This You Chuntu was inscribed to Zhan Ziqian by Song Huizong, a famous painter in Sui Dynasty. It is the painter's only handed down work and the oldest picture scroll so far. Before the Sui Dynasty, many painters could not draw exquisite landscape paintings, and most of them could not grasp the proportional relationship between landscape and characters. But in You Chuntu, the author Zhan Ziqian perfectly shows the relationship between landscape and characters, which is a typical landscape painting.
You Chuntu, as a landscape painting, depicts people's "outing" at the edge of mountains and rivers in the bright spring season. The whole painting is dominated by natural scenery, in which characters are dotted. A winding path by the lake winds into a quiet valley. People ride horses or take a walk, enjoying the beautiful scenery of green mountains and green waters, birds and flowers. On the sparkling lake, a yacht slowly rippled, and several women sitting on the boat seemed to be intoxicated by the surrounding scenery and lingered. There are several Buddhist temples between the mountainside and the ravine, which are very quiet and fascinating. The painter outlined the object with thin and powerful lines. Although the characters are as small as beans, they are meticulous and complete in form. Rocks and trees are only drawn with lines, and we can see the changes of the line's weight, thickness, frustration and turning point, but we have not seen the rubbing technique in the paintings after the Tang Dynasty. The works are rich in color and heavy. Rocks and trees are colored with azurite and turquoise pigments made of minerals, with turquoise as the main tone, and red and white colors are used between buildings, people and horses, which are unified, harmonious and full of changes. Bright colors also better set off the spring atmosphere of great rivers and mountains. Besides the beautiful scenery, the composition of the whole painting is also very innovative.
Near the first paragraph of the picture scroll, a path leaning against the mountain and the water was revealed. The road spread with the mountain until the woman stood in front of the bamboo fence. A mountain path is drawn at the lower right of the picture, which is composed of low trees and grass, and becomes an extension of the towering mountains at the upper right. In this way, the mountain becomes the background of the mountain road, which is also called bedding, showing the details of the mountain. This makes the whole picture more comprehensive, calm and rich than the previous landscape paintings. The top right of the picture is mainly mountains. Then, on the bank of the mountain, trees are shaded and cross the small bridge, and there is a flat slope and a tarpaulin yacht, which is included. In the lower corner, there are potato flower trees around the villa. Shan Ye is dotted with all kinds of flower trees, and pink and green match each other. There is a big river in the middle of the picture, which blends with the lakes and mountains, making the whole picture form the image of lakes and mountains at the same time. There is a hill on the left of this picture. This hill is in sharp contrast with the mountains on the upper right. It is worth mentioning that the picture is dominated by mountains and rivers, and there are details embellished: there are boats in the river, and there are three or four people with different postures on the boat. By combining human voices with mountains and rivers, the picture proportion of the whole picture is constructed through the images of mountains, boats and people.