This article introduces the work of Cai Liang, a young painter and art educator from Dianbai, Guangdong, based in Zhongshan, whose art name Mofu expresses his wish to grow old with ink. Trained in Chinese mountain and water painting and its theory as well as in Western oil painting, Cai Liang has pursued literati painting (wenren hua), integrating painting with poetry, calligraphy and seal carving. The author describes how he combines round and square brushstrokes, contrasts splashed ink with linear drawing, and uses light blue and brown tones with a rich handling of water rooted in the Lingnan school, seeking the “image” (xiang) of his subjects rather than their outward “shape” (xing). His flower-and-bird paintings, executed in the freehand xieyi manner, likewise privilege spiritual resemblance over physical likeness. The article situates Cai Liang within the debate, ongoing since the early twentieth century, on how Chinese painting should relate to tradition and to Western art, from rejection of Western influence to its full embrace. Cai Liang is presented as occupying an intermediate position, rooted in the literati tradition yet open to Western techniques, with the aim of injecting new vitality into Chinese painting. The piece closes with one of his poems.