Bamboo and Rock

•  Hanging scroll, ink on paper
• 90.6 x 42.5 cm

Wu Zhen (style name Zhongkui; sobriquets Meihua daoren, Meishami) was a native of Weitang within Jiaxing, Zhejiang. He was good at poetry, cursive script, and painting landscapes, bamboo and rocks, and ink flowers. In landscapes he followed the 10th-century artist Juran and in ink bamboo Wen Tong of the Song dynasty, creating marvelous works to become one of the Four Yuan Masters.

This work by Wu Zhen at the age of 68 by Chinese reckoning depicts a rock and two stalks of bamboo. Though using little ink, he attained a masterful spirit unsurpassed by a more complex composition. With refinement and skill, the brush flowed naturally in free variations. The famous Tang dynasty poet Du Fu once wrote, "Read a thousand books and the brush becomes divine," echoing the sentiment here.