The Chinese picture-scroll, a long painting or calligraphic work held within a horizontal scrolling mount, has been China’s pre-eminent aesthetic format for the last two millennia.This first extended history of the picture-scroll explores its extraordinary longevity, and its adaptability to social, political and technological change.The book describes what the picture-scroll demands of a viewer, how China’s artists grappled with its cultural power, and how collectors and connoisseurs have left their marks on scrolls for later generations to judge.The return to mass appeal of scrolling – a media technology that seemed long outdated yet persists in our digital age – provides urgent and fascinating context to this book.