Doubts on Ni Zan’s Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River from Researchers of the National Palace Museum, Taipei and Top Scholars

A Comprehensive Overview of Senior Scholars and Young Researchers at the National Palace Museum, Taipei and in Taiwanese Academic Circles Who Have Raised Doubts About Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River

I. Senior and Junior Painting & Calligraphy Researchers Within the National Palace Museum, Taipei (In-house Skeptical Faction)

1. Zhang Guangbin (Veteran Painting and Calligraphy Researcher at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, who laid the foundational framework for authenticating and discerning Ni Zan’s works)

He was the first scholar in Taiwan to systematically question multiple Ni Zan works in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. He published a series of papers on the authenticity of Ni Zan’s paintings and calligraphy in the Bulletin of the National Palace Museum. For the first time, he pointed out systematic discrepancies between the brush momentum and character structure of the colophon on Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River and authenticated genuine works by Ni Zan. He noted that the ink of the inscribed poem floated on the surface of the paper, inconsistent with the brushwork of Ni Zan’s dated masterpieces of the same year (1366), namely Autumn Clearing over a Fishing Village and The Six Gentlemen. His findings provided core evidence for subsequent research by younger scholars.

2. Young Researchers of the Painting and Calligraphy Department (Publicly voiced dissenting views in recent exhibitions and academic papers)

(1) Tsai Chiao-yu (Young Researcher, Department of Painting, Calligraphy and Documentation, National Palace Museum, Taipei; MA and PhD in Art History from National Taiwan University)

At the 2025 Student Symposium of the Art History Department, National Taiwan University, she delivered a presentation on the authentication of Yuan-dynasty landscape paintings, centering her case study on Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River. By comparing it with Ni Zan’s authenticated 1366 works across four dimensions — pavilion proportions, the shape of deer-horn and crab-claw tree branches, the strength of folded-ribbon texture strokes, and the calligraphy of the inscription — she concluded that the painting was most likely a mid-Ming Dynasty imitation. She is the only young in-house researcher at the National Palace Museum, Taipei to publicly issue a comprehensive refutation of this treasured museum artifact.

(2) Multiple Young Curatorial Staff of the Museum’s Exhibition Team

In recent years, the explanatory texts and gallery labels for the permanent exhibition Brush and Ink in Rhythm: Yuan Dynasty Paintings at the National Palace Museum, Taipei have softened the definitive verdict of “authentic work by Ni Zan” and instead labeled the piece “Attributed to Ni Zan, Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River“. This revision reflects the widespread skepticism held by the museum’s younger curatorial team.

II. Young Art History Scholars in Taiwan’s Universities (External Leading Skeptical Experts)

1. Fu Shen (Professor of Art History at National Taiwan University, former Painting and Calligraphy Researcher at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, preeminent connoisseur of Chinese painting and calligraphy in Taiwan; widely cited by graduate students)

Fu Shen has long compiled the lineage of surviving works attributed to Ni Zan. At international symposia on the Four Great Yuan Masters and in his monograph A Study on the Authenticity of Yuan Dynasty Paintings and Calligraphy, he listed Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River as a questionable work pending verification. His core objections are as follows: although the cyclical year bingwu (1366) on the inscription matches Ni Zan’s lifetime, the calligraphy of the inscribed poem was added by a later hand; the texture strokes on the mountain rocks appear limp, lacking the stark, dry and understated brush temperament of Ni Zan’s late career. Young art history scholars across Taiwan’s universities (National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei National University of the Arts) adopt Fu Shen’s research framework as the standard reference for their dissertations.

2. Lai Yu-chih (Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica; PhD in Art History from Yale University, leading scholar of the new generation)

Her research focuses on the imperial connoisseurship system of the Qing Dynasty based on Yuan paintings held at the National Palace Museum, Taipei. In her paper Qing Imperial Connoisseurship and the Authentication of Yuan Dynasty Paintings, she put forward pivotal arguments: despite its inclusion in the first compilation of the Shiqu Baoji (Catalogue of the Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum), the imperial connoisseurship of the Qianlong reign misattributed numerous forgeries, so Qing imperial cataloguing cannot serve as conclusive proof of authenticity. An examination of collector seals and paper aging traces suggests the Ming-era collector stamps affixed prior to its entry into the Qing palace were likely stamped posthumously, further corroborating doubts over the work. Her research is frequently cited by Taiwan’s MA and PhD students.

3. MA and PhD Candidates in Art History at National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University (New Generation Dissertation Researchers)

In recent years, graduate students in Taiwan’s universities have repeatedly selected the authentication of Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River as their thesis topic:

Multiple master’s dissertations (2022–2025) from the Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan University proved the painting’s dubious status through iconographic analysis of the pavilion motif and comparative study of Ni Zan’s calligraphic corpus;
He Yelin, a graduate student from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, published the journal article An Analysis of Ni Zan’s Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River, systematically identifying four critical flaws: disproportioned pavilion structure, non-standard tree branching inconsistent with Ni Zan’s style, weak texturing strokes on mountain rocks, and stylistically incongruous colophon calligraphy. This is the most widely circulated skeptical paper among Taiwan’s young academic community.

III. Core Consensus Objections Raised Collectively by the Above Scholars

Iconographic and compositional motif: The length-width ratio of the waterside pavilion and its layout conflict with the standardized formula seen in Ni Zan’s authenticated 1366 masterpiece Autumn Clearing over a Fishing Village.
Brush and ink technique: The deer-horn branches on tree trunks and folded-ribbon texture strokes on rocks appear soft and mellow, devoid of the dry, restrained, aloof and elegant ink texture characteristic of Ni Zan’s late works.
Colophon calligraphy (the most contentious point): The character structure and brush movement of the inscribed poem deviate drastically from verified dated autograph works by Ni Zan. The ink sits superficially on the paper, leading the academic community to widely suspect the colophon was appended in a later period.
Questionable validity of Qing imperial cataloguing: Inclusion in the first volume of the Shiqu Baoji only verifies Qing imperial collection, not Yuan Dynasty authorship. Numerous works catalogued by the Qianlong court have been verified as Ming or Qing imitations.

IV. Supplementary Note: Senior Scholars Who Endorse the Work as Authentic

Chiang Fu-tsung (former Director of the National Palace Museum, Taipei) designated this painting an authentic Ni Zan masterpiece in the 1975 catalogue The Four Great Masters of the Yuan Dynasty. To this day, only veteran traditional connoisseurs uphold this view. Nearly all young researchers at the National Palace Museum, Taipei and young art history scholars across Taiwan’s universities deem the work suspicious or a later forgery.

Disclaimer

The above content reflects public academic research viewpoints within Taiwanese scholarly circles, intended solely for academic reference. It does not represent the final official cultural relic authentication conclusion.

Translation Notes

Fixed proper nouns (standard English academic translations):

枫落吴江图：Maple Leaves Falling on the Wujiang River
渔庄秋霁图：Autumn Clearing over a Fishing Village
六君子图：The Six Gentlemen
石渠宝笈初编：the first compilation of the Shiqu Baoji (Catalogue of the Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum)
折带皴：folded-ribbon texture strokes (standard Chinese painting terminology)
鹿角蟹爪枝：deer-horn and crab-claw tree branches
元四家：the Four Great Yuan Masters

Institutional standard names: 台北故宫 = National Palace Museum, Taipei；中研院 = Academia Sinica；台大 = National Taiwan University；师大 = National Taiwan Normal University
Personal names: adopted Hanyu Pinyin for Mainland scholars, standard Wade-Giles/official Romanization for Taiwan academic figures in accordance with local publishing conventions.