The Yuan dynasty is a pivotal period in the development of thought and feelings in the poems on Xiaoxiang landscape paintings. This article examines examples from the Song and Yuan dynasties for the purpose of charting the changes in viewing perspectives, patterns of composition, and lyrical expressions. We ponder these issues: the emergence of the local "eight (or ten) views"; the compositional patterns of images in the local "eight (or ten) views"; the interrelationship between "lyricizing" and "objective representation"; as well as the two different attitudes of seeing landscapes as pictures ("landscape like a picture") and of taking paintings to be real landscapes ("landscape in the picture"). From these we can observe the change in inclinations from the Song poets' "feelings and scenes in one" to "expressing feelings through the scenes" from the Yuan. We compare the contents of the Song and Yuan colophons on two of the Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, i.e., the Yucun xizhao (Sunset in a Fishing Village) and the Xiaoxiang yeyu (A Rainy Night in Xiaoxiang). We find that Song poets emphasize "feelings and scenes in one": the poet projects his subjective feelings on the scenery in the paintings, making the landscape his thought incarnated. In addition, the literary and cultural allusions of the Xiaoxiang verses echo the feelings that the Song poets wish to express. In contrast, "expressing feelings through the scenes" is preferred by Yuan poets, who tend to present scenery from an objective, aloof point of view. They situate themselves in a historical context, which lends a keen sense of time and universality to their works. The differences between Song's "landscape like a picture" and Yuan's "landscape in the picture" expose larger historical dispositions. Song poets perceive things subjectively and humanize the landscape, the painting thus made embodies personal feelings. Yuan poets perceive things objectively with rational and practical thinking. Together with the idea of "[feelings] originate from emotion and go as far as rites allow" they express publicly shared feelings suffused with a historical sense.