The scroll depicts a reservoir framed by rocks. On the right, on a green island, there are several houses; in the foreground, three boats seem to stand on the mirror-like surface of the river. There is a flowering shrub with pink flowers everywhere on the rocks. Above is the sky with cumulus, which look like a dense white cotton wool falling directly on the mountains. Waterfalls run down from the rocks with a seething roar, filling the river with water from the mountains. Birds fly in a group over the river. The painting is created in cold gray and white colors.

Top left horizontally is an inscription in hieroglyphs and a red seal of the artist, the second is in the lower right corner. The scroll is decorated in a passe-partout of beige fabric with floral ornaments. The author of the work is the contemporary Chinese artist Wang Wei, he is the founder of monochrome landscape painting, which uses the tonal possibilities of ink. This is a landscape-picturesque style, new for the national fine arts.

The work is created in guóhuà tradition- Chinese national painting with paints on a vegetable and mineral basis or black ink on silk and paper scrolls, fans, screens, album sheets. The term ‘guóhuà’ appeared at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, but the main forms of traditional Chinese painting appeared in the 4th-5th centuries. In the 8th century, various painting styles were formed: careful ‘gongbi’, which recorded even the smallest details and all the details, and free, as if unfinished, ‘xieyi’, which was sometimes called ‘painting of an idea’. The latter gave the viewer the opportunity to fantasize about what the artist put into his work and what he was trying to tell us.

The background in Chinese painting is not filled. The surface of the paper or silk of a painting is considered by painters either as a space of air, or as a surface of water. Scroll paintings in general and their individual details, as a rule, have their own interpretation. In the 9th-10th centuries, the leading place among genres was occupied by landscape — ‘mountains and streams’, which was inextricably linked with poetry and calligraphy. The vast experience accumulated by many generations of outstanding master painters was carefully preserved by descendants.

The pantheistic views of the Chinese associated with the ancient worship of nature — mountains, rivers, lakes, trees — formed the basis of the traditional attitude towards the world. The Chinese have always perceived nature as great, divine and eternally renewing, and human life in comparison with this universe was obscure. Man was a just a small dust in this world, a small but necessary part of it, so he tried to live in harmony and at one with nature, honoring it as a spiritual and aesthetic ideal. In medieval art, the ideas of pantheism were embodied in the traditional genre of landscape, so it is no coincidence that painting became the leading art form at that time.

The scroll entered the Amur Regional Museum of Local Lore in 2003, at the end of the exhibition of Beijing (PRC) artists.

In front of us is a picturesque landscape of white mountains, water, clouds, trees, snow and ice. In the foreground, on a small island, the author has placed an image of tall snow-covered trees in colors ranging from white to gray. The trees are leaning towards the water under the weight of the snow. On the right, a deer and a fawn stand motionless on an ice floe. The smooth surface of the water reflects the sky. Mountains of white and dark colors are visible in the distance. Vertical right are hieroglyphs and the artist’s seal. There is another seal in the left corner.

Yu Zhixue’s paintings on the winter theme occupy a special place in the genre of landscape painting in the Shan Shui style, being truly unique works. The striking views in these paintings and the unique author’s style indicate that Chinese painting is developing a new type of art. It begins to speak in a completely different language, reaching the unknowable heights, since the centuries-old tradition did not allow depicting snow and ice.

Yu Zhixue is the founder of “ice and snow” landscape painting, a member of the Council of the Chinese Society of Artists, and a researcher at the Institute of Artistic Creativity at the Chinese Art Research Institute. After nearly forty years of practice and various experiences, Zhixue created a new style based on traditional painting, which is characterized by a completely different approach to already existing ink painting techniques. He fits all aesthetic ideas, becoming, perhaps, the most striking representative of the snow-covered landscapes’ school. Yu Zhixue created his own language and a special set of techniques.

Snowy landscapes with the affinity of icy beauty stand out from the vast array of Chinese painting trends. The school of this master, combining a unique perception of traditions and borrowing European experience, united many artists who created several pavilions and parks of ‘ice and snow’ in the country.

The founder himself was born in northern China, in the Heilongjiang province, so winter views became a constant source of inspiration for him. To truly understand the beauty of the world and fully enjoy the versatility of the northern sceneries with their endless plains, ice-covered trees and lakes, Yu traveled almost the entire world. He admitted that watching the wonders of nature, he felt the breath of history.

The scroll painting was donated to the Amur Regional Museum of Local Lore in January 2009 by Mr. Yu Zhixue after the exhibition ‘Ice and Snow’ was held in the museum, in which the works of Chinese artists performed in ink on rice paper were displayed.