Woodcutter Returning Through Winter Woods

The Zen monk Ping Shan Chu Lin inscribed the following poem on the painting: “Flowering autumn grasses cover the mountain path/ A faint column of smoke rises beyond the wooded peaks/ There dwells an old hermit deep in the heart of the mountain/ Only a child can be seen climbing through the wintry pines.” The artist's impressions are well-expressed in his roughly simple brushwork. There is a shifting concern from the objective landscape of the Song Dynasty to the subjective expression of imaginary landscape in the artist's mind.

— Museum description: Kyoto National Museum (CC BY 4.0), via ColBase / Japan Search.