Ting Kuan-p'eng was an excellent figure painter, especially of Buddhist and Taoist subjects. His painting followed the paths opened up by Chiao Ping-chen and Leng Mei. The faces of his figures are modeled with brushlines and shades of color; western methods of perspective and chiaroscuro are added. His work presents the classic model of Ch'ing court figure painting.This painting is a pai-miao ink-outline depiction of Emperor Ming-huang leading the palace ladies and attendants, a total of sixteen people, in a game of chi-chu, a popular sport at the T'ang court whose rules approximated those of modern-day polo. The clothing folds in general follow the high antiquity "spring-silkworm-spitting-silk brushstrokes" of Li Kung-lin. In places one sees "nail-head rat-tail strokes." The brushwork is lively, and a sense of vitality is achieved by the western methods of painting that are added.