A handscroll of court ladies illustrating a Confucian poem of proper conduct. Probably the oldest surviving Chinese narrative painting, preserved in a Tang-era copy.
Gu Kaizhi (attr.) · c. 400 CE · Song copy at the Palace Museum, Beijing
A handscroll illustrating Cao Zhi's poem about his unrequited love for a river nymph. Figures float on waves rendered in iron-wire line, backgrounds compressed into pictographic mountains — an early statement of the Chinese approach to narrative through suggestion.