Zhao mengfu biography

He was known for his paintings of horses.
Zhao Mengfu, was a Chinese calligrapher, painter, and scholar during the Yuan dynasty.
Zhao Mengfu, Chinese painter and calligrapher, honored as an early master within the tradition of the literati painters (wenrenhua).

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Chinese Calligraphy Artworks and Masters – Zhao Meng Fu (趙孟頫/Chao Meng Fu) a Controversial Calligraphist

A Short Biography of Zhao Meng Fu (趙孟頫/Chao Meng Fu)

The transition from the Song Dynasty to the Yuan was a turbulent time in China. In the artistic tradition, one man more than any other embodied the difficulties and opportunities presented by both the fall of an ailing dynasty and the assertion of foreign rule. Zhao Meng Fu (1254-1322), a descendent of the Song royal family, survived the fall of the Song and lived to gain great acclaim as a calligrapher and artist. Although he was linked by blood to the previous dynasty, Zhao nevertheless wholeheartedly promoted the legitimacy of Mongol rule in China. As a result many scholars in his own time and in the later Ming Dynasty criticized him as little better than a traitor.

Zhao held official positions in both the Song and Yuan dynasties. However, in his later life he retired from public life and devoted himself almost exclusively to the literati pursuits of painting and calligraphy. Modern scholarship points to the career of

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Autumn Colors on the Ch'iao and Hua Mountains,
National Palace Museum, Taipei

Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322), artist

Zhao Mengfu is widely regarded as the greatest painter and calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty.

Descended from the Song imperial family, Zhao served the Mongols as an official in the Ministry of War, as well as in other agencies.

Khubilai Khan and later Mongol emperors admired Zhao's painting and continued to promote and reward him, offering him the position of President of the Hanlin Academy, the most prestigious body of scholars in China, in 1316. Zhao, in turn, recognized that his patrons appreciated themes related to animals, and he produced renowned paintings of horses, sheep, and goats, among numerous other subjects.

Zhao also appreciated the artistic freedom the Mongols provided, as he repeatedly condemned what he perceived to be the overly restrictive, if not stifling, standards of the Song Imperial Academy of Painting. Chinese scholars of his own time and of later dynasties condemned Zhao for renouncing his own heritage and serving the "barbarians,&q

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Zhao Mengfu (1254 – 1322 AD) (pronounced jow [rhymes with ‘cow’] mung-foo) is a simultaneously admired yet frowned upon figure in Chinese history.

A shadow has long covered his political reputation.

But the sparkle of his artistic talent shines through it.

Let’s look at his biography, calligraphy, and painting.

Family background and early life

Zhao Mengfu (赵孟頫 [Zhào Mèngfǔ]), courtesy name Zi’ang (子昂), was born in Wucheng County (today’s Wuxing District of Huzhou, Zhejiang Province) during the late Song dynasty (960 – 1279 AD).

(Today, the Song dynasty is generally divided into the Northern Song (960 – 1127) and the Southern Song (1127 – 1279) periods.)

The latter had lost half of its territory to the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty (1115 – 1234). However, it was still a prosperous and highly cultured society)

He was an 11^thgeneration descendent of the founder of the Song dynasty, Emperor Taizu (927 – 976 AD) via Taizu’s fourth son Zhao Defang (959 – 981 AD) (the Prince of Qin).