Couplet in running script

Books and pictures are themselves an Immortals' Chamber,
I view the Southern Capital as the Dipper and Mount Tai.

The exact meaning of these two poetic lines is elusive, and the current interpretation represents merely one of several possibilities. Line 1 refers to the Immortals' Chamber, an alternative name for the imperial library during the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.). The building derived its name from the many texts on esoteric Daoism that were housed there. Bada may have used this allusion to enhance the definition of his own library, tushu (literally, books and pictures), mentioned earlier in the line. The first two characters in line 2, shandou, are an abbreviation for: Taishan (Mount Tai), easternmost of the five sacred mountains; and the constellation Beidou (Northern Dipper).  This abbreviation is used to describe a person whom others regard as a paragon. Later in the line, the term "Southern Capital" may refer to Bada's hometown of Nanchang, which was awarded this official designation under the kingdom of the Southern Tang (937-75).  In sum, the two lines may simply refer to Bada's own reclusive existence outside Nanchang in his later life, where he devoted himself to poetry and the visual arts and seldom left his library or studio.

Translation by Stephen D. Allee