Song of a Fisherman

Wang Wen exemplified the life of the scholar-official in Ming dynasty China. He retired from government service to his lakeside retreat and pursued painting, calligraphy, and poetry. For this painting, Wang Wen wrote a poem (also entitled “Song of a Fisherman”), which includes several allusions to moral integrity. This poem displays the artist’s distinctively fluid, cursive “draft script” (cao shu). Its first section reads as follows:

Most men of the world fish with crooked hooks: I alone trust in hooks, but never in fancy baits. After rain, I carry my long pole to the terrace edge and dangle if from among pines and clouds above the ripples of Qi. (translated by Irving Yucheng Lo)

Qi refers to a river in north-central China. This river is cited in several verses of the Shijing (Book of Odes) – a compilation of more than three hundred poems datable between about 1000 and 600 B.C that extol men of principle. Government officials often alluded to these poems to convey Confucian teachings.