Calligraphy in semicursive script (xingshu)

The handscroll format offers later viewers the opportunity to comment on their impressions of the work, since it is possible to add sheets to the end. Examples by famous artists such as Wang Duo were particularly popular, serving as vehicles for members of the educated elite to share their thoughts free from the bounds of time and place. This work has laudatory comments by seven of the leading experts on Chinese painting and calligraphy of the late-nineteenth and the early-twentieth century. Four of these comments were added after Ye Gongchao had "rescued" the piece from Japan, where it had been taken during the second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

This handscroll contains five compositions. The first piece, "Memory of Central Garden," is arranged in two sections. It presents a moment of historical change for the Central Garden, which was actually a village on the outskirts of Chengdu, Sichuan province.
The second composition, titled "Cherishing the Memory of my Mentor, Brother Wang Muji, the Late Governor Living in Danyang," plays tribute to Wang Muji, a close friend and mentor of the calligrapher, and describes Wang as a honorable official who was determined to battle against enemies. The third essay, titled "The Han Army's March on Cold Plum Temple," consists of three sections praising the triumph of the Han army over the Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE.). A fourth section, the seven-character poem "Living in Chang'an as a Guest," continues the theme of friendship. The authenticity of this handscroll is not questioned in any of its seven inscriptions and colophons. The date that accompanies the artist's inscription, however, is equivalent either to 1595, when Wang was three years old, or to 1655, three years after his death.