Surveillance Commissioner Zhang Listens to Wind and Rain in the Paulownia Trees

This is a vanity painting, sometimes known as “picture of enjoying pleasures” (xingle tu). Yin Qiu portrayed the gentleman and Chen Shi painted the scenery. In other such paintings, gentlemen are shown with female companions or servants, but in this painting the man sits in isolation with only his qin (a zither-like instrument) and books for company. Yet he neither plays nor reads. Perhaps, he waits for someone to walk down the zigzag path and join him in appreciating the sounds of nature