Tang Yin (1470-1523), better known by his style name Tang Bohu, was born in Changzhou (present Suzhou in Jiangsu Province). He was a well-known calligraphist, painter and litterateur.

Tang Yin was born in a merchant family. He was diligent in study ever since childhood, and won the first place in the Yingtian provincial imperial examination in his youth. However, in the metropolitan examination at the capital city, he was put in jail for involvement in a fraud case. Then he was appointed as a minor official in Zhejiang. He traveled around the country selling his works of calligraphy and painting for living, and won a great fame at that time.

Tang Bohu claimed himself "the First Talented and Romantic Scholar in South China". He was adept in landscape painting, figure painting and flower-and-bird painting. His landscape paintings gracefully portrayed grand and steep mountains in a sparse layout with delicate and fine lines. His figure paintings, mostly about ladies and historical stories, inherited traditions of the Tang Dynasty, employed clear and fine lines and flamboyant and elegant colors, portrayed elegant figures, and were accurate in modeling. He was also good at freehand figure paintings which were terse and full of interest. As to flower-and-bird paintings, he excelled in freehand ink-and-water paintings which were casual, free and graceful. Besides painting, he was also adept in calligraphy. His writing was elegant and meticulous. Moreover, he achieved great success in literature. His poems were chiefly travel records, poems inscribed on paintings and poems of reflection with emotion, which expressed his proud and unrestrained mood as well as his lament on the fickleness of human relations.

Source: cultural-china.com

Editor: Feng Hui