"He excelled in every subject: men, gods, devils, Buddhas, birds, beasts, buildings, landscapes—all seemed to come naturally to his exuberant art. He painted with equal skill on silk, paper, and freshly-plastered walls; he made three hundred frescoes for Buddhist edifices, and one of these, containing more than a thousand figures, became as famous in China as “The Last Judgment” or “The Last Supper” in Europe. Ninety-three of his paintings were in the Imperial Gallery in the twelfth century, four hundred years after his death; but none remains anywhere today. His Buddhas, we are told, “fathomed the mysteries of life and death”; his picture of purgatory frightened some of the butchers and fishmongers of China into abandoning their scandalously un-Buddhistic trades; his representation of Ming Huang’s dream convinced the Emperor that Wu had had an identical vision."

"So great was his reputation that when he was finishing some Buddhist figures at the Hsing-shan Temple, “the whole of Chang-an” came to see him add the finishing touches. Surrounded by this assemblage, says a Chinese historian of the ninth century, “he executed the haloes with so violent a rush and swirl that it seemed as though a whirlwind possessed his hand, and all who saw it cried that some god was helping him”: the lazy will always attribute genius to some “inspiration” that comes for mere waiting. When Wu had lived long enough, says a pretty tale, he painted a vast landscape, stepped into the mouth of a cave pictured in it, and was never seen again. Never had art known such mastery and delicacy of line."

"The greatest painter of the T’ang epoch, and, by common consent, of all the Far East, rose above distinctions of school, and belonged rather to the Buddhist tradition of Chinese art. Wu Tao-tze deserved his name—Wu, Master of the Tao or Way, for all those impressions and formless thoughts which Lao-tze and Chuang-tze had found too subtle for words seemed to flow naturally into line and color under his brush."

"As Christianity transformed Mediterranean culture and art in the third and fourth centuries after Christ, so Buddhism, in the same centuries, effected a theological and esthetic revolution in the life of China. While Confucianism retained its political power, Buddhism, mingling with Taoism, became the dominating force in art, and brought to the Chinese a stimulating contact with Hindu motives, symbols, methods and forms. The greatest genius of the Chinese Buddhist school of painting was Ku K’ai-chih, a man of such unique and positive personality that a web of anecdote or legend has meshed him in."

"He insisted on being a philosopher, too; under his portrait of the emperor he wrote: “In Nature there is nothing high which is not soon brought low. . . . When the sun has reached its noon, it begins to sink; when the moon is full it begins to wane. To rise to glory is as hard as to build a mountain out of grains of dust; to fall into calamity is as easy as the rebound of a tense spring.” His contemporaries ranked him as the outstanding man of his time in three lines: in painting, in wit, and in foolishness."

"Families when a child is born Hope it will turn out intelligent. I, through intelligence Having wrecked my whole life, Only hope that the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. Then he'll be happy all his days And grow into a cabinet minister."

"What a ruler has to rely upon is only the human heart. Human hearts are to the ruler what roots are to a tree, what oil is to a lamp, water to fish, fields to a farmer, or money to a merchant."

"There had to be one Su Tungpo, but there could not be two."

"The mention of Su Tungpo always elicits an affectionate and warm admiring smile in China."

"水光潋滟晴方好，山色空蒙雨亦奇。欲把西湖比西子，淡妆浓抹总相宜。"

"横看成岭侧成峰，远近高低各不同。不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。"

"十年生死两茫茫。不思量，自难忘。"

"清夜无尘，月色如银。酒斟时须满十分。浮名浮利，虚苦劳神。叹隙中驹，石中火，梦中身。虽抱文章，开口谁亲？且陶陶乐尽天真。几时归去，作个闲人，对一张琴，一壶酒，一溪云。"

"Probably China's greatest descriptive poet."

"诗中有画，画中有诗。"

"I have just seen you go down the mountain. I close the wicker gate in the setting sun. The grass will be green again in coming spring, But will the wanderer ever return?"

"泛舟大河裏，積水窮天涯。天波忽開拆，郡邑千萬家。行復見城市，宛然有桑麻。回瞻舊鄉國，淼漫連雲霞。"

"行到水穷处，坐看云起时。"

"紅豆生南國，春來發幾枝。願君多採擷，此物最相思。"

"明月松間照，清泉石上流。"

"独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲。遥知兄弟登高处，遍插茱萸少一人。"

"独坐幽篁里，弹琴复长啸。深林人不知，明月来相照。"

"渭城朝雨浥轻尘，客舍青青柳色新。劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人。"

"一身转战三千里，一剑曾当百万师。"

"卫青不败由天幸，李广无功缘数奇。"

"君自故鄉來，應知故鄉事。來日綺窗前，寒梅著花未？"

"The cold mountain turns dark green. The autumn stream flows murmuring on. Leaning on my staff beneath the wicket gate, In the rushing wind I hear the cry of the aged cicada."

"In the mountains a night of rain, And above the trees a hundred springs."

"If you ask me abruptly Why write poetry Why not do Something useful Then I won't know How to answer you I am like a goldsmith hammering day and night Just so I can extend pain Into a gold ornament as thin as a cicada's wing I don't know if working so hard To transform sorrows into Shimmering words and phrases Is also Beautifully worthwhile."

"Do you see it? Do you see that sunflower, raising its head Glaring at the sun? Its head almost eclipses the sun Yet even when there is no sun Its head still glows."

"I've ever thought it passing odd How all men reverence some God, And wear their lives out for his sake And bow their heads until they ache. 'Tis clear to me the Gods are made Of the same stuff as wind or shade. ... Ah! if they came to every caller, I'd be the very loudest bawler!"

"Yuan Mei was a revolutionary in the world of poetry."

"If I can rejoice for a moment, Death at an early age would still be a long life."