Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, Volume 3

Fan Category: Leaf 3

The following text is transcribed from the Seal Script inscription found on the fan illustration. Seal Script is one of the oldest forms of Chinese writing, characterized by its balanced, rounded strokes and uniform thickness, often used on formal seals and for decorative titles in paintings.

Towering majesty巃嵸 (lóng zōng): A classical term describing the lofty, bunched-up appearance of high mountain peaks.

original: "拂之翠屛下" (fú zhī cuì píng xià). A "green screen" is a common poetic metaphor for a dense, lush forest or a sheer cliff face covered in moss and vegetation.

original: "晱景淵叩鏡" (shǎn jǐng yuān kòu jìng). This suggests the water is so still and clear that it reflects the sky perfectly, as if the surface were a polished bronze mirror.

Towering cliffs巗巗 (yán yán): An archaic doubling of the word for "precipice," emphasizing the overwhelming scale of the rocks.

original: "與此誰來省" (yǔ cǐ shuí lái xǐng). This line reflects the literati ideal of the "hermit-scholar" who lives in isolation, wondering if any like-minded soul will find their way through the wilderness.

By the Old Master Jiegao

original: "截高太叟" (Jiégāo Tàisǒu). This is likely the pseudonym of the artist or the calligrapher who contributed this specific leaf to the manual.

Inquiring into the old style of the Heavenly Master,

A song for the wall, a shout for the wilderness,

A painting of the apes and gibbons of the mountains.

original: "猨山猱畫" (yuán shān náo huà). This likely refers to a specific vigorous or "untamed" style of brushwork, comparing the artist's free movements to the agility of mountain primates.