# Mi Fu

Mi Fu (Chinese: 米芾; 1051–1107), originally named Mi Fu (米黻, Chinese homophones), was a Chinese painter, poet, calligrapher, and art theorist. Born in Taiyuan during the Northern Song dynasty, he became renowned for his style of painting misty landscapes, characterized by the use of broad, wet ink dots applied with a flat brush. This painting technique later known as the "Mi Fu Style" had a profound and significant influence on Chinese painting. His poetry was deeply inspired by Li Bai, and his calligraphy was influenced by Wang Xizhi.
Mi Fu is recognized as one of the four greatest calligraphers of the Song dynasty, alongside Su Shi, 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 them, Shu Su Tie (《蜀素帖》), also named as Nigu Shitie (《拟古诗帖》), is regarded as the "Eighth Greatest Running Script Under Heaven" and has been praised by later generations as "the most beautiful calligraphic masterpiece of China." Mi Fu himself described his calligraphy with the phrase: "A collection of ancient characters." Although his style is rooted in the traditions of earlier masters, he developed distinctive features that set his work apart. His artistic pursuits were passed on to his son, Mi Youren, who became a renowned painter in his own right. Youren faithfully inherited his father's style, particularly the signature use of large, wet ink dots, a technique that later came to be known as "Mi Dots".
Beyond his artistic achievements, Mi Fu was known for his eccentric personality and an almost obsessive preoccupation with cleanliness. His fascination with collecting unusual stones earned him the nickname "Madman Mi". Additionally, he was notorious for his fondness for drinking.

## Biography

According to some historians, Mi Fu was a fifth-generation descendant of Mi Xin, a Later Zhou Dynasty and Early Song Dynasty general affiliated with the Kumo Xi, a tribe believed to have descended from the Xianbei. However, some scholars propose that his family may have had distant Sogdian heritage, though this remains a topic of debate. The surname "Mi" has been suggested to have possible Sogdian origins, coinciding with a period when Sogdian merchants and settlers had established notable communities within China.
Mi Fu showed early signs of interest in arts and letters, as well as unusual memory skills. His mother worked as a midwife and later as a wet-nurse, looking after the Emperor Shenzong.
Due to his familial connections to the imperial family, Mi Fu was allowed the privilege of living in the royal palaces.
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 as the Military Governor of Wuwei in the province of Anhui for a short while.
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. Then he was appointed to his final post, the Military Governor of Huaiyang.
He openly criticized conventional regulations of the time, causing him to move between jobs frequently.
Mi Fu collected old writings and paintings as his family wealth gradually diminished. Over time, the value of his collection grew. He also inherited some of the calligraphy in his collection. His collection was arranged in two parts, one of which was kept secret (or shown only to a select few) and another which would be shown to visitors.
In his later years, Mi Fu became very fond of Holin Temple (located on Yellow Crane Mountain (黃鶴樓)). He later asked to be buried at its gate. Today the temple is gone, but his grave remains.
Mi Fu had five sons, of whom only two survived infancy, and eight daughters.

## Historical background

After the rise of landscape painting, creative activities followed which were of a more general kind and included profane, religious figure, bird, flower, and bamboo paintings besides landscapes. It was all carried out by men of high intellectual standards. To most of these men, painting was not a professional occupation but only one of the means by which they expressed their intellectual reactions to life and nature in visible symbols. Poetry and illustrative writing were in a sense even more important to them than painting and they made their living as more or less prominent government officials if they did not depend on family wealth. Even if some of them were skilled at ink painting and calligraphy, they avoided the fame and position of professional artists and became known as "gentleman-painters." Artistic occupations such as calligraphy and painting were seen as leisure activities from official duties or practical occupations. Nevertheless, the foundation of their technical mastery was in writing and calligraphy, which allowed them to transmit their thoughts with the same easiness in symbols of nature as in conventional characters. Their art became therefore a very intimate kind of expression, or idea-writing as it was called in later times. The beauty of this art was indeed closely connected to the visible ease with which it was produced, but which after all could not be achieved without intense training and deep thought.
Mi Fu was considered one of these gentleman-painters, with Chinese art historians noting his talent in artistic observation, his sense of humor, and his literary ability. His contributions lie in their basis in direct, first-hand observation as opposed to relying on what he had heard or learned from his forerunners. Mi Fu would often express his own views even when they differed from prevailing beliefs or official opinions. Art historians still maintain interest in his notes on painting and calligraphy–these writings are believed to be spontaneous expressions of his own observations and independent ideas which aid in the characterization of Mi Fu and the other artists he would write about.

## Art

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 often questioned due to challenges in verification. While his contributions to landscape painting are noted, Mi Fu is primarily remembered today for his expertise in calligraphy, as well as his influence as an art critic and writer, rather than for his skills as a landscape painter.
For Mi Fu, writing or calligraphy was intimately connected with the composing of poetry or sketching. It required an alertness of mind and spirit, which he thought was best achieved through the enjoyment of wine. Through this he reached a state of excitement rather than drunkenness. A friend of Mi Fu, Su Shih (蘇軾), admired him and wrote that his brush was like a sharp sword handled skillfully in fight or a bow which could shoot the arrow a thousand li, piercing anything that might be in its way. "It was the highest perfection of the art of calligraphy", he wrote.
Other critics claimed that only Mi Fu could imitate the style of the great calligraphers of the Six Dynasties. Mi Fu's son testified that his father always kept some calligraphic masterpiece of the Tang or the Qin period in his desk as a model. At night he would place it in a box at the side of his pillow.
According to some writings, Mi Fu did most of his paintings during the last seven years of his life, and he himself 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."
Paintings currently attributed to Mi Fu represent ranges of 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 of his compositions. One of the best known examples of the "Mi Fu style" is a small picture in the Palace Museum known as Spring Mountains and Pine-Trees. It is in the size of a large album-leaf and there is a poem at the top that was said to be added by Emperor Gaozong of Song.
Some paintings attributed to Mi Fu are likely imitations. They may be from Southern Song period, or possibly from the Yuan period, when some of the leading painters freely utilized the manner of Mi Fu for expressing their own ideas. It is likely that many are from the later part of Ming period when a cult of Mi Fu was started, its followers viewing him as the most important representative of the Southern School. Mi Fu himself had seen many imitations and he saw how wealthy amateurs spent their money on great names rather than on original works of art. He wrote 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."
Mi Fu's own manner of painting has been characterized by writers who knew it through their own observation or through hearsay. It is said that he always painted on paper which had not been prepared with gum or alum (alauns) instead of silk, and he never painted on the wall. In addition to using a brush when painting with ink, Mi Fu also utilized paper sticks or sugar cane from which the juice had been extracted or a calyx (kauss) of a lotus.
Mi Fu was principally a landscape painter, though he also created portraits and figure paintings. It is likely that he spent more time studying samples of ancient calligraphy and paintings than he spent producing work of his own. His book Huashi ("History of Painting") contains practical hints as to the proper way of collecting, preserving, cleaning and mounting pictures.