Spring Excursion， a Sui Dynasty（581.618） hand scroll by Zhan Ziqian， ink and color on silk， 43cm×80.5cm， in the collection of the Palace Museum， Beijing.
Zhan Ziqian（ca. 550.604）， a Sui Dynasty painter， was acclaimed as forefather of Tang Dynasty（618.907） painters and one of four great artists in pre-Tang period（the other three artists were Gu Kaizhi， Lu Tanwei and Zhang Sengyao）。 He was skillful at drawing narrative paintings， characters， landscapes and pavilions with delicate techniques.
This work is the oldest landscape painting among existing collections in China and the only scroll painting of the Sui Dynasty as we can see. It marks the beginning of blue-and-green landscape of later ages and indicates the maturity of Chinese landscape paintings.
As a national cultural treasure， it shows landscape of lakes and mountains， enchanting spring scenery， and people indulging in hearty amusement.
