A thatched studio is shaded by a dense grove of variegated trees.  A scholar within is seated cross-legged on a mat, leaning on a low desk covered with books and scrolls.  A child attendant stands outside at a nearby building.  One can hear the mountain stream cascading down from the rocks, and the waves on the lake slightly stirred by the breeze.

The brushwork used in this painting is fine and overlaid, creating an interest in dense texturing which virtually dances on the paper.  The artist has inscribed a quatrain in heptametre in the clerical script, which reads:

Beyond the stream azure mountains, beneath the mountains the hut.
Amidst pine cliffs and bamboo fences, the ideal dwelling of immortals.
The hermit does not bother to seek Springtime companions,
But in tranquility leans by the southern window, reading Taoist books.
(Painted and inscribed) at the age of eighty-five, Cheng-ming.
Seal, in two connected squares carved in intaglio: Cheng, Ming.

This is the eighth leaf in the album "Ming-jen shu-hua ho".