Rendered in Ma Jin’s distinctive style, the zebra’s head is depicted using carved ink and dotted patterns. Above its head appears the character “因” (cause), with the inscription “马上成功” written below, symbolizing the planting of the cause for success.

On the left, the work is accompanied by a poem:

Black and white, a soul born of nature,
Calmly treading the worldly realm.
A long wind follows each step,
Freely moving toward a new spring.

This work was created with reference to the Xingri Ma sculpture at the Yuhuang Temple in Jincheng, Shanxi Province. Using his own distinctive style and brushwork, Ma Xinyuan depicts the figure of the Star–Sun Horse, who holds a small horse in his hand.

The work integrates astronomy, military symbolism, and mythology, embodying the traditional Chinese concept of “the correspondence between Heaven and humanity” (tian ren xiang ying). This worldview vividly reflects how ancient people closely linked natural celestial phenomena with human affairs.

This diptych allows two quiet landscapes to converse with each other: a plain bathed in pink, and a shoreline where the sea advances and recedes.
Between the stillness of the land and the ebb and flow of the water, the composition presents the same rhythm—breathing.
Two landscapes, two movements.
The plain unfolds under steady light, while the sea continually moves back and forth.
The diptych establishes a connection between calm and change.