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Why did Chinese scroll painters use multiple vanishing points?

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van de Velde, Adriaen: River Landscape in the Late Afternoon — Landscape painting *River Landscape in the Late Afternoon*, oil on canvas by Adriaen van de Velde, 1663; in a private collection.

Chinese scroll painters utilized multiple vanishing points to accommodate the unique nature of the hand scroll, which is designed to be unrolled and viewed incrementally rather than all at once. Because the imaginary viewer is not stationary but instead moves through the work—much like a traveler moving through space and time—a single, fixed perspective point would be insufficient and restrictive.1

By employing multiple vanishing points, artists allowed the perspective to shift naturally as the viewer progressed through the scroll. They achieved this by carefully transitioning one perspective point into the next, ensuring the changes remained subtle and unnoticed. This technique supports the scroll's function as a panoramic experience, enabling the depiction of expansive rivers, mountains, and urban landscapes that unfold as the viewer unrolls the paper or silk.12