Lao Shu’s Floating Life

The Other China

夫天地者，萬物之逆旅

This Heaven and Earth are the hostel for Creation’s ten thousand forms, where light and darkness have passed as guests for a hundred ages. But our floating lives are like a dream; how many moments do we have for joy?

夫天地者，萬物之逆旅。光陰者，百代之過客。而浮生若夢，為歡幾何。

These lines from Li Bo 李白, the immortal poet 詩仙 of the Tang-dynasty, readily come to mind when reading Lao Shu’s record of a floating life. They are from Spring Evening Party in a Peach Blossom Garden 春夜宴桃李園, which we have previously featured in the series Intersecting with Eternity.

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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.

For more work by Lao Shu in China Heritage, see The Other China and Intersecting with Eternity. For his latest art work (and merch), see Lao Shu Paintings 老樹畫畫 online at NetEase 網易.

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In this latest addition to a China Heritage series on the northern summer season of 2026 we join Lao Shu once more as he offers a selection of paintings and poems about escape. The chapters in this miniseries are:

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夫天地者，萬物之逆旅 is the rubric of this chapter in The Other China. In Elling Eide’s translation, this line reads as:

This Heaven and Earth are the hostel for Creation’s ten thousand forms.

The expression ‘floating life’ in the title of this chapter also comes from Spring Evening Party in a Peach Blossom Garden:

浮生若夢，為歡幾何

Our floating lives are like a dream;
how many moments do we have for joy?

But, first, Lao Shu on the Dog Days 伏天 of the northern summer in 2026, a forty-day period from 15 July to 23 August.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
23 July 2026

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These Dog Days of Summer

入三伏

July 2026

Damnable heat is upon us,
where’s a cooling breeze?
Tell me, which cloud up there
holds promise of a little rain?

天氣特麼真熱，
涼風吹來幾許？
你說哪塊雲彩，
可以下點小雨？

— 老樹畫畫, Lao Shu, trans. GR Barmé

Everywhere an Abode Awaits

天下處處可為廬

Paintings and Poems by Lao Shu

translated by Geremie R. Barmé

久居一地無所動，意懶心灰身為奴。
所見所知都有限，總覺門外是畏途。
其實不必戀故地，天下處處可為廬。
懷揣碎銀三五兩，騎頭大魚走江湖。

Long mired in one spot, unmoving, my senses have dulled, heart-blood succumbs.
All that I can see and know is cramped, the outside world itself seems threatening.
But, no need, really, to be stuck like this — you can make an abode anywhere.
With a little money in hand, I can simply take off astride this massive fish.

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With this modest pile of cash
I can afford to take to the wilds
riding astride this massive fish.

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Over many years, this wandering life of mine led me to heaven’s edge.
Now, bringing my message home, I can share enlightenment with others.

Note: The expression 提瓢入市 comes from ‘Return to Society’入鄽垂手, the last in a series of poems appended to the famous Ten Ox-herding Pictures 十牛圖:

提瓢入市，策杖還家，酒肆魚行，化令成佛。

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Throughout life I have floated hither and yon, like a skiff,
in my meanderings I have been buffeted by the winds.
That’s why it is so irritating when people offer advice
trying to tell you where to go and how to get there.

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A lifetime of experience in the Dusty World,
wending through the uncertainties of the wilds.
Retired now, I buy myself a simple craft and
set my sails to wander nature’s vastness.

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In the quiet solitude in the dead of night,
struck suddenly by a wave of melancholy.
Fortunate then the company of good booze.
After a few cups I lose myself in dreamland.

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To wander by yourself through the world
never caught up in messy complexity.
Whether it be here, or somewhere else,
when you go sleep you’ll be at peace.

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Talking to themselves on a moonlit night,
the lone traveller always has company.

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There are times when you’re so absorbed
that, suddenly, you’ve run out of road.
Puzzled, you look all around and have
no idea just where you’ve ended up.

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Source:

  • 老樹畫畫，天下處處可為廬，《網易網》，2026年7月14日, translated by Geremie R Barmé