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經ユ Inscription on Hui Chong's PaintingAn Evening Scene on a Spring River

經ユhu狸 ch坦n鼻 ch笛n jin鼻 wn jn鼻

s嘆n鼻 鐚960-1279鐚
s笛 sh狸 鐚1037-1101鐚

腴劫筝筝ゆzh炭 wi t叩o hu sn lin鼻 zh朝,
ユ羂贋藐ch笛n jin鼻 shu nun y xin zh朝
l坦u ho mn d狸 l炭 y叩 dun,
罩f莟罨俄zh竪n鼻 sh狸 h辿 t炭n y湛 shn鼻 sh鱈

腴劫筝筝ゆzh炭 wi t叩o hu sn lin鼻 zh朝,
ユ羂贋藐ch笛n jin鼻 shu nun y xin zh朝
l坦u ho mn d狸 l炭 y叩 dun,
罩f莟罨俄 zh竪n鼻 sh狸 h辿 t炭n y湛 shn鼻 sh鱈

|#|An Evening Scene on a Spring River

by Su Shi (1037-1101)
Song Dynasty   (960-1279)

Beyond the bamboo grove there're a few twigs of peach blossoms.
The spring river water gets warm, ducks know it first.
Wormwood herb is everywhere,and the reeds' buds just grow.
It is the time when globefish will swim upstream.

Beyond the bamboo grove there're a few twigs of peach blossoms.
The spring river water gets warm, ducks know it first.
Wormwood herb is everywhere,and the reeds' buds just grow.
It is the time when globefish will swim upstream.

|#| Su Shi(1037-1101) is recognized as having attained   the highest level of achievement in literature in Song Dynasty (960-1279) for his outstanding contribution to poetry, lyrics and essays. He was also a great calligraphist and a famous artist.

Su Shi was from Mei Shan, Sichuan Province. He had a very good educational background and he got a name with his father and his younger brother as the San (three) Su.
He was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and achieved much in his official positions.
As a poet, his fame and reputation were similar to that of Huang Tingjian and together they were known asSu and Huang.

As a lyricist, Su Shi attained the highest level of achievement in the Northern Song (960-1127) with regard to both content and form. He was the originator of the genre of poetry known as Bold and Unconstrained鐚莟羇常.   He and   Xin Qiji,the other great poet in the Southern Song (1127-1279), were known as Su and Xin.

As an essayist, Su Shi was very good at writing essays. He was one of eight greatest masters in Tang and Song. He had the same good reputation as Ou Yangxiu and together they were known asOu and Su.

As a calligraphist, he was famous for his running hand and regular script. As an artist, his favorite subject was bamboo.

Su Shi was not only famous for writing, painting and handwriting, he also had his own theories about literature and art. He emphasized that literature should be a unique, expressive force and have artistic value.

He has left more than 4,000 poems, about 340 lyrics and many essays to the world.

This poem was inscribed on a painting by a monk and artist named Hui Chong. In a few lines, it paints a beautiful picture of the early spring scenery south of the Yangtze River.

The practice of inscribing poems on paintings started in the Song Dynasty, and these inscribed poems are known as Ti Hua Shi鐚鐚poems on paintings.

I am sure that in China, instead of remembering the title of the poem, most people just remember the most famous line of the poem: Ch笛n jian鼻 sh炭i nun y xin zh朝ducks would be the first to know when the spring river gets warm.
|#||#|The first line: 腴劫筝筝ゆ zh炭 wi t叩o hu sn lin鼻 zh朝Beyond the bamboo grove there're a few twigs of peach blossoms.

While, on the surface, this line describes a scenery and does not mention the word spring, it does, in fact, keep close to the subject of spring, particularly early spring. We know this from the simple words in the line:

The bamboo grove is sparse, we can see the peach blossoms behind it;
There are just few branches of peach blossoms beyond the bamboo, because it is not the season that peach blossoms are in full bloom.
The green or yellow bamboo and the pink peach blossom show us that spring is on its way.

The second line: ユ羂贋藐   ch笛n jin鼻 shu nun y xin zh朝The spring river water gets warm, ducks know it first.

Spring has come quietly; it is getting warm, but not everyone can feel it yet. With a wonderful imagination, this line tells us that the ducks in the water feel the warmth before human beings in the early spring.The meaning, which is difficult to express, has been shown to us vividly at once.

Therefore, this line has been a well?known line in the history of Chinese poetry since it was written.
The third line:   l坦u ho mn d狸 l炭 y叩 dunWormwood herb is everywhere, and reeds' buds just growing.

Because it is the early spring, the wormwood herb is growing everywhere, but the reeds are still short. Both of these plantswormwood herb and reed budscapture the imagination of the poet, and so we have the last line:
The fourth line: 罩f莟罨俄   zh竪ng sh狸 h辿 t炭n y湛 shng sh鱈It is the time when globefish will swim upstream (another version: It is the time when the globefish will be ready for the market).

Since people who live along the Yangtze River usually cook globefish with wormwood, reed buds and Chinese cabbage, the previous line naturally made the poet think of the globefish.

Apart from its famous lineユ羂贋藐ch笛n jin鼻 shu nun y xin zh朝The spring river water gets warm, ducks know it first, the combination of the actual scenery and the imagination to describe the early spring, is the main character of this poem.

For example:
The first line describes the actual scenery, the second line is a combination of scenery and imagination, the third line is again a description of scenery and the fourth line is pure imagination, and so both these elements are combined together and the whole poem is full of the beautiful breath of life.
|#|After reading this poem, a strong feeling I got is that a good art work cannot be seperated from real life. Life is always the source of the creation of art. If Su Shi did not understand the nature,the social customs and the way of life in the regions of south of the Yangtze River, he would not have been able to write the wonderful linewhen the spring river gets warm, ducks know it first, and he would not have been able to write the lines likeit is the time that globefish will swim upstream or it is the time when the globefish will be ready for the market.

If we want to be good artists, apart from studying in schools and learning from teachers and books, we also have to go into the nature and the society, to learn and to absorb something wonderful from the myriads of things. Do you agree?

I learned the line ユ羂贋藐ch笛n jin鼻 shu nun y xin zh朝The spring river water gets warm, ducks know it first in my childhood, studied the whole of the poem in my college days and it wasn't until 2003 that I painted a picture to express the meaning of this line, but at that time I had no idea how to match a painting with a poem.

It wasn't until 2005 that I first composed a piece of music to go with the poem, and then in 2007 I created a painting to go with the music and the poem. Then in 2011 and 2012, at Chinese National Academy of Arts, as one of my assignments, I painted and then re?painted a picture for this poem consciously.

I really hope that my efforts will be of some help for you in learning Chinese language and culture.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn.