United by Music 合樂圖

Executed with delicate brushwork in ink and pigments, the scroll combines fine line drawing with washes of color to delineate the instruments and figures. The composition follows a horizontal narrative format typical of Chinese handscrolls, allowing the viewer to progress through the scene as a continuous visual story.

The instruments—large drum, clapper, oboe, vertical and transverse flutes, hour‑glass drum, mouth organ, gong, long zither, angular harp, and lute—correspond to those documented in the mid‑Tang dynasty. Their accurate representation aligns with surviving Tang artifacts and textual records from the Imperial Conservatory of Music.

Although painted in the fifteenth century, the scroll draws on earlier models, notably the tenth‑century Night Revels of Han Xizai in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the oeuvre of Zhou Wenju, to whom the piece was once attributed. The artist synthesized these precedents to create a composite image that reflects a long tradition of courtly music scenes.