Crossing the River on a Reed
Artist
Au Ho-nien
(Chinese, 1935 - 2024)
Date1989
MaterialsInk and colors on paper
DimensionsH. 38 9/16 in x W. 24 7/16 in, H. 98 cm x W. 62 cm (image); H. 72 7/16 in x W. 31 1/8 in, H. 184 cm x W. 79 cm (overall)
Credit LineGift of the Au Ho-nien Cultural Foundation
Object number2019.74
DepartmentChinese Art
ClassificationsPainting
On View
Not on viewSigned鈐印
豪年(朱文)，歐介印(白文)，無往不復(朱文)
InscribedIs this Bodhidharma or not? One must still ask Bodhidharma.
The bright moonlight glows on his fingertips; endless Ganges Rivers
are scanned through his eyes.
Thousands of calamities conquered; even a single disaster is
now unbearable.
After millions of incarnations, his shadow obliterates the universe.
—Painted by Ho-nien after ablution in late spring of 1989.
款識
此是達摩否？還須問達摩。
指端留皓月，眼底幾恒河。
萬劫已雲妄，一絲尚屬多。
化身千百億，光影滿婆娑。
己巳春暮，豪年沐手繪。
More InformationBodhidharma, or Damo in Chinese, is the twenty-eighth Indian and first Chinese patriarch of Buddhism. Au Ho-nien captures him here with a sense of humor. Fully wrapped in a white cape, Damo stares resolutely forward and stands with unusually large, bare feet upon a reed, as if crossing the river. His exaggerated, cartoonish character is presented in uneven, solid, or broken lines, dark over light, full of rhythmic movement.
In the year 520 CE Damo traveled by sea, risking his life on towering waves, from southern India to Guangdong province in southern China. Settling in Henan, central China, he established the Chan (Zen) school of Buddhism. Damo’s image as a foreign monk-adventurer has been especially attractive to artists from Guangdong.
