Gathering Herbs

Attended by a servant carrying a basket of herbs, a scholar pauses on a bridge beneath a pine tree and gazes upward toward his destination, a monastery visible within the mists of a distant valley. Gathering herbs was a favorite scholarly pastime, a meditative process that provided an excuse to interact with nature. Significantly, it was also a practice pursued by both Daoists and Buddhists, who believed mountains were sacred places of spiritual refuge. The mountains offered the opportunity to encounter immortal beings and therefore a path to transcendence.