Shanshui is a style of painting practiced in China for a millennium and a half, it has a long history and is part of the world cultural heritage. It has always been more endearing to the hearts of Chinese scholars than flower birds and the human figure. Shanshui is not only for its own sake, but also as a vehicle, for it was never just about holding up a mirror to the landscape in accordance with prevailing aesthetic tastes. It was always about reflecting and negotiating the artists' own position in relation to the world of that time – for centuries a position with a majestic and noble nature of which humans were only a small and insignificant part. The other criteria were harmony, beauty and technique of execution. When we look at the shanshui tradition, it seems to face an incessant flow of reproductions of a limited number of landscape stereotypes. The new masters built their reputation in particular by freely borrowing and copying these old masters. Yet today, when people learn Chinese landscape painting, they start with imitation (臨摹), meaning they limit themselves to copying old masters. The study and copying of the works of the masters are therefore necessary foundations for the creation of artists. From the perspective of modern culture, creating is what art should do, but not as the Shanshui tradition was. But then, some studies have shown that what they call "copy" is not really what we mean by "copy." From particular tracing to liberal reinterpretation through subtle recreation, what begins as a way of learning continues as a way of cultivating and creating. Dong Qichang said that the main point of using brush and ink to imitate the masterpiece is to connect and think deeply about the original on...... middle of paper ......, it recognizes and reinterprets traditional Chinese. art in his works. It is his mode of expression through the Shanshui tradition, and his ways of thinking, seeing and perceiving are infiltrated by the ethos of the literati. Working on the computer with his countless digital photographs, he creates a virtual cityscape, combining the countless small-format snapshots in a way that imitates the structure and composition characteristic of classical shanshui. In his works, it can be seen that he always visualizes the development of China and illustrates the consequences of modernization, globalization and the destruction of China's ecological balance caused by the rapid growth of its megacities over of recent decades. Yang said: "Media... is not important, no matter what method you use to create, maintaining the creative spirit of the ancients is the most important..”1