From Lao Shu’s Studio of Drunken Dreams

The Other China

誤在紅塵

 

We greeted the New Year on 1 January 2025 with the art and poetry of Lao Shu. Here we mark the end of the Year of the Dragon with a further selection of his work.

Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.

***

誤在紅塵大半生，
多少秋雨，幾度春風，
一件正事也沒成。
活到如今明白了，
什麼利益，哪些功名，
天下何事值得爭？

A life misspent in this Dusty World and,
through all the autumn rains and spring winds,
I never managed to make much of myself.
At this stage in life, I’ve finally learned to ask:
Is all of this striving after fame and gain really
that important in the grand scheme of things?

‘Red dust’ 紅塵 hóng chén is the theme of this farewell to the Year of the Dragon. For some, the transient realm of superfluous things — a world befuddled by the swirling red dust of existence — offers endless diversions and enticements. Ultimately, however, these are illusory; their charms readily dispelled by insight or enlightenment.

Lao Shu celebrates the Dusty World with a wistful and sardonic eye even as his art suggests that he has seen through the swirling miasma of the world 看破紅塵 kànpò hóng chén.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
28 January 2025
Lunar New Year’s Eve

甲辰臘月廿九除夕

From Lao Shu’s Studio of Drunken Dreams

夢里醉入花叢

selected and translated by Geremie R. Barmé

With a few dabs of black ink here,
and a vibrant skein of colour there.
Even if the world always disappoints,
flowers blossom in my boozy dreams

— Freud’s observation that art is a form of escape resonates with me.

— Lao Shu, early spring, Jiachen Year of the Dragon —
some thoughts about the Four Treasure of the Studio
along with a caution to myself.

Published on 15 January 2025

[Note: For more on the scholar or artist’s studio — 文房、 書房 、書齋 — in Chinese culture, see Zhai, the Scholar’s Studio, China Heritage Quarterly, March 2008.]

***

養好小身體，
日子還繼續。
一念在心中，
無憂亦無懼。
此生何所思？
此世何所遇？
待到春風起，
我們看花去。

Be sure to take care of yourself,
there’s much more living to do.
Keep your mind centred and
eschew all worries and dread.
What’s there really to obsess about?
Who’s to say what might befall us?
Let’s just wait for the spring zephyr
then we can go and enjoy the blossoms.

Published on 2 January 2025

***

Home after a day at work
I crash out on the bed.
No way I’ll answer the phone;
just wanna stare and zone out.

— painting and poem by Lao Shu, late in the Jiachen Year of the Dragon

Published on 6 January 2025

***

總有大風吹起，
引我走到天涯。
總有一樹花開，
讓我以夢為家。
總有一個朋友，
為我沏杯好茶。
總有一鍋肘子，
等待我去啃它。

The stirring of the wind
always inspires my travels.
The blossoming of the flowers
always takes me home in my dreams.
There’s always that special friend,
who prepares some tea for me,
just as there’s always a pork knuckle
waiting to satisfy my lusty craving.

Published on 7 January 2025

***

Bro asked me: what’s up,
has something gone amiss?
I reply: you gotta chill,
hang, I’ll be just a tick.

Published on 8 January 2025

***

The New Year’s nearly here.
Whenever you stop for a chat,
of all the newsworthy topics,
you fixate on grifts and swindles.

Published on 11 January 2025

***

Make an effort to do something real;
make sure you appreciate every meal.
Sleep whenever you have the chance, but
if you’re bored don’t just piss around.

— This is how I admonish myself:
to keep things plain and simple,
to nurture my abilities and do my best.

— Lao Shu, late in Jiachen

Published on 21 January 2025

***

What plans for the New Year?
It’s a tough one, no matter what.
How best then to dispel the gloom?
In a foursome, playing cards.

— Lao Shu, published on 22 January 2025

***

Life is but one all-enveloping dream,
akin to angling in lakes and streams.
Ultimately, it hardly really matters
if you end up with anything, or not.

— Lao Shu, at the tail end of the
Jiachen Year of the Dragon

Published on 25 January 2025

***

忙忙碌碌度日，
勞而無功一年。
離開惶惶城市，
又見寂寂河山。

Bustling days of furious activity;
yet another year of pointless toil.
Just step away from the bustling city:
the grand isolation of nature awaits.

Published on 26 January 2025

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Lao Shu in China Heritage