Blue and Green Landscape, in the Style of Qiu Ying

This handscroll invites us to visit a hidden world and may even lay out a perfect day of poetry, music, and companionship. From the right, meeting our waiting friend in a hut, we follow the trail around the first rocky peak and emerge in the foreground. The path takes us to a small compound, where two gentlemen await us and another guest who crosses the bridge below. His servant carries a wrapped musical instrument called a gǔqín 古琴, beloved by scholars. Further on, two servants carry our sumptuous lunch up a steep walkway to a temple in the hills. We wander until late afternoon, finding one more friend at his rustic residence. Finally, we board boats and float to a wine shop, marked by a pole and banner, where we end our day composing poems in a drinking game.

This painting is an idealized vision of the elite, private gardens and literary gatherings held by wealthy officials and scholars in late imperial China. But where are the women? At this time, it was considered inappropriate for upper-class women to be seen by men outside the family, so they, although often highly educated themselves, were absent from such gatherings.