Anecdote: The Pavilion of Borrowed Bamboo

Object Details

• Calligrapher

  Wu Xiqi (1746-1818)

• Label

  The Pavilion of Borrowed Bamboo, Xu Ming's residence was very small, so over near his neighbor's bamboo garden he built a little framework pavilion, which received the cool shade through its window, and he stayed there during summer months to escape the heat. He therefore wrote a sign for it, which read: Borrowed Bamboo.

  Translation by Stephen D. Allee

  Wu Xiqi used a typical scholarly style of running script to write the text of this short anecdote about Xu Ming, a poor, obscure scholar, who cleverly found a way to use his neighbor's bamboo for his own enjoyment and relief. Xu Ming remains unidentified and may have been a contemporary of the calligrapher; however, several other poor scholars during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties also "borrowed" bamboo from their neighbors and named their constructions "The Pavilion of Borrowed Bamboo."

  Wu Xiqi was a prominent poet and prose stylist during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. After receiving his advanced degree (jinshi) in 1775, he served in the imperial Hanlin Academy, briefly became a tutor to younger members of the imperial family, and eventually rose to the position of Chancellor of the National University in 1801.

• Provenance

  To 1998

  Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (born 1929), New York City, to 1998

  From 1998

  Freer Gallery of Art, given by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth in 1998 [1]

  Notes:

  [1]

  All Chinese calligraphy in the gift were published in Mr. Ellsworth's Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800-1950, vol. 3 (New York: Random House, 1986) (according to Curatorial Note 1, Joseph Chang, May 19, 1998, in the object record).

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Three Friends of Winter: Pine, Bamboo, and Plum in Chinese Painting (August 12, 2001 to February 3, 2002)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (1929-2014)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Freer Gallery of Art

• Type

  Calligraphy

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1840s, 1760s

• Name

  Ellsworth, Robert Hatfield

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Art, Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Robert Hatfield Ellsworth collection

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Calligraphy (visual works)