天馬賦 The horses ode

【About the author】

米芾（1051年－1107年），北宋書畫家。初名黻，字元章，時人號襄陽漫士、海岳外史，自號鹿門居士。米芾原籍襄陽（今屬湖北），後定居潤州（今江蘇鎮江）。因其衣著行為以及迷戀書畫珍石的態度皆被當世視為癲狂，故又有「米顛」之稱。米芾於硯，素有研究，是北宋著名書法家、鑒定家、畫家、收藏家。米芾為著名書畫家和文物鑒賞家，與蘇軾、黃庭堅、蔡襄並稱宋代四大家，他擅長楷、行、草、篆、隸等多種字體，尤以行草最為著名。

Inside Story

According to preface, the article was written by Mi Fu after he saw an ancient painting of horses collected by Kao Chunsu. He regretted that those good horses could not be found in his time again, thus he wrote this article “The horse ode”. In the article he shaped out the look and spirit of the horses by words. While reading the words used to describe the horses, one could Image how handsome and vigorous those horses were.