Zhu Xunde: Sitting with the Cosmos in Hunan Ink

On a summer morning by Houhu Lake in Changsha, painter Zhu Xunde—Tang jacket, cloth shoes, unhurried smile—welcomes a visitor to his museum on the lake’s “masters island.” The setting suits him: near Yuelu Academy, amid bamboo and birds, in a city whose artistic life he has shaped for decades. Zhu Xunde is one of China’s