Appreciation of the "Thousand Starving Corpses Map"

Author: Zhu Renmin
Publisher: Xiling Press
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: "The Map of a Thousand Starving Corpses" depicts the scene of locust plagues and droughts, the suffering of living beings, widespread despair, people eating each other, and the sight of thousands of starved corpses. The monk Ming Deng, a wandering monk in the play, uses his brush with deep indignation to truthfully portray this tragic reality. After completing the painting, an official risks his life to kneel before the emperor and present it to reveal the truth to the world. The work, in the painting style of Qing Dynasty monks, features bold and swift strokes, powerful and aged lines, and is executed in one continuous flow, capturing the expressions of thousands of characters in this massive scroll. At the time, Zhu Renmin served as the Director of the Landscape and Architectural Design Research Institute of the China Academy of Art. Already overwhelmed with daily responsibilities, he could only use the late hours to complete these two monumental works in a month, as if writing "running script calligraphy" – fluid and seamless, without any patching or revision. The crew remarked, "Zhejiang is a place where dragons and tigers hide – truly magical!" The work is grand yet precise, lively yet powerful, and stands as a classic in contemporary Chinese figure painting.