Period: The fourth year of Shunzhi period in Qing dynasty (correspond to 1647)
Dimensions: W.470 cm, H. 27 cm
Provenance: From the Henan Provincial Work Team of Cultural Heritage in 1954

The handscroll of six poems was done by Wang Duo at the age of 56. The six poems are as follows: Western Hill on an Autumn Day, Distressed On the Warfare, Family Lee Bridge (Li Jia Qiao), Footing outside the Village at Sunset, Precipitous Mountain(Guan Shan), Ruo Hou Banshanyuan. All of them were five-character verses written in cursive script, 56 lines in total, 6 characters in a complete line, a total of 292 characters (including the titles). A colophon at the end of the scroll has seven sections, of which the first six were written by Duan Chunhu, the last one by Yu Shouzhi. The handscroll dated “the Nineteenth day of the Ninth in Dinghai year”. By resorting to the aforementioned six poems, Wang Duo expressed his distressed sentiment due to his thwarted aspirations in his late years.

Wang Duo, a calligrapher of the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, was born in the twentieth year of Wanli period (correspond to 1592), a native of Mengjin in Henan province, hence known as Wang Mengji. Born in a tumultuous age, Wang Duo saw his official career multiple changed. By learning from the ancient masters, he forged a new style of his own to successfully create a personal manner, in particular, he excelled in running script, his works were largely large fonts in hanging or handscroll format, the rough and bold brushwork, fluid ink tone, audacious and rhythmic movements, exhibiting the strong vitality and artistic appeal, and exerting a great influence on the calligraphy of the later generations.