Into the Void
Ink on cotton paper
Handscroll.
12.5. x 67.5 cm
With two seals of the artist: 意氣如雲 Yiqi ru yun (‘Spirit as high as the clouds’) and閒中日長 Xianzhong richang (‘The days are long when one’s at leisure’)
2013

Title Panel:
Into the Void

Inscribed by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat in the Spring of 2013
With two seals of the artist: 水松石山房 Shuisongshi shanfang (‘The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat’) and士撝 Shihui.

Colophon:

Men ask the way through the clouds,

The cloud way’s dark, without a sign.
High summits are of naked rock.
In deep valleys sun never shines.
Behind you green peaks, and in front,
To east the white clouds, and to west –
Want to know where the cloud way lies?
It’s there, in the centre of the Void!

Cold Mountain poetry inscribed by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat playing games taught to me many years ago by my old friend National Pine and fermenting in my heart ever since.
With two seals of the artist: 竹虛 老人Zhuxu laoren (‘Old man as Empty Inside as Bamboo'), and石石 Shishi (‘Stones’)

Published
Sotheby’s, Contemporary Literati – A Gathering. Hong Kong: Sotheby’s, 2014, p 206

Exhibited
Contemporary Literati – A Gathering, Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 7 April 2014