21 Facts About Mi Fu

Mi Fu was a Chinese painter, poet and calligrapher who was born in Taiyuan during the Song dynasty.

Mi Fu became known for his style of painting misty landscapes.

Mi Fu's poetry was influenced by Li Bai and his calligraphy by Wang Xizhi.

Mi Fu is regarded as one of the four greatest calligraphers of the Song dynasty, alongside Su Shi, Hung Tingjian and Cai Xian.

Mi Fu's style is derived from calligraphers in earlier dynasties, although he developed unique traits of his own.

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Mi Fu's surname "Mi" is of Sogdian origin, and he was born after a long period in which the Sogdians intensively migrated deep into China and established flourishing communities there, and he referred to himself as "descendant of huozheng, " "fire priest", having a seal with this inscribed on it.

Mi Fu showed early signs of interest in arts and letters, as well as unusual memory skills.

Mi Fu's mother worked as a midwife and later as a wet-nurse, looking after the Emperor Shenzong.

Mi Fu knew the imperial family and he lived in the privileged location of the royal palaces, where he started his career as Reviser of Books, Professor of Painting and Calligraphy in the capital, Secretary to the Board of Rites, and Military Governor of Huaiyang.

Mi Fu openly criticized conventional regulations of the time, causing him to move between jobs frequently.

Mi Fu collected old writings and paintings as his family wealth gradually diminished.

Mi Fu inherited some of the calligraphies in his collection.

Mi Fu arranged his collection in two parts, one of which was kept secret and another which could be shown to visitors.

Mi Fu had the courage to express his own views, even when these were different from the prevailing ones or official opinions.

Mi Fu is considered one of the most important representatives of the Southern School of landscape painting.

Mi Fu was among those for whom writing or calligraphy was intimately connected with the composing of poetry or sketching.

Mi Fu's son testified that his father always kept some calligraphic masterpiece of the Tang or the Qin period in his desk as a model.

Pictures which still pass under Mi Fu's name represent ranges of wooded hills or cone-shaped mountain peaks rising out of layers of woolly mist.

One of the best known examples of this kind of Mi Fu style is the small picture in the Palace Museum known as Spring Mountains and Pine-Trees.

Mi Fu himself had seen many imitations, perhaps even of his own works and he saw how wealthy amateurs spent their money on great names rather than on original works of art.

Mi Fu wrote that they "place their pictures in brocade bags and provide them with jade rollers as if they were very wonderful treasures, but when they open them one cannot but break out into laughter.