Establishing a new approach to reading Chinese landscape painting, this work centers around an early key example of scholarly painting, viz. Dream Journey on the Xiao and Xiang Rivers (late 12th century). The author restores the status of Dream Journey as a cultural icon for Confucians, an object of contemplation for aesthetes, an imaginary dream journey for poets, and an incentive to cultivate one’s moral intentions for both Buddhist monks and lay scholars. Also it is convincingly argued that scholarly painting originates in the Southern Song (1127-1279) and not, as is commonly thought, in the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368).