Riding Heavenward

The scene came from a tale written by the Tang dynasty writer Pei Xing, which tells how the scholar Wen Xiao met and married the fairy Cailian, who was ripped of her immortality as a punishment for leaking an ethereal secret. It ends with the couple both achieving immortality ten years after they got married and disappeared into the mountains, each riding a tiger. The piece was deemed by Huang Bore (1901-1968) and Jen Ju-wen (1896-1978) to be a piece painted by Su Renshan (1814- c.1850) in the name of Li Kongxiu.