Mountain and Water

On the finest silk fabric available,

  luxurious but demanding to work with,

  the artist used both black ink and empty space,

  combining complementary opposites

  to depict the mountain, representing integrity,

  and what one thinks of as solid and enduring,

  as well as water, representing wisdom, as

  adaptive, fluid and dynamic as the rushing river.

  The mountain's elevation speeds the water's flow.

  The water's flow shapes the mountain's surface.

  The mountain's yang and the water's yin

   together creating the beauty and stability

   it's exiled creator pined for.

                              re Guo Xi's, Early Spring