Village Song

Inscription: In Guangxi, people are called “gongzai,” children are called “wanzai,” people from Fuzhou are called “niuyuewu,” and an ox is called “shulaowu.” If I were a troublemaker and used China’s varied languages to write a poem, it would be grotesques, shocking, and vulgar. I am so glad this has not happened. Painting in Guilin, late in the Bingzi year (1936), Beihong.
Seal: “Xu” (Square seal with incised characters) and “Beihong” (Square seal with incised characters)

Xu Beihong also made a small number of Chinese ink paintings of herding boys and oxen, including Herding Boy and Ox (1931), Village Song (1936), Ox Herder (1938), Herding Boy (1941), and Boy Riding a Calf (1943). These paintings were related to his childhood memories, but they are not simply nostalgic presentations of his childhood. These paintings are also related to the ideal of returning to nature and the fields. In his work, herding boys and oxen are always set in joyous utopias, namely springtime fields of luxuriant flowers. For Xu Beihong, these paintings generally express his longing for a peaceful and quiet life.
-Hua Tianxue, Xu Beihong’s Reforms of Chinese Painting