Wu Zhen
Yuan master of wet ink landscapes
Wu Zhen(吴镇) (1280–1354), courtesy name Zhonggui(仲圭), also known as Meihuadaoren(梅花道人) and Meishami(梅沙弥), was from Jiashan, Zhejiang. He was a painter, calligrapher, and poet during the Yuan Dynasty and is considered one of the "Four Masters of the Yuan" along with Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng. As an adult, he studied the I Ching and painting and calligraphy under Liu Tianji, delved into Confucian classics, and also explored Buddhist and Daoist teachings. He lived a reclusive life and didn’t hold any official positions, often traveling between Jiaxing and Hangzhou to make a living by fortune-telling. In his later years, he settled at Meihua Hermitage and took the name "Meishami," even inscribing on steles as "Pagoda of the Plum Blossom Monk." In landscape painting, he followed the styles of Dong Yuan and Ju Ran, creating shaggy-textured strokes and dense moss dotting techniques. He was skilled in using wet ink to portray Jiangnan’s water scenery. He especially used fisherman subjects to express his feelings of reclusion and also incorporated corner composition techniques from Southern Song painters Ma Yuan and Xia Gui to create a simple and serene style. His work had a major influence on Ming Dynasty painters like Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming. His ink bamboo paintings belong to the Huzhou bamboo school. He claimed to have practiced bamboo painting for fifty years and wrote "Bamboo Manual," commenting on famous ink bamboo artists throughout history. In calligraphy, he combined the styles of Wang Xizhi and Huai Su. His only surviving cursive script work, the "Heart Sutra," is kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Notable works include "Twin Pines Traveling in the Distance," "Fishermen," "Autumn River Fishermen in Seclusion," and "Eight Views of Jiahe," which are housed in places like the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and the Palace Museum in Beijing.