Scene of nine officials holding an audience with the Emperor. The officials are identifiable by their rank badges, sewn onto the front of their robes. At the lower centre of the painting one official is kneeling at the centre of a platform outside the building in which the emperor sits. The kneeling official is flanked by two groups of four other officials on either side. The emperor is seated in a relaxed posture on a throne within the building. Two figures without rank badges stand behind the throne, and behind them is a screen painted with a dragon among clouds. The sign board at the top of the building reads: "Long live the Son of Heaven" (Tianzi Wannian 天子萬年).

The entire silk surface of the silk painting is filled, instead of following conventions of Chinese visual culture and leaving blank space known as reserve white (liubai ) . The image conspicuously experiments with single point perspective, seen in the diagonal arrangement of the standing officials, and the left and right edges of the sign board.