Cheng Chung, a native of Hsi Hsien, Anhwei Province, was also called by his tzu (style name) Ch'ien-li and by his hao (sobriquet) Wu-cho. He was famous for painting Buddhist figures and landscape. In imitating the styles of Sung Yuan paintings, Cheng Chung successfully captured them with refined delicacy. Ko Hung was a reknowned Taoist of the Chin dynasty (265-420). He called himself Pao-p'u Tzu and learned from Cheng Yin the Taoist skill of refining elixir of life. Later when Ko Hung heared that there were great products of cinnabar in Chiao-chih (northern Vietnam), he moved his residence there and settled down in Mountain Lo-fu to practice the skill of refining elixir. Finally, he attained perfeftion in Taoism there.In this painting, the artist depicts the scene of Ko Hung and his family traveling on the road to Mountain Lo-fu. The elongated composition, brushwork and color rendering are obviously after the style of the Yuan master Wang Meng. Though the main theme of this picture is a Taoist story,the landscape is proportionately represented than the figures; this proves that after the Yuan dynasty landscape already developed as a leading catagory in Chinese painting history.
Cheng Chung was a native of Anhui. He excelled in Buddhist painting. Whenever he drew Buddhist paintings, he must have purified himself by observing rules of abstinence and bathing. Ting Yün-p’eng praised Cheng as an incarnation of Chao Po-chü, who was a renowned figure painter of the Sung dynasty. He was also noted for his small landscape paintings and paintings after the styles of Sung and Yüan masters. This painting is in color. Pao Ch’ien, a female Taoist, carrying a baby moves forward, and Ko Hung, also a Taoist, follows. Additionally, there are a ram, two dogs, and three boys seizing a lether belt of an ox, carrying furniture, and holding a goose with two hands and carrying a medicine bottle on the back respectively. Thick layers of mountains and dense brushwork of this painting recall characteristics of Wang Meng’s works. The figures in this painting are lively and animated.