Emaciated Horse

This painting and its many inscriptions record a multilayered conversation among a group of like-minded scholars buffeted by the turbulent history of China in the early 20th century. The painter, Pǔjīn, was a member of the Manchu imperial family and witness to the fall of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) founded by his ancestors. When the Japanese empire set up the puppet state of Manchukuo (1932–45) with the last emperor of the Qing, Pǔyí (1905–1967), as a figurehead, it caused a predicament among aristocrats, loyalists, and former officials of the Qing empire. Varied attitudes are reflected in the ten inscriptions, all responses to Pǔjīn’s painting of an emaciated horse, and all rooted in a long artistic and literary history of the horse as a symbol.

In fact, Pǔjīn’s horse is a copy of a much earlier work, Emaciated Horse, by the scholar-painter Gōng Kāi 龚开 (1222–1307). Like Pǔjīn, Gōng witnessed the fall of an empire, in his case the Song dynasty (960–1279) to the Mongols. His horse was seen as reflecting his own fate as an yímín 遺民 (leftover subject), and as a poignant representation of dynastic ruin. For the ten poets who inscribed Pǔjīn’s painting the symbolism of Gōng’s horse held special meaning: as the former subjects of the Qing dynasty, they, too, were yímín.