Depicted in broad brushwork, this painting comes in contrast with Yu's Gongbi paintings. The red bird was painted in quick brushstrokes and pine leaves were portrayed using light ink. The red bird's determined gaze into the distance offers a new scene outside the frame, creating a virtual three-point structure in the painting. Blank space in literati paintings of Song dynasty often echoes with the laws in the Book of Changes, where all elements are independent yet interconnected. Painted at the end of 1979, the painting depicted an austere joy of a Chinese scholar, through listening to the sound of running stream and the chipping sound of birds.