Kang Hǔi-an’s (1419-1464) Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water, now in the National Museum of Korea, is considered the earliest extant painting in the manner of the Zhe school. It is also a fine example showing the difficulty of defining the origins of the Korean Zhe school. Kang Hǔi-an is one of the pioneers of the Korean Zhe school introducing a new landscape style to the Korean art world when An Kyǒn’s Li-Guo-inspired landscape manner was predominant. He was a literati painter, active during the reign of King Sejong, who excelled in painting, calligraphy, and poetry. This painting depicts a scholar-recluse crouched upon a rock and watching water for contemplation, set against a large cliff. The water reeds at the bottom of the painting and the bushes trailing from the cliff in the background add a lyrical dimension to the landscape. In composition, Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water is extremely close to Zhang Lu’s Fisherman Under a Cliff, in the Go¯koku-ji, Japan, in terms of the placement of a figure under an overhanging large cliff with bushes looming out. Although the broad and sweeping brushwork, the marked contrasts between light and dark for the definition of sharp-edged rock surfaces, the immediate sense of time and space, and the tightly focused composition found in Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water are characteristic of Zhang Lu’s pictorial manner, the painting predates the Chinese master’s work. In other words, that Zhang Lu was born after Kang Huˇi-an makes it difficult to date the painting. It must be noted, however, that the bold and The Authorship and Date of Kang Huˇ i-an’s Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water Revisited broad brushwork, the deep ink tonalities, the theme of a lone scholar finding spiritual retreat in nature, and the juxtaposition of strong verticals at one side (the cliff) and horizontals on the other (water) in composition show the strong influence of the Southern Song Academy styles exemplified by such masters as Ma Yuan as well as the main interpreters of their style in the Zhe school. The introspective mood and lyrical atmosphere, the presence of a scholar, leaning on a boulder by a stream under a sheer cliff with branches and foliage by a stream, gazing at the water to seek enlightenment through meditation, and the enclosed and intimate one-corner composition strongly recall the stylistic hallmarks of Ma Yuan and his followers. It is possible that the composition of Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water was derived from that of paintings such as Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (undated), formerly attributed to Muqi. The pose of the scholar-recluse lying upon a rock and meditating on water closely resembles that of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Chinese: Guanyin) leaning against a rock below a cliff with a waterfall, supporting his head on his hand. This is what has been talked of the stylistic origins of Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water. What is of great interest to me is that the vine-hung branches of a tree growing from the cliff is, as mentioned earlier, one of the recurring motifs found in Zhang Lu’s paintings. The spontaneous, swift-running, and slapdash brushwork is certainly close to Zhang Lu’s. Another interesting stylistic feature of Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water is the treatment of reeds and small rocks. The motif of the combination of finely drawn reeds and thickly contoured and richly ink-washed rocks is only found in Jiang Song’s paintings such as Reading on an Autumn River in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and Boating in Autumn or Landscape with Fishing Boat in a private collection, Kyoto, Japan. Jiang Song was born and lived in the city of Nanjing. He loved to paint with a sooty, deep black ink that his contemporaries called“burnt”or“roasted” ink, and he applied his ink wash with infinite nuance and subtlety. His paintings show his interest in existential images of rivers and human lives. With the wet, bold, and inventive use of ink wash, Jiang achieve a beauti- 150 fully lyrical quality. The poetic, serene mood and the use of burnt or roasted ink in Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water are all characteristic of Jiang Song’s stylistic hallmarks. In this respect, Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water has to be dated to sometime between 1530 and 1550, given that Jiang Song was active in Nanjing sometime around or shortly after 1500. And thus Lofty Scholar Contemplating Water is the most representative painting highlighting the introduction of Jiang’s style in mid-sixteenthcentury Korea.