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Poem
Calligrapher Yi Bingshou Chinese
Not on view
清朝 伊秉綬 隷書 橫幅 紙本
Yi Bingshou’s clerical script, seen in the large characters on the right side of this work, was admired for its deliberate awkwardness, with tall, skinny characters written in broad, blunt lines. His semicursive script, which he used for the small dedication on the left, provides the perfect counterpoint. It combines old character forms and sinuous lines into a playful and historically informed pastiche that spoke to other members of the Epigraphic School. The text reads:
Moonbeams over Lake Dongting’s waters;
Orchid fragrance mingled in mists of the
Xiao-Xiang Rivers.
Mr. Yunbo praised this verse of mine
in the highest terms, so I have written it
out here in order to seek his friendship.
Written in mid-autumn of the renshen year (1812),
Bingshou.
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