The Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a Raft

The Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a Raft

Maejima Sōyū

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bearded Chinese gentleman engaged in a most unlikely endeavor—white-water rafting—is Zhang Qian (Japanese: Chōken), a legendary explorer of the second century B.C. Zhang was immortalized in a Yuan-dynasty poem that tells of his riding a log raft to the source of the Yellow River, only to find himself floating in the Milky Way. This painting is one of the works most reliably attributed to Maejima Sōyū, a painter active in the Kantō region of eastern Japan.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a RaftThe Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a RaftThe Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a RaftThe Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a RaftThe Chinese Explorer Zhang Qian on a Raft

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.