Wu Zhen (Chinese, 1280–1354), Crooked Pine 元 吳鎮 老松圖 軸, 1335, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). Hanging scroll; ink on silk.Image: 65 3/8 x 32 1/2 in. (166.1 x 82.6 cm) Overall with mounting: 100 1/2 x 37 1/8 in. (255.3 x 94.3 cm) Overall with knobs: 100 1/2 x 40 1/2 in. (255.3 x 102.9 cm). Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, 1985. 1985.120.1. © 2000–2015 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Because it retains its greenery even in the dead of winter, the pine symbolizes endurance and fortitude. For Yuan-dynasty scholars living under the alien rule of the Mongols, depictions of ancient pines became a potent metaphor for survival in the face of political discrimination.

Wu Zhen was an educated man who in more settled times would have followed a career in government service. He chose instead to live in reclusion in the mountains of Zhejiang Province. Calling himself the Plum Blossom Daoist (Meihua Daoren), he made a humble living through the practice of divination.

In his inscription, Wu describes the source of his inspiration for this painting:

In winter, the eleventh lunar month of the third year of the 
Yuantong reign era [December 1335], while visiting the 
Cloudy Grotto, I saw a crooked and twisting ancient tree. 
So I wrote this picture to record what I saw. Meihua Daoren 
[the Plum Blossom Daoist, Wu Zhen] playing with ink.