Picking Mulberries

Shen Yinmo, a native of Wuxing, Zhejiang province, was an important scholar of the New Culture Movement from the mid-1910s to ’20s. He joined Chen Duxiu and Hu Shih in editing the monthly magazine New Youth, calling for a vast intellectual, literary, and cultural revolution to rejuvenate the nation. Recognized as a pioneer of modern Chinese poetry, Shen was also well versed in classical poetry. His calligraphy practice followed the manuscript school tradition which was criticized by his friend Chen Duxiu. Chen advocated the reform of Chinese art because he thought its decline was caused by Chinese artists who so concentrated on studying from the ancients that they neglected innovation and the future. “Picking Mulberries” is a classical name of a ci poem, which generally consists of forty-four characters as shown in Shen’s poem. Originally composed by Shen Yinmo in 1919, in 1963 he wrote the poem shown here in a graceful running-script style. (“Debating Art: Chinese Intellectuals at the Crossroads,” curated by Yuhua Ding, with assistance by Elizabeth Emrich, and presented at the Johnson Museum February 2-July 8, 2018)