Ren Yi was a highly accomplished painter of figures and portraits as well as of bird-and-flower paintings. He painted popular, unaffected subject matter, lively and in vibrant colours. This painting shows his fondness of depicting immortals and legendary figures such as Zhong Kui. Here, Zhong Kui is accompanied by a ghost-guardian. A bat is included for auspiciousness as it sounds similar to the character for happiness (fu).
