故宮書畫錄(卷八),第四冊,頁40&*故宮書畫圖錄,第十八冊,頁131-138&*沈周(西元一四二七-一五○九年),長洲(今江蘇蘇州)人。字啟南,號石田,又號白石翁。幼時便聰穎過人,不但能詩文,善書法,更精通繪畫,是明四大家之一。本作是弘治癸丑年(一四九三)沈周六十七歲時,臨摹夏圭「溪山清遠」的一件作品。畫中時而峰巒層疊,山峰突起,又時而河域開闊,江岸飄緲,景物變化豐富。不過因為這是一件臨摹的作品,所以在筆墨上缺少了一份揮灑淋漓的韻致。&*Clear Distance over Rivers and Mountains Shen Chou (1427-1509) Ming Dynasty Shen Chou, a native of Soochow, was talented even as a youth. He eventually became known as one of the Four Masters of the Ming due to his achievements in the arts of poetry, prose, calligraphy, and painting. This work was done in 1493 at the age of 66 and represents a copy after Clear Distance Over Streams and Mountains by Hsia Kuei of the Southern Sung. Shen Chou painted layers of peaks and ridges with a protruding mountain peak as well as riverbanks that expand outward with mist-shrouded riverbanks for variety and contrast. However, since this is a copy by Shen, his use of brush and ink here is somewhat lacking in terms of individuality and harmony. &* 沈周自題:「昔年曾於錢鶴攤太史宅賞玩夏圭馬遠二公長卷,觀其筆力蒼勁,丘壑深奇,天然大川長谷,今之世無二公筆也。適吳學士匏翁持卷過余竹莊,視之,正昔年所觀之筆。余靜坐時,想二卷中筆力丘壑,迄今二十年矣。余對此卷 倣合作一卷,可謂奇遇也」。王世貞藝苑卮言記沈周畫:「...傳中原李伯華至品之為第三,且目之為殭為枯。余因訪伯華,悉取沈畫觀之,然無一眞本也」。疑此畫或出於轉摹,然當質之巨眼。款弘治癸丑,沈周六十七歲。&*1493 Shen Chou Clear Distance over River and Mountains Shen Chou inscribed his handscroll in these words: “Once I visited the historian Ch’ien Hao-t’an (Ch’ien Fu), and he showed me two long handscrolls, one by Ma Yüan and one by Hsia Kuei. Seeing their strength and vigor of brush, the depth and mystery of their hills and valleys, and the naturalness of their great rivers and deep gorges, I realized that in all the world today no two brushes could match these. When the official P’ao-weng (Wu K’uan) came to Suchou, he brought some handscrolls to my Bamboo Cottage. When I saw them I realized that they were the same scrolls that I had seen years before. In the intervening twenty years I had often throught of the strength of brush and the beautiful mountains and valleys in the paintings. So I have seized this new opportunity and copied both paintings into a single handscroll. This really was an unusual stroke of luck’.” The scroll is unusually long, stretching to 1,760 cm. The brush is blunt and strong and captures some of the feeling of the Palace Museum’s famous handscroll by Hsia Kuei, “Clear Distance over Mountains and Valleys”. However, the sizing of the silk makes it unabsorbant, and the brushwork seems stiff and lacking in resonance. A later critic, Wang Shih-chen, said of Shen Chou’s paintings, “The collector Li Po-hua (Li K’ai-hsien, 1502-1568) placed Shen Chou in the third rank of painters because of the stiffness and dryness of his brush. However, I have seen every one of the Shen Chou paintings that were in Li’s collection, and not one is genuine.” It is possible that “Clear Distance over Rivers and Mountains” is a copy of a Shen Chou original, although this world be difficult to prove. It probably dates from 1493, when Shen Chou was 66 years old. &*1.江兆申,〈沈周江山清遠 卷〉,收入國立故宮博物院編,《吳派畫九十年展》(臺北:國立故宮博物院,1975年初版,1976年再版,1981年三版),頁299。