"There is none in this world who can match the ingenious quality of the tip of my brush."
Chen Rong (painter)
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Getting home after a long day at the office, plenty of people just want to kick back and relax. They might make some dinner or read a book, but few manage to find the motivation to do anything creative.
Chen Rong, a 13th-century Chinese artist, was not most people.
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Zhao Mengjian, "Narcissus", mid-13th century, handscroll; ink on paper, 13.2 x 147.25 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Detail of the work.
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A literati artist (part government employee, part scholar), Chen seemed to have everything going for him: a prestigious education and astonishing talent in poetry and philosophy. But his career was far from brilliant. He remained a low-level provincial official, and an unhappy one at that.
How’d he let out his frustration? By making art!
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Chen Rong, "Nine Dragons", 1244, ink and color on paper, 18.5 x 589.2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Detail of the work.
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The Nine Dragons scroll—nearly 50 feet long—is his masterpiece. In it, he depicts nine dragons trying to break free from the clouds. These scaly serpents are the sons of the Dragon King, characters from Chinese mythology that symbolize benevolence, order, and strength.
It’s a struggle of order against chaos: a cosmic battle of opposites inspired by the Daoist concepts of yin and yang. Pretty fierce!
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Chen Rong, "Nine Dragons", 1244, ink and color on paper, 18.5 x 589.2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Detail of the work.
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Given the lofty subject matter, Chen’s process for making the scroll might come as a bit of a shock. Inscribed in stunning calligraphy at the end of the Nine Dragons scroll, a poem composed by Chen describes his working method: "Intoxicated, I spew out this painting from within."
Contemporary accounts confirm that Chen liked his wine. At the end of the day, he’d unwind with a few drinks, take off his clothes and attack his scrolls, smearing ink across them with a scarf or his bare hands. Whether he imbibed to enhance his creative force (or for other reasons) remains to be determined.
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Chen Rong, "Nine Dragons", 1244, ink and color on paper, 18.5 x 589.2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Detail of the work.
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 There is none in this world who can match the ingenious quality of the tip of my brush.
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Chen Rong (painter) 
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Attributed to Qu Ding; "Summer Mountains", ca. 1050, handscroll; ink and color on silk, 17.9 x 45.4 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Detail of the work.
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How many dragons appear in Chen Rong’s scroll?
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