Li Bai's Preface for a Spring Evening Banquet with Cousins in a Peach Plum Garden

Calligrapher: Shōjō Shōkadō

first half 17th century

Ink on hemp

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Shōjō Shōkadō was a Buddhist monk and one of the “Three brushes of the Kan'ei period” (Kan'ei sanpitsu), meaning that he was famous during the period 1624–44 for his calligraphy. Here he has copied the prose piece of the Chinese poet Li Bai (701–762), “Preface for a Spring Evening Banquet with Cousins in a Peach Plum Garden”: 李太白 / 夫天地者 / 萬物之逆 / 旅光陰者 / 百代之 / 過客而浮 / 生若夢 / 爲歡幾。。。 Li Taibai: Now, Heaven and Earth are a wayside inn for the ten thousand creatures. Time is a wanderer through hundreds of ages. And this floating life is like a dream: for how long can our pleasures last?… (Trans. Stephen Addiss) Gallery Not on View Gift of S