CHANG CHAK TEON

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF A CHINESE SCROLL OF THE SUNG DYNASTY

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fA brief description of a Chinese scroll of the Sung Dynasty, which extended from the year 990 A. D. to the year 1127 A. D.

It is the masterwork of Chang Chak Teon, one of the most illustrious artists

of the Sung Dynasty.

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Chang Chak Teon has painted his masterpiece on silk,

the scroll being twenty-one feet in length, and one foot in width.

Ching Ming, the Spring festival, is the subject chosen by the Artist. Following the banks of a river, he shows

the Chinese people of every class, approaching the Capital City in a pilgrimage.

With the most painstaking care, he displays his intimate knowledge of the various classes of Chinese life. Whether it is a Mandarin visiting the city, in a sedan chair, and with a retinue of servants, or a pedlar traveling on foot, no detail is spared to mar the extraordinary truth of the picture. Even the little shops which cluster

around the walls of every Chinese city, are so true to life

that they cannot fail to be of intense interest even to the

casual observer. It is a practical political geography of

China at the time of the Sungs. The coloring is remark- ably preserved, as, indeed, the entire material of the scroll ; and it shows at their best, the beautiful Copper green and

the lacquer red which are so typical of the Sung Artists.

The final words are by Sum Chow, a writer and artist, whose name is linked with the last days of the Mings.

He speaks of a visit to a Monastery in Peking, and of his great pleasure in studying this scroll with a Con-

noisseur named Lee.

In closing, he pays a glowing tribute to its beauty. “For,” he says, “were I to travel the whole world over and gather all the gold in creation, I should never be able

to purchase, nay, to find another such.”

1120 a. p.

_. Professor Hirth, of ‘Columbia University, has ex-

pressed his opinion that this scroll was painted in the year

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