Roll, ink on paper

28.9 cm (vertical) × 364.6 cm (horizontal)

 

Li Gonglin, style name Boshi and known by the sobriquet Longmian Jushi, depicts scholars’ idyllic life at the Longmian Mountain Villa. The painting portrays the scenes of scholars admiring landscapes, enjoying excursions, tea tasting, having intellectual conversations, and engaging in philosophical discourses, embodying the lifestyle of a literati recluse. Each scene is labeled with a small script, and the composition weaves together layers of mountains, winding paths, and scattered figures and buildings. Activities such as waterfall viewing, tea drinking, foot washing, and painting and calligraphy appreciation reveal the cultural ethos of the Song dynasty. The landscape elements, such as mountains, trees, and rocks, are rendered in stylized geometric forms, offering innovative ideas and enriching viewers’ visual experiences. 

 

Historical accounts record that Wang Wei (c. 699–759) constructed a retreat at Wangchuan in Lantian, Shaanxi, composing poems and painting the Wangchuan Villa. Inspired by such a precedent, Li Gonglin invited Su Shi (1037–1101) to write a colophon for his work, and Su Zhe (1039–1112) composed twenty poems titled “Inscribed on Li Gonglin’s Painting of Mountain Villa.” While this scroll does not depict all the scenery described in the poems, it can be cross-referenced with the literary pieces to reconstruct the complete view of the Longmian Mountain Villa.