Wen Zhengming (1470—1559), a native of Changzhou in Suzhou (today’s Suzhou in Jiangsu Province), bore the given name “Bi” and styled himself Zhengming which was later changed into “Zhengzhong”. Wen used such courtesy names as Hengshan and Tingyun. In addition, he nicknamed himself as Buddhist Hengshan and therefore, people referred to him as Wen Hengshan. His study was named Tingyun Hall. At the age of 54, Wen Zhengming was appointed as an annual tribute candidate at the prefectural level and passed the exam conducted by the Ministry of Personnel. He accordingly took a position in the Imperial Academy, which earned him the nickname “Wen Shizhao” (“Shi Zhao” means “official rank.”). Wen’s unofficial posthumous title was Sir Zhenxian. During his lifetime, he excelled in poetry, essay writing, calligraphy and painting, which were known as “Four Unique Talents”. As a result, he was one of the “Four Talents in Wuzhong”, and the other three were Tang Bohu, Zhu Yunming and Xu Zhenqing. His art of painting made him acknowledged as one of the “Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty”, together with Shen Zhou, Tang Bohu and Wiu Ying. Later, he became the leading artist of the Wu School with Shen Zhou as his predecessor. Wen accomplished immensely in the five major calligraphy styles, namely the seal script (Zhuan Shu), official script (Li Shu), regular script (Kai Shu), running-hand script (Xing Shu) and rapid cursive script (Cao Shu), especially in the running-hand script and the regular script in small characters. His works in these two styles featured grace yet mixed with strength, conformity to established aesthetical criteria and vigorous aliveness. With the regular script in small characters, Wen followed the traditions of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, which made his strokes exhibit masterful control and smooth flow of strength. In his handling of larger characters, one can detect a touch of Huang Tingjian’s style. Wen Zhengming, Zhu Yunming and Wang Chong were known as the “Three Masters of the Wu School”.
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