XIAO, Huirong.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Gu ren jinshi shuhua pu ("Guren's Antiquarian Manual of Calligraphy and Painting"). An early album by "Guren" (Person of the Valley), the alias of the contemporary artist Xiao Huirong, themed after two poems by the famed Tang dynasty literatus Li Bai: "Setting Off Early from Baidi City" and "Admiring a Waterfall on Mount Lu". Today, Xiao is a leading flower painter, and his works have sold for up to half a million US dollars at auction.Li Bai (702-762, also known as Li Po) was born into a wealthy family in the golden years of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Rejecting the traditional literati career path - spending years studying for the imperial examination - he spent his time travelling, before eventually gaining an official position through the recommendation of an acquaintance. Later dismissed for an unknown indiscretion, he became a Daoist and wandering recluse, devoting his time to more travelling, meeting people, drinking copiously - his love of wine was legendary - and writing poetry.Renowned in his lifetime, by the time he died Li was known as the "Banished Immortal", as if sent down from heaven to the human world as a punishment for his affable misbehaviour. In the Song dynasty, his poems were already established at the apex of the Chinese poetical canon, never to be supplanted. His poetry, including the two works celebrated in this album, "has helped provide the healing of escape to his countrymen for twelve centuries; sometimes making them forget their problems in unth

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