Wu Yuan-chih, a famous scholar under Emperor Chang-tsung, excelled at landscape painting. This work illustrates Su Shih's immortal “Ode on the Red Cliff”. Su, wearing a gauze cap, appears with two passengers and an oarsman in a scene reminiscent from the ode (“Like a single reed against the vastness of Nature”). On the opposite shore stands the majestic Red Cliff. Pine branches bend slightly, as indicated in the ode by a “light breeze”, and the whorls in the water suggest the “sound of the river flowing”. The style of foreground trees and rocks here was popular in northern China under the Chin dynasty, while the light distant mountains are similar to those done in the south under the Sung. The clear and decisive strokes for the cliff and the majestic spirit also help make this a masterpiece of Chin dynasty painting.