Wen Zhengming (1470-1559 AD), alias Wen Bi, was one of the four most famous painters of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 AD), with the other three Shen Zhou (1427-1509 AD), Tang Yin (1470-1524 AD) and Qiu Ying (ca. 1494-1552 AD). Wen exceled in landscape, figures and flowers, orchids and bamboo in particular, in terms of painting, while adept at running script and small standard script in calligraphy.
This calligraphy piece of a poem of seven-character lines, with elegant yet powerful strokes, exudes a sense of liveliness though arranged in a neat and orderly manner.