Nymph of the Luo River (Goddess Luoshen at the Luoshui River) by Gu Kaizhi, Southern Song Dynasty

[Photo/.xinhuanet.com]

The original painting was lost. And this scroll, as one of the three important Song copies - the other two are in China at the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Liaoning Provincial Museum - is preserved at the Freer Museum of Art in the US.

Dating back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420AD), the famous painting derived from a famous poem The Goddess Luoshen by Cao Zhi, son of the Wei Emperor Cao Cao. With a width of 27.1cm and a length of 572.8cm, it consists of three parts, depicting a pure and sincere love story between Cao Zhi and Luoshen in a delicate and distinct way. Properly and naturally arranged, figures in the painting, along with the mountain scenes. The drawing lines are thin and simple, yet powerful and tasteful, embodying the features of the early landscape paintings. Whether from the perspective of the content, the art structure and the figures’ design or from the manifestation of the environment, it proves to be one of the treasures of classical Chinese painting.