清 梅清 行書秦淮舟泛詩 軸 紙本 As an artist, Mei Qing is best remembered for his paintings, and the dramatic variations of ink tonality in this rare, purely calligraphic work reveal a painterly sensibility. The poem, also composed by Mei, relates the delights of boating in the evening with a friend on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing and celebrates the city’s vibrant night life, as reflected in the last line: “The flute music is hard to resist when intoxicated.” The poem may have been composed in the 1680s, when Mei visited his friend, the famous monk-artist Shitao (1642–1707), in Nanjing.