Zhao Mengfu was born in the second year of Baodou. He is the eleventh grandson and a direct descendant of Zhao, the king of Qin. His grandparents were powerful people in the Song Dynasty. Such a prominent position and identity did not add luster to his official career, but restricted and bound his life, because he was born when the Southern Song Dynasty was about to perish. As a young man, Zhao Mengfu died before he started his political career. As a descendant of the imperial clan of the previous dynasty, his situation became very embarrassing and he had to live in seclusion at home. Drinking and writing poems at home all day and traveling around.
In the twenty-third year of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan regime searched for Song Dynasty ministers who lived in seclusion in the south of the Yangtze River, and brought Zhao Mengfu, who lived at home, into the palace without any suspense. He was valued by Kublai Khan, and his position was very prominent, but "being an official" has always been a heavy burden in his heart. Guan Hai is very sinister. As a relative of the royal family in the Song Dynasty, he will definitely be suspected, which also makes his political talents unable to display and his inner contradictions are great. He has been in a contradiction between being an official and hiding. Zhao Mengfu wandered around the court of the Yuan Dynasty with her super emotional intelligence and IQ. He used his embarrassing status to be loyal to his courtiers, tried to preserve his sanity and finally died peacefully.
Zhao Mengfu has never lost his position. He clearly realized that he was only a literary attendant, and his status prevented him from further displaying his political ambitions, so he devoted all his talents to painting and calligraphy. The quiet scenery in his paintings is actually his spiritual harbor.
Zhao Mengfu is brilliant, brilliant. He is proficient in temperament, good at poetry appreciation, and has made great achievements in painting and calligraphy. In painting, he pioneered the painting style of the Yuan Dynasty and was called the leader of the Yuan Dynasty. In calligraphy, he is very good at seal script, official script, running script and cursive script, among which running script and cursive script have the deepest attainments and the widest influence.
In painting
In the history of painting in China, Zhao Mengfu is a key bridge, which combines the achievements of predecessors and opens a new painting style for future generations. He opposed the painting style of "thick ink and heavy color, slender brushwork" in the Southern Song Dynasty, advocated "ancient meaning", made the painting style simple and natural, and established the aesthetic standard of painting artistic thinking in the Yuan Dynasty. Zhao Mengfu's painting style has influenced many literati painters around him, and his disciples and descendants have inherited his artistic style to varying degrees.
calligraphy
In the history of China's calligraphy, Zhao Mengfu also has an important position. In his early years, he studied calligraphy by Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou, and in his middle age he studied under Zhong You. Wang Xizhi studied from Li Beihai in his later years. He absorbed the calligraphy of Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties and created a brand-new "Zhao Ti". His regular script, together with Ou Yangxun, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan, is called "the four masters of regular script". He also has a very mature view on calligraphy, and his calligraphy theory is also a very important inspiration for later generations.