Description For over a thousand years, since the Tang dynasty, Chinese landscape paintings have been understood as both an intimate expression of nature and as a way of conveying profound emotions. Literally translated, the Chinese characters for landscape mean "mountain and water". Almost all Chinese landscape paintings depict mountains and water, generally a river. The mountains represent a long life, and water the sea of happiness. In harmony together, mountains and water symbolize a long happy life. Most Chinese landscape paintings will also show mist or clouds which symbolize good fortune and happiness and are understood to arise from the union of the two main principles, yin and yang. For the Taoists, Chinese landscape paintings represent the eternal Tao, the ultimate reality that pervades all life. It’s the Chinese landscape painting in which the overwhelming experience of the one-ness of nature and soul can be realized. According to Confucius “virtuous and moral people enjoy mountains, wise people enjoy water”, hence in Chinese culture, the painting of mountains and water is imbued with deep significance, since it is the spiritual home of Chinese intellectuals, where they can understand the “Tao”, cultivate heart and soul and be inspired by artistic and literary creation. Biographical Details Tang Yin (1470-1523), Chinese painter, poet and calligrapher in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1683). He is better known as “Tang Bohu”, whose life story has become a part of popular lore. He was born into the merchant class of Suzhou, where his father was a restauranteur, and although lacking social standing, he received an excellent education. He had been smart, but mischievous since he was young. After a success in a small- scale public examination, he had a greed for fame and wealth. He went to the civil service examination of the whole country, but he was innocently implicated in a bribery and was put in jail. He was beaten and treated harshly. After he was released, he converted to Buddhism and called himself "Liurujushi " ( Six similes secular Buddhist devotee ). The " six similes" means that " everything is like a dream, a fantasy, a bubble, a shadow, dew and lightning." However, he was so poor that he had to return to reality, selling pictures to make a living. He was beset by poverty and illness throughout his life and he died when he was fifty four. His life was tragic. Nevertheless, he was a genius in art. He had been a student of Zhou Chen and Shen Zhou. His basic painting techniques came from Li Tang, Guo Xi, Li Cheng and Zhou Chen. Tang Yin was talented in painting landscape, human figures and flower-and-bird. He was honored as the Four Great Masters in the Ming Dynasty with ShenZhou, Wen Zhengming and Qiu Ying.
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