Tumbling Horse Scaring the Bird

Zhang Mu was a Cantonese painter who lived the second half of his life under the new Manchu regime. Due to the chaotic dynastic change, he did not get a chance to realize his ambition and instead had to devote himself to religious cultivation and associate with other leftover Ming scholars in the Lingnan region. He excelled in horse and eagle paintings and even purchased horses to observe and make life sketching. Here, the artist captures a vivid moment when the screaming sound of the tumbling horse scares the bird to leave the tree branch in a chilly day. Such an image possibly suggests the invasion of the Manchu troops that suddenly interrupted the peaceful life of the Han Chinese in the south.