Tao of Orchid

7/31/2019 Tao of Orchid

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Tao of Orchid by Sungsook Hong Setton

The plum blossom, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo are considered the four

noble (or gentlemen) plants. When I studied with Master Woosung Chang in the 1980s I

was restricted to learning only one stroke per month of study. The orchid leaf stroke was

first and he did not teach me anything else until I nearly perfected that strokes. After that,

I learned how to paint the orchid flowers. As difficult as it is to paint orchids, it is even

more difficult to paint the orchids fragrance.

The essence of the orchid is expressed with the qi of the strokes. According to the

celebrated eighteenth-century Korean calligrapher and painter Kim Junghi (pen name:

Chusa), without excellent calligraphic skills and brush strokes full of vitality, it is almost

impossible to depict orchids well. 1

Although I often practiced orchid strokes I rarely liked my work, I decided to

keep this one and called it Tao of Orchid , because it seemed to preserve a good balance in

terms of space and also manifested high energy . Externally orchids are delicate and

1 Moon, Bongsun. New Works of Plum and Orchid . p123.


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gracious plants. However, I was strove to capture an internal aspect, which I value in fall

orchids and depict just a few blooms on one stalk. The colored flowers contrast with the

strong dark leaves.

It is said that Confucius originally drew attention to this delicate plant,

exclaiming: With a fragrance fit for princes, why are you buried among the common

weeds? 2 From olden times the appearance of the wild orchid, which grew deep in the

mountains, was compared to the mind of a noble and cultivated scholar bureaucrat, who

had transcended the greed and fame-seeking of the secular world. Therefore m any exiled

Korean literati enjoyed painting this orchid. The orchid is known as a symbol of purity

and noble virtue due to its fragrance. This symbolism goes back to the Chin dynasty of

the 3 rd century . Chu Yuan, a patriotic poet , regarded the orchid as a mirror of ones

moral life. 3

The rarity and uniqueness of the orchid is vividly expressed in these two poems

which I have translated.

Even though the world is filled withconfusionWhen I gaze at one orchidI can forget

all my problems.

- Song Sunam

2 Lee, Oryung. The Orchid . p59.3 Ho, Kun-shang. Book of the Plum, Book of the Orchid, Book of the Chrysanthemum

Book of the Bamboo . p81.


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On the dark cliff hundreds of weeds arewitheringAnd yet the orchid bounds with vigorThe noble person dwells in steep,isolated placesHe is indeed different from normal people

- Chen Hsie n Chang (Ming dynasty)

As one of the four noble plants, the orchid is often the subject of poems as well as

of water-ink paintings. The concept of the four noble plants first appeared in the work

of Gin Keyu (1558-1639) and specifically his record of four plants. 4 Before this, there

were only two categories of subjects, landscape and birds and flowers. Although

individual noble plants were depicted earlier, from the Ming dynasty onward, the four

noble plants became a new genre in Chinese literati art. These four noble plants became

the foundation of brushwork as well as embodying East Asian principles of modeling and

aesthetic philosophy. 5

This pastime of the scholar-bureaucrats reflected their classical and aristocratic

taste and was referred to as ink play. Water-ink technique, which uses black ink ground

on an ink stone with an ink stick, arose in China during the 8 th century. Two centuries

later, it became a principal art form in China. Over the next three hundred years the

4 Heo, Yupyeon. The World of four Gentlemen . p9.

5 Moon, Bongsun. New Works of Plum and Orchid . p7.


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discipline of painting the four noble plants spread from China to its neighbors Korea and

Japan, where it was influenced by Chan (Zen) Buddhism and became equally popular. 6

In East Asian water-ink painting, the subjects usually have some kind of hidden

symbolic meaning. As Pierre Cambon describes: The four noble plants refer to

Confucian ideology while also suggesting the rhythm of the seasons and passage of time.

Bamboo, always green, bends without breaking and symbolizes loyalty and fidelity. The

prune bears flowers before the snows melt and suggests the rebirth of spring. The orchid

evokes a world of beauty, and fragile, delicate harmony. Chrysanthemums bloom in the

fullness of autumn. But these subjects are also closely linked to calligraphy and

brushwork, and handwriting is considered to reflect the authors cultivation and

personality. 7

According to Francis Mullany, there is no systematic relationship between the

four noble plants and the four seasons. On the other hand, due to differences of climate

and geography, artists and writers from China and Korea associate specific plants with

specific seasons. For instance, in China the bamboo is symbol of summer; whereas in

Korea symbolizes winter. Furthermore, in China the orchid is associated with spring

whereas in Korea it is associated with summer. 8

6 Ibid. p115.7 Cambon, Pierre and Joseph P. Carrol. The Poetry of Ink . p19, 115. 8 Mullany, Francis. Symbolism in Korean Ink Brush Painting . p16.


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Tao of Orchid