Baomei Pavilion

Baomei Pavilion

South Lake has gained widespread fame because of a boat and a pavilion named Yanyu Lou (Misty Rain Tower).

Peng Yulin (1816–1890), styled Xueqin and also known by his art names Tuixing’an Zhuren and Yinxiang Waishi, was originally from Zhaixiang in Hengyang County (present-day Zhaixiang, Hengyang City), Hengzhou Prefecture, Hengyongchenggui Dao (an administrative division in the Qing dynasty), and was born in Anqing Prefecture (now within Anqing City), Anhui Province. He was a renowned statesman, military strategist, and calligrapher-painter of the Qing Dynasty, often referred to as Marshal Xue. Together with Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, he was known as one of the Three Great Heroes of the Qing Dynasty, and along with Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Hu Linyi, he was counted among the Four Eminent Ministers of the Late Qing Revival. He was the founder of the Xiang Army’s navy and a pioneer of China’s modern navy. Skilled in poetry, calligraphy, and painting, he could create artworks spontaneously, especially excelling at painting plum blossoms, producing no fewer than ten thousand such works in his lifetime.

In his youth, Peng Yulin had been betrothed to a young woman named Mei. Later, her parents broke off the engagement and married her to another man, which led Mei to take her own life. Deeply grieved, Peng memorialized her by painting plum blossoms in her honor, vowing never to forget her.

In the third lunar month of the first year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty, the painter Peng Yulin visited Jiaxing. He was accompanied by Xu Yaoguang, the local prefect, on a tour of South Lake. While on the lake, they found a stone, prompting Peng to request, “Please offer me two plum blossom trees, one horizontal and one vertical.” Fond of plum blossoms by nature, Peng complied with the prefect’s request and immediately painted one horizontal and one vertical plum tree, inscribing poems on each. After receiving the paintings, Xu Yaoguang asked Zhong Shenlin, a scholar from Jiaxing, to carve them onto the stone. In the same year, a pavilion was built north of Yanyu Lou, with the stone slabs embedded into its wall. The pavilion was named “Baomei Pavilion” (Treasured Plum Pavilion).

The plum blossoms painted by Peng Yulin feature gnarled old trunks and lush branches, resembling countless jade scales. The original horizontal plum tree stone had a crack running through its center. Seizing the opportunity presented by the natural fissure, the artist painted the trunk following the line of the crack. The composition was masterfully adapted, resulting in an effect that was extraordinarily ingenious.

On the western inner wall of Baomei Pavilion is inlaid a stone carving of “Windblown Bamboo” by Wu Zhen, a Yuan Dynasty artist. Wu Zhen, styled Zhonggui and also known as Meihua Daoren (Plum Blossom Taoist), was one of the Four Masters of Yuan Dynasty painting. He excelled in landscape painting and was also skilled in bamboo and plum motifs. This “Windblown Bamboo” piece was originally a genuine artwork acquired by Prefect Xu Yaoguang in the sixth year of the Tongzhi reign. He commissioned an artisan to carve it onto stone, added an inscribed poem, and placed it on the inner wall of Baomei Pavilion. The brushwork of the “Windblown Bamboo” is free and expressive, with bold, dynamic strokes that seem to make the rustling of bamboo leaves audible. It holds significant artistic value.

Baomei Pavilion is situated in a very secluded spot on the lake’s island, and it is easy to miss if you don’t look carefully. Chu Wenjuan mentioned in her essay “Recollections of Yuanyang Lake” that after returning to Jiaxing to pay respects to her ancestors following the Second Sino-Japanese War, she visited South Lake but couldn’t find Baomei Pavilion. Instead, she saw the famous plum blossom stone tablet lying horizontally in a room. From a staff member, she learned that during the Japanese occupation of Jiaxing, the site had been converted into a hotel specifically for entertaining Japanese dignitaries. The room, reportedly often used by a group including Tsuchihara, had the plum blossom tablet serving as a screen. It seems that the Baomei Pavilion, once frequently visited by Chu Wenjuan, had already disappeared by then. So, what happened to the famous plum blossom stone tablet?

On the lakeside signage, you can see a marker for “Baomei Pavilion” in the northern part of the lake’s island. This is the “Baomei Pavilion” referred to by Chu Wenjuan. It turns out that the building directly north of Yanyu Lou is indeed Baomei Pavilion.

The current “Baomei Pavilion” is a simple rectangular structure that runs east to west. Its south-facing doors and windows are tightly shut, with a long corridor just outside. On the central north wall is the famous plum blossom stone tablet, now protected behind a sheet of glass. The inscriptions on the tablet remain clearly legible upon close inspection.

The entire painting features an unforgettable old plum tree. Its thick, gnarled branches dominate the center of the composition, lending the painting a robust and resolute feel. Yet the new buds on the old branches and the plum blossoms themselves add a touch of delicate beauty. Considering that the artist, Peng Yulin—a military commander of the Xiang Army who fought on battlefields—found time in his leisure to paint plum blossoms in mourning for a devoted woman, this painting can be seen as a true reflection of the artist himself.

At the bottom right of the painting, there is an inscription of a poem and a short passage in Peng Yulin’s own handwriting: “Parting from the recluse’s home at Solitary Hill, I come again to Crane Islet drifting in a light boat. The romantic prefect, so full of feeling, laughs and asks for plum blossoms by the water’s edge. Slanted and scattered, I paint two or three twigs—but they hardly match Lin Bu’s moonlit verse. I send them off to Yuanyang Lake, where year after year they bind my longing.” The horizontally inscribed plum blossom stone tablet, which Chu Wenjuan once caressed countless times, remains perfectly embedded next to Yanyu Lou and stands as one of the few surviving historical relics in the garden.