# Nine Songs

- By: Zhang Wo (Chinese, active c.1336–after 1364)
- By: Chu Huan (Chinese, active 1361)
- Date: 1361
- Medium: handscroll; ink on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Overall: 28 x 438.2 cm (11 x 172 1/2 in.)
- Culture: China, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
- Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1959.138)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1959.138/1959.138_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Painted in the baimiao, or fine-line drawing style, this ancient work demonstrates the literati’s use of abstract calligraphic brushwork for self-expression. The subject of the “Nine Songs”—songs associated with shamanistic rituals in the ancient Chu kingdom—had traditionally provided artists with myths and legends that they could explore and reinterpret in their own works.