On a bed of blossoms, dreams take me to the Tang

The Other China

一夢到大唐

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.

As Lao Shu notes in a short colophon to a painting on the theme of spring, published in mid July 2024, he draws inspiration from his mind-travels in the landscapes of the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). In speaking of ‘the Great Tang’ 大唐, perhaps Lao Shu is referring in particular to the ‘High Tang’ 盛唐, an unrivalled era of poetic creativity in the eighth century. (See also Lao Shu — roaming through Tang-Song landscapes with my Wei-Jin brothers, 13 July 2024.)

The second painting brings to mind the celebrated lines in Isaiah 2:

… they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
26 August 2024

Dreams take me to the Tang

Lao Shu

translated by Geremie R. Barmé

暮春時，夜短日漸長。有花落下風作被，無人相隨地當床，一夢到大唐。

As the spring comes to an end the days draw out. Blossoms felled by the wind form a coverlet on the earth and in my solitude I make a bed on them. Dreams take me to the High Tang.

Published on 14 July 2024

***

Travelling around Hexi, I got to see the Kushui Roses of Yongdeng [county in Gansu province]. I’ve included some in this painting.

— Lao Shu, after a summer shower in the Jiachen Year of the Dragon [2024]

周遊河西得見永登苦水玫瑰延入畫中
甲辰夏日雨後 老樹

***

***

May we all be more sensitive and loving;
May our days pass in pellucid calm; and,
May blossoms cover the earth and entangle
all instruments of war.

The whole world is in disorder: the Russo-Ukraine conflict drags on and, in China, that debilitating state of withdrawal remains pervasive.

People are distressed and divided. Looking around, and ahead, there appears to be no relief in sight.

Published on 14 August 2024

More Lao Shu in China Heritage: