This painting is an imagined depiction of the Chinese Tang-dynasty poet Li Bo (701–762) and his visit to Mount Omei, in Sichuan Province, South China. On a beautiful moonlit autumn evening, the famous poet sails up a stream on the Three Gorges. He looks up toward the viewer's left and beyond—where, on the pendant screen, a half moon hangs over the famous mountain—and seems to be composing a poem about the beautiful sight.

Li Bo's poem became one of the favorite works of Chinese literature among educated Japanese and was illustrated in many paintings. Bunrin, the author of this screen, was a leader of the Western-influenced Shijo school of artists in Kyoto. He also worked in the more traditional Nanga (or Literary Man's) style, in emulation of the Chinese manner, as seen here.

Bunrin's signature on the right-hand screen reads "Sensei Tosai Shio Bunrin utsusu" (Studio of Wintery Voice of Fountain Shio[kawa] Bunrin painted [this]), which is followed by two of his seals, "Shio Bunrin in" (Shio[kawa] Bunrin Seal) and "Shion" (another name of the artist). The left screen has his signature reading "Bunrin sei" (made [by] Bunrin), followed by the same two seals.