Viewing the Waterfalls at Longqiu

Dai Xi was commissioned by a young scholar to paint the landscape of Longqiu on Mount Yandang in eastern Zhejiang Province, a place renowned for its majestic waterfalls. The mountain was remote and nearly inaccessible, but the young scholar ventured to the distant site to admire the beautifully bizarre natural rock formations that complemented the spectacular dual falls cascading into the mountain's Dragon Pool. Dai Xi fittingly inscribed the beginning of the painting in ancient seal script, as if the title itself was carved on the very rock of the mountain. He built up layers of muted gray using an old, worn brush, gradually texturing the landscape to an extraordinary rich, silvery appearance. Dai Xi empathetically depicted his patron, the young scholar, seated alone in the poolside pavilion, serenely contemplating the clouds of fine mist rising from the roiling froth of the powerful falls.