Chinese Poem to Celebrate a Senior Monk’s Sixtieth Birthday late 17th–early 18th century Duzhan Xingying (Japanese: Dokutan Sh?kei) ???? The ?baku Zen monk Duzhan Xingying, better known as Dokutan Sh?kei in Japan, has brushed two long and one short columns of bold, Ming-style cursive calligraphy to transcribe a Chinese poem composed in eight lines, five syllables each. Balanced on the left is a half-column of characters, of the same size and style, comprising the calligrapher’s signature. The verse was composed on the occasion of another (unnamed) monk’s sixtieth birthday—no doubt someone seni

Chinese Poem to Celebrate a Senior Monk’s Sixtieth Birthday late 17th–early 18th century Duzhan Xingying (Japanese: Dokutan Sh?kei) ???? The ?baku Zen monk Duzhan Xingying, better known as Dokutan Sh?kei in Japan, has brushed two long and one short columns of bold, Ming-style cursive calligraphy to transcribe a Chinese poem composed in eight lines, five syllables each. Balanced on the left is a half-column of characters, of the same size and style, comprising the calligrapher’s signature. The verse was composed on the occasion of another (unnamed) monk’s sixtieth birthday—no doubt someone senior to Duzhan in the monastic ranks—and eulogizes the subject using natural metaphors such as the clear moonlight (a symbol of Buddhist wisdom) and the vocabulary of the transmission of the Dharma (Buddhist Law). Though brushed with unrelenting energy, each character remains in its own self-contained orbit of energy, with only seven pairs of characters connected by a brushstroke; nowhere are more than two characters connected. The ink tonality remains even throughout. In some characters the influence of Song literati calligraphers such as Huang Tingjian (1045–1105) can be detected, such as the way the downward slanting strokes of the character zen ? , just below the middle of the second column, are boldly drawn. For that character, the tip of the brush hidden upon entry and also as it finishes the stroke, without pointed tips, but rather with nearly squared-off edges. Then the tip of the the next character sh? ?, creating a delightful contrast of delicacy and boldness as well as ink density. The alternation of “dry” and “wet” brush marks as the calligrapher allows his brush to go dry before re-inking is effectively brought to bear throughout the composition, and lends a sensation of spontaneity to the poem can be deciphered and translated as follows:??????????????????????????????????????????????????For your venerable sixtieth birthdayI inscr

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