Chen Yang's painting depicts a dilapidated courtyard house. An elderly man, in his eighties, sits peacefully in a rocking chair under a grape trellis. Beside him is a pot of tea, steam rising from its spout. Golden rapeseed flowers bloom in small vegetable patches within the courtyard, and bees busily flit among the blossoms. The old man is engrossed in reading a thread-bound copy of the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, his right index finger slightly bent, seemingly tapping leisurely on the armrest of the rocking chair.
What a beautiful scene of an autumn afternoon nap!
The experts present were all astonished. Not because the painting itself was particularly groundbreaking—they hadn't yet had time to appreciate its nuances—but because the old man in the painting, the very essence of his feat
