Fishing in Mountain Streams

In this painting, Lu Yifei uses an innovative composition to render a classical theme: fishing in mountain streams. In 1979, when Lu completed this composition, the Cultural Revolution—a national movement to eliminate established Chinese culture—was nearing its end. Yet the Revolution’s ideology, which rejected the value of history, was still being used to suppress traditional subjects. Many educated intellectuals like Lu protested this extremism by intentionally reviving classical themes.

In Fishing in Mountain Streams, a boat floats in the empty space of tranquil water. Here sits a man whose high topknot identifies him as a scholar from an older era. A thatched pavilion near a wood-frame bridge—a commonly employed motif in traditional Chinese painting—symbolizes the remoteness and depth of the mountains. This painting is one of several attempts by Lu to render fishermen in a way that conjures up thoughts of the leisurely and idyllic life scholars preferred.