Zheng Xie 1693-1765

signed Banqiao Zheng Xie, and with two seals of the artist, zheng xie zhi yin, er shi nian qian jiu ban qiao

Previously in the collection of Hong Kong Min Chiu Society member Harold Wong

San Francisco, Asian Art Museum, regular exhibition, 2006
Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, June 9, 1992 to August 2, 1992

Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1992, p. 189

-Paper bears a tanning tone due to age -Some minor restorations can be found here and there, which can also be spotted in the illustration
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The poem reads:
South of the river, north of the river
    the snow begins to melt,
spreading widely a light yellow
    teases out tender twigs.
On the Ba's shores already snapped
    by the hands of travelers,
at the Chu palace early displayed
    in waists of dancing maidens.
Rain-soaked on the Clear and Bright Festival
    they look over the official road,
late in the day filled with wind
    they brush a bridge in the wilds.
Like threads, like strands of silk
    they now pull forth resentment,
how far it is, the road
    that the prince must follow home!
(from Stephen Owen, The Late Tang, Chinese Poetry of the Mid-Ninth Century (827-860). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006, p. 471-472)

Zheng Xie, also known as Zheng Banqiao, was one of the most prominent of a group of 18th century artists collectively known as the 'Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.'  Zheng's bold, expressive style of brushwork in both painting and calligraphy had a profound influence on later Chinese artists.
Li Shangyin (ca. 813-858) was a poet of the late Tang dynasty. His compact, tight-structured verse is imaginative and lyrical and often filled with historical and political allusions, making his poems difficult to interpret.