Such was the case of the animal and bird paintings of Pa Ta Shan Jen of the Ching dynasty in which the subject is portrayed with just a few minimal strokes of the brush. Here the aim of using birds as subjects is to express the territory of the artist's inner being. It is this that the Chinese literati came to think of as being the highest attainment in art.
就像清朝八大山人的禽鳥作品，主題常是輕描淡寫幾筆而成，他的目的其實在藉鳥表現自己的心境，這才是中國文人心目中藝術的最高境界。