This paper aims to re-examine the various meaning sof "gao/sketch" in Chinese literati's poetry and painting in theory and in practice. Firstly, it investigates the tension between making and sketching in taking Yan Zhenqing's caliigraphy Ji zhi wen gao(祭姪文稿), Lu You's anthology of poems Jian nan shi gao(劍南詩稿) and Wang Yangming's parting poem,(若耶溪送友詩稿) A drafted poem: Seeing off a Friend on the river of Ruoye, as examples to rethink the connotations of gao as works and as agency of making in Chinese literati culture. Secondly, it explores the alternative functions of gao as pattern of making in the context of trans-mimetic aesthetics in the literati tradition, emphasizing the value of fang gu(仿古) / ni gu(擬古) imitation of the Past. Third, it discusses the poetic power of incompleteness of sketch both in Chinese and Western culture to see the different interpretations of sketch via the cross-cultural reading and rethinking the artistic values of sketch in contemporary aesthetics.