Victoria - 09 Apr 2025
Magic in Our Colour Palette — Brilliance Hidden in a 1,000-Year-Old Painting
Figure 1: A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains (detail) by WANG Ximeng (AD 1096 - 1119), Northern Song dynasty
Vookwong.com is not just a website, but also an interactive SPACE.
Our website’s color palette is inspired by one of the most iconic paintings in Chinese art history — A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains (Figure 1). Painted in 1113 by Wang Ximeng, an 18-year-old artist of the Northern Song dynasty, the scroll stretches nearly 12 meters long and is widely regarded as one of China’s greatest masterpieces. Today, it’s housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing (Click here to view the full scroll via the museum’s website: https://minghuaji.dpm.org.cn/paint/appreciate?id=b0a15b3767a5c12089ec45563741112b). Dominated by vivid shades of blue and green, the painting depicts a sweeping landscape of majestic mountains and flowing rivers — grand, powerful, and deeply poetic in its vision of nature. (btw we highly recommend this dance btw, we highly recommend the dance drama— a stunning and poetic reimagining of the painting! Click here to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTVb2tW9QEI）
But this painting is more than just a depiction of nature — it’s a landscape beyond the physical. At its heart lies a profound philosophy: the ultimate harmony between humanity and the outer world. That’s why we chose it as the inspiration behind our colour palette. Afterall, VooKwong.com is not just a place to shop — we hope it can become a SPACE where beauty becomes a vessel for meaning. We invite you not only to browse jewelry, but to step into a living scroll of flowing greens and blues, where past and present intertwine, where jewellery carries stories and becomes Realms, where you become part of something timeless — a tranquil yet radiant rebirth.So take a moment.
Pour yourself a cup of Biluochun tea. And let us tell you the story behind the colours that shape VookWong.
Harmony Between Nature and Self: Gracefully Flowing Within the World
In this ancient scroll, the painter doesn't merely illustrate majestic mountains and rivers — he captures an ideal way of life. Amid the vast landscape, if you take a closer look, you can see people working, resting, traveling, or drifting through the scene, seamlessly part of the natural world (Figure 2). The mountains, the rivers, and the people exist together in perfect harmony.
This is exactly the message we wish to convey through VooKwong:
a reminder that in today’s fast-paced world,
we can still remain grounded and serene, maintaining a sense of clarity and calmness in our inner selves,
while walking confidently through the material world.
Here, the inner and outer worlds merge —
where the peacefulness of the self flows effortlessly into the world around us,
where you and your surroundings become one.
Figure 2: People lving in harmony with nature in A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains (detail)
Fusion of Colours：Inner Serenity Meets Outer Radiance
Traditional Chinese painting emphasizes Yi Jing, or the REALM of meaning, where nature serves as a mirror to the human soul. These works are thus never mere representations of nature but highly subjective reflections of deeper emotions and philosophy. In this sense, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains not only portrays the harmony between the human spirit and the natural world directly but also embodies this same meaning through its colour palette.
Following the tradition of blue-green landscapes from the Sui and Tang dynasties (Figure 3), the artist used vibrant mineral pigments like azure and jade green to depict the landscape. These bold tones are balanced with the addition of ochre and more delicate, transparent plant pigments like indigo (Figure 4). The colours range from rich and intense to light and airy, creating a layered, gem-like effect that glows with radiance.
Figure 3: Spring Excursion by Sui-Dynastry (AD 581 - 618) painter ZHAN Ziqian. You can see how green and blue were used to depict the natural scenery.
Figure 4: The hormonious colours in A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains (detail).
We thus drew inspiration from these colours, with each one representing a collection in our line.
AZURE– The Nay Sheng Collection
The dominant colours in A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, derived from the natural minerals azure, exude a calm, serene depth. Just like our Nay Sheng collection, which seeks peace and mindfulness amidst the chaos of the world, azure represents a graceful, refined mental state.
OCHRE – The Wye Wong Collection
The warm, outwardly expressive yet powerful ochre comes from natural minerals. It embodies the Wye Wong collection’s focus on mastery of the material world and radiant control. Ochre’s vitality perfectly complements the passion found in gold and gemstones (as you can seen in our desings), creating a connection to life’s energy.
The Colour of Jade – The Gold & Jade Splendor Collection
A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains was painted on silk, which has aged to a yellowish tint over time. However, we still use the original jade-like colour from the silk itself. This jade tone, with its subtle luster, represents harmony and balance. It’s the perfect embodiment of the ultimate aesthetic of our Gold and Jade Collection, where inner cultivation and external expression come together in perfect unity, symbolizing harmony between inner calm and outer radiance.
Tradition Meets Modernity: The Historical Presence Within Us
Beyond its breathtaking beauty, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains also reflects a methodology we hope to share through VooKwong: To exist is to carry history within—not as nostalgia, but as a bridge to the future. Looking back to tradition is never about clinging to the past, but about equipping ourselves to face the future with greater wisdom.
While Wang Ximeng’s painting draws on the classic blue-green landscape style of the Sui and Tang dynasties, he also introduced innovative brush techniques such as ink texture strokes, which became prominent in later periods. In doing so, he moved beyond purely subjective expression and brought a more tangible sense of the material world into his work—achieving a rare balance between inner feeling and external reality (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Where feeling meets form in A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains (detail)
Just as Wang Ximeng used tradition to ground and elevate his presence, creating a timeless masterpiece at the age of 18, VooKwong hopes our jewellery can serve as a bridge—connecting ancient wisdom with your own sense of presence, helping you to live the moment, and live into the future. You are a historical presence — shaped by the past, grounded in the now, and carrying the seeds of the future. In every step you take, you continue the story.
That’s why we chose the original jade-toned hue of silk, along with the time-worn “Jiashannan” (假山南) tone—evoking how silk subtly ages over a thousand years—as the key colours for our homepage. In this carefully curated SPACE, we hope you’ll not only interact with ancient wisdom, but also begin sketching your own story—on a fresh piece of silk, uniquely yours.
Welcome to Vookwong, this is just the beginning.