View into a courtyard at the Terrace of Literary Travels (Wenyu Tai 文遊臺) in Gaoyou 高郵, Jiangsu province. Standing in the courtyard are two trees, an open hall in the back, and side galleries. In the hall are twelve standing men, five on each side leading back to an altar set with four commemorative tablets. Two men stand before a front table set with offerings. Each of the men wears an official robe with a rank badge, and each bears offerings or is playing an instrument. Below the hall’s front steps are six attendants, four on the right and two on the left. The names, titles, and the offerings or instrument that each man in the hall carries is recorded in the unsigned inscription at far left. Eight of the men are from the Gaoyou area.
Although the inscription is undated, in 1842 the Prefectural Department Magistrate (zhoumu 州牧) of Gaoyou 高郵 Zuo Huichun 左輝春 (late Qing dynasty), one of the men pictured in the scene, completed repairs on the Terrace. He had carved stones set into the walls. In front was the Spring Festival of Purification at the Terrace of Literary Travels stone (PUAM y1958-248) and the pictorial stone that was the base for this rubbing. Five of the men pictured in Su Shi’s Birthday are also portrayed in Spring Festival, and one man, He Yong何詠 (late Qing dynasty), is pictured here, while two of his sons are depicted in Spring Festival (although He Yung is mentioned in its inscription). In the back of the hall was a portrait of Su Shi (東坡小像), and to the sides were calligraphy by Su Shi and Huang Tingjian. The carved stone from which this rubbing was taken is currently located in the complex that includes the Wenyou Tai terrace, but is now set in a wall of the Hezan Tang 盍簪堂 hall compound.
Stylistic comparison between Su Shi's Birthday and Spring Festival, indicates that that the landscape painter, calligrapher, and carver likely were the same. In Spring Festival the landscape painter was identified as Kong Zhaoduo and the carver as Shen Jie.