WANG YUN (1652-ca.1732) Portrait of Chen Puxie, 1682

WANG YUN (1652-ca.1732)
Portrait of Chen Puxie, 1682
Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, inscribed by the artist and dated renxu, and signed Wang Yun, with two artist's seals Wang Yun Zhi Yin and Zhuren.
69 1/2 x 28in (176.5 x 71.2cm)
王雲（1652-約1732） 陳蒲鞋像 淺絳水墨絹本 立軸 一六八二年作

款識：壬戌首夏，弟子王雲盥手敬繢
鈐印：王雲之印、竹人

Although not identified in the inscription, this near life-size image is the Tang dynasty Chan Buddhist priest Chen Zunsu (陳尊宿 780-877), a Zen adept who became the dharma heir of Huangbo Xiyun 黄檗希運 (died 850) at his temple in Jiangxi Province. Taking the Buddhist name Muzhou Daoming, Chen Zunsu's writings are preserved as Recorded sayings of Muzhou 睦州語錄. In his later years, he left the monastic life and became known as Chen Puxie 陳蒲鞋 (Rush Sandal Chen), for his proclivity to weave straw shoes to support his adoptive mother.

This life size portrait is nearly identical in both size and composition with an anonymously painted portrait of Chen Puxie dating to the 14th century and exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum. See Chinese Paintings of the Yuan Dynasty On Buddhist and Taoist Figure Subjects 元代道釈人物画, Tokyo National Museum, 1975, fig. 59.