Wu Changshuo adopted the "antiquarian epigrapher"s taste" pioneered by Zhao Zhiqian (1829–1884): a deliberately naive, slightly awkward manner derived from the engravings on archaic stone monuments. Wu"s favorite subjects were bold colorful images of flowers and rocks that found a ready market among Shanghai"s new urban class. Spring Offerings presents popular emblems of long life and renewal appropriate for a New Year"s greeting: lingzhi mushroom, narcissus, a garden rock, and the bright red berries of the nandina plant. It is not an image from nature, however, but an abstract arrangement that emphasizes epigraphic elements—round centered-tip brushwork, contrasts of form and blank space—in a simplified composition dominated by strong diagonal cross-movements.Wu"s boldly brushed poem reads:The narcissus is long-lived and the lingzhi mushroom never fades,At year"s end their appearance consoles my loneliness.The gnarled rock, set down by Heaven,Is like the Kunlunnu tribesman who waits upon the [singing girl clad in] red silk.