Wen Zhengming
| Wen Zhengming | |||||||||||||
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| Born | November 28, 1470 | ||||||||||||
| Died | 1559 (aged 88–89) | ||||||||||||
| Education | Shen Zhou | ||||||||||||
| Known for | painting, calligraphy | ||||||||||||
| Movement | Wu School | ||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 文徵明 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 文征明 | ||||||||||||
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| Wen Bi | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 文璧 | ||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Wén Zhēngmíng |
| Wade–Giles | Wen Cheng-ming |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Man4 Zing1 Ming4 |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Wén bì |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Man4 Bik1 |
Wen Zhengming (November 28, 1470–1559), born Wen Bi, was a leading Ming dynasty painter, calligrapher, poet, and scholar. He was regarded as one of the Four Masters of Ming painting.
Wen Zhengming was born Wen Bi near present-day Suzhou on November 28, 1470. He would later be known by his courtesy name, Zhengming. He had an elder brother, Wen Gui, who was born in 1469. When Zhengming was two years old, his father, Wen Lin, passed the imperial examination with the highest possible rank, jinshi. Wen Lin was assigned a government position as a magistrate in Yongjia County in Zhejiang province, and left for his job, leaving his two sons in the care of his wife, Qi Shenning. In 1476, Qi died of an illness at the age of 32. Wen Lin commissioned the noted scholar Li Dongyang to write an inscription for her tomb.
Wen Zhengming’s family was originally from a line of military men who lived in Hengshan County, Hunan province. At the time of his great-great-grandfather Wen Dingcong, the family moved to the city of Changzhou in the Suzhou area. Zhengming was a distant relative of the Song dynasty official Wen Tianxiang, through an ancestor who lived in Hengshan. From this he derived his hao (art name), Hengshan, which he used to sign many of his works. His father Wen Lin and his grandfather Wen Hong (Gongda) were both interested in painting. Wen Lin was also a patron of Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming's contemporary and fellow member of the "Four Masters of the Ming dynasty".
In 1489, Wen Zhengming began studying under Shen Zhou, the eldest of the Four Masters and founder of the Wu school of painting, of which Wen himself later became a leading figure. Zhengming's father Wen Lin died in 1499, while working as prefect of Wenzhou. At Zhengming's request, Shen Zhou provided a written account of Wen Lin's life for the funeral.
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