Zhao Mengfu

1254-1322

Painter, poet, and calligrapher

Sources

Life. Known as Songxue daoren (The Pine and Snow Daoist), Zhao was a native of Wuxing (Huzhou), Zhejiang Province, and a descent of the Song imperial family. As a child he was able to memorize every word he read and improvise essays. He was appointed to an official position at fourteen. During the final years of the Song dynasty, the thirty-three-year-old Zhao took a position at the Hanlin Academy, where he was put in charge of writing a national history. The Yuan government treated him with great honor. Emperor Shizu (Kublai Khan, reigned 1260-1294) called him a “god” and Emperor Renzong (reigned 1311-1320) compared him to Li Bai of the Tang dynasty (618-907) and Su Shi of the Song dynasty (960-1279).

Renaissance Man. Zhao was one of the great artists of the Yuan period (1279-1368), talented in poetry, calligraphy, seal making, and music. A pioneer of a new Yuan painting style, he was a master painter of figures, horses, flowers, birds, and especially landscapes. He believed brush strokes in painting should be like those used in calligraphy and criticized the careful, artful style of the Painting Academy. After his death Zhao’s writings were collected as Songxuezhai wenji (The Literary Collection from the Study of Pine and Snow).

Sources

He Yanzhe, Zhongguo huihua shiyao (Tianjin, China: People’s Arts Press, 2000).

Ren Daobin, Zhao Mengfu xinian (Zhengzhou, China: Henan People’s Press, 1984).

Wang Qisen, Zhongguo yishu tongshi (Jiangsu, China: Jiangsu Arts Press, 1999).