Wang Ximeng, an 18-year-old boy, spent half a year creating a nearly 12-meter-long landscape painting under the guidance of Emperor Huizong, the (eight) emperor of the Song Dynasty. He probably couldn't believe that the silk scroll painting (regard)as a masterpiece.
Wang Ximeng's A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, measuring 51.5 1191.5 centimeters, has been (extreme) popular in China. As its name implies, it uses uncommon mineral pigments(颜料) with bright colors (show) the vast country landscape of rivers and mountains.
The waves on the rivers show great patience and techniques of the painter. But you think there's nothing special in the mountains, think again. Amid the continuous, almost- same-height mountains, one tall mountain, towers over all the others around it, suddenly appears. Experts hold a belief it represents the young man's ambition, standing there, like he is the center of the world.
Actually Wang Ximeng is underrepresented in the history of great Chinese artists simply because he has no other (know) works surviving today. Nobody knows exactly when he died, it is believed that he passed away in his twenties.
The excellent skills in the painting make it hard to believe that it came from a teenager. Historians believe beyond the young man's ambition and his landscape painting skills, it also contains great value for historical studies into the Song Dynasty.
