
One of a pair of paper sketches with a poem in painted characters. This is the first one, so goes on the right. The inscription “詩書敦宿好, shī shū dūn sù hǎo” literally means 'my long love of poetry has grown deeper'. This sentence is derived from a poem entitled “辛丑歲七月赴假還江陵夜行塗中詩, xīn chǒu suì qī yuè fù jiǎ hái jiāng líng yè xíng tú zhōng shī” written by Yuanming, Tao. Tao Qian (traditional Chinese: 陶潛; simplified Chinese: 陶潜; pinyin: Táo Qián; Wade-Giles: T'ao Ch'ien, 365–427), also known as Tao Yuanming (陶淵明), born in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi, was one of the most influential pre-Tang Dynasty Chinese poets.