The Eight Great Views

The Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers were a popular theme in East Asian painting and poetry, a kind of aesthetic bucket list. The theme likely originated during China’s Song Dynasty (960–1279), and tradition holds that the first Chinese painter to paint all eight views together was the scholar-official Song Di (c. 1050–80). The Eight Views are: 

  1. Mountain Market in Clearing Mist
  2. Sails Returning From a Distant Shore
  3. Sunset Over a Fishing Village
  4. Evening Bell from a Mist-shrouded Temple
  5. Night Rain on the Xiao and Xiang Rivers
  6. Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbank
  7. Autumn Moon over Dongting Lake
  8. River and Sky in Evening Snow

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