Ju Ran
Master of Southern landscape hemp-fiber strokes
Ju Ran(巨然), whose birth and death years are unknown, was from Zhongling (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province), though some say he was from Jiangning (Nanjing, Jiangsu Province). He was a painter and monk active from the Five Dynasties period to the early Northern Song dynasty. During the Southern Tang period, he became a monk at Kaiyuan Temple in Jiangning and later followed Li Yu to the Song dynasty, settling at Kaibao Temple in Bianjing. During the Chunhua era, he painted the mural 'Morning Scenery in Misty Mountains' on the north wall of the Hanlin Academy, which inspired scholars to write poems praising it. Ju Ran was a student of Dong Yuan(董源) and was known for using long hemp-fiber strokes to depict Jiangnan landscapes. His paintings often featured mineral-covered pebbles, sparse bamboo and creeping plants, and small thatched cottages to create a serene, rustic atmosphere. His brushwork was elegant and smooth, earning him and Dong Yuan the nickname 'Dong-Ju,'(董巨) and together with Jing Hao(荆浩) and Guan Tong(关仝), they were referred to as 'Jing-Guan-Dong-Ju.'(荆关董巨) He became a representative of the Southern landscape painting school and had a profound influence on the development of landscape painting through the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and even modern periods. Surviving works include 'Autumn Mountains Asking the Way,' 'Pine Wind in Ten Thousand Valleys,' and 'Mountain Dwelling,' which are housed in places like the National Palace Museum in Taipei and the Shanghai Museum. His compositions mostly followed the vertical scroll format and combined the majestic momentum of northern landscapes, showing a fusion of northern and southern painting styles.