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Plum, Bamboo and Rock
Not on view
Blooming earlier than all other trees, the flowering plum (Prunus mume) is welcomed as the harbinger of spring and during the Southern Song period (1127–1279) became the object of intense admiration. By the mid-fourteenth century, as Mongol control disintegrated and society grew increasingly chaotic, the flowering plum became a powerful symbol of purity and endurance in the face of adversity.
In a poem accompanying the painting, this unidentified scholar-painter recalls the poet Su Shi (1037–1101), who was banished from the capital in 1095 but found happiness in Plum Blossom Village, at the foot of Mount Luofu. By the second half of the fourteenth century, the kind of contentment discovered by Su Shi, like the path to the idyllic Plum Blossom Village, had become increasingly difficult to find. The poem reads:
The flowing water of the stream glides by;
Colorful birds chatter beneath the flowers.
Of late I have taken an interest in [Mount] Luofu;
But the path to the village grows dim in the twilight.
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