Returning Skiff
Boating on an isolated river suggests the unpolluted environment hermits lived in for self-cultivation, which remained a popular subject in Chinese art for more than a thousand years. Chao Shao-an revived this subject and drew from a variety of sources: literary and poetic references, his studies of old masterworks, and his own fertile imagination.
A small image of a man boats along a vast river, his white robe drawing the viewer’s eye. In this horizontally divided composition, dark ink and forceful textural strokes define rocky islands in the foreground and foggy hills in the distance. The most remarkable effect is the feeling of sunset shot through with moisture.
Inscribed:
The single returning skiff glides lightly across
A vista of sky and water set aglow by the setting sun.
The quiet mind listens not to bewildering thoughts.
A sudden gust of wind brings sound of the night journey.
—In the lunar Jiyou year [1959], autumn, ninth month. Shao-an at Hong Kong.
