Quatrain on a Spring Garden
This verse, written during Lizong's maturity in a charming cursive script for the "noble consort" who inspired it, makes clear that life was not without its pleasures for the aging emperor:
Last year I saw a branch scented with a red fragrance;
Faintly, I imagined red corollas with little makeup.
Today, in the palace garden, such colors abound.
Perhaps, without knowing it, I prayed to the god of spring.
(Wen C. Fong, trans., in Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century [New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,1992], p. 242)
Last year I saw a branch scented with a red fragrance;
Faintly, I imagined red corollas with little makeup.
Today, in the palace garden, such colors abound.
Perhaps, without knowing it, I prayed to the god of spring.
(Wen C. Fong, trans., in Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th–14th Century [New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,1992], p. 242)
Artwork Details
- 南宋 理宗 趙昀 行書錄光宗趙惇題楊補之 《紅梅圖》 賜貴妃詩 團扇
- Title: Quatrain on a Spring Garden
- Artist: Emperor Lizong (Chinese, 1205–64, r. 1224–64)
- Period: Song dynasty (960–1279)
- Culture: China
- Medium: Fan mounted as an album leaf; ink on silk
- Dimensions: 11 x 9 1/2 in. (27.9 x 24.1 cm)
- Classification: Calligraphy
- Credit Line: Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988
- Object Number: 1989.363.21
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Emperor Gaozong
after 1162
Emperor Lizong
1261
Emperor Lizong
ca. 1250–60
Emperor Lizong
Emperor Lizong
ca. 1260–64
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