Sparse trees and pavilion

Wang Meng painted and inscribed this fan for the poet Chen Ruzhi (1329–1385) about 1361, when Chen came to the Hangzhou area to escape rebel uprisings near his home in Lushan, Jiangsu Province. This intimate painting and poem portray Chen as Wang knew him—as a homeless refugee living in rustic seclusion near Wang's home at Yellow Crane Mountain. Wang's poem reads:

In the empty grove the whistling wind makes the leaves dance;
The thatch pavilion is lonely under the noonday sun.
All day long a southerly wind ripples the green waves;
In a gauze cap of coarse hemp one feels no trace of summer's heat.
This rustic's dwelling is near Yellow Crane Peak;
In the evening he enters a deserted grotto and listens to the mountain rain.