Beginning in the twelfth century and continuing to the time of the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors in the eighteenth century, depictions of tilling and weaving were an important means for sponsors, particularly rulers, to demonstrate their interest in the welfare of the people. But there has never been a serious art historical study of this tradition and the political implications of the images and texts. These handscrolls by Lou Shu, a Ningbo official, depicting rural silk manufacturing and grain cultivation helped usher in a new genre of painting in Song China (gengzhi tu) that centered on representation of rural communities at work and the social tensions that the work entailed. The Pictures of Tilling and Weaving scrolls depict 45 procedures of agriculture and sericulture with each stage accompanied by a poem by Lou Shu describing the plight of farmers, their concerns, and aspirations.

The originals have been lost but copies were made and the scrolls gained much attention during the Qing. This book seeks to reconstruct the scrolls' probable appearance based on existing documents related to works handed down through history. Hammers discusses the poems and explains how and why they are crucial to understanding the meaning of Lou's project, offering important commentary on mutually beneficial relations between ruler, bureaucrat and farmer in an ideal society.