QING PING DIAO 清平調
The first of Li Bai's three Qing Ping Diao (清平調) poems compares the peerless beauty of Yang Guifei to celestial clouds and radiant flowers. Written during the Tang Dynasty at the Pavilion of Concentrated Fragrance, it uses ethereal imagery of heavenly mountains and moonlight to praise the imperial consort. For this very design, Qing Ping Diao transcends the mere depiction of beauty adorned in cloud-like raiment and blossoms—it embodies the very spirit of the High Tang: an age of opulence, fluid motion, and the most supreme elegance. The pattern deconstructs the verses into interlacing layers of visual rhythm, composing a tableau that reads like a symphony in perpetual flow. The three characters—Qing, Ping, and Diao—are artfully scattered across the composition, weaving a dynamic interplay of splendour and freedom that creates not only visual depth, but a palpable sense of release.
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Master calligrapher Fung Man Yu inscribes the poem in the spirit of Xingshu (Running Script), where each stroke flows with effortless grace—balanced delicately between discipline and spontaneity. The brushwork honours the classical refinement of the original lines, while channeling the unbridled agility that defines Li Bai's genius, turning each character into a choreography of rhythm. Here, magnificence blossoms in silence—a quiet metaphor for poetry's thousand-year journey of transmission and accumulation, each layer softly echoing across time.
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