This painting illustrates a historical event known as the “Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion” at which Wang Xizhi (307–365) of the Eastern Jin dynasty and other literati figures gathered at the Orchid Pavilion (in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province), performed a customary purification ritual held by water to ward off misfortune, and played a game of composing poems while drinking wine from cups floating down a winding creek.
Along the waterway to the left of the Orchid Pavilion down which the wine cups are floating, thirty-two literati and nine boy attendants can be observed clustered in small groups. In between the boy attendants busy fishing cups out of water and preparing paper, there are literati figures absorbed in thinking of poetic concepts while appreciating the beautiful scenery, chatting with friends, proudly reciting poems they have just composed, or readying themselves to drink the wine leveled as penalty for missing a turn. The figure looking down at all of these scenes from the pavilion is the host Wang Xizhi. This work embodies a desire for an ideal life of enjoying the arts unfettered by politics or government responsibilities.
The painter Sheng Maoye (sobriquets: Nianan and Yanan) was a professional painter in the late Ming dynasty. He was skilled at painting
andscapes with mountains. He is known to have influenced Japanese painters of the Edo period.