One of the most recognizable scenes from the Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers theme, this landscape depicts a river valley and distant mountains—in the modern province of Hunan, China—and a flock of flying geese, the identifying marker. The Eight Views theme attained renown within Chinese literary and artistic circles during the Song period, but its fame in China receded over time. Meanwhile, in Korea, monochrome ink paintings of this subject reached a new height of popularity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Indeed, early Joseon scrolls and screens illustrating the Eight Views represent Korean transformations of this classic theme. This scroll would originally have been part of a set of eight.
