Master Dongpo in a Bamboo Hat and Clogs

The man pictured here with a long beard, wearing a woven straw hat and wooden sandals, and carrying a cane, is the beloved Chinese poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101), also known as Su Dongpo (literally, “Su of the Eastern Slope”). Late in life, the creator of this painting, Ji Woon-young, is said to have painted and sold one hundred portraits of Su. Ji took the proceeds from these paintings (of which this is one) and made a journey to Chibi, a storied locale that Su Shi himself visited in 1082 and about which he wrote two now famous rhapsodies. Ji Woon-young’s long inscription at the top begins with a tribute to the great poet: My mind is like a log turned to ashes, my body like an unanchored boat. Were someone to ask what my life’s work is, [I would say] Huangzhou, Tanzhou, and Huizhou. When the master journeyed to the Red Cliff, he composed an incomparable rhapsody. The cool breeze and bright moon were the same then as they are now in this year. What does the disciple love about these thousand autumns? Memories of 1082 are numerous. If the spirit wandering the Red Cliff is responsive, from the tip of my brush will emerge hundreds of Su Dongpos.