Ahura

A third painting attributed to Bian that shares the same theme with the 1413 work is in the Cleveland Museum of Art. This work, also entitled San-you bai-qin, was painted on a wider hanging scroll. As in the Palace Museum work, the painting begins with a more concentrated left half and counterbalances it with the centralized rock and skilfully placed magpies. The plumage and plants are depicted in a similar manner as that of the Palace Museum work. However, on closer examination, the two paintings reveal quite different qualities in brushwork. Comparing the two, one finds that all the trees and rocks in the Palace Museum San-you are painted with tighter structures and steadier outlines than those in the Cleveland work. The spontaneous movement and descriptive values seen in the Palace Museum work have been reduced to schematic patterns, as seen in the textures of the rocks and tree trunks A sharper contrast is found in the way the birds are treated. While the birds in the Palace Museum work are full of lively expression and movement, the Cleveland birds appear heavy, awk- ward and somewhat lifeless. Furthermore, the colouring techniques of the two paintings are also different. The Palace Museum work uses soft tones applied in a subtle and varied manner, while the Cleveland work has richer tones and harsher application. In addition to these stylistic discrepancies is the unfamiliarity of the three seals of Bian on the Cleveland work, none of which are comparable to those on his established works. All this suggests that the Cleveland work was most likely painted by a follower of Bian.

In connection with the same theme and style of Bian discussed above is the hanging scroll, Si-xi tu (Four Magpies) in the Palace Museum in Taipei. Although it has been attributed to Zhao Chang, this work reveals such strong stylistic features associated with Bian's style that it deserves consideration here. Both the theme and composition of Si-xi tu are similar to those of the Cleveland painting. As in the Cleveland work, the four magpies are the major birds, but the smaller birds are reduced greatly in number and species. Also, “the three friends of winter” in the Cleveland work are now replaced by plum blossoms, bamboo and camelia. A particularly striking similarity is found between the magpie at the bottom of Si-xi and that of the Cleveland scroll, but a closer inspection reveals that the similarity is limited to the formal structure and poses of the bird. The brushwork of detailed textures of the features and the overall expression of the bird are not the same. Bian's characteristics are also found in the smaller birds, which are especially comparable to those in his 1413 San-you and Mei-zhu shuang-he (Two Cranes with Bamboo and Plum Blossoms). The bamboo, plum blossoms and camelia can also be compared with those in Bian's Xue-mei shua-ng-he (Two Cranes with Snowy Prunus) and Mei-zhu shuang-he. Therefore this work is probably -painted by a follower of Bian.

A group of Bian's extant works are devoted to the depiction of his favourite bird, the crane. The tradition of this theme can be traced to Huang Quan, who, in 944, painted the famous “Six Cranes” on the walls of the imperial palace of the Shu State. Even though none of the original works of Huang survive today, a replica of Emperor Hui-zong's copy of this work of Huang can still provide us with some idea of this tradition. Bian's Zhu-he shuang-qing, a collaborative work with Wang Fu, which can be dated to the two years of 1414 and 1415, is the earliest datable work on this subject. The two cranes depicted here by Bian indicate clearly a close relationship with Huang's prototype both their poses and style of painting. Yet Bian's ingenuity and his further development of this theme is better seen. in four other works of this subject: Mei-zhu shuang-he, Xue-mei shuang-he, Shuang-he tu (Two Cranes) and Zhu-he tu (Cranes and Bamboo). In all four paintings, one finds the enlarged cranes to be the principal forms against a minimum background of bamboo or plum blossoms. This device of arbitrarily enlarging and focusing on a certain theme and reducing the landscape elements to a framing background is typical of the early Ming, as often seen in Wang Fu's ink bamboo handscrolls, where the exaggerated ink bamboo was placed in a changing riverbank setting. Also marking Bian's further departure from the earlier tradition of this theme, is his stronger interest in creating the decorative effect produced by the complementary poses, as well as the contrasting colours and textures of the birds' features. Among the four paintings of cranes, Xue-mei shuang-he is the only one that Bian signed himself as a dai-zhao (painter-in-attendance). Although it is still not clear whether this title refers to the Wu-ying-dian dai-zhao or Jin-shen-dian dai- zhao, it is possible to place the work in the later stage of Bian's career, since both these dai-zhao titles were offered to him at that time. Judging from the common characteristics shared by Xue-mei shuang-he and Mei-zhu shuang-he, both were probably painted around the same time. The bold and further simplified designs found in Zhu-he tu and Shuang-he tu jam demonstrate how Bian had finally succeeded in for- ming a new decorative style of his own with this theme.

What Bian achieved in his crane paintings can be also seen in the late works of his other subjects. One that best represents Bian's mature style is his Bo-ying tu (Eagle on an Oak Tree). This work in the Hashimoto collection is a large hanging scroll painted with both colour and ink on silk. A fierce-looking eagle, perched on an oak branch, dominates. the upper half of the painting. The solid forms of the large bird are carefully balanced by the two layers of rocks on the lower right, a lower branch of the oak and some bamboo leaves on the right. Half hidden behind the bottom rock lies a dead pheasant.

The depiction of an eagle with its prey is a typical theme in the Song dynasty, as seen in the hanging scroll, Hawk Stalking a Pheasant by Zhao Zi-hou. Yet in spite of the common motifs, a great deal has changed in the depiction of this theme, as is shown in Bian's work. In the Song paintings, interest focuses on the eagle's natural habitat and activity. Although, the landscape in Zhao's work is presented in a frontal view, that the hawk's attention is on the pheasant below is portrayed here by the tense twisting of the former's neck and its keen vision toward its victim. This relationship is further enhanced by the S-curved tree trunk, creating a constant movement between the two. In Bian's work however, the greatly enlarged eagle, framed by cut branches of the oak and bamboo leaves, becomes the main focus. The composition is further compressed so that all motifs appear as stacked surface patterns. Although there is still the suggested relationship between the eagle and the pheasant below, the emphasis is no longer on the tension between the two, but on the eagle as the symbol of strength and courage. This stress on the symbolic significance of the eagle theme is clearly related to the new developments in flower-and-bird painting of the Yuan era. For instance, on Wang Yuan's Ying-zhu hua-mei (A Hawk Chasing a Thrush), the inscriptions written by four 14th century scholars all referred to the eagle as a hu-ying or a barbarian bird and the thrush as the jun-qin or the talented bird, which was smart enough to escape the attack. The implied message here that wise Chinese scholars should be cautious and avoid serving the Mongolian government was especially explicit in the second inscription by Du Yun-cheng. It is interesting to note that this image of the eagle as a vicious bird of prey is easily reversed in other eagle paintings of the same period. In Zhang Shun-zi's Wu-zhu cang-ying (Eagle with Fermiana and Bamboo), he portrayed an eagle perched on the tallest branch of a fermiana tree. There is no longer any depiction of the tense moment of an eagle chasing its prey, instead, the bird appears to be enjoying the solitude and peace which surround him. The reduced size of the eagle, the setting of the symbolic plants of bamboo and fermiana tree, all lay stress on the bird's lofty and untrammelled spirit, the same spirit that was often attributed to an ideal Yuan scholar. Zhang's poem inscription evokes the same image of a lofty eagle, that despises the regular eagles (fan-ying), that had only appetite for the flesh of their prey. Related to Zhang's work is an anonymous eagle painting in the Palace Museum in Taipei. It has been considered a Song work. Yet both the style of painting and the five early Ming inscriptions indicate that it is more likely a 14th century work. Here, a large eagle is perched on a cypress branch. Although its prey is not visible, all the inscriptions refer to the eagle as a courageous guard against sly foxes or tricky rabbits. In one poem, the eagle was compared to a righteous Yu-shi (Censor), whose duty was to maintain disciplinary surveillance over corrupt officials. The Cypress, with an overhanging branch above the eagle and a forked one on which the bird perches, resembles the similar structure of the juniper in Ying-kuai tu (An Eagle on a Juniper Tree), a collaborative work by Zhang Shun- zi and Xue-jie. Yet the enlarged eagle and the decorative arrangement of the cypress branches reveal the characteristic features of the 14th century.