zuroku], American and Canadian Collections, (University of Tokyo Press, 1982), 1, pls. A3-019.\n\nKathlyn Liscomb, \u201cWang Fu\u2019s Contribution to the Formation of a New Painting Style in the Ming Dynasty,\u201d Artibus Asiae \n47, 1\/2 (1987), p. 69. fig.14.\n\nElinor L. Pearlstein and James T. Ulak, Asian Art in the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago\/ Harry N. Abrams,1993), p. 75, 149, p. 2,3 ( frontispiece, ill. detail)","exhibition_history":"The Art Institute of Chicago : Ming (1368-1644) Ching (1644-1921) dynasties Exhibition 1964","provenance_text":"Qing Imperial Collection. Tan Jing (1911\u20131991), Shanghai. Ching Tsai Loo (C.T. Loo, 1880\u20121957), Paris and New York; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, Jan. 25, 1950.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":8,"fiscal_year":1950,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":18.7988,"color":{"h":39,"l":52,"s":17,"percentage":0.3369081915091066,"population":835},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of Asia","department_id":"PC-7","artist_id":12117,"artist_title":"Xia Chang","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[12117],"artist_titles":["Xia Chang"],"category_ids":["PC-7"],"category_titles":["Arts of Asia"],"term_titles":["paper (fiber product)","handscroll","landscapes","Chinese (culture or style)","ink","painting","asian art"],"style_id":"TM-4303","style_title":"Chinese (culture or style)","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-4303"],"style_titles":["Chinese (culture or style)"],"classification_id":"TM-468","classification_title":"handscroll","alt_classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-26"],"classification_ids":["TM-468","TM-9","TM-26"],"classification_titles":["handscroll","painting","asian art"],"subject_id":"TM-8657","alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":["TM-8657"],"subject_titles":["landscapes"],"material_id":"TM-2982","alt_material_ids":["TM-2398"],"material_ids":["TM-2982","TM-2398"],"material_titles":["paper (fiber product)","ink"],"technique_id":null,"alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":[],"technique_titles":[],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"0bdf821c-9259-c0a0-268c-9ba8e42a2a2b","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1950.2"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Bamboo-Covered Stream in Spring Rain"],"weight":2710,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-04-21T11:15:00-05:00","updated_at":"2026-04-21T14:25:20-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:49:47-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}