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Current Exhibition

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Permanent Exhibition

The Art of Staying Cool: Summer Imagery in Chinese Painting and Calligraphy

★Further information

Exhibition Overview

“Xiaoxia,” or “whiling away the heat,” refers to the art of enduring summer with grace and ingenuity. Before air-conditioning and iced drinks, how did people cope with—and even enjoy—the hottest months?

For farmers, summer meant labor in the fields and the harvest of water chestnuts and lotus roots. For literati, it offered time for reflection, book collecting, and the appreciation of art. It was also the season of the Dragon Boat Festival, when emperors and commoners alike joined in celebration. This exhibition traces these intertwined rhythms of work, leisure, and festivity, inviting visitors to see summer not simply as weather, but as a lived cultural experience.

Through paintings and calligraphy, the exhibition presents the things, activities, and spaces that helped people keep cool. Visitors are invited to imagine the scent of festival herbs, the sound of dragon boat races, the sweetness of summer fruits, the chill of ice and springs, and the feel of kudzu robes or bamboo mats.

These artworks reveal not only how people cared for body and mind in summer, but also the values of their time. Imperial retreats could evoke the duties of governance, while cooling fans suggested the wisdom of advance and retreat. We hope these works inspire you to look beyond their beauty and find your own sense of coolness amid the summer heat.

Beyond a Cooling Accessory—A Panorama of Fans

In the past, fans were essential summer accessories. Beyond cooling devices, fans could also signify status, taste, and graceful adaptation to circumstance. In this exhibition, they appear in many forms: tucked into paintings, brought to life in poetry, or remounted as albums.
Their shapes and materials are varied. The round silk fan originated in China, while the folding fan spread from Japan across East Asia. Fans could be made of gauze, white feathers, or gold-flecked paper. Even the ribs could be highly decorative. One folding fan on view features mother-of-pearl inlaid into shimmering cloud-and-dragon motifs on its two outer ribs, giving it an imperial splendor.

Modern Takes on Ancient Fans

We invited students from National Chiayi Senior High School and Chiayi County Da Ji Junior High School to create contemporary summer scenes on traditional fans, with some adding poems to echo historical practice. Their works highlight the changing ways of staying cool and the fan's blend of function and beauty. Which one is your favorite?

Exhibition Information

Event Date Permanent Exhibition
Location 2F S203

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Wen Zhenming, Ming dynasty

Poem on Summer Night

Paper

Copied in the summer of 1543 by Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), one of the “Four Masters of Ming,” this poem was written for “Mr. Nanmin” as part of a transcription of earlier works. It vividly evokes the oppressive heat of midsummer: long daylight, sleepless nights, and the failure of deep shade, bamboo mats, and silk fans to bring relief. Yet the poet turns from personal discomfort to the wider rhythms of agrarian life, noting that intense sun benefits crops and is welcomed by farmers. In doing so, he reframes summer heat as part of a larger moral and seasonal order.

Zhao Mengfu, Yuan dynasty

Ode on the Round Silk Fan

Paper

Written in 1305 for “Younger Brother Junzhang,” this text by statesman-artist Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322) praises the round silk fan as a beautiful and finely made source of summer relief. It then shifts to moral reflection: just as the fan must be set aside in autumn, an official should know when to advance and when to withdraw. The calligraphy, in a clear and graceful running-regular script influenced by Wang Xizhi (303–361), was later included in an imperial anthology.

Yang Zihua, Northern Qi dynasty

Collating Texts

Silk

This handscroll depicts an event in 556, when Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi ordered officials to proofread texts in the imperial collection. Music, wine, food, and games animate the scene. Many figures wear light clothing, suggesting the heat of summer. The painting is probably a seventeenth-century reproduction of the Northern Song copy in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Shang Shengbo and Tan Zekai, Republican period

Painting of "Cooling Off in Summer" and Calligraphy in Running Script

Paper

This folding fan from the early Republican period combines painting and calligraphy. On one side, Shang Shengbo (1869–1962), a master of the Shanghai School, used the “boneless” method to depict summer produce—lotus seedpods, lotus root, fox nuts, grapes, and watermelon—motifs long associated with cooling relief. On the other side, the calligrapher Tan Zekai (1889–1947) alludes to tales of Tang poets exchanging literary talent for ice, evoking the cool tastes and luxuries of elite seasonal life (see reproduction).

Wu Bin, Ming dynasty

End of Summer

Paper
Significant Antiquity

This sixth leaf of “A Record of Yearly Observances” shows scholars and elegant women strolling, boating, and resting in waterside pavilions. Chilled melons and antique bronzes sit before the hall, while a towering mountain of ice rises behind it, creating an extravagant vision of summer cool. Echoing historical accounts of Tang and Song courtly life, the scene captures the luxurious elegance of elite seasonal leisure in premodern China.

Zhang Hong, Ming dynasty

Dragon Boat Race

Paper

Painted in the fifth lunar month of 1648, this work depicts Dragon Boat racing at a riverside crossing. Three swift boats race through a willow-lined waterway, with banners flying and rowers pulling in unison. Officials, herdboys, and rooftop spectators gather to watch, creating a lively festival scene shared by elites and commoners alike. By Zhang Hong (1577–after 1652), a Suzhou painter known for realistic observation, the painting may record an actual local event.

Zhao Yong, Yuan dynasty

Picking Water Chestnuts

Paper
National Treasure

Harvesting water caltrops, typically shown in late summer and early autumn, was a popular theme in Chinese painting and literature associated with women's labor, romance, and seasonal festivity. This painting by Zhao Yong (1289–?), second son of Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), depicts five boats moving among dense leaves. Its “one river, two banks” composition follows Yuan literati painting, while the paired pines, distant hills, and sandbanks reflect admiration for earlier landscape traditions.

Su Zhuo, Song dynasty

Children at Play During the Dragon Boat Festival

Silk

Painted by the son of a famous twelfth century painter of playful children, this finely colored work shows three children playing during the Dragon Boat Festival: one uses a toad to startle another, while a third steps in to stop the prank. The toad and pomegranate allude to seasonal symbols of warding off harm and inviting good fortune. Their light summer clothing and gold-decorated garments evoke the festive life of an elite household.

Anonymous, Song dynasty

Gentleman in the Shade of a Willow Tree

Silk

This painting depicts a lofty recluse wearing a cool kudzu headcloth and a sleeveless summer garment, seated barefoot on an animal hide beneath willow shade, drinking in relaxed ease. His outfit and the drooping willows recall Tao Yuanming (365–427), the famed poet of rustic withdrawal known as the “Master of Five Willows.” Strong in composition, brushwork, and color, the work is an accomplished example of figure painting.

Zhang Ruo'ai, Qing dynasty

Misty Waves Bring Coolness

Silk

Painted by Zhang Ruo'ai (1713–1746), this album depicts the thirty-six views of the Mountain Resort at Chengde (in modern day Hebei Province), the Qing emperors' summer retreat and a major political center beyond the Forbidden City. Depicted in color with blue, green, and gold pigments, this leaf presents a quiet lakeside landscape with no figures, evoking serene summer retreat while the adjacent poems suggest the Qing emperors' ideal of remaining mindful of governance in repose. The large seal in the corner indicates that the album was once kept in the Resort's collection.

Qian Xuan, Song dynasty

Ladies Summoning Coolness

Silk
Significant Antiquity

“Summoning Coolness” refers to drawing a breeze with a fan to relieve summer heat. Here, two elegant ladies in light gauze robes and Northern Song-style headwear hold silk round fans in a garden setting, accompanied by lake rocks and hollyhocks. Traditionally attributed to Qian Xuan (1235–after 1303), the painting is unsigned but preserves a refined, archaic elegance in its delicate brushwork and pale coloring.