In this essay, translated by Giacomo Bruni, Zhan Zhifeng argues that clouds are the defining element of Hu Jiang’s mountain and water painting. Though Hu Jiang seldom sets out to paint clouds, mist and vapour fill nearly all his landscapes, in works such as Spring Dawn over the Green Lake, Green Mountains upon Mountains and Warm Spring in the Apricot Grove. The author shows how clouds allow him to express the full range of the “three distances” of Guo Xi and Han Zhuo, to build the momentum of mountains by using emptiness to convey substance, and to give majesty to the delicate Lingnan landscape. Citing Gu Kaizhi, Tao Yuanming and later theorists, he stresses that capturing spirit rather than form is the true challenge of Chinese painting, and that clouds by nature belong to the realm of spirit. Hu Jiang’s clouds are traced to three roots: tradition, including the principle of “knowing white and guarding black” and models from Wang Ximeng to Dong Yuan and the Two Mi; his Lingnan teachers and Li Baolin; and the actual scenery of his native western Guangdong. The essay concludes that clouds became the artist’s personal language.