Gu Kaizhi studied painting under the Health Association, and was best at drawing figures. Xie An, a famous figure in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, thinks that Gu Kaizhi's figure painting is unprecedented. Later generations commented on his paintings: it means to save the pen first, full of painting, meticulous handwriting and continuous strength; Its brushwork, such as silkworm spinning, is light and smooth, vigorous and refreshing, and is called "iron line drawing"; There are six methods for modeling layout, with exquisite thinking and unpredictable mind. Lu Tanwei, the successor of the Southern Dynasties, and Zhang Liang, a monk, are also called "three outstanding figures in the Six Dynasties". And "if a person is beautiful, he can get his flesh, and he can get his bones, and take care of his god, which is wonderful and unreasonable, and take care of him." Together with Lu Tanwei, they are called "Lu Gu" and "Shufeng" painting schools, which are different from the "Shufeng" painting schools of Zhang Liang and Tang Wu Daozi in the Southern Dynasties. There are many famous paintings, such as Autumn Water, Lushan Mountain and Xue Ji Looking at Five Old Peaks, among which Xue Ji Looking at Five Old Peaks is highly regarded as the creation of landscape painting. The existing Pictures of Women's History, Ode to Luo Shen and Lienv Ren Zhi are all copies of the Tang and Song Dynasties. In the 26th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1900), Eight-Nation Alliance plundered this book and collected it in the British Museum in London, England.
At present, his only work handed down from generation to generation is a long scroll "A Woman's History" based on Zhang Hua, a poet in the Western Jin Dynasty. It has nine paragraphs, each of which contains a "model" story of an ancient court woman. He copied Zhang Hua's own fu in front of each paragraph. The original is stamped with the seals of collectors and emperors in the 8th century, followed by inscriptions by Jin Zhangzong and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, and a bunch of orchids painted by Emperor Qianlong himself. There is Gu Kaizhi's own signature on the back of the painting. This painting may be the earliest work signed by a painter in the world.
Suggested map of women's history 1900 was taken away from the imperial palace by the British army when Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing, and 1903 was collected by the British Museum. The first two paragraphs have been lost. The British Museum has asked Japanese experts to repair it, but the Japanese are not proficient in the repair technology of Chinese painting. After repair, the picture scroll can't be rolled up, so it can only be flattened.
In addition, there are two "Luo Shen Fu" copied by Song people, which are based on Cao Zhi's Fu paintings. In the painting, Cao Zhi and his party looked at the graceful Luoshen and all kinds of fairy monsters on the shore. One of them is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing, and the other one was swept to the northeast by the last emperor Puyi. After Japan surrendered, it was scattered among the people and later collected by Liaoning Museum.