National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

The poem on the painting reads: “Autumn grasses cover the mountain path/ A faint column of smoke rises beyond the wooded peaks/ There dwells an old hermit deep in the heart of the mountain/ Only a child can be seen climbing through the wintry pines.” The poem was written by Ping Shan Chu Lin (n.d.), a Zen monk of the Yuan Dynasty (1277-1368), who lived in Jing Ci Temple, Hangzhou, in his later years. This painting seems to have been painted around 1355.The artist's sensitivity is well-expressed in the simple, carefree brushwork. One can see a shift from the objective landscapes of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to the subjective expression of an imaginary landscape in the artist's mind.