Grandeur, abundance, panache

Purple paper, decorated with golden propitious signs, forms the ground for monumental characters. The text refers at once to ancient objects and conventional terms of good fortune and longevity. The clerical script echos that used by the Han elite of a thousand years earlier. In Yi's time this had become a favoured style among the educated and cultured elite, a subject of dilettante-ish researches . Yet, Yi also gives it a wry turn, with lightness and invention, shifting individual characters slightly away from their anticipated patterns. They grace the hall like a witty and well-turned out guest at a dinner party.