Born in 1941 in Guangdong, He Huai-Shuo developed a passion for art, music and literature from a young age. He practised sketching, followed by Chinese paintings, calligraphy and seal carving. He started art practice and art history studies at university. He graduated from the Bachelor of Arts at the National Taiwan Normal University and obtained the Master of Art from the St John's University in New York. Since then, he has been active in art and cultural criticisms around the world. He became a professor at the National Taiwan Normal University, the Taipei National University of the Arts, the National Tsing Hua University and the Chinese Culture University. His publications on art and cultural criticism are numerous, making him one of the most important art historians in modern history.

As both an artist and art historian, he conducted extensive research in art history, allowing his art creation to be cautious with a lot of evaluation on how to break through in history. "How to create a significant milestone in art history" became his life-long mission. He Huai-Shuo started his project by evaluating the scroll structure of Chinese traditional art, its structure within the painting, its composition and inscriptions, while creating an harmonious visual impact that is distinct from traditional Chinese art.

This work is painted on square paper, and such structure is one of He Huai-Shuo's inventions. Square paper is not common in traditional Chinese paintings. The traditional way of composition is based on the proportion of the paper. Mountains, plants and figures would be allocated and their meanings would be "assigned" to the painting, making the traditional paintings look stiff and lack individuality. For example, pine trees would be drawn as a blessing to a friend's birthday. Yet, the individual character of the pine tree might be overshone by its meaning. On the contrary, subjects of depiction would be put at the center and on the foreground, ornamented by ink to create the atmosphere. "Meaning" would be enhanced with such composition and technique, creating a "nostalgic" beauty.

This painting depicts a soggy landscape in the twilight. Dark shadows of overlapping mountains almost block the view as a group of birds fly across the painting, leading the audience to a broad river where a tree stands at the riverbank. Visual impact and the expression of emotion have always been emphasized. From the encroachment of sombre hills to the brighter side of the painting, viewers seem to have stepped from the frying pan into the fire as the eyes landed to the dark twilight sky. Thick ink and water melange and spread inwards in a certain controlled manner, which varies from splash painting, where ink spread outwards. The control of ink by the artist seems to have suggested a controlled depressing state of the inner mind. Two trees stand in the distance, one bigger than the other. Saturated dark ink was used to highlight solitary trees by the tranquil river bank. Vivid colours are seldom used in He Huai-Shuo's paintings. On the contrary, dark and sombre tone without blank space was used in most of his paintings, creating a depressing atmosphere and yet another breakthrough of the artist from traditional restrictions.