Bathing Feet in a Mountain Landscape

A poetic passage of prose entitled Yufu or The Fisherman, (c. 100-200 CE) tells a story of a fisherman who tried to convince Qu Yuan, an exiled scholar-official of the state of Chu in the late 300sand early 200s BCE, to give up his stubborn political ambitions and withdraw from social affairs. He said, “When the Canglang’s waters are clear, I can wash my hat-strings in them; When the Canglang’s waters are muddy, I can wash my feet in them.” The fisherman meant that a wise man should seek an official career in good times under a sage king, but withdraw gracefully when times are troubled and the ruler turns immoral. As opposed to more extreme ascetic self-denial, the idea of a temporary mental withdrawal, with the option to ultimately resume service of local or state authority, was a common theme in literature and painting. To scholar officials, landscape paintings such as this would offer a chance to temporarily experience the transformation from bureaucrat to recluse, to seek an awakening, at least for a moment, before returning their life in the office. The colophon accompanying this view of a scholar relaxing his feet in a mountain stream reads: In deep seclusion the eastern wind blows fallen blossoms, The whole river of spring water ripples with cloudy mist; The wanderer's song has ceased and he is entirely at leisure, Resting by an old valley pine while the sun has not yet set.