How rivers carve valleys, form lakes, and wear mountains down
Water taking from one bank and giving to the other; high peaks endure while their roots are stripped away
A continuous text page of the Treatise on Painting describing how rivers shape the land. Rivers run to the ocean taking from one bank and giving to the other until they widen their valleys, undercut the lateral mountains, and are dammed by landslides that turn them into slow lakes until the barrier is worn through again. Water consumes least on a narrow, short path and most where it is widest and deepest, so snow-clad summits endure longer than their bases, where furious currents carry off plant-covered hills and great boulders. There is no diagram on this leaf.
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Rivers take from one bank and give to the other, seeking their valley's width
Rivers gain motion until they gather at the great ocean, always taking from one bank and giving to the other until they seek out the width of their valleys. Water consumes least where its path is narrow and short, and most where it is widest and deepest.
Landslides dam rivers and turn valleys into lakes
Rivers eat away the roots of the lateral mountains, which, collapsing onto them, close off the valleys and, as if in revenge, block the river's course and convert it into a lake of very slow, calmed water, until the barrier of the ruined mountain is again consumed by the current.
Peaks last longer than their roots as currents strip the base
The highest ridges, clad in snow and struck by rain only briefly, feed only the tiniest slow streams, too weak to be made turbid by the earth held by old grass roots; so the summits endure longer than the roots, where furious gathered waters remove hills covered with plants together with the greatest boulders, rolling them along.