Poem by Li Mengyang in running script

In 1626, Zhang Ruitu attained the rank of Grand Secretary, which placed him at the center of imperial government. Three years later, due to factional disputes at court, he was reduced to the status of commoner and never served in office again. Retiring to his home outside Quanzhou in Fujian Province, Zhang spent the remainder of his life engaged in writing, painting, and calligraphy.

Zhang Ruitu created a highly distinctive personal style of calligraphy characterized by strong, pointed brushwork, sharp abrupt turns, a sideways-bent brush tip, swift sudden changes in pressure, and brushstrokes that vary from thick and dark to dry and thin. His poem may be translated as follows:

Center lake is really quite extraordinary,
I cross the bridge and South Lake then is there;
Stone stairways coil back upon themselves,
Cliffside torrents suddenly appear and vanish.
I open my window where a myriad valleys amass,
Before the hall a single peak rises alone;
Viewing once more these thousand bamboo groves,
I miss the whistling hermits of antiquity.

Translation by Stephen D. Allee