Anonymous Yuan Dynasty, "Four Filial Piety Scrolls"

Ink and color on silk, 38.9cm × 502.7cm, Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

This scroll depicts four stories of filial piety, presented in a text-and-image format. The first story tells of Wang Wuzi's wife cutting flesh from her own thigh to make soup, curing her mother-in-law's cold ailment; the second tells of Lu Ji of the Three Kingdoms period, who, because his mother loved oranges, secretly offered them to her during a banquet to Yuan Shu; the third tells of Wang Xiang of the Jin Dynasty, who, in winter, lay on the ice of a river to catch carp for his ailing mother; and the fourth tells of Cao E of the Later Han Dynasty, whose father drowned in the river and could not be found at first, until Cao E herself threw herself into the river, emerging three days later with her father's body. These are all moving tales of filial piety. The scroll concludes with a preface by Li Jujing, discussing the essence of filial piety. The figures throughout the scroll are rendered with balanced, fine, and powerful lines, reminiscent of Liu Guandao's style, especially the second story, which shares many similarities with Liu Guandao's "Summer Retreat" painting.