After Mao Zedong’s “Saying Goodbye to the God of Disease (II)”
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Mao’s second poem on the eradication of disease envisions a bright future:
We dig with silver shovels
And iron arms shake the earth and the Three Rivers.
God of plagues, where are you going?
We burn paper boats and candles
To light his way to heaven.
In Fu’s illustration, myriad springtime blossoms echo the legions of collective workers who go forth to increase production—with nature’s blessings—during the Great Leap Forward.
We dig with silver shovels
And iron arms shake the earth and the Three Rivers.
God of plagues, where are you going?
We burn paper boats and candles
To light his way to heaven.
In Fu’s illustration, myriad springtime blossoms echo the legions of collective workers who go forth to increase production—with nature’s blessings—during the Great Leap Forward.
Artwork Details
- Title: After Mao Zedong’s “Saying Goodbye to the God of Disease (II)”
- Artist: Fu Baoshi (Chinese, 1904–1965)
- Date: dated 1958
- Culture: China
- Medium: Album leaf, ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Image: 13 3/8 x 19 11/16 in. (34 x 50 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Lent by Nanjing Museum
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art