Wu Bin () was a

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Chinese

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

during the reign of the

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was the ...

(r. 1573–1620). His

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

was "Wenzhong" and his

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. The ...

"Zhiyin Toutuo" means "Mendicant monk at the temple hidden by tree branches". His specific dates of birth and death are not known. Wu was born in

Putian Putian or Putien (, Putian dialect: ''Pó-chéng''), also known as Puyang (莆阳) and Puxian (莆仙), historically known as Xinghua or Hing Hwa (), is a prefecture-level city in eastern Fujian province, China. It borders Fuzhou City to the nor ...

in the

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

province. The local relation linked him to

Ōbaku The is one of several schools of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, in addition to Sōtō and Rinzai. History Often termed the third sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan, Ōbaku-shū was established in 1661 by a small faction of masters from China and their ...

Buddhism sect. He painted a large Nirvana scene painting for them. He was educated as one of the literati and skilled as a painter. He worked mainly in Nanjing about 1590–1610. He became a devout follower of Buddhism and lived and worked in a Buddhist temple. In Nanjing, he often depicted Buddhist arhats behaving as magicians, performing superstitious rituals and healing practices to satisfy requests made by religious men and women. These are colorful portraits where irony and sarcasm prevail. He produced 500 arhat hanging scrolls in

Qixia Temple Qixia Temple () is a Buddhist temple located on Qixia Mountain in the suburban Qixia District of Nanjing, Jiangsu, northeast of downtown Nanjing. It is one of Nanjing's most important Buddhist monasteries. The temple is the cradle of East Asia ...

in Nanjing in about 1601. Some of these hanging scrolls have survived. It is uncertain whether he worked for the vice imperial government in Nanjing. Mi Wanzong (1570－1628), a high ranking government officer, calligrapher, and painter, was his patron from about ACE1600. Wu Bin moved to Beijing with Mi Wanzong's support in about 1610. He produced several masterpieces for Mi Wanzong in Beijing. The landscape of Mi's Garden in Beijing, Ten portraits of A marvelous rock which Mi had and appreciated., and some extravagant landscape paintings. The Beijing imperial court assigned him the status for a professional technocrat as painter. There are no records of him after 1626. Some sources indicate that the powerful and notorious eunuch

Wei Zhongxian Wei Zhongxian (1568 – December 12, 1627), born Wei Si (魏四), was a Chinese court eunuch who lived in the late Ming dynasty. As a eunuch he used the name Li Jinzhong (李进忠). He is considered by most historians as the most notorious eunuc ...

purged Wu Bin.Biography of Wu Bin was controversial among scholars. This refers to the latest and very modest description of Chen Yunru 2013

Works

* Asian Art Museum, San Francisco **
"Pine Lodge amid Tall Mountains"
*

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

** Greeting the Spring (Landscape Handscroll) in 1600. ** Five Hundred arhat handscroll *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

**Sixteen Arhats Handscroll in 159
"The 16 Luohans"
*

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

**Landscape Handscroll *

Shanghai Museum The Shanghai Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District, Shanghai, Huangpu District of Shanghai, China. Rebuilt at its current location in 1996, it is considered one of China's first world-c ...

**Journey in San Yin, handscroll, Ink and color on Paper *

Palace Museum The Palace Museum () is a huge national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 192 ...

, Beijing **Arhats 500 arhats Wu Bin Cleveland

Notes

References

* Chen Yunru, Fantasic and Extraordinary The Realm of Wu bin's Painting. (Chinese and English text) National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2013 * Howard Rogers and Sherman Lee, Masterworks of Ming and Qing Paintings from the Forbidden city, International Art Council, USA, 1988 * James Cahill, Wu Pin and His Landscape Painting." Paper for International Conference on Chinese Painting, Palace Museum, Taipei, 1970 * James Cahill: Fantastic and Eccentrics in Chinese Painting, New York, 1972. Ming dynasty landscape painters Year of death missing People from Putian Painters from Fujian Year of birth missing Ming dynasty painters Buddhist artists {{China-painter-stub