富贵长寿Wealth and Long Life

Three clumps of white peonies grow at the upper right, the middle left and the lower center. Their large heads are tinted with the palest ink and green and left largely the white of the paper, petal over petal, clean as jade, around golden hearts; the leaves are ink-green with crisp veins. An old branch leans in from the right, budding at every joint. On a twig at the upper left a pair of paradise flycatchers sit together, red-crested and rosy-bodied, their long tails hanging like ribbons. At the lower right is a garden rock washed in pale ochre and ink and dotted with moss, and in front of it a few stems of vermilion bamboo, a rare touch.

The title on the right reads Wealth and Long Life, and the inscription records that it was painted beside West Lake in Hangzhou in the winter of 2025. The peony stands for wealth and honor. The paradise flycatcher’s name, shoudai, begins with shou, the word for long life, and its trailing tail is a wish for years without end.

白牡丹三丛，分居右上、左中与中下，花头硕大，瓣以淡墨淡绿轻染，留出纸白，层层叠叠，莹洁如玉；花心金黄，叶以墨绿写出，勾筋利落。老枝自右侧斜出，节节生芽。左上枝头，绶带鸟一双并栖，头有朱冠，身作粉红，长尾垂曳如带，顾盼相依。右下湖石一方，淡赭淡墨晕染，石面浓墨点苔；石前朱竹数竿，以朱砂写出，清劲别致。

右侧题“富贵长寿”，款记乙巳冬月作于杭州西湖之畔。牡丹寓富贵，绶带之“绶”谐“寿”，民间又称寿带鸟，长尾飘曳，寓长寿绵延；合而言之，即富贵长寿。