Wen Tong
Pioneered ink bamboo painting with graded shades
Wen Tong(文同) (1018–1079), courtesy name Yuke(与可), also known as Xiaoxiao Jushi(笑笑居士) or Xiaoxiao Xiansheng(笑笑先生), was commonly called Shishi Xiansheng(石室先生). He was from Yongtai County, Zitong Prefecture, Zizhou (now Yanting County, Mianyang, Sichuan Province). Wen Tong was an official during the Northern Song Dynasty and a famous painter and poet. Wen Tong passed the imperial examination in the first year of Emperor Renzong’s Huangyou era (1049) and was later appointed as a Doctor of the Taichang Temple and a Director at the Jixian Academy. He served as the prefect or magistrate in various places including Qiongzhou, Dayi, Lingzhou, and Yangzhou (now Yang County, Shaanxi). At the beginning of the Yuanfeng era, Wen Tong went to Huzhou (now Wuxing, Zhejiang) to take office, and people called him Wen Huzhou. In the second year of Yuanfeng (1079), Wen Tong fell ill and died in Chenzhou (now Huaiyang County, Henan Province), without taking office there, at the age of 62. Wen Tong worked on editing the New Book of Tang and was particularly skilled in poetry, prose, calligraphy, and painting, earning high praise from people like Wen Yanbo and Sima Guang. He was especially respected by his cousin, Su Shi. Su Shi once praised him as outstanding in poetry, lyrics, painting, and cursive script. He would immerse himself in bamboo forests to observe and understand them, then paint swiftly, using different ink shades to show distance and perspective. Painter Mi Fu praised him, saying, 'He uses dark ink for the front and light ink for the back; this started with Yuke.' He pioneered a new style in ink bamboo painting. His cursive calligraphy has been lost, but four of his ink bamboo paintings still survive. Later generations compiled his works into the forty-volume 'Danyuan Collection,' with two additional volumes of miscellanea, including epitaphs written by Fan Bailu and a chronological record by Jia Cheng.