Corresponding to Ni Zan’s Spring in Jiangnan

Soft green tones make this an enchanting spring scene, in which a man on a donkey is crossing a bridge toward willow groves in front of a country cottage. Spring is the time when many intellectuals would go outdoors for inspiration in an event known as “stamping on green” (tachun).

Wen inscribed a poem to his work as a response to a well-known landscape by the Yuan recluse-artist Ni Zan (1301–1374). The three inscriptions by his friends echo the theme of melancholy admiration of the fleeting beauty of spring.

Responding to Spring in Jiangnan by Ni Yuanzhen [Ni Zan]
. . . . frost blankets blue bamboo shoots,
Life is full of emotions as well as complications.
On riverbanks, spring thunder resounds over delicate
bamboo shoots,
Falling thick and fast, spring rain obscures the landscape.
In the distance, the sky longs for blue clouds at twilight,
Sighing in despair for aging, beauty succumbs to
melancholy.