54” x 36”, oil on canvas

Private collection

I read again and late spring

floods the characters.

I see them gather in their flocks

on old silk scrolls.

They rise and fall

like columns of smoke.

Or columns of troops

serving up knowledge

to the whirlwind.

This painting was done in a pigment similar to Imperial Yellow, which was reserved for use by the Emperor alone. It is associated with the “Mandate of Heaven”—the emperor’s rule of the Middle Kingdom is given by heavens.

In China’s theory of the Five Elements, Imperial Yellow represents the earth. Here it is not earth but fire and smoke that appear in the text. The characters themselves are painted in the blue of the sky. The text itself may suggest that it is military might, not the Mandate of Heaven, that secures the Emperor’s reign.