# Greeting the Spring

- By: Wu Bin (Chinese, active c. 1591–1626)
- Date: 1600
- Medium: handscroll; ink and light color on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Image: 34.3 x 252.8 cm (13 1/2 x 99 1/2 in.); Overall: 35 x 1022.2 cm (13 3/4 x 402 7/16 in.)
- Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
- Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1959.45)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1959.45/1959.45_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This masterfully composed landscape in light colors and delicate brushwork is an image of the water-rich Jiangnan region in southeast China, where Wu Bin was active as an artist. Embedded in rolling hills along lakesides and streams nestle cityscapes hosting numerous spring festivities. Lantern displays and street performances in the villages salute the New Year, and are interwoven with scenes of farming, fishing, and silk making. In one scene in the middle ground, an ox made of clay under a canopy is lead in a procession to an architectural compound, a ceremony known as whipping the spring ox in hope for a good harvest.