Fishing in Mountain Streams

Gao Qipei, a talented scholar and eccentric artist, painted this mountain paradise among rosy clouds. Instead of painting with brush, Gao executed this work using only his fingers to present a spontaneous look without superficial, ornamental brushwork.

The painting evokes Tao Yuanming, the famous literati paragon who wrote the prose work Peach Blossom Spring. This is suggested by Gao’s poem, which references Tao’s pictorial peach blossom village—a wonderland where people live in harmony with nature. The poem’s realism and witty tone distinguishes it from Tao’s fanciful original text:

Multistoried pavilions allure pretty birds; Many are the families residing among rosy clouds. Afraid to trap the fisherman ferry here again; The marshes are unwilling to grow peach blossoms.