From
郑燮《
新竹》 (Zheng Xie / Zheng Banqiao, 'New Bamboo,' Qing dynasty, mid-18th c.):
新竹高于旧竹枝，全凭老干为扶持。明年再有新生者，十丈龙孙绕凤池 - and his related self-portrait couplet
删繁就简三秋树，领异标新二月花 (Prune the complex for the simple, like autumn trees; lead the different and mark the new, like second-month flowers). Zheng Banqiao was one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou; the couplet is his artistic manifesto: cut the clichéd, open the original.
