Ch: Xiaoxiang bajing. Lit. "Eight views of the Xiao and the Xiang." The eight designated scenes of the area around the confluence of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers and Lake Dongting (Jp: Dōtei 洞庭) in China's Hunan (Jp: Konan 湖南) Province. Each of the eight views is identified by a four-character poetic title: Heisa rakugan 平沙落雁 (Wild Geese Descending to Sandbar), Enbo kihan 遠浦帰帆 (Returning Sails off Distant Shore), Sanshi seiran 山市晴嵐 (Mountain Village after Storm), Kōten bosetsu 江天暮雪 (River Sky in Evening Snow), Dōtei shūgetsu 洞庭秋月 (Autumn Moon over Lake Dongting), Shōshō yau 瀟湘夜雨 (Night Rain over the Xiao and Xiang), Enji banshō 煙寺晩鐘 (Evening Bell from a Distant Temple), and Gyoson sekishō 漁村夕照 (Fishing Village in Sunset Glow).
Northern Song painter Zong Di (Jp: Sō Teki 宗迪, ca.1015-ca.1080) is credited with the creation of the theme according to literatus Shen Kuo (Jp: Shin Katsu 沈括, 1029-1093), who coined the term "eight views" *hakkei 八景. However, there is much debate which came first, the titles or the paintings. The subject was popular among the scholarly elite, and the Emperor Huizong (Jp: Kisō 徽宗, r. 1100-25) of the Northern Song dynasty is reported to have commissioned artist Zhang Jian (Jp: Chōsen 張戩) to travel to the area by boat and paint the scenery in eight scenes.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the Chinese locale, the Shōshō hakkei theme became extremely popular in Japan. Four Chinese handscrolls, including works by late Song to early Yuan dynasty painters Muxi (Jp: Mokkei 牧谿; Nezu 根津 Museum, Tokyo) and Yujian (Jp: Gyokkan 玉澗; Idemitsu 出光 Museum of Art, Tokyo), were in the collection of the Ashikaga 足利 shogunate by the mid-15th century. The earliest Japanese painting of the theme, or a fragment of it, is Heisa rakugan by Shitan 思堪 (early 14th century; Kyoto National Museum). Among the many notable Muromachi period paintings are those by Tōshun 等春 (1505-42), Sesson 雪村 (1504-89), Bokkei 墨渓 (?-1473) and Sōami 相阿弥 ( ca. 1485 -1525). Japanese paintings of the Shōshō hakkei, particularly those executed on folding screens *byōbu 屏風 and sliding screens *fusuma 襖, often have a distinct seasonal character and show the changes from spring to winter through the eight scenes. In the Edo period the theme was popular with sinophile *nanga 南画 painters and even parodied by *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists, most notably Suzuki Harunobu's 鈴木春信 (1725- 70) clever *Zashiki hakkei 座敷八景 (Eight Parlor Views). The Japanese also adapted the idea of eight views and applied it to their own geography. The *Ōmi Hakkei 近江八景 ("eight views of the Lake Biwa region") and the *Kanazawa Hakkei 金沢八景 ("eight views of Kanazawa") are just two examples.