The work, inspired by Misty River, Layered Peaks, a famous painting by Wang Shen of the Northern Song Dynasty, uses the contrast of black and red as a metaphor for the philosophical concept of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. Zhao employed calligraphic brushstrokes to depict the natural imagery of misty mountains and layered forests, creating a composition that is grand in momentum and rich in visual rhythm. This sensibility toward nature and life transcends the boundaries of medium and pictorial language, achieving a universal resonance.

In the West, Zhao’s paintings were seen as embodying a general “Oriental” imagination; in China, his abstract works were admired for realizing the unique unity of man and nature in Chinese philosophy, as well as for evoking a spiritual state of emptiness and selflessness. His art, integrating Chinese and Western cultures, stands as a remarkable example of the synthesis between the expressive spirit of Chinese freehand brushwork and the conceptual depth of Western abstraction in the 20th century.