This landscape painting depicts a cold winter scene from the border area between Korea and China. The upper-right portion of the painting bears a text reading “Xie Shichen (sobriquet: Qixian) illustrates a scenery from a poem from the High Tang Dynasty,” which helps explain the content of the painting. Xie Shichen was from Suzhou in Jiangsu Province and was well known for his poetry. He carried on the style of the
literati painter Shen Zhou and excelled at drawing landscapes. Xie’s landscapes are characterized by mild colors and ink lines, which are gentle and sophisticated, yet decorative in style. He was particularly proficient at portraying river, lake, and sea, skillfully painting images on folding screens and large-size scrolls.
This painting can be largely divided into three sections. In the foreground is an s-shaped road. Yanmenguan,
which served as a gateway to the Great Wall of China is visible further back in the middle ground, layers of tall mountains seen in the background. Two travelers are riding mules on a winding road. On the opposite side, a man is walking down the road, carrying stacks of wood over his shoulder. To clearly delineate the tall mountains and rocks, their outlines were first established and then added with skillfully applied ink tones.
A green pine tree standing tall among several other trees with all the leaves fallen beautifies this winter scene that might otherwise seem desolate and lonely.