Ni Zan (style name Yunlin) originally came from a wealthy family. However, social chaos and turbulence in the late Yuan dynasty forced him to lead a life of wandering in the Lake Tai area. Ni originally did this painting at the age of 72 for his friend Bixuan. Two years later, Bixuan wanted to gift this work to a common friend of theirs, a doctor named Pan Renzhong. For that occasion, Bixuan asked Ni Zan to write some poetry on the painting. Since Ni Zan’s inscription mentions Pan’s residence as “Rongxi Studio,” this instead became the title of the painting.

In this hanging scroll, Ni Zan uses the “one river, two banks” compositional approach to arranging the landscape. Rather than emphasizing the design of exotic or grand mountain forms, he instead creates a mystical sense of ethereal space. The balanced layering of light ink tones combined with hooked and washed texture strokes as well as the balance of solid and void that balance each other in the arrangement here form the aesthetic tendencies of Ni Zan’s style. He created a pure and elegant desolation in painting that would ultimately become a paradigm for later generations to venerate and imitate.

This masterpiece of Ni Zan’s late years was verified and declared by the Executive Yuan’s Council of Cultural Affairs (forerunner of the Ministry of Culture) as a “National Treasure” on December 24, 2008.