Notes:
1.Luo Ping’s Plum Blossom Album is held in the collections of the Tianjin Museum.

2.Jin Nong (1687 – 1764) was a Qing Dynasty painter and calligrapher included among the renowned “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.” He had the courtesy names Shou Men, Si Nong and Ji Jin, and the sobriquets Master Dongxin, Jiliu Shanmin, Qujiang Waishi and Xiye Jushi. A native of Renhe, Zhejiang Province (which today forms part of the city of Hangzhou), Jin Nong lived a peripatetic existence, but spent much of his time living in Yangzhou. In 1736, Jin was given the opportunity to sit the boxhue hongci ke civil service examination (a special examination for men of outstanding literary talent); he travelled to Beijing, but subsequently returned home without having taken the examination. Well-read and multi-talented, Jin Nong was an outstanding poet, had an in-depth knowledge of ancient Chinese literature, was an expert on inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone steles, and was a master painter and calligrapher. In the field of calligraphy, Jin Nong excelled at the Clerical Script (kai shu); the simple, innovative version of the Clerical Script that Jin developed came to be seen as a new calligraphic script in its own right, known as the Lacquer Script (qi shu). Jin Nong also demonstrated great expertise at seal carving, adopting a style similar to that of the Qin and Han Dynasties. When he was in his fifties, Jin Nong began to paint scenes of bamboo, plum blossom, horses, Buddhas, people and landscapes. Jin was particular skilled at depicting plum trees through the medium of ink brush painting. His innovative ink brush painting compositions had a power all of their own; the dense foliage and abundant blossoms of the plum trees that he painted exuded a strong sense of vitality and energy, expressed with a classic simplicity.

3.Luo Ping (1733 – 1799) was a Qing Dynasty painter. He had the courtesy name Dun Fu and the sobriquets Liang Feng, Huazhisi Seng, Jinniu Shanren, Yiyun Daoren, and Liaozhou Yufu. Luo’s family was originally from Chenkan in She County, Anhui Province (which today forms part of the Huizhou district), but had settled in Ganquan, Jiangsu Province (in what is today Yangzhou city). Luo Ping was the youngest of the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.” At the age of 24, he began to study the arts of poetry and painting under Jin Nong, and by the age of 30 he had established a reputation as one of the finest painters in Yangzhou.