Poet Lin Bu Gazing at the Reflection of the Moon in the Water

Lin Bu (967-1028) was a poet of the Song dynasty, a creative free spirit who was famous for his love of plum blossoms and cranes. He lived in seclusion near the West Lake in Hangzhou, where he wrote verse, practiced calligraphy, and dedicated himself to the pursuit of Daoist immortality. Many later writers and painters revered Lin as a cultural role model and images of him can be found on scroll paintings, ceramics, and lacquers from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

This painting by the Ming-dynasty artist Xie Shichen includes references to virtually all of Lin's key attributes. It depicts the poet, accompanied by a servant boy, leaning on a gnarled plum tree that has just come into bloom and gazing at a reflection of the moon in the waters of West Lake. A crane stands on the lakeshore in the foreground, while the roof of Lin's hermitage can be seen in the misty background. A poem in the upper right corner refers to Lin's efforts to become an immortal.

Xie Shichen was one of the leading artists in the city of Suzhou during the middle of the sixteenth century. He specialized in large paintings of figures in a landscape and was admired for his bold, blunt brushwork. Oberlin's scroll is an excellent example of Xie's work. It is exactly the sort of painting that would have been hung in the entrance hall of an affluent Suzhou household to demonstrate the owner's good taste and cultural aspirations.