This snuff bottle falls into the category of bottles for the scholar class, purely in the taste of the literati and rooted deeply in the sophisticated aesthetic of their paintings. The inscription is a poetic reference to the Song scholar Mi Fu:

[Like] a divine wind blowing in a valley with streams,
Only Old Mi could understand its very essence.

Mi Fu was one of the most famous painters and calligraphers of the literati tradition, and in this instance, only he is able to comprehend landscape painting.

Apart from the scholarly content of the inscription, there are other indications of the highly literate nature of the bottle. The calligraphy is confidently incised in a cross between regular and clerical scripts and is signed with a pen name typical of a scholar who had become a hermit - if not in fact, then metaphorically. Shishou Shanren is a hao or adopted name suggesting an enlightened, perhaps retired scholar who was probably a painter and calligrapher, at one with the universe and master of himself. The character zuo ('made by') leaves no doubt that it was Shishou Shanren himself who both carved and inscribed the bottle and whose opinion on the importance of Mi Fu is recorded. Only three other amber bottles are recorded bearing this name.

The carving is simple, yet extraordinarily powerful, capturing the essence of the gorge scenery with the simplest of means, incised spontaneously with the 'iron-brush' of the seal-carver.