Abstract: The relationship between painting and poetry has a long history in Chinese art, starting well before Su Shi (1037-1101) famously expounded on their intimacy. Contemporary artist Lee Chun-yi 李君毅 (born 1965) has created a group of landscape paintings that seek to reinterpret this relationship. He does so through the poetry of former Communist leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976). An undeniably contentious figure in twentieth-century history, Mao as subject for contemporary Chinese art in the twenty-first century remains similarly provocative. A survey of Lee’s landscapes reveals two artistic directions to his handling of the subject matter. In one and an earlier direction, he creates works that mock the ideologies and sentiments of the Maoist era. In the other direction, and one comprising the majority of his landscapes Lee moves beyond the inescapable bias of Mao’s legacy by separating the meaning of the poem’s original context to one focused on simply the poem as content in painting. In the artist’s view, only when the words of Mao Zedong are divested of their “emotional baggage” can they be utilized for serious artistic exercises in exploring the shades of meaning between text and image.