‘The Seasons’

Abstract The art of landscape painting involves a coherent chain of development and transformation between individual self-awareness and the construction of a scholar's emotions. These paintings directly explore personal consciousness and expressing personal emotions. The main themes depicted in seasonal landscape paintings are seclusion and travel. The relationship between scholars’ self-awareness, landscape painting portrayal and the emergence of literature is explored by analysing the emotional states and life interests inherent in the composition of these two themes of landscape painting. The connection between changes in landscape painting themes and the emotional content carried by scholars, as well as the relationship between seasonal development in landscape paintings and scholars’ literary explorations and poetic expressions, is discussed. Consequently, the themes of seclusion and travel contain contemplation of life and aesthetic interests, revealing connections between these themes, scholarly pursuits, and the unity of poetry and painting.