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.
