Mi Fu

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Mi Fu
Mi Fu as depicted in a 1107 painting by Chao Buzhi
Chinese name
Chinese	米芾
Traditional Chinese	米芾
Simplified Chinese	米芾
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǐ Fú Wade–Giles Mi Fu Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Mei5 Fat1 Middle Chinese Middle Chinese MieiB Pjwǝt
Korean name
Hangul	미불
Transcriptions McCune–Reischauer Mi Bul
Japanese name
Hiragana	べいふつ
Transcriptions Romanization Bei Futsu

Mi Fu (Chinese: 米芾; 1051–1107), originally named Mi Fu (米黻, Chinese homophones),^[1] was a Chinese painter, poet, calligrapher, and art theorist during the Northern Song dynasty. Born in Taiyuan, he became known for his misty landscape paintings, which employed broad, wet ink dots applied with a flat brush. This technique, later known as the "Mi Fu Style", significantly influenced Chinese painting. His poetry was inspired by Li Bai, and his calligraphy by Wang Xizhi.^[2]

Mi Fu is recognized as one of the four greatest calligraphers of the Song dynasty, along with Su Shih, Huang Tingjian and Cai Xiang. His major works include Zhang Jiming Tie (《张季明帖》), Li Taishi Tie (《李太师帖》), Zijin Yan Tie (《紫金研帖》), and Danmo Qiushan Shitie (《淡墨秋山诗帖》). Among these, Shu Su Tie (《蜀素帖》), also known as Nigu Shitie (《拟古诗帖》), has been called the "Eighth Greatest Running Script Under Heaven" and praised as "the most beautiful calligraphic masterpiece of China." Mi Fu described his calligraphy as "a collection of ancient characters," indicating his style was rooted in tradition, though he developed distinctive features that set his work apart. His artistic pursuits were passed on to his son, Mi Youren, who became a painter known for faithfully inheriting his father's style, particularly the use of large, wet ink dots, a technique known as "Mi Dots".^[3]

Beyond his artistic achievements, Mi Fu was known for his eccentric and preoccupation with cleanliness.^[3] His fascination with collecting unusual stones earned him the nickname "Madman Mi," and he was known for his fondness for drinking.

According to some historians, Mi Fu was a fifth-generation descendant of Mi Xin, a Dynasty and Early Song Dynasty general affiliated with the Kumo Xi, a tribe believed to have descended from the Xianbei.^[4][5] However, some scholars suggest his family may have had distant Sogdian heritage, a topic of debate. The surname "Mi" may have Sogdian origins, coinciding with a period when Sogdian merchants and settlers had communities within China.^[6][7]

Mi Fu showed an early interest in arts and letters, as well as memory skills. His mother worked as a midwife and later as a wet-nurse, looking after the Emperor Shenzong.^[8]

Due to his familial connections, Mi Fu was allowed to live in the royal palaces.^{[citation needed]}

He began his civil service career as Reviser of Books in the imperial library. Afterwards, he served in three posts outside the capital of Kaifeng, in Henan province. In 1103, he was appointed as a Doctor of Philosophy and served briefly as the Military Governor of Wuwei in the province of Anhui.^[8]

In 1104, he returned to the capital to serve as Professor of Painting and Calligraphy, later being appointed as Secretary to the Board of Rites. He was then appointed to his final post, the Military Governor of Huaiyang.^[8]

He openly criticized conventional regulations of the time, causing him to move between jobs frequently.^{[citation needed]}

Mi Fu collected old writings and paintings as his family wealth diminished.^{[citation needed]} Over time, his collection grew in value. He also inherited some of the calligraphy in his collection. His collection was arranged in two parts: one kept secret (or shown only to a select few) and another shown to visitors.^{[citation needed]}

In his later years, Mi Fu became fond of Holin Temple (located on Yellow Crane Mountain (黃鶴樓)) and asked to be buried at its gate. Although the temple is gone, his grave remains.^[9]

Mi Fu had five sons, of whom only two survived infancy, and eight daughters.^[8]

Following the rise of landscape painting, creative activities expanded to include other subjects such as profane, religious figure, bird, flower, and bamboo paintings. These artistic pursuits were undertaken by men of high intellectual standing for whom painting was not a profession but a means of expressing their intellectual reactions to life and nature. Poetry and illustrative writing were important to them, and they typically worked as government officials or lived off family wealth. Even if skilled in ink painting and calligraphy, they avoided the status of professional artists and became known as "gentleman-painters." Artistic occupations such as calligraphy and painting were seen as leisure activities separate from official duties or practical occupations. Their technical mastery was rooted in writing and calligraphy, which allowed them to transmit their thoughts in symbols of nature as easily as in conventional characters. Their art became a personal form of expression, described as "idea-writing" in later times. The beauty of this art was connected to the visible ease with which it was produced, an ease achieved through intense training and deep thought.^{[citation needed]}

Mi Fu was considered one of these gentleman-painters, and Chinese art historians notes his talent in artistic observation, his sense of humor, and his literary ability. His contributions are based on direct, first-hand observation rather than on what he had heard or learned from others.^{[clarification needed]} Mi Fu often expressed his own views, even when they differed from prevailing beliefs or official opinions. Art historians remain interested in his notes on painting and calligraphy as spontaneous expressions of his observations and independent ideas that aid in understanding Mi Fu and the artists he wrote about.^{[citation needed]}

Mi Fu is regarded as a key figure in the Southern School (南宗畫) of landscape painting. Many works are attributed to him, though the accuracy of these attributions is questioned. While his contributions to landscape painting are noted, Mi Fu is primarily remembered for his calligraphy and his influence as an art critic and writer, rather than his skills as a landscape painter.^{[citation needed]}

For Mi Fu, writing or calligraphy was connected with composing poetry or sketching, requiring an alertness of mind best achieved through the enjoyment of wine. Su Shih (蘇軾) admired Mi Fu and wrote that his brush was like a sharp sword or a bow that could shoot an arrow a thousand li.^{[citation needed]}

Critics claimed that Mi Fu could imitate the style of the great calligraphers of the Six Dynasties. Mi Fu's son testified that his father always kept a calligraphic masterpiece of the Tang or the Qin period in his desk as a model, placing it in a box at the side of his pillow at night.^{[citation needed]}

According to some writings,^[which?] Mi Fu did most of his paintings during the last seven years of his life, and he wrote that he "chose as his models the most ancient masters and painted guided by his own genius and not by any teacher and thus represented the loyal men of antiquity."^{[citation needed]}

Paintings attributed to Mi Fu depict wooded hills or cone-shaped mountain peaks rising out of layers of mist. Bodies of water and clusters of dark trees may appear in the foreground. One of the best known examples of the "Mi Fu style" is a picture in the Palace Museum known as Spring Mountains and Pine-Trees. It is the size of a large album-leaf and has a poem at the top said to be added by Emperor Gaozong of Song.^{[citation needed]}

Some paintings attributed to Mi Fu are likely imitations from the Southern Song period or possibly the Yuan period, when some painters utilized the manner of Mi Fu to express their own ideas. Many may be from the later part of Ming period when a cult of Mi Fu was started by followers viewing him as the most important representative of the Southern School. Mi Fu himself saw many imitations and noted wealthy amateurs spending money on great names rather than original works of art, writing that they "place their pictures in brocade bags and provide them with jade rollers as if they were very wonderful treasures, but when they open them one cannot but break out into laughter."^{[citation needed]}

Mi Fu's manner of painting has been characterized by writers who knew it through observation or hearsay. He is said^[who?] to have always painted on paper not prepared with gum or alum (alauns) instead of silk, and he never painted on the wall. In addition to using a brush, Mi Fu also utilized paper sticks, sugar cane, or a calyx (kauss) of a lotus.^{[citation needed]}

Mi Fu was principally a landscape painter, though he also created portraits and figure paintings. He likely spent more time studying samples of ancient calligraphy and paintings than producing his own work.^{[citation needed]} His book Huashi ("History of Painting") contains hints as to the proper way of collecting, preserving, cleaning, and mounting pictures.^[10]

• Chinese art
• Chinese painting
• Culture of the Song dynasty
• History of Chinese art

• Barnhart, R. M. et al. (1997). Three Thousand years of Chinese Painting. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07013-6. p. 373.
• Rhonda and Jeffrey Cooper (1997). Masterpieces of Chinese Art. Todtri Productions. ISBN 1-57717-060-1. p. 76.
• Xiao, Yanyi, "Mi Fu". Encyclopedia of China (Arts Edition), 1st ed.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mi Fu.

• Mi Fu and his Calligraphy Gallery at China Online Museum
• "米芾的書畫世界 The Calligraphic World of Mi Fu's Art". Taipei: National Palace Museum. 2006. Archived from the original on 2013-09-23.