Listening to the Zither is said to have been painted by Zhao Ji (1082-1135), who reigned as the Song Emperor Huizong. The painting depicts a performance. In the center is a luxuriant pine, up which twines a trumpet creeper. Beside it are a couple of bamboos. Under the tree sits the player, by him a small table with a vase on it. A listener is on either side of him, each on a stone seat. A page stands respectfully beside the listener on his right. Right in front of them an exquisitely wrought Lake Tai stone supports a tripod incense burner. On the right side of the painting is Zhao Ji’s autograph of his own poem: “Music comes out of strings and baked tung wood/ Like a wind piercing a pine./ The listeners look up and down, meditating on the tune/ As if they heard a melody from heaven.” On the left side at the bottom is Zhao Ji’s special Imperial signature “A Man under the Sky”.

  Most striking is the vivid portrayal of the player and the listeners. The player, head lowered in an ordinary robe, plucks the stings easily with stately tranquility, as if producing the tones from his finger-tips. The man on the left with his chin up, who wears a green court costume and a black gauze cap, is deeply absorbed in the music. Wearing a red court costume and a black gauze cap, the listener on the right listens carefully, with a little palm-leaf fan in his left hand, his head lowered, his body slightly tilted backwards supported by his right hand on the stone. Together they create a tranquil and graceful musical atmosphere. In ancient Chinese poetry the rustling pine tree is often compared to the sound of a zither as: “Over the icy seven-stringed zither echoes the chilly rustling of the pine.”

  The tree in the painting occupies most of the space. The painter intends to suggest the sound of the zither, to imbue the painting with its clear melody.

  The structure is clear and simple, proportionate and well-knit. The detailed and vivid figures and setting are done in traditional realistic and fine brushwork and deep color. The expressions, the unrestraint of the player and the absorption of the listeners are brought out in sketch and detail. The drapery falls elegantly. The serious black of the player’s robe between the vermillion and mineral green of his listeners’ achieves clarity with gaudiness. The pine, the creeper and the bamboos are depicted with the same attention to scrupulous precision as are the figures.