It is sometimes said that perspective in Chinese painting is opposite of perspective in Western painting. The Renaissance view of perspective is that of the singular gaze, that, from the individual aperture of the viewer, the world presents itself. By a rational sort of hierarchy, a telescope of clarity, perspective lays out the world according to proportion and scale, colour and line. It is our gaze and the world almost literally presents itself at our feet.

In Chinese painting, however, that gaze is inverted. Standing at the bottom of this hanging scroll, you cannot help but feel small. You are not looking at it; it is looking at you. As your eye tries to focus on an object, a rock, a tree, something to grab hold of, you suddenly realize it keeps on expanding, that the landscape gets bigger the farther you move back. It is the meeting of aesthetics and philosophy, a style of painting which reflects, by the nature of perspective, a sensibility. It is because of this sense of monumentality, of expanse, that the landscape is revered.