East and West 3

#77002     183 X 127 cm     ac

• Liang K’ai: “Portrait of the Poet Li Po,” 13th century. National Museum of Tokyo.

The “Poet Fairy,” Li Po (701-762) and his friend “The Poet Sage,” Tu-fu (712-70) were China’s greatest poets. Li Po led a wandering life as a hermit, knight-errant, and political dabbler. His poetry has the soul of music. It weaves a magical fairyland full of romantic abandon and a transformed world.He is frequently thought of as the poet of the moon, a subject he frequently treated. Every Chinese person can recite Li Po moon poetry, and there is a moon (harvest) festival every fall in Taiwan and mainland China. In Asian thought, the moon is thought of as a spiritual and sentimental image. Consider this Li Po verse:

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drink alone. There was no one with me —
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for awhile I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring. . .
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions,
and then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
. . . Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

translated by Witter Bynner

The Li Po icon by Liang Kai was executed in Tchan (Zen) technique which evokes by means of a linear composition an image which is more music than descriptive, Chen’s painting is an equally pure and uncomplicated manifestation of the meeting of East and West.

by Lawrance Jeppson