Six Quatrains No. 6 · Du Fu

Du Fu · Sage of Poetry · Tang · Du Fu

“江動月移石，溪虛雲傍花。鳥棲知故道，帆過宿誰家。” “The river stirs and the moon seems to move across the rocks; the brook lies empty and clouds drift beside the flowers. Roosting birds know their old paths — the passing sail, at whose house will it moor tonight?” The last of six quatrains Du Fu wrote in 764 on returning to his thatched cottage in Chengdu. All 20 characters of the poem are set vertically, each collected from public-domain stele rubbings: 18 are in Yan Zhenqing’s hand, from his Duobao Pagoda, Yan Family Temple, Yan Qinli, Zang Huaike, Magu Altar (麻姑仙壇記) and Yuan Zi (元咨碑; Ming rubbing, National Palace Museum, Taipei) steles; 溪 and 鳥 survive intact in no Yan rubbing, so 溪 comes from the Sui monk Zhiyong’s Thousand Character Classic (Song-carved rubbing, National Palace Museum, Taipei); 鳥 comes from Chu Suiliang’s Meng Fashi Stele. 虛 takes the form 虚 from the Yuan Zi Stele, and 棲 the form 栖 from the Yan Qinli Stele. Bright moon and distant hills in ink wash.

$32 (reference) · ¥229 CNY

Case only · fits standard-size inserts (insert not included)