This scene illustrates the story of Lady Feng, a consort of Emperor Yuan of Han (r. 48–33 BC), who in 38 BC placed herself in the path of a bear that had escaped from its cage during a wild animal fight show before the emperor, in an attempt to save the emperor's life – the bear was killed by the guards, and Lady Feng survived. This is the first surviving scene in the British Museum copy (although the accompanying text is missing), and it shows Lady Feng confronting the bear, but being saved just in time by two guards with spears, and the emperor and two court ladies watching in horror on one side. The lady on the left of the scene is believed to be Lady Fu, who is noted to have run away from the bear in the biography of Lady Feng in the History of the Latter Han, thus indicating that the artist did not base the painting solely on Zhang Hua's text.
