In this work, the prominent scholar Zhu Yunming wrote three of his own poems in wild cursive, the most exhilarating and expressionistic of all scripts. Although wild cursive was originally associated with drunkenness and complete spontaneity, the popularity of this style soon gave rise to a meretricious "wildness" bemoaned by critics as "vulgar." Only one who could write the formal script exceedingly well was capable of genuine transcendence in the form of wild cursive. Zhu's characters, which seem to explode across the page, emerge from a solid foundation of inherent skill and orthodox study. As a result, his writing epitomizes slashing vigor under precise and delicate control. The structure of each character is loose but not absent. The general thrust of the characters here is more horizontal or diagonal than vertical. Within the columns the characters are balanced and interrelated but not connected. Characters expand and contract in swirling eddies, thus imparting a sense of depth and complexity to the writing, which in the hand of other, less well-trained calligraphers, might be limited to a two-dimensional cascade of zigzagging script.
	Wang Duo's transcription is written in the style of the great Tang dynasty minister Yan Zhenqing (709-785), whose muscular manner of calligraphy carried powerful associations of moral fortitude. Written one year before the Ming dynasty's collapse, Wang's own inscription following the poems reveals little concern with national affairs. Rather, he was simply interested in doing something few if any had done before: explore the effects of standard-script writing on satin. In this way the revered Tang minister's calligraphic style was appropriated by the late Ming individualist to serve purely personal, creative ends. The effect of the squared-off, rather rough-hewn writing on the lush surface of the satin, on which the ink tends to bleed slightly, is engrossing. Wang himself seems to have been amused by the results. He writes at the end that later viewers who know something about calligraphy may feel inclined to spit upon his effort!