Bo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi Listens

Bo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi Listens

Kano Motonobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Liezi, a fourth-century Daoist text, records the story of Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi, scholars renowned for their devotion to each other. Bo Ya, an accomplished player of the qin, a type of zither, would frequently play for his friend Zhong, himself a musician who truly appreciated his friend’s music. When Zhong died, however, the bereaved Bo Ya deliberately broke his instrument, never to play again. Likely once part of a set of sliding-door panels (fusuma), this painting depicts Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi taking shelter from a storm beneath a cliff, where Bo Ya plays his qin to pass the time. The work bears no seal or signature but exemplifies the formal landscape style of the early Kano school and was traditionally attributed to the school’s founder, Motonobu. Discrepancies with Motonobu’s accepted style, however, suggest that the artist was active in Motonobu’s circle, probably during the 1530s.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi ListensBo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi ListensBo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi ListensBo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi ListensBo Ya Plays the Qin as Zhong Ziqi Listens

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.