Gu Kaizhi was born in Jinling County of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (now Wuxi, Jiangsu Province). He is a knowledgeable and versatile person, especially good at artistic painting. He has the unique skill of "making the finishing touch", and once the painted characters touch the eyes, they look like they are alive. And he is an all-rounder in painting, good at landscapes, flowers and birds, animals and ichthyosaurs. Gu Kaizhi's existing paintings include The History of Women, The Goddess of Love and Women's Benevolence. Gu Kaizhi is not only an outstanding painter, but also the first great painting theorist in the history of China. His theoretical works on painting include: On Painting, Wei Jinsheng's Painting Praise, Painting Yuntai Mountain, etc.
Wu Daozi was born in Yangzhai (now Yuxian County, Henan Province) in the early years of the Tang Dynasty (around 686). Wu Daozi created many works in his life, and his paintings are good at all kinds of subjects, such as figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, animals and dragons. What he is best at is explaining characters, and painting fairy goddesses is also very vivid. He is a great painter with many talents. He not only created many famous murals, but also painted many famous scroll paintings. He is also good at sculpture.
Dong Yuan, also known as Dong Yuan, was born in Zhong Ling, Southern Tang Dynasty (now northwest of Jinxian County, Jiangxi Province). Dong Yuan is good at landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, Yunlong and Niuhu, and he is an all-rounder The main figure painting works include Yi Guang Xiang, Confucius Seeing the Son, Longevity Portrait, Snow Slope Zhong Kui Map, Fishing Boat Map, Fisherman Map, Picking Ling Map, Cattle Grazing Map, etc. His dragon and tiger paintings are also unique. His main works include Shi Shui Yin Long Tu, Wind and Rain Out Long Tu, and Out of the Cave Dragon Tu, etc. The highest achievement of Dong Yuan's painting is landscape painting, and his main works include Xiaoxiang, Su Long Jiao Min, Xia Jing Shan Kou Waiting for Crossing, Half a Journey to the West, Summer Mountain, Cold Forest Pavilion and so on.
Fan Kuan was a famous landscape painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. His artistic achievements are mainly reflected in his originality and high maturity in pen and ink techniques. Fan Kuan's original works handed down from generation to generation include The Journey to the West, Cold Forest Snow Scene, Snow Mountain Building Scene and so on.
Li Tang, a painter in the Southern Song Dynasty, was born in the three cities of Heyang (now Mengxian County, Henan Province). He did almost everything about landscapes, people, trees, bamboo stones, animals and border paintings. Among them, his landscape painting is the most profound and influential, followed by figure painting, and he is also famous for painting cows. Among Li Tang's existing works, the landscape paintings include Wan He Song Feng, Small Landscape of Jiangshan, Chang Xia Jiang Temple, Echoes of Qingxi and so on. Figure paintings include "Rejuvenation" and "Picking Wei". Besides landscape paintings and figure paintings, Li Tang's cow paintings are also praised.
Huang was born in the fifth year of Xianchun in the Southern Song Dynasty (1269) and died in the fourteenth year of Yuan to Zheng (1354). Huang was the most outstanding painter in Yuan Dynasty. Representative landscape paintings include Fuchun Shan Jutu, Yushan, Snow Ji in Jiu Feng, Steep Forest, Warm Mountain, Yushu in Ya Dan, Fairy Scenery on Rain Cliff, Brilliant Snow and Fuchun Daling.
Xu Wei was born in Yin Shan, Zhejiang (now Shaoxing). He was an outstanding writer and artist in the late Ming Dynasty, with strong personality and outstanding character. Of all the arts he is good at, the most outstanding achievement is painting. His paintings break through the traditional thinking, expressing emotion through things, seeking rhyme without form, and vivid brushwork. He is an all-round painter who is good at figures, landscapes and flowers and birds, especially flowers and birds. Xu Wei's painting school also had a great influence on later painting circles. The Badashanren, Shi Tao and the Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou in the Qing Dynasty, as well as Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Liu Haisu in modern times, all have a deep relationship with Xu Wei.
Chen Hongshou, a native of Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, was an outstanding figure painter in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Chen Hongshou's paintings absorb the essence of traditional painting, draw lessons from the strengths of others and incorporate new machines, so they are meticulous in all kinds of paintings. There are many of his figure paintings, the most famous of which is the early print Qu Zi Xing Yin Tu, and the representative works in his later years include Returning to the Map, Four Music Pictures in Julu, Sixteen Scenes of Seclusion, Six and so on. The important works of landscape flower-and-bird painting handed down from generation to generation include Lotus Stone Map, Lotus Leaf Yuanyang Map, Huashan Bird Map, Miscellaneous Album and so on. Shi Tao is from Guangxi. He is the tenth grandson of Zhu Zanyi, King of Jingjiang in Ming Dynasty. When he was young, he became a monk to avoid the Qing soldiers. Shi Tao is an outstanding painter and a great painting theorist. His painting theory "Quotations of Bitter Melon Painting and Monk Painting" contains extremely rich and incisive aesthetic thoughts, which has had a far-reaching influence in the history of China painting. His paintings have various styles and a wide range of subjects. His landscape painting is the greatest achievement, followed by flower painting.