Three Laughers of Tiger Ravine, second half 18th century, Yosa Buson, Japanese, 1716 - 1783, 44 3/4 × 20 in. (113.67 × 50.8 cm) (image)77 × 28 3/4 in. (195.58 × 73.03 cm) (with roller), Ink and color on silk, Japan, 18th century, The scene depicted herethree Chinese men laughing heartilyrepresents the climax of an ancient Chinese Buddhist parable known as 'Three Laughers of Tiger Ravine,' which teaches that one must push boundaries in the pursuit of understanding. The story tells of an imagined meeting of three Chinese religious and cultural luminaries. The man with a large walking staff at left is Huiyuan (334-416), a Buddhist monk who established the famed Donglin Monastery on Mount Lu in 386. Huiyuan had taken a vow to never cross over a certain bridge spanning a gully known as Tiger Ravine, a symbolic barrier between the sacred space of his mountain monastery and the mundane world beyond. One day he invited two friends to Donglinthat’s the celebrated Confucian poet Tao Yuanming