Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, Vol. 3

The passion for "hills and valleys" qiuhe: literally "hills and valleys," this term refers to the inner landscape of an artist's mind and their ability to compose natural scenery is now carried forward by the publication of this manual.

Its intent is to exhaust the heights and reach the furthest distances of the world, while investigating the nature of plants and trees through meticulous refinement of the subtlest details. These two gentlemen This likely refers to Wang Gai, the primary artist of the manual, and his brothers, or perhaps the publisher Shen Xinyou and the artist. are truly those who use the art of painting to achieve the "investigation of things" gewu: a fundamental Neo-Confucian concept meaning to gain knowledge by studying the underlying principles of the physical world.

Written on the day before the Winter Solstice in the Xinsi year of the Kangxi reign December 1701 by Wang Zehong of Hancheng at the Pavilion of Contentment original: "Sishi Ge" (思適閣)..