Calligrapher unidentified (19th century)

The Jiuqu Xi, literally, the Nine-bends River, runs through the celebrated Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province in southeast China. The area has long been famous for the Buddhist and Daoist temples once built there and as the seat of Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song dynasty. Zhu Xi (1130-1200) established the Neo-Confucian Ziyang academy of classical learning at the river's fifth bend. Daoists considered the area one of the thirty-six spots for contentment. Today, the Wuyi mountain region constitutes the largest sub-tropical biosphere in China and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.