Wei Zhihuang. “The Song of Tiehua”,
The Song of Tiehua by Wei Zhihuang 魏之璜 (1568-1645).
translated by Dr. Qin Fang, Olivia Uliston
June 2021
Wei Zhihuang[1] was native to Nanjing, a city about 30 miles north of Wuhu, the hometown of tiehua (iron painting). As a leading painter of the Nanjing School in Late Ming, Wei put forth his best efforts to integrate popular art and crafts such as paper cutting, lantern painting, and beauty painting into his landscape painting. Though he did not get a formal education and did not pass the civil service exam, Wei was able to teach himself poetry and painting. His fan painting and lantern painting was very popular in the art market. Wei and his peer painters were criticized for catering to the popular market and incorporating elements of crafts in landscape painting. In the poem, Wei depicts the subject matter and style of one piece of tiehua he owned and evaluates it with the standard of six elements of traditional Chinese painting. For example, is brushstroke forceful? Is the composition delicate? Has any empty space had been created? Is the image vivid?
Wuhu painters apply hammers as brushes,
A stove is used as an ink-stone; iron is the ink.
A landscape screen; Empty space is used to create coldness.
Cold clouds feature the color of Mount Kuochang[2]
Arteries of creek and veins of stone [are depicted]; they look masculine yet delicate,
Fine grasses and lonely hills are [depicted] pure and slender.
The sound of west wind is whipping,
The orchard leaves are as sharp as knives; bamboo leaves are as piercing as scissors.
铁画歌
魏之璜 (1568-1645)
芜湖画史锤当笔，以炉为砚铁为墨。
屏山一张白书寒，寒云尽带括苍色。
溪毛石骨劲而秀，细草孤峦亦清瘦。
西风萧萧不可卷，兰叶如刀竹如剪。
[1] Lin Shuzhong. Qingchu Jinling Huapai Nianbiao (Jinling Painting School in Early Qing). Renmin Meisu Chubanshe, 2008.
[2] Mount Kuachang is located to the coastal line of Yongjia. The color of the mountain is similar to that of the blue sea.
“Wei Zhihuang’s Painting” in Landscape in the Styles of Early Masters.
Painter: Wei Zhihuang, Calligrapher: Colophon by Gong Xian, early to mid-17th century.
National Museum of Art (Smithsonian,Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, USA)
The Spring, produced by Tang Chuangsong in 2012.
Please look at rocks and stream constructed by lines in both ink painting and iron painting, how are shades, layers, and contrasts created in two types of paintings?
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