秘殿珠林續編(乾清宮),頁320&*故宮書畫錄(卷八),第四冊,頁101&*故宮書畫圖錄,第十一冊,頁171-172&* 周禧,活動於康熙年間(西元十七世紀),江蘇江陰人。本名周淑禧,自號江上女史。與其姊同工花鳥,兼寫佛像,年八十餘猶點染不倦。 清初康熙九年(西元一六七0年),浙江錢唐地區的居士吳麟,請江陰女子周禧畫了阿羅漢十尊,施給萬明寺供養,「祈保子嗣繁衍,諸事吉祥如意」。本幅即為其中之一,畫羅漢林中坐禪觀心,如入忘我之境。林樹虯盤節屈之姿,羅漢與清信士坐跪之態,頗具奇古清趣。樹環如龕,佈局自成一格,敷色亦雖豔而脫俗。 &* Chou Hsi (or Chou Shu-hsi) was a native of Chiang-yin, Kiangsu province. Her sobriquet was Chiang-shang nü-shih. She and her elder sister were skilled in painting birds and flowers as well as Buddhist images. She still continued painting even in her eighties. In 1670, Wu Lin, a scholar from the Hangchou area in Chekiang province commissioned Chou Hsi to paint a cycle of ten lohans as an offering to the Wan-ming monastery to accompany the prayer, “I pray that my sons and descendants may proliferate and that everything will be auspicious and wishes fulfilled.” In the center of the composition amidst the trees sits a Buddhist lohan in meditation as though he has completely forgotten his “self.” The trees are entangled with twisted knots. The attitudes of the seated lohan and kneeling lay devotee seem archaic and strange. The trees surround them, as though forming a niche for an idol. The composition is unified, and the colors are beautiful but not at all vulgar.